Montreal, Canada – December 14, 2009 –Cavalor show jumping rider Hillary Dobbs found the perfect way to usher in the holiday season – by winning the Holiday & Horses $50,000 Grand Prix and FEI World Cup Qualifier at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, FL.
Cavalor, the world’s leading equine nutrition company for high-performance horses, announced Dobbs as the company’s first “Cavalor Young Champion” earlier this year.
“We are extremely proud of Hillary’s recent victory in the Holiday & Horses Grand Prix and FEI World Cup Qualifier,” said Philippe Collard, President of Cavalor, Inc. “She is a talented rider, a wonderful person, and a perfect representative of our brand.”
Dobbs and her mount Quincy B, a horse she has been riding since her days of competing in the junior jumpers, bested a starting field of 38 horse-and-rider combinations for the win after advancing to the final jump-off round. Joined by seven competitors in the jump-off, Dobbs knew that she and Quincy B would have to perfectly execute the Anthony D’Ambrosio designed course to secure the victory.
Going second to last in the order for the jump-off allowed Dobbs the opportunity to carefully study the courses of the riders who went before her, with the only fault-free ride thus far going to Ken Berkley and Carlos Boy with a time of 46.14 seconds.
Living up to her “Cavalor Young Champion” title, Dobbs rose to the occasion and put in a fault-free ride in a time of 45.39 seconds – just ¾ of a second faster than Berkley. With only the Russian Olympic horse-and-rider combination of Ljubov Kochetova and Aslan left to compete, all Dobbs could do was wait and hope she and Quincy B were fast enough for the win. Indeed, they were!
“You can always count on Ljubov to go clear, so I was just holding my breath,” said Dobbs.
Kochetova finished with no jumping faults in a time of 47.91 seconds, securing the third place finish while Ken Berkley and Carlos Boy finished in second.
