Showjumping veteran wins at Spruce Meadows

A 67-year-old Canadian legend has gone head-to-head with a rider barely out her teens in one of the world’s biggest showjumping competitions.

Egalitarian sport

There aren’t many sports where athletes of the opposite sex, with a 47-year age gap, can compete on equal footing, but the Spruce Meadows Masters exemplified the egalitarian nature of showjumping.

Ian Millar has competed at every Masters since it started in 1976, taking the title in 1987 and 1991. This year marked his third victory, when he shaved 2.3secs from USA’s Reed Kessler time.

The tough track in the first round saw 12 out of 47 starters make it through to round two – including Shane Breen, who went clear on Golden Hawk, and Robert Whitaker, who had just one time fault with Catwalk.

Good fortune

Ian and Reed were the sole riders to manage a double clear, and make it through to the next round. This was only the third jump-off in the 19 years that Leopoldo Palacios has been designing the course.

Reed, who is currently based in Germany where she is training with Marcus Ehning, was first to go with Cylana. She pulled off yet another clear in a fast time of 49.50sec, but it wasn’t quite quick enough.

Ian acknowledged he had the “good fortune of going second” and made a few tighter turns with Dixson. The pair stopped the clock on 47.33sec to win the class, much to the delight of the home crowd.

Thrill beyond words

“I can honestly tell you that I never thought I’d win this Grand Prix again,” Ian said. “I won it twice before, and that was a long time ago. The sport has changed so much. I’m a little more mature than I was.

“These young people go plenty fast, and they’re really, really good. To go up against them is no easy task. It’s just a thrill beyond words.”

At one stage it looked like the Masters wouldn’t go ahead, as freak weather saw 25cm of snowfall on the showground. The first day was cancelled, but staff managed to clear the snow and get the event up-and-running the next day.

Home win

It was a good show for the Canadians, who also won the $300,000 BMO Nations Cup. Ian and Dixson were competing again and had just four faults over two rounds, while Ben Asselin (Makavoy) provided the team’s only double clear.

Tiffany Foster, who was riding Ben Maher’s former rider Tripple X III, had one time fault in the first round and one rail in round two. Eric Lamaze (Zigali P S) had eight faults in round one and didn’t have to ride again as Canada’s score of nine faults couldn’t be beaten.

The USA was second (13 faults), Belgium was third (21 faults) and France was fourth (23 faults). Fifth place went to Switzerland (28 faults), while Great Britain was sixth (37 faults). Germany was seventh and Ireland eighth.