VideoMyakka City, Florida—The Event at TerraNova may have started out with a closely ranked leaderboard, but the cross country course sorted things out this past Saturday. Canadian Olympic veteran Colleen Loach of Dunham, Quebec, and FE Golden Eye were the lone competitors in the B&D Builders CCI4*-S to finish the event with a score in the 20s, adding just two time faults to their score to finish on 27.5.
Mia Farley and Invictus showed their tenacity with a second-place finish on 33.6, ultimately moving up from eighth place after dressage. Dan Kreitl, who led the competition from the start, stuck to his plan of taking an easy canter around the course today as he prepares Kay Dixon’s Carmango for the CCI4*-S at the Kentucky Three-Day Event next month. With 16.4 time faults they finished on a final score of 41.4 to take third place.
Colleen Loach and the ‘Careful, Brave’ Goldie
The Event at TerraNova was FE Golden Eye’s first four-star after an injury, although he recently won the three-star at Bouckaert farm a couple of weeks ago and his prior event. “’Goldie’ is my favorite horse of all time; he’s easiest horse to have around,” Loach said. “I wanted to make this four for four—this was his fourth win in a row—and we accomplished that. So, that was pretty cool, but mainly I wanted to give him a confident, forward ride and we accomplished that as well.”
Loach noted that Goldie hasn’t had a rail down since 2022. “He’s a very interesting mix of careful and brave; he can be quite spooky but he’s actually very sure of himself. It’s up to me not to put him in a situation where he loses confidence,” she said. “We have struggled in the past with making the time, but I feel like now I can confidently ride him forward and he responds very well.”
Acknowledging that it’s nice to win, Loach says that’s not how she defines herself. “[Winning] can’t be what you base everything off of. If you have a plan, you don’t change it just because you have a chance at winning, and my plan was to practice going fast, so I did,” she said. “I was lucky that some of the others weren’t practicing going fast, or maybe I wouldn’t have won, but that was what I needed to work on for me and Goldie.”
Loach’s plan for Goldie is to do the CCI4*-S at Ocala, Florida, to get a qualifying score and then the CCI4*-L at Tryon, North Carolina. She added that she’s grateful to her whole team for helping her achieve such a successful weekend at TerraNova.
Loach also placed second in The Estates at TerraNova and Laughlin Tanner Group at Premier Sotheby’s International Realty CCI3*-S riding Chiaro Z Excalibur, owned by Peter Barry, on 30.6 penalties.
Mia Farley’s Success with Invictus and Piña Colada 28
Farley’s plan with Invictus was to go fast, but her priority wasn’t making the time. “I just rode as fast as I felt comfortable and when I put that pressure on ‘Sammy’ he gets better and better,” she said. “The course was a beautiful layout. Alec really opened up the course; in the past it was a lot more twisty.”
Reflecting on her weekend, Farley was incredibly happy with Sammy, especially since he had colic surgery last September and this was his first competition back at this level. Sammy is also entered in Kentucky, in the 4*-S division. “I would love to get a four-star long done on him this spring, but we’re going to try to go competitive at Kentucky and then go from there,” she said.
Farley also won the CCI3*-S with her mare Piña Colada 28 on a final score of 29.6. “Piña was so good. I was so happy with her. I kind of pushed her from the second we left the start box and she went for it! It reminded me of how I get to ride my horse Phelps, kind of on a long rein, and she really hunts things. It’s awesome,” she said. “The course was to the level. I had an intermediate horse I rode yesterday and some of the lines didn’t ride how I thought they would when I walked it, so that experience helped me go out on course with confidence today.”
Farley plans to do another three-star with Piña this spring, and will likely opt for the short format again because the mare already has her qualifying score for the three-star long at Maryland this fall. “I’d love to do a four-star with her in the fall,” she said. “She’s really special, so I’m trying to take my time with her and secure all the details by 2027, so she’ll be great by 2028.”
Following The Event, Farley said she was at a loss for words because the entire weekend went so well. “It was fantastic. All the organizers are the friendliest people, and everyone was just happy,” she said. “Today was totally cross-country weather. It wasn’t as hot the past few days, so everyone was a little fresh and excited. My working students Emerson and Chandler also came with me, and it was a fun girls’ weekend.”
Thanks to Dechra for our coverage of the 2026 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event. It includes lead-up events, rider interviews, competition reports, horse spotlights, photos, videos and more!