Monica Spencer and Artist dance into the lead on Friday at the MARS Maryland 5 Star. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
Monica Spencer and Artist dance into the lead on Friday at the MARS Maryland 5 Star. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
“Hi mama!” three-year-old Gus yells as his mother, Monica Spencer, gallops up Nelson’s Hill (one of the best conditioning hills on the East coast, and probably in the country) and past her husband, Andrew’s, camera. “Hi Gus-man!” she shouts back. Artist‘s ears are pricked, and his light Thoroughbred build carries him effortlessly up the incline.
It’s a normal scene at the home base (the former Schramm Equestrian base in Chester County, PA, just down the road from the MARS Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill, presented by Brown Advisory) of the family Spencer. Monica, Andrew and Gus relocated to the U.S. full-time following the 2022 World Championships with an eye to building towards the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, and moved from Virginia up to Pennsylvania earlier this year.
Monica Spencer and Artist. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
Until recently, Monica had no full-time help. With the new farm and a growing string of young horses, Monica recently hired on #supergroom Savannah Kilpatrick. But until that point, it was just the little family of three, enjoying life on the farm together. They keep things simple. Leading up to this weekend, Monica ran Artist, who is 14 this year, just twice after finishing eighth at Kentucky in April. He’s a horse that knows his job at this point, and the light preps suit him well at this stage.
And so it was a traditionally loose, soft and supple Artist who entered at A Friday afternoon and left with a new FEI personal best score of 23.7 to lead the field heading into cross country. They received a couple of nines for the efforts from judge at C and president of the Ground Jury Sandy Phillips (GBR), one for her flying change out of the counter canter and another for her final halt. Through these high averages, this score puts them comfortably into the lead over Switzerland’s Felix Vogg and his cross country beast of a mare, Cartania.
“I haven’t really done a lot of dressage this week,” Monica said after her test. “I’ve just been making him feel good in his body, so I can go in there and ‘push the button,’ which is pretty cool. He is a very nice guy, and he does his very best all the time, so I’m lucky to have him.”
Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
“It is a bit of added pressure,” she said of being in the overnight lead. She led her first 5* with “Max” at Adelaide after dressage as well. “But you’ve got to take every day as it comes. Today was a nice place to start, but I don’t think it’s going to be a dressage competition. [The course is] different. There’s some stuff I haven’t seen before, but it’ll be interesting to see how the horses read everything and how the day unfolds.”
Monica’s become a familiar face on the East coast and around the country teaching clinics this year in particular, but she insists Max is the one everyone comes to see. “If I meet people, they say, ‘Are you Monica? Do you ride Max?’ So it’s him that’s famous, it’s not me! He definitely feels like he knows he’s flying the flag for all the bay Thoroughbreds out there.”
Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Blake. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
Breaking up the international party in the top three are Caroline Pamukcu with her Paris Olympic horse, HSH Blake (owned by Mollie Hoff, Sherrie Martin and the Paumukcus), who is stepping up to the 5* level with much anticipation this weekend. Blake scored a 28.2 in this first 5* test, a scenario where some horses might score slightly higher in this more technically demanding test, both physically and mentally. But Caroline describes Blake as a total workman, and the dressage has been supported particularly this season by Grand Prix rider Samantha St. Jacques as well as the core US Equestrian coaching and management team.
“I’m just over the moon with him,” Caroline said. “He felt like he really enjoyed himself. When I came into the ring it’s like he kicked into another gear and just felt very happy. I wasn’t too nervous for dressage because it’s a cross country competition. If you didn’t have a perfect change or you jigged in the walk, it didn’t really matter because tomorrow it’s a tough, tough, tough track out there.”
Caroline now has two horses in the top 10 with She’s the One (Andy and Molly Hoff, Sherrie Martin and Caroline-owned) in eighth overnight, and she’s in 14th with the Tolan King Partnership’s HSH Tolan King.
Felix Vogg and Cartania. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
Pushing into third place are Switzerland’s Felix Vogg with Cartania, who also scored a 5* personal best with a 28.3. Despite the score, though, Felix felt he’d left some marks on the table. “She was really, really good this week, but this morning she got a bit tense,” he reflected. “I could have done some stuff better in there, especially in the canter. We messed up a change, and I think we never did that before. It wasn’t bad, but especially the changes, that’s the best part of her — did I not get it done properly? I’m not annoyed with her, but with me I have faults.”
Here, the riders can’t really see the marks they’re getting, and Felix uses that often to help him know where he is in the judging. “Usually like to see the marks, and then when I’m a little bit behind, it gives me another kick to try harder,” he said. “So now I never knew where I am, where I’m at. So then you just have to keep being motivated, and keep trying. It’s always one section, you get one mark, then you get the next mark. If you miss some stuff or don’t get it right, you can still do the other marks well. So that’s the way you should right it, I think, but usually I like it more when I can see how my scores are and look at little on the screen.”
Felix is luckily completely mended from a scary injury that temporarily paralyzed his right arm after a fall from a young horse. The incident happened two weeks before Burghley, in which Cartania was entered — hence the reroute here to Maryland, which Felix feels suits the 14-year-old Holsteiner mare owned by Phoenix Eventing S.à.r.l. better than Les 5 Etoiles de Pau in southern France at the end of this month.
Felix Vogg and Cartania. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
“I thought it’s nothing [at first], so I got again on the horse and the next one, but I couldn’t hold anything anymore,” Felix told us. “I tried to ride another young one with one hand, but it didn’t work. So I got off, and then it went quite quickly that the arm got more and more stiff, and it was completely paralyzed. The fingers I could move, but the whole arm [couldn’t]. We worked a lot with electric simulation and all this stuff quite a lot, like four hours a day. Then it got, quite quickly, good again, I’d say maybe after about three weeks.”
“This course suits her better — the up and down, it’s tougher,” Felix said of his decision to come here to the U.S., where he temporarily based in 2018. “If it’s flat, it’s too much work for me. I hope [the terrain will help her rideability]! I don’t know how it is here, but it’s like this in Burghley, and Burghley suits her better than Badminton because it goes long up the hill.”
Jonelle Price and Chilli’s Midnight Star. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
Boyd Martin and Commando 3. Photo by Atalya Boytner Photography.
Jonelle Price (NZL) with Nikki Axon’s and Merrill Halstead’s Chilli’s Midnight Star (yes, a Chilli Morning baby!) moved into fourth, tied with Boyd Martin and Yankee Creek Ranch LLC’s Commando 3 on a score of 30.3.
Here’s a look at your full standings going into cross country, which begins at 9:05 a.m. with the CCI3*-L. There’s a lengthy break before the 5*, which will begin at 1:40 p.m. with Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Tolan King. Starting orders and live scores can be found here.
This week, you’ll be able to follow along live on USEF Network on ClipMyHorse for our U.S. readers. Instructions on how to link your USEF Account are here so you can access the ClipMyHorse stream for free. For local viewers, Maryland Public Television also carries a great live stream that can be accessed here. For anyone needing an easy way to convert time zones for viewing in your local area, this website is a really handy tool. We will also have a traditional Cheg Darlington live blog for you for the 5* division, so be sure to stay tuned!
EN is pleased to welcome Deirdre Vaillancourt Real Estate as the sponsor of our coverage of this year’s MARS Maryland 5 Star. If you’ve got Aiken, SC on your list as a place to base or even move to, Deirdre should be your first call! You can find all properties available and contact Deirdre directly by visiting AikenSCProperties.com.
MARS Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill (MD): [Website] [Tickets] [Schedule] [Entries] [Live Stream] [Scores] [EN’s Coverage]
