Robert Stucky not only won his first NSBA Markel Insurance Working Hunter Derby on Friday, but he did so on a horse his family bred and raised in Cherryville, North Carolina, named Triple Gold.
“He’s actually my parents’ horse,” Robert said. “They bred and raised him. I’ve had him since Day 1 and brought him up through the ranks until now. He’s seven years old this year, and he’s a Warmblood. He’s a Holsteiner/Oldenberg cross, and we call him Trey.”
Exhibitors faced two courses in the Hunter Derby, a first round and a Handy round for the top 15 scoring horses from the first round, which were designed by David Warner. Robert found the courses challenging, but also gave exhibitors room to make the courses work regardless of the level of their horse’s skills.
“Both times coming toward the end gate you had some pretty close jumps out of the turn right away from the end gate, so you had to keep the horses in front of your leg and keep them up and surprised,” he said. “When you have jumps that close to the wall, the horses get a little taken back and surprised, so you have to have a horse that is pretty trained and experienced to be able to handle that. Several of the younger horses, and my younger ones as well, struggled with that aspect of the course.
“In the handy round, David did a really good job of making it as tricky and technical as you wanted or you could make it as wide and soft as you wanted. It gave you a lot of options to ride the course depending on the level of your horse. It was a very technical course, but at the same time a very welcoming course, depending on how advanced your horse was. It was a very good course – I had five horses come back that were at all different levels from four years old to seven years old.”
Robert was excited to get the Derby win. “This is my fourth time coming to the NSBA World Show,” he said. “I’m really excited to get this. I thought I was really close last year, but I had an unfortunate rail, so it was really exciting to keep all the rails up this year!”
Robert also took the reserve champion trophy in the class aboard Zane Gray, showing for owner Isabella Agliano (pictured at right), as well as tenth with Hesa Frequent Flyer, showing for owner Kate Upton.
The NSBA World Championship Show and Breeders Championship Futurity will continue on its second day with Working Hunter, Equitation Over Fences and Working Hunter Under Saddle classes, followed by the association’s tribute to veterans during the Parade of Veterans and the Heroes On Horses class at approximately 6:00 p.m. in the Ford Truck Arena. Open Western and Hunter Longe Line as well as Equestrians With Disabilities and Walk Trot classes will be found in the Mustang arena, while the Pavilion will have a full day of Green Junior Trail and Green Senior Trail.
To view complete show results, see the complete show schedule or view the live video feed during show hours, please visit nsba.com.
