by Katherine O. Rizzo (first published in the December 2024 Equiery)
Fifty-one entries started the CCI3-L division at the MARS Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill last month, with 40 finishing the event. Placing in the top half of the division was Maryland event rider and trainer Tracey Bienemann of Lothian who rode her own Venezuelan River to 19th place overall and 18th in the national CCI3 championships. She was also the highest placing Marylander to complete the competition this year.
Bienemann is no stranger to competing at Fair Hill. She first showed at the venue as a U.S. Pony Club member participating in the regional Event Rally, which is still held there annually. But this year was special because Bienemann, an Annapolis Pony Club graduate, was competing for the first time during the venue’s fall “big event” and had two entries in the CCI3-L division.
Bienemann has produced Venezuelan River “Newt” and Menlo Park “Melon” from coming off the racetrack as four-year-olds, up through the international three-star level. “Newt took a lot longer to settle in [to his new career] and it took good coaches to help me make him more ridable,” she explained. Bienemann has taken her time developing both horses, moving them up and down the levels as they needed. At times, she was not always sure competing at the Maryland 5 Star would even happen.
“Melon took most of last fall off due to a combination of mental and physical issues he needed some down time to resolve,” Bienemann explained. “But he came back out this spring very well and did his first three-star long at Tryon earlier this year.” Bienemann and Melon, owned by Carol McRoy, finished eighth at Tryon in May before winning the Open Intermediate division at Seneca Valley Pony Club Horse Trials in June. “We have to be careful with the hard ground so he missed most of the preps we should have done in September,” Bienemann added. “So I ran him at Maryland [Horse Trials] in the Prelim division to get him one last run before Fair Hill.” They finished third in the Area II Preliminary Championships division.
“Newt is a bit more tricky and has a lot of trouble with atmosphere at competitions,” Bienemann said. “He had a meltdown on cross-country at Morven Park this spring and I took a step back to the drawing board to figure out what to do next.” Bienemann and her team of coaches and veterinarians conducted all sorts of diagnostics to figure out if there was any physical reason for Newt’s behavior and after finding out he was physically doing great she concluded “I just needed to train him better.” Where Melon took a break from competing for most of the fall, Newt’s schedule was ramped up. “We kept grinding away at competitions because that is where the mental behavioral issues show up.”
By the fall season, Newt was starting to show Bienemann how competitive and focused he really could be. The pair won the Open Intermediate division at the Seneca Valley Pony Club Horse Trials in September and then headed to Plantation Field International to, hopefully, get the final qualifying score they needed for Fair Hill. “We stabled off site so he could keep getting turn out each day and that really helped,” she explained. With the last qualifying score they needed, the pair headed to Fair Hill. “We couldn’t stable off site at Fair Hill due to FEI rules but we made sure he was out of that stall as often as humanly possible,” she added.
All their hard work, perseverance, and dedication paid off as Bienemann and Newt ended up having the fastest double clean round on cross-country at Fair Hill in the CCI3-L division. “Newt was good in warm up and he went out of that box and gave me the best ride he ever has before,” Bienemann said. “The course felt easy for him. It’s really exciting and makes me just think ‘wow’… this horse has so much more to come!”
Bienemann had already gotten around the cross-county horse that day with Melon, thinking she had jumped clean with a few penalties for knocking some flags. After reviewing the official course footage, however, the Ground Jury decided they missed a jump on course. “He was a bit distracted at times but jumped his heart out,” Bienemann explained, adding, “and at the Roller-coaster, I knew he drifted left and hit a flag but I really thought we were over the fence.” The Ground Jury ruled that Melon’s hind quarters did not clear the fence and thus they were technically eliminated.
Bienemann filed an inquiry and was able to meet with the Technical Delegate and watch the footage herself saying, “I fought for Melon because he fought for me that day but in the end, a TE is better than a lot of other letters you could end an event on.” Since the event, Bienemann has received an outpouring of support via social media with a lot of friends and total strangers conducting “Facebook investigations” and digging through FEI rule books. “At this point it is what it is and I’m just happy he ran so well and finished the day sound and happy,” she said.
Bienemann joked that after Melon’s technical elimination, show jumping day “got much simpler with only one horse to juggle.” She added that normally she is very nervous about show jumping because of Newt’s previous bad behavior but “for whatever reason, I was really calm that day.” So was Newt! “He absolutely nailed it!” Bienemann said about the final show jumping phase. “We had one unlucky rail but he was as good as he’s ever been.”
Although not entirely the results she had hoped for with both horses, what makes the event special for Bienemann is that both horses are off-the-track Thoroughbreds. “I’m very passionate about these Thoroughbreds and seeing them competing at this level,” she said. “They work so hard and the whole event was such a great experience.”
