This Time It Was Team USA That Was Victorious in the Las Vegas World Cup Challenge
Text and Photos by Diana Derosa

Las Vegas – April 23 – The World Cup Team Hunter Challenge rematch was met in stride, literally, as riders negotiated some of the nation’s top horses around the Richard Jeffrey designed course at the Thomas & Mack arena on April 21, 2007. In the end it was the U.S. team of Louise Serio, John French, Peter Pletcher and Scott Stewart who won against European show jumping riders Rodrigo Pessoa, Michael Whitaker, Christian Ahlmann and Marcus Ehning.

Team USA scored 462.32 to Team Europe’s total of 440.98. Those points followed an afternoon of fun and camaraderie as some of the riders performed effortlessly while others had their skills tested. All were aboard horses they’d never ridden before. While all the horses were veterans, none were used to the drama that a full house arena poses. In the end Scott Stewart earned the Leading Rider title while Henderson was the High Point Horse.

“Revenge is sweet,” commented Louise Serio, “but I’d like to take a moment to thank the American Hunter-Jumper Foundation and all the people who worked on this class including Karen Healey, who does so much and Archie Cox, who brought most of the horses this time.”

Louise was sitting in a Press Conference when she made these comments and to her left sat the European Team, all four of them Olympic medalists. Louise continued, “It’s an honor to be in this class. It’s an honor to sit next to this group of riders, these European Superstars. We are thrilled that we won this time but it’s a tough class because the horses have a hard time in this venue. They get a little spooky with the atmosphere, crowd and noise. It is just so different from anything they are used to. We need to give them all credit for trying to go well. It’s a truly novel experience for all of us.”