TRYON — Phillip Dutton, mounted on Z, took the top qualifying honors in the World Equestrian Games eventing tests this weekend at the Tryon International Equestrian Center.

Dutton finished with a score of 28.

Kim Severson rode second on Cooley Cross Border, with a score of 32.10, and Sharon White finished third on Coley On Show, with a score of 32.9.

Dutton said the experience at TIEC this past weekend was good for Z, the Zangersheide bay gelding owned by T. Tierney, S. Roosevelt, S. Lacy, A. Jones, and C. Moran. Z was one of three horses Dutton rode during the Fork competition.

“He’s an up-and-coming horse, and I’m trying to help him understand what to do in every phase, as that’s my job to educate him,” said Dutton, who has competed in six WEG events.

The rider, who has stables in Pennsylvania and Aiken, is hoping for a spot on the United States Olympic Team. He said the WEG testing event at TIEC was a good opportunity to get to know the venue for September.

“I certainly think that there’s a home field advantage having the games here, and for us to be here and know the venue and get comfortable with it,” he said. “There are some disadvantages with having the games at home, with distractions and what else, so we might as well make the most of being able to get use out of this venue ahead of time and feel comfortable when the team gets here for September.”

Severson of Charlottesville, Virginia, was in second place after her dressage ride on Cooley Cross Border, an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by the Cross Syndicate. Severson describes Cooley as, “such a nice horse,” saying he started out jumping high.

Severson’s ride on the cross-country course moved her down to fifth place, but Sunday’s clean round in the stadium jumping brought her back to second. Though she had a clean round in the jumping, Severson credited it to the horse.

Critical of her riding, Severson said she did not give Cooley the greatest ride into the first set of corners in the stadium jumping course.

“That stride going in makes that two really long, but he fought for it and he was really good,” she said.

Third place winner Sharon White is all about the horses.

“He’s  a fabulous horse and he’s strong in all phases,” said White of her winning mount, Cooley On Show, also an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding.

White, who is from West Virginia, said the horse is getting better.

“He loves the sport and he loves competing, so he’s definitely a good competitor no matter what,” she said. “My job was to not get in the way and let him be who he wants to be.”

In the vaulting events this weekend, Mary McCormick of Colorado, took top honors for the Individual Female testing. She rode her horse Paris with lunger Christian Ramos, to finish with a score of 7.468. McCormick has competed in three other WEG events and is known as one of the country’s most decorated vaulters.

Canada was the only team competing for the vaulting qualifying tests this weekend. Their “Beauty and the Beast” aboard Habakkuk, with Karin Schmidt lunging scored 6.872 in the Squad competition.