A double clear round secured the win in the Advanced division at the Millbrook Horse Trials for Arielle Aharoni and Cooley Baltic Sea, a 2014 gray Irish Sport Horse gelding (Baltic VDL x HHS Cheerio), owned by Filly’s Hope LLC. The pair was the fastest around cross country yesterday, moving up from 8th place after dressage to take the lead, and they made easy work of course designer Michel Vaillancourt’s show jumping course this afternoon, finishing on a score of 35.9 overall to claim the Mashantum Perpetual Trophy, donated by Mary Babcock.
Aharoni said, “Everything rode to plan: the balanced six into the triple, the little bit of a forward seven right before that. The only thing that didn’t ride to plan was the last fence because he was cross-cantering the whole way there. He gave me a bit of a fright!”
She mentioned that she’s been working on getting him stronger in the hind end with pole work, hills and flat work. “Actually the more flat work you do, the better the horse gets. It’s just trying to get that hind end underneath of him and lifting that front end.”
Aharoni said that her win today is a boost to her confidence. “When you’re on a winning streak it keeps the momentum going and then you have bigger and bigger goals, and I think that motivation really keeps the wheels turning. It’s been a good season so far.”
Aharoni trains with Chris Kappler in the show jumping and Heather Mason in dressage, as well as working regularly with eventer Boyd Martin, who won the Advanced division at Millbrook in 2025.
Ema Klugman and Chiraz. Photo by Amber Heintzberger.
Ema Klugman (AUS) kept all the rails up to finish second (39.7) riding Chiraz, a syndicated grey Holsteiner gelding (Cayado x Asquetta, while Kiersten Miller rounded out the top three with a clear round on her Dutch mare Mama Mia (Indoctro x Lysienne II) for a score of 46.0. It was both Miller’s and her horse’s first run at the Advanced level, and she also finished riding her Irish Sport Horse gelding Roscommon Alto. Ariel Grald and Diara, standing third after cross country, had the final rail on course down and dropped to fourth overall (46.2).
Klugman said that her focus this weekend was more on training her horse than winning the event, and she was happy with the result.
“I think if you ride them well usually the results will just come instead of trying to go for it. I’m really pleased with him, he felt very fit – he was very energetic today, I rode him for quite a while this morning because he was really wild! I was really happy with how he jumped today, we’ve been working a lot on his straightness, he has a huge amount of scope but he’s not always straight and I thought he jumped super, he made it feel easy.”
Miller, 23, said that she’s owned Mama Mia since she was 16 years old, and said, “She’s just special, she’ll give you the world and now that we’ve got a partnership, she’d do anything for me. Going into this weekend I just wanted to get around – it’s been a long time coming, she and I have been going Intermediate for four or five years now. We’ve had a lot of setbacks along the way, so it was everything and more this weekend.”
As the lowest-scoring mare in the Advanced division, Mama Mia also won the James Stamets Memorial Perpetual Trophy, donated by Amy Goodnow.
Thanks to a generous last-minute donation, $12,000 in prize money was awarded in the Advanced division.
Millbrook HT (NY): [Website] [Scoring] [Live Stream Replays]
