Familiar Pair in County Heading for Seoul

Lisa Jacquin and her horse, For The Moment, will finally have their moment--in the Olympics.

The pair--familiar faces on the Orange County horse show scene--made the final cut for the U.S. Equestrian Team’s show jumping squad this month in the last Olympic selection trial. They will compete in Seoul with team members Greg Best (riding Gem Twist or Santos), Katharine Burdsall (The Natural), Joe Fargis (Mill Pearl, Touch of Class or Chef) and Anne Kursinski (Starman).

Should any of them be unable to compete, the three alternates are: Peter Leone (Oxo or Threes & Sevens), Leslie Lenehan (Pressurized) and Joan Scharffenberger (Victor).

Jacquin, 25, who trains at Seahorse Stables in Rolling Hills Estates, has followed a long road to reach Seoul. She began taking riding lessons at age 6 when she lived in Arizona. Several years later, renowned hunter-jumper trainer Kaye Love took Jacquin under her wing. Jacquin lived at Love’s farm, training daily and learning horsemanship from the ground up.

“If I rode eight horses who each used a different bridle, I had to clean all eight bridles afterward--even if it took me until 10 at night,” Jacquin said. “Kaye really stressed discipline and doing things the right way. She made us earn our way into the horse world.”

Those lessons paid off years later, when Love took Jacquin to the East Coast to work with internationally acclaimed trainer George Morris. As a junior rider under the tutelage of Morris and Love, Jacquin placed second in the national Medal equitation finals.

Jacquin has come a long way since then. Last year she was third in national Rider of the Year standings and her horse finished second in Horse of the Year standings. The pair won six major grand prix jumping competitions last year and placed third in the 1987 World Cup finals in Paris.

After their consistent placings in last year’s screening trials and this year’s Olympic selection trials, Jacquin and For The Moment found their names on the coveted “short list”--the U.S. Equestrian Team’s Olympic roster. They were selected from among 16 riders and 19 horses after the final trial July 28 to 31 in the Hampton Classic Horse Show at Bridgehampton, N.Y.

On the last day of the finals, Jacquin had the added pressure of having to go first on the grand prix course. The tension was reportedly high, with many riders feeling they had to ride a perfect round to be viable team candidates. “I just wanted to go clean (without faults) and prove that my horse could do it,” said Jacquin. And she did. With a faultless round and 44.07 seconds on course, Jacquin and her 16.1-hand thoroughbred bay gelding placed third in the final event.

“Fred (her nickname for the horse) always rises to the occasion,” said Jacquin. “He knows when the pressure’s on and he always comes through for me.”

That is what the U.S. Equestrian Team is counting on. A lot is resting on the Seoul Games--both for Jacquin and the nation. Riding in on the heels of its 1984 gold-medal win at the Los Angeles Games, the United States is in a strong stance as defending Olympic show jumping champion.

Jacquin knows the score and she knows that her time is now. Earlier this season, she commented: “In our sport, you’ve got to take your shot when you have the horse. And my horse is peaking now. He’s sound, he’s healthy and he knows his job. I’ve worked all my life to get this far, and now is my chance to go for it. I may not have the same chance again.”

If you’re hoping to follow the performance of Jacquin and the other U.S. riders in Seoul, here are the scheduled dates of the Olympic equestrian events:

Sept. 19-22--Three-day event.

Sept. 23--Open training jumping.

Sept. 24-25--Team dressage.

Sept. 26--Individual jumping, first qualification.

Sept. 27--Individual dressage finals.

Sept. 28--Team jumping finals.

Sept. 30--Individual jumping, second qualification.

Oct. 2--Individual jumping finals.

Darlene Sordillo, an author of two books on horse training and competition, covers equestrian events for The Times. Her column appears every Saturday. Readers may send horse-related news to her at: Orange County Life, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626.