Mill Spring, NC – April 9, 2022 – Day two of The Fork at TIEC featured Cross-Country and Show Jumping competition hosted at Tryon International Equestrian Center & Resort (TIEC) as part of the three-day Eventing competition. Upper levels contested Show Jumping in Tryon Stadium in the afternoon over the Dean Rheinheimer (USA) course, while levels Beginner Novice through Preliminary challenged the Cross-Country track set by Captain Mark Phillips (GBR). Ahead of Sunday’s final phase of competition, free and open to the public, results and comments from Saturday’s competition can be found below.

Liz Halliday-Sharp (USA) and Cooley Moonshine were cool under pressure under the lights in Tryon Stadium, putting in a double-clear round to maintain their lead in the CCI 4*-S Division, bringing forward a score of 26.0 to Sunday’s Cross-Country test. The rest of the leaderboard also remains unchanged: Will Coleman (USA) and Off the Record, the 2009 Irish Sport Horse Gelding (VDL Arkansas x Ard Ohio) owned by Off The Record Syndicate, kept their score of 27.2, while Boyd Martin (USA) and Tsetserleg, the 2007 Trakehner gelding (Windfall *PG* x Buddenbrock) owned by Christine, Thomas IV and Tommie Turner, also produced a double-clear stadium round to hold third place and 27.7 points.

Halliday-Sharp and the 2012 Irish Sport Horse gelding (Cobra x Kings Master) owned by The Monster Partnership had a “wonderful” round to keep their lead, though Halliday-Sharp admitted that it was a bit brutal to ride such a brilliant jumper while still injured:

“The Show Jumping phase was quite good on all the horses. Cooley Moonshine’s just incredible. He’s a really amazing horse, so I had a lot of fun riding him. He’s pretty hard on my body because he’s such an extravagant jumper, so I was a little bit beaten up at the end of that one! He was just wonderful,” she continued, “and it’s always a pleasure to have him in the ring, because he always fights for it.”

Halliday-Sharp’s more green ride at the level, Cooley Be Cool, improved from tenth to seventh after producing a double-clear round, and she praised the class of the 2013 Irish Sport Horse gelding (Heritage Fortunus x Unknown) owned by Ocala Horse Properties and the Monster Partnership.

“I was totally thrilled with Cooley Be Cool. He’s a greener horse and we’ve been kind of playing around with some things in his Show Jumping, and I think it was the best round he’s ever jumped. He really rose to the occasion under the lights, which was kind of cool. He’s quite an arrogant horse,” she revealed, “and thinks a lot of himself. It’s nice to have him, sort of, channeling the arrogance the right way!”

Click here to read more from Halliday-Sharp.

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