SUSSEX, England — Liz Halliday-Sharp capped off a busy schedule at Eridge Horse Trials last weekend June 29 by taking victory in the Five-Year-Old section with Flynn. The British-based Californian, competing on six horses in four categories at the Kent venue, also achieved top-10 results with Swift, Chaco, and Blackie on her most frenetic weekend of 2014 so far.

However, it was Chailey Stud’s new additions that stole the limelight with Flynn finishing on a superb Dressage score of 21.5 after going double clear in Show Jumping and Cross Country. Fellow newcomer Swift also performed brilliantly on his Novice debut – just the second event together with Liz – producing a positive Dressage display alongside strong Show Jumping and Cross Country rounds to finish a respectable 10th after a few penalties against the stopwatch.

“I was thrilled with Flynn’s performance,” said Halliday-Sharp, a San Diego native. “He led from start to finish, with a superb Dressage test kicking things off. Although he’s still green due to this being only his third event, he really enjoys his job and just continues to get better and better.”

The horse is part of Team Cooley USA, a partnership between Halliday-Sharp and Richard Sheane of Cooley Sport Horses in Ireland that hopes to showcase six world-class young Irish horses carefully produced during the season, which will travel to the USA at the end of 2014 in order to be prepared for sale.

Meanwhile, following the exciting news that Liz and Blackie will remain on USEF’s High Performance Training List for summer 2014 – the U.S. rider put a disappointing Bramham weekend behind them with a positive result in the Open Intermediate class. A Dressage score of 25.0 ensured they started strongly, before a handful of time faults in otherwise clear Show Jumping and Cross Country rounds meant they ultimately finished sixth.

“I’m very pleased to have been named on the USA Summer Training List,” she said. “Blackie and I have had a tough couple of months, but it’s great to see that the High Performance Committee still have faith in us. We just need to keep working hard now!”