Daniel Coyle and Incredible are having a great two weeks at Thunderbird Show Park.
Friday afternoon, the pair topped a five-horse jump-off in the CSI4* Grand Prix, just ahead of fellow Irishman Conor Swail with Casturano, and hometown hero Canadian Olympian Tiffany Foster with Electrique.
Top three in the results were also the three riders in the class with double-digit world rankings. (Coyle sits in 14th, Swail in 16th and Tiffany Foster, in 39th.)
Foster, who won her first 5* Grand Prix at Thunderbird in 2023, set the time to beat with Electrique, the former ride of world number-one ranked jumper Kent Farrington. Electrique has a stride the size of Manhattan, which makes their rounds look deceptively relaxed, but they clocked in with a fault-free round in 42.240 seconds.
Coyle and Incredible were next.
They held nothing back, stopping the clock in a sub-40 39.890 seconds for first place.
Coyle credited a change to his bit and bridle.
鈥淚n the past I always rode [Incredible] in a snaffle, but we ran into a bit of a snag at the World Cup Finals where he didn鈥檛 really know where he was going,鈥� explained Coyle. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want that to happen today, so we used a Pelham bridle for the first round just to have more control and so I can place him at the jumps better and changed to a snaffle for the second round because I needed him to be free and run the way he did in the jump-off.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about figuring out your horse and what works best for him.鈥�
This weekend, three Coyles will ride on Team Ireland in the $75,000 CSIO4* Nations Cup 1.55m. With his brother Jordan, and cousin Christian, along with Conor Swail, they hope to reproduce their 2023 tbird win. History might not repeat itself, but Team Ireland seems like a definite possibility given their track record year over year.
