Colina SN Strikes Again to Win with Robert Mercer
Amateur and junior jumper riders took center stage in The Show Place Arena on Tuesday afternoon as the flowing hunter course was replaced with the first technical show jumping course of the week. Debuting a spectacular start to the evening,13-year-old Robert Mercer landed the victory in the $12,500 WIHS 1.15m Junior Jumper Championship presented by MARS Equestrian™ with Colina SN.
Trusting the incredibly fast 16-year-old Swedish Warmblood mare (Colman x Quinar), owned by Taylor Landstrom, Mercer left nothing to chance and effectively shut the door on the remaining competition as he clocked in at 29.794 seconds.
“She has a really fast foot speed, so she’s good at making the tight turns and getting there quickly and deep,” he explained. “If you get there deep, she can just pop over it; she’s a tiny little girl, but, obviously, she knows how to get around.”
Out of a starting field of 22 horse-and-rider pairings, only nine entries managed to produce a clear effort over the opening track, designed by FEI level 3 level course designer Colm Quinn (IRL). Mercer returned halfway in the order for the jump-off and clipped almost three seconds from previous leading rider Ellie Goodfriend’s time of 32.041 seconds.
“At the end of my round, I started crying when they told me my time and that I was winning,” admitted Mercer. “I’ve kind of felt like I had some pressure to win this class because my sister also won it two years ago.”
While it was Mercer’s first year competing at WIHS with horses, Colina’s winning experience in the division dates back several years. The 2026 class win was the third of her career, having taken Robert’s older sister, Katherine Mercer, to the win in 2024 and Landstrom to the top of the podium in 2021.
“She knows what she’s doing, and she never likes to lose. She always wants to win,” added Mercer. “She’s been in our barn for three years, but I’ve been riding her for a little under a year. This is only my third jumper final with her, and we were fourth in the final at Devon and won the speed class at Capital Challenge.”
Goodfriend finished in third place on Claudia’s K, her own nine-year-old Swedish Warmblood mare. Brooklyn Webb split the difference for second place with Indigo Equine, LLC’s 12-year-old Westphalian gelding, Limerick Kws, just falling short of Mercer’s time in 30.829 seconds.
