Lauren Hester Wins the CWD Grand Prix at the Central California Classic

May 31, 2015

Saturday was a busy day at the Horse Park, with a full day of classes and the Art and Wine Reception, benefitting Studios On The Park, the Official Charity beginning at 2PM! The Art and Wine Reception featured six world-class wineries, including: CaliPaso Winery, SummerWood Winery, Sculpterra Winery and Sculpture Garden, Lone Madrone, Robert HallWinery, and Eberle Winery!

The late afternoon brought the course set and walk for the CWD Grand Prix of Paso Robles, with a competitive group of riders and horses in the class. The course was created by International course designer, Werner Deeg of Germany.

Deeg set an incredibly large, flowing course with 12 obstacles, including two challenging combinations, one being a bending line to a triple combination! The course began with a nice vertical coming towards the VIP tent. The course took over the entire Fairway Field Grand Prix arena, covering a lot of ground and allowing the horses and riders to maintain an upbeat pace. Highlights included fence 10, which took you into a moving bending line to the triple combination, 11A, 11B and 11C, then around to the final fence, a tall vertical.

Jamie Barge and Luebbo were the first to go clear in the class, putting up an incredibly smooth round! Then, we had three riders who each had two horses that proceeded to the jump off!

Lauren Hester executed the course flawlessly, with clear rounds on both Arly and Warinde B, joining the jump off with each. Kristin Hardin also had two impeccable rounds, with Bert and Aran, both continuing on to the jump off as well! Marc Grock also had lovely first rounds with Caretol and Irish 77, joining the other riders in what would become a nine horse jump off!

The jump off was a shortened course of eight obstacles, including one combination and a long gallop back to the final fence, the C phase of the triple combination.

Hester had a flawless evening with both Warinde B and Arly. Arly was a bit slower paced in the jump off, but ended with a great double clear round. Hester went in on Warinde B, coming off a win from the week before in the LA Saddlery Grand Prix, and left it all on the field. They cleared the fences with ease and maintained a pace that couldn’t be touched throughout the jump off.Hardin and Aran had a wonderful round to the final fence, where just one rail fell! Grock was slightly slower in the jump off and had just one rail to finish with four faults. Barge and Luebbo came in and had a gorgeous second round, finishing with a double clear!

Hardin and the excitable Bert flew threw the jump off course, last to go, to land themselves a double clear round in the CWD Grand Prix of Paso Robles, but not quite fast enough to beat Hester and Warinde B!

Hester and Warinde B win again at the Paso Robles Horse Park, with an even larger crowd on the Turf Club Berm, a large, sold out VIP with a fun Art and Wine Reception as well! The night ended with dancing and singing by Monte Mills and the Lucky Horseshoe band, even Hester got up on stage and played the tambourine! What a successful weekend at the Paso Robles Horse Park. Thank you to our riders, their horses, owners, sponsors, spectators and staff for making this event such a phenomenal success!

Reposted from West Palms Events.