France’s Marie Hecart has achieved the biggest win of her career on Saturday (31 January), keeping Ben Maher in second place in the Rolex FEI World Cup Qualifier at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida.
Mini Me
The evening’s feature class saw 10 out of 45 starters making it thought to the jump-off. Marie and Ben were the only riders to achieve a double clear, but the French rider was faster against the clock, riding Myself de Breve.
Just 15.1hh high, Marie has had the 15-year-old Selle Francais mare – known as ‘Mini Me’ due to her diminutive stature – since she was four years old.
“We know each other really, really well and she has been more and more consistent,” Marie said. “The older she gets, the better she gets, and it is really nice to have her in good shape and competitive.”
Ben was the only British rider to make it through to the jump-off riding Diva II, on whom he won the Grand Prix at Olympia at end of last year.
‘Fresh and crazy’
“I jumped her last week when she came out of quarantine and she was really fresh and crazy, but tonight she was back to herself,” he said.
“I decided to play it a bit safe and take a check home. It is not in my nature to not have a try and go to win to be honest, but I went around to the second fence and I thought I would be a bit closer to Marie than I actually was.”
Eric Lamaze and Fine Lady 5 completed the fastest round in 36.54sec, but had one down to finish third.