Brianne Goutal wins $6,000 speed class

Brianne Goutal and Mon Gamin.
By sportfot.com

New York's Brianne Goutal and her pinto Mon Gamin sped to vitory in the $6,000 Spy Coast Farm 1.40m Speed Challenge at the FTI Winter Equestrian Festival, Florida, 21 January 2011.

There were 39 entries in the class and eight of those were clear, but none was fast enough to catch Brianne and Mon Gamin, owned by Cloverleaf Farm, and their time of 64.77 seconds.

"[The course] was great for me. I was able to gallop in places. I was a little slow for the first four jumps. I couldn't really get him going," said Brianne. "There was an inside turn to number five, but I galloped around it, [then] he was open and flying everywhere. It was a great speed course. There were places you had to turn, places you had to gallop and lines that tested rideability."

Canada's Yann Candele and Liz Currie's Carolla Z took second in a time of 65.10 seconds, while the USA's Laura Kraut, on Pin Oak Farm's Winde, was third in 67.24 seconds.

Brianne and Mon Gamin have been consistently winning speed classes since they started competing together nine years ago.

"Since the day we got him, he's been competitive," said Brianne. "He's a real winner. He goes in every time more careful than the last, which is why we move back down a class every time we show him. I think he's found a niche as a speed horse, especially with me. I know him so well and he knows me. He's a really happy horse and we try and keep it that way."


Brianne, 22, first saw Mon Gamin in France when she was on a two-week clinic with French Olympic show jumper Thierry Pommel.

Mon Gamin, who was bred in Spain, is a 15-year-old Dutch warmblood gelding by Libero x Shogun.

"There were three horses: a black one, a white one and a pinto," Brianne recalled. "He was a six-year-old stallion. He was so cute.

"I don't know if I thought he was amazing or just cute. I had to have him. I had a dream about him and I convinced my dad that it was fate. It was destiny. I ended up with a pinto and we gelded him because he was wild. But he's been perfect ever since."


Brianne said that Mon Gamin has settled into his routine here at the FTI WEF.

"This is his eighth [time in] Florida with me and he's been in this routine for the past three years," she said. "He does a trail ride on Tuesday, light flat on Wednesday, a schooling class on Thursday, his 1.40m on Friday, and then a day off and then flatting. He's the best; he lives the life."

For full results, click here