By Joanie Morris

Gladstone, NJ - Take some flatwork, add some gymnastic jumping exercises, send all the riders over a carefully designed course, then have the top four riders switch horses and over the course of two days, a very prestigious title is handed out. Welcome to the Platinum Performance//USEF Talent Search Final.

Fortunately, in sharp contrast to its West Coast counterpart, the Eastern Finals boasted fabulous weather and perfect conditions. The rain held off and 82 talented riders showed up at the USET Headquarters October 6-7 to contest the prestigious Final.

Saturday played host to the flatwork and gymnastics portions, during the course of which the standings changed considerably. Kyle Wolf won the flatwork portion but that lead was relinquished during the gymnastics phase which brought excellent performances by Addison Phillips, Kimberly McCormack and Nikko Ritter.

After the second phase, less than two points separated the top three. Phillips, 18 from New York, NY, led the pack on her own Flight, a 13-year-old Swedish Warmblood gelding, at the end of Saturday’s competition.