Waylon Roberts Wins 7th Indoor Eventing Title at Royal Winter Fair *VIDEO

 

Waylon Roberts and his mount Bill Owen pulled out all the stops to come from behind and win the Horseware Indoor Eventing title for an incredible seventh time. Photo credit: Ben Radvanyi

There is a quote that goes something like “Nobody said it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.” Easy it was not this evening, for the two Champions in tonight’s Royal Horse Show. But it was most decidedly worth it for Yann Candele and Waylon Roberts, who claimed the Greenhawk Canadian Cup and Horseware Indoor Eventing titles for a record fourth and seventh times respectively.

In front of a near capacity crowd in the Ricoh Coliseum, Waylon Roberts (Port Perry, ON) rode Bill Owen like a man with nothing to lose and everything to win. Sitting in third following last night’s initial round of competition, Roberts knew how costly mistakes could be at this level.

“Tonight I knew I had to take a couple of risks,” said Roberts following his win. “I didn’t ride the pig jump very well but ‘Bill’ saved my butt! I was really working to get a clear round tonight because that last rail we had down last night cost us the lead coming into today. I had to change my plan a bit and I still didn’t have quite as much turning power as I would have liked, but the horse has come so far in a short period of time so I’m very pleased.”

Roberts graciously acknowledged he was in pretty good company, with Olympians and Pan-Am champions riding alongside.

“I don’t think we have ever had a competition as tight as this one,” he remarked. “It’s a real testament to the quality of riders we have here this year, and of course to Captain Mark Phillips who designed the courses and the builders here at the Royal. The atmosphere was intense in there and my horse dealt with it incredibly well.”

This video is VERY misleading as to how unbelievably fast Waylon flew around the course