Mill Spring, North Carolina, USA – October 17, 2024 – Aboard St. Bride’s Farm’s Baloutinue, Laura Kraut (USA) jumped to first place in Thursday’s Premier Equestrian Grand Prix Qualifier CSI 5*, besting 41 total teams. Kraut put 36.33 seconds on the clock for the win, ahead of Tryon Fall 5’s feature Major League Show Jumping classes this week.
Ashlee Bond (ISR) rode Donatello 141 (Diarado x Lamoureux I), her own 2011 Westphalian gelding to second place in the class, with a time of 36.54 seconds.
Taking third with Vital Chance De La Roque (Diamant De Semilly x Rivage Du Poncel), Conor Swail (IRL) piloted the Mannon Farm-owned 2009 Selle Français gelding to a jump off time of 37.02 seconds.
Fresh off an Olympic silver medal, Laura Kraut (USA) and longtime partner Baloutinue (Balou Du Rouet x Landor S) tore up the Peter Grant (CAN) track, producing a double clear performance.
Debuting on the Major League Show Jumping circuit this season, Kraut has had an impressive start. “I’ve been watching Major League from afar,” she admitted. “When I heard about it, I thought it sounded like a great concept, and it feels like it’s really taking off. I needed to join the party!”
“I galloped as hard as I could to the wall. I probably would have liked to have one less stride there, but he was good,” Kraut said of the 2010 Hanoverian gelding in the team’s jump off effort. “Lucky for me, I watched Ashlee [in the jump off], and Ashlee’s horse and mine are very similar. So I just tried to do what she did – she really galloped to the oxer, and made a great turn back.”
Kraut had nothing but praise for Baloutinue. “He’s got such fast footspeed, and he’s quick through the air. He’s like riding a thoroughbred, so it’s fun to let him go and try.”
No stranger to the Tryon area and the Blue Ridge Foothills equestrian community, Kraut noted that being back at Tryon International “is like coming home. I had my first championship in a pony division in 1976 in Tryon. I’m just happy to come back!”
Final Results – $181,170 Premier Equestrian CSI 5*
1) Laura Kraut (USA) & Baloutinue – 0 / 0 – 36.33
2) Ashlee Bond (ISR) & Donatello 141 – 0 / 0 – 36.54
3) Conor Swail (IRL) & Vital Chance de La Roque – 0 / 0 – 37.43
Source: Press Release by Rette Solomon for TIEC – Tryon International Equestrian Center & Resort
Photos: © TIEC / Natalie Suto Photography / Avery Fletcher / Bailey Beck
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Categories: CSI 5*, Tryon International Equestrian Center
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