Kyle Carter and Madison Park's Remarkable Return to International Competition

Source :  Equine Canada

After a two year absence from international competition Kyle Carter, currently riding out of Citra, FL, and his long-time partner, Madison Park, his 15-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, made a remarkable return to Eventing at the CIC 3*Chattahoochee Hills Horse Trials held May 17 - 19, in Fairburn, GA.

Over the weekend the duo marked their return with a sixth place finish on a final score of 79.9. In the Dressage test the pair placed seventh with 53.9 penalties before heading into Show Jumping the next day. Jumping under the lights, Madison Park was leery of shadows at one fence and ended up taking two unlucky rails for eight faults for a score of 61.9, pushing them back to ninth on the leaderboard. On Sunday, the pair took on their favourite phase tackling the Hugh Lochore designed Cross Country course riding clear and incurring 18 time faults. In 2011, Madison Park sustained a devastating leg injury while competing in England that should have ended his career making this an astonishing comeback.

"Essentially Park hasn't competed at this level for some time and given the seriousness of his injury he really shouldn't have made it back, it should have ended his competitive career. Coming to Chattahoochee Hills was about making sure he still had the power and edge to compete at this level. I wanted to make sure that he could still handle it and he was great; I didn't feel any residual effects from his injury," commented Carter. "He performed as well as any other time in his dressage test; had a couple of unfortunate issues in show jumping but still did really well. Cross country is his favorite phase and he excelled. He's a very brave and willing partner and was spectacular on course. He looked great and went incredibly well."

"I'm so happy to be back on him. He's such a great competitor and has been a great horse for Canada, I'm very lucky," said Carter.

As for their future Carter offered, "For now we'll take it day by day, week by week. I'll be submitting our entry to Bromont, QC, and potentially, we're aiming for Badminton next year or perhaps Rolex Kentucky."

Prior to his injury Madison Park and Carter represented Canada at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, were members of the silver medal teams at 2010 World Equestrian Games and the 2007 Pan Am Games. The pair completed The Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

For complete results:http://www.evententries.com/livescoring/15272.html