SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Thirty-three horse-and-rider duos a demanding Leopoldo Palacios-designed course at the $35,000 Summer Classic II Grand Prix, held Aug. 21 at Rancho Mission Viejo Horse Park.

Only the first two on course — Lane Clarke aboard Bay Rose’s Nikko and Hannah Selleck riding the fiery mare, Tosca — were able to do so. After a battle of the sexes in the jump-off, the 21-year-old Selleck won with with a stellar double-clear ride.

The course was technical and demanded a careful, yet gutsy ride. A total of 17 obstacles, including three combinations and a water jump in a keep-up-the-pace allowed time of 87 seconds.

“This was a very tough national grand prix,” admitted Palacios. “I tried to challenge the group as much as possible.”

BURBANK – Nadine Tilley remembers the day she saw a baby colt in the snow at Mirasol Andalusians in Minnesota, owned by her friend, Barbara Berquist.

“I told her right there that I had first dibs if she ever decided to sell him,” says Nadine, owner of Tilley Andalusians in Hemet.

Two years later, she bought Amici BB, the handsome son of Escamillo. Now a 6-year old, he’s a good candidate to win a International Andalusian and Lusitano Horse Association Senior Grand National Stallion Championship in Fort Worth, Texas, in October.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — In the same arena where the world’s best jumpers will compete this fall at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, a team of California Young Riders put together a sterling effort to win the 2010 FEI Adequan American Junior and Young Rider team show jumping crown.

In addition to the California’s Young Riders team title, the Junior Rider team award went to the Alberta, Canada, squad.

A thread between the respective Young Rider and Junior Rider teams is trainer Dick Carvin of Meadow Grove Farm in Lake View Terrace where he trains two of the Young Riders, Lucy Davis and Richard Neal. He also travels to Calgary, Alberta, to train Bretton Chad, a member of the gold medal-winning Canadian Junior Riders.

“I had Ricky and Lucy on the Young Rider Team and Bretton on the Junior team — it was an exciting week,” said Carvin.

Olaf Peterson, Jr. designed a demanding test at Kentucky Horse Park for each group of riders that included a double combination, a triple combination and a tricky open water obstacle. Each rider completed a first round course and the rider with the greatest number of faults had their score dropped before having all faults added together. The six teams with the lowest fault count after the first round returned to tackle the course for a second time in the same format.

WOODSIDE – Andrea Fappani kept his stronghold on the Reining By The Bay Open Derby last month, taking Custom Smart Olena to a 230.5 that scraped past a pair of 230s in reserve to win the $30,000-added Derby Open. The victory was worth $8,635 for Custom Smart Olena (Custom Crome x A Darn Smart Chic x Smart Chic Olena), owned by Steve Simon of Marietta, Okla.

Last year at Woodside, Fappani pulled a hat trick I the Derby Open, winning first, second and third places – the championship coming on board Shiner Olena.

The battle for the Derby Open reserve crown featured Wimpys Little Buddy (Wimpys Little Step x All That’s Dun x Hollywood Dun It) ridden by Martin Muehlstatter for Kim Dooley of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Star For The Chicks (Smart Starbuck x Dun It By Chick x Hollywood Dun It), ridden by Randy Paul for Rancho Oso Rio, also of Scottsdale. The matching 230s earned each of them $5,444.

DEL MAR — Forty horse-and-rider combinations came to play on the grass field at the Del Mar Horse Park Aug. 8 in the $25,000 August Festival Grand Prix. Going 16th, Jaime Azcarraga of Mexico City on Selcius, was the first clean and the only double clear performance for the win.

The Scott Starnes-designed course had several twisty turns and combinations — a total of 16 efforts were included in a tight time allowed of 83 seconds.

“Having not seen a lot of the [Mexican] horses jump, my objective was to get most around but challenge them,” Starnes said. “There was a nice mixture between local and Mexican talent. Azcarraga is a master and he rode really well.”

DEL MAR — Thirty-one duos galloped around the grand prix field July 31 in the $10,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby at the Del Mar Horse Park. When thirteen returned for a challenging handy round, it was young professional Nick Haness and his mount Gelato, owned by Conor Perrin, who earned the top score. Forbes and Jenny Karizissis took reserve.

Given the 2010/2011 qualifying season’s new scoring, each of the 4’ options jumped was automatically awarded one point, so up to four points were added to both set of judges’ scores.

Sitting third after the first round, Haness and Gelato managed the trot fence, snake jumps and hand gallop with ease, earning the highest handy total of 202. Going in last, Geller can certainly be proud of her first round performance aboard Fabricio; however, an unfortunate rail on the handy course bumped her to seventh position with a score of 239 overall. It was Gelato’s impressive trip that brought their total to 378 overall, four points above Forbes for the win.

CALGARY, Alberta, Can. — After three rounds of intense competition at the Cowboy Up Challenge Extreme Cowboy Race July 10-12 at the Calgary Stampede, Robin Bond and Jose Perfection fell one point shy of winning. Her enthusiasm upon returning home, though, sounded more like a champion’s than the reserve.

“For me — I’d never competed out of our country. I’d never BEEN out of the country,” said Bond, who received a hero’s reception upon return to Rancho Dos Palmas in Vista, where she trains. “It was just really exciting.”

And challenging. The fastest-growing sport in the equine industry, Extreme Cowboy Racing is a timed and judged event that demands both horsemanship and speed. It confronts both horse and rider with an extreme obstacle course of moguls, bridges, log crossings, tunnels, cowboy curtains, roll backs, and water crossings.