by Tina Fitch • photos: Tina Fitch Photography
Olympian and West Coast rider, Tamie Smith, traveled to Fair Hill last month and brought home the reserve champion ribbon with Ruth Bley’s 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding Danito on a final score of 29.8. Tamie was edged out by fellow Olympian rider, Tim Price and Jean-Louis Stauffer’s 10-year-old Selle Français stallion Coup De Coeur Dudevinand taking the Championship.
Smith and the gelding fondly known as Cheeto, were in sixth place after dressage. The rolling terrain and cleverly designed Ian Stark course proved to be no problem for the pair’s 5 Star debut as they moved to second place with a double clear ride.
The final day of competition was a nail-biter with less than a rail between the top five competitors. Smith had a beautiful round but added .4 time penalties for a final score of 29.8, only .1 points in front of the third-place finisher, Oliver Townsend riding John Peace’s 11-year-old Spanish gelding As Is through.
The year started less than stellar for Smith from the EHV breakout in California, to a broken ankle that forced her to the sidelines, while being qualified to compete at Kentucky and Burghley {two of the seven five-star competitions in the world}. “I was watching my dreams fade away,” quipped Smith, “But I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.”
This year before taking the Maryland 5 Star by storm, Smith became a silver medalist with Team USA at the Eventing World Championships in Pratoni del Vivaro, Italy.
