Thermal, CA – February 28, 2025 – The last time Skylar Wireman and Crunch K were winning in the Desert International Horse Park’s Grand Prix Arena, it was in a CSI4* speed competition. Fast forward a year, and this time – while some of their competitors remained the same – their win came in an entirely different discipline. On Friday, February 28, Wireman bested a multigenerational field of equitation riders to take home victory in the $100,000 DIHP 3’3” Pro Equitation Challenge, sponsored by Devoucoux Sellier.
“I love this class for a lot of reasons,” said Wireman. “For starters, I love that they put it in the grand prix ring. It gives all the pros a chance to compete against each other… It’s different when you’re in the hunter ring. It depends on the horse, but the equitation, that’s fun!”
On her way to the win, Wireman piloted Crunch K to an impressively high score of 94 over the first-round, Skip Bailey-designed course. That put her right at the top of the leaderboard heading into the second round.
“The first round, everything was mostly unrelated,” explained Wireman. “It was a great class for [Crunch K] because I could just kind of jump the jump and just open up and flow, and he has a nice, big rhythmic stride. You’re just able to kind of seamlessly open up and hunt down to everything. And I thought it was really well designed.”
Following the first round, the top 12 returned for a second round, and Wireman again broke into the 90s, earning a score of 91.5 to secure her spot in the top four for additional testing.
Joining Wireman in the top four were Zazou Hoffman on Uno!, Katie Gardner on Linford 9 and Jamie Taylor on Starboy. With Hoffman holding first place and Wireman sitting in second, the two riders were asked to swap horses for the final test, as were Gardner and Taylor, sitting in third and fourth, respectively.
Fortunately for Wireman, Uno! and Crunch K require similar rides, so she knew just what to do to deliver a seamless test and ultimately take home the win.
“With the work off of the top four, first and second switch and third and fourth switch, which I always love,” said Wireman. “[Zazou Hoffman] and I were joking around a little bit. She was like, ‘It’s funny; we’re just getting to switch on to almost the same horse!’ They’re both big, slow and a little bit like cruise ships to turn. It was kind of fun, and he was a little bit like Crunch K in a way. He was amazing to ride.”
With Wireman’s test helping to secure her the win, second place went to Taylor. Hoffman finished in third, and Gardner ultimately took home fourth place.
Of her winning mount, Crunch K, Wireman said, “I’ve actually shown Crunch in many different rings. Last year, I was showing him in the big jumpers…We decided that he’s so big and slow that maybe he’d be better as an equitation horse.”
The 14-year-old Holsteiner gelding, owned by MJ & Todd Kaplan, transitioned to the equitation, competing with Taryn McEntire in 2024 and reuniting with Wireman on Friday.
“To get to take the reins on him and ride him as an eq horse was just a total dream boat to ride,” said Wireman. “He is so fun to just steer around, and it was nice to go so fast. I’ve done a lot with him, and we’ve won a few FEI classes before this. Now, getting to do this on him, it has just been a blast!”
