February 22, 2025, Myakka City, Florida. Weekend competition at the second week of the 2025 TerraNova Winter Series featured elite international show jumping action in the Lakeside Arena on Saturday morning, promising a day jam-packed with intense sport. Hosting five weeks of both international show jumping action as well as nationally-rated hunter, jumper, and equitation competition, the venue boasts the best the sport has to offer against the picturesque background of Myakka City, Florida. Following a challenging first round, only three combinations managed to advance to the short course of the premier event, but it was the youngest rider in the field, Mia Bagnato, who scored big and brought home the lionshare of the prize money.
Partnered with her own 12-year-old Holsteiner mare by Clarimo x Lavall II, Florida N, Bagnato produced the first clear effort early in the first round of Manuel Esparza Perez’s (MEX)’s challenging track. With six nations represented in the field and top-level show jumpers such as Beezie Madden (USA), Adrienne Sternlicht (USA), and Amanda Derbyshire (GBR) on the roster, Perez presented a technical track designed to encourage the best combinations in the field to advance to the jump off round. Ultimately only two more combinations managed to qualify to join Bagnato across the final course, including yesterday’s winning pair in The Estates At TerraNova $32,000 1.45m FEI Welcome Speed, Derbyshire and J. Diago, as well as Canada’s Stephanie Gallucci and Calle 67.
“Going into the jump off I just really wanted to be clear,” Bagnato described. “We had a plan to just be quick but not strict on anything; she’s a little quirky sometimes so if something happened I knew I had to keep pushing through it and just try to leave the jumps up.”
With Gallucci deciding to save her jumps for another day, she acquired the third place title on the Artemis Equestrian Farm LLC’s 16-year-old Westphalian gelding by Carell x Capitalist, while Bagnato and Derbyshire were left with a head-to-head showdown.
“I felt very lucky to be in that jump off because my horse jumped her heart out today but she touched a lot of jumps,” Bagnato laughed. “It felt special to be in that group because there were not many, and I knew going against Amanda [Derbyshire] was going to be tough.”
The pressure that Bagnato put on proved to be enough as Derbyshire crossed the timers mere milliseconds slower than Bagnato’s time of 36.78 seconds to finish with a time of 36.87 seconds on the Pine Hollow Farms’ 11-year-old KWPN gelding by Diarado for second place. For 18-year-old Bagnato, the win was a highlight moment in her young career.
“I got this mare about two years ago and it has definitely been a long road,” she admitted. “When I first got her she was very difficult and sometimes didn’t want to participate, so I started at about 1.10m and slowly worked my way up. We had hopes of her being like a nice 1.35m horse but she just kept getting better and better so now every once in a while we’ll do her in classes like this and see how it goes. I think now she really enjoys her job and it’s nice to show her she can do this. I would say this is like a top three moment for me.”
National-level competition and a slew of junior-amateur classics will conclude the second week of the TerraNova Winter Series on Sunday, February 23, 2025 before Week III kicks off the following Wednesday.