Alex Granato of Mad Season, LLC, piloted Carlchen W to the top of the $6,000 1.40m class sponsored by Illustrated Properties on Wednesday, January 20 at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF). Among a field of top-notch competitors including Beezie Madden, McLain Ward, Conor Swail and Laura Kraut, Granato pulled out a win on the speedy young prospect.
Page Tredennick of Wood Run Farm owns the promising 8-year-old gelding that Granato rode to a swift double-clear performance on Wednesday evening. Granato said, “We did a couple inside turns and he handled everything well in the first round. He was really rideable and then in the jump off I just let his natural speed take over. I stayed tidy on the turns and let him carry himself across the ground. I was going for efficient double clean, but all the turns came up so well that he ended up being quite fast and it paid off.”
Granato recently began training with the legendary coach and clinician, George Morris. Prior to his courses, Morris offered some advice for the horse-and-rider duo. Granato shared, “This was actually only the second time he’s coached me on that horse, so he’s still getting to know him, but George was just sharing advice on a couple lines and telling me to be mindful of the time allowed. So we did that and it went well.”
Granato envisions a bright future for this young horse that he’s been working with for nearly three years. “I did him through the young jumpers and did the finals in Kentucky so we’re moving up into the 1.40’s now that he is an 8 year old. We took it light for his 7-year-old year. We picked and chose what we wanted to do as far as preparing for this year’s goals and developing him as a future Grand Prix horse.”
The team at Mad Season, LLC will continue to compete in the Open Jumper divisions during the 2016 Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida. For more information about Granto please visit facebook.com/MadSeasonLLC
For more information about the George Morris and the release of his autobiography
UNRELENTING please visit www.ghmclinics.com.
Source: Press release
