Courtney and Neal spent the weekend in Virginia with two
of the Event Team horses, Who's A Star and Scout, and one of
the new Sales horses, Fernhill Dunbyrne. It looked to be an
interesting weekend since it was Courtney's first time
competing Fernhill Dunbyrne (aka Conor) and Scout was moving
up to do his first Training level event. On Saturday, all 3
horses did their dressage and stadium jumping rounds. Scout
led the way in the order of go and put in a very solid test
for his first Training, good enough to tie him for 5th
behind a couple of very tough competitors. He finished out
the day with an excellent double clear in Stadium. Who's A
Star (aka Tag) put in a lovely dressage test, placing 3rd
with a 30.6 and then also jumping clean in Stadium. Conor
and Courtney put in another good Training level test in a
tough division to finish 17th after dressage then move up to
14th with one pole down in Stadium.
On Sunday, the
whole crew got ready to go out and show their stuff over a
challenging but very well designed cross-country course.
Scout led the way again and never made it obvious that this
was a move-up event for him. A penalty-free run was good
enough to hold him in 5th place overall. Tag once again
showed the ease with which he is now running at this level,
posting another fault-free round, and this ended up earning
him his second blue ribbon at Training! Conor also showed
his talent and experience by jumping around clear and moving
them up to 11th place. All 3 horses earned many carrots and
big pats on the neck for a great weekend!!
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August 24 DVCTA at Carousel Park
- Wilmington, Delaware
Courtney took Scout and Odysseus to compete at this
starter trial. It was Scout's final novice before moving up
to Training, and he proved how ready he was for a bigger
challenge. After a super dressage test that scored a 27(!),
he was in first place in the novice division, as well as
eventually earning the lowest scoring dressage test of the
day award. He and Courtney continued on to the jumping
phases and finished in fabulous form posting two
double-clear rounds to earn the blue ribbon! For Odysseus,
the event was his first competition ever, and he competed in
the Elementary division. It ended up being a good learning
experience as he posted an acceptable first dressage test
score, then finished with only one error cross-country.
However, he finished just out of the ribbons. Nonetheless,
it was a successful weekend, proving that Scout is
well-prepared for what lies ahead and Odysseus had a
positive, educational experience.
August 9-10 Fair Hill International
- Fair Hill, Maryland
On Saturday Courtney rode Who's A Star, her
5-year-old homebred, and Franklin in the training division.
This was Franklin's first time competing at training and he
didn't disappoint. A lovely dressage test gave them a score
of 30.5 and a strong second place position going into the
jumping phases. One rail down in Stadium was the only error
made, and the pair finished 4th. Tag also had a strong
dressage test and looked great going into jumping with a
36.3. Other than four jumping faults in Stadium, Courtney
had a great day with him, good enough to bump them up into
3rd place. It originally appeared as if Tag had won and
Franklin had placed 2nd, but it was later found that there
was an issue with the optimum time for cross country and the
change pushed them down slightly to 3rd and 4th.
On Sunday, Courtney and Neal made the short
drive back over with four novice horses. Courtney rode
Scout, Star Dazzler (aka Simon), and Chocolate and Neal rode
his mare Hanna. Scout and Courtney boasted their best
performance yet as a pair with a dressage score of 34.2 and
two double-clears to earn them a 4th place ribbon. Chocolate
put in his usual lovely dressage test and also finished
strongly and without penalties to land him in 3rd place
overall. Courtney's third mount and 4-year-old homebred,
Simon, put in a very respectable test that scored 33.8. One
stadium jumping rail was the only minor blip on an otherwise
super performance and they placed 5th. Neal competed Hanna
for the first time since June but the time off didn't hinder
them at all. A dressage test of 38.4 put them in contention
for a ribbon and two double-clears raised them up to a 5th
place pink ribbon.
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August 2 Olney Farm Horse Trials -
Olney, Maryland
Courtney competed Scout for the first time herself due to
Kelley's leg injury the previous week, and the pair had a
successful outing. After a dressage test that kept them in
contention for a good ribbon, Courtney and Scout had one
rail in Stadium and a few time penalties on the Cross
Country course resulting in 6th place overall. The big stars
of the day, however, were Macy and Neal's mare, Hanna,
another duo having their first competition together as a
pair. This event was the culmination of a two week visit to
the farm that Macy had made from her hometown of Billings,
MT. She showed off her work on Hanna from those two weeks by
scoring a 25.8 in the dressage and maintaining her standing
with clear cross-country and stadium rounds to earn a 2nd
place finish overall!
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