Courtney took Mr. Parks and United Notion out again
in the Novice division for the next-to-last event of the
season. In addition, Kelley rode Scout at Novice and our
working student, Jasmine, took her horse, Bella, out at
Beginner Novice for their first horse trial together.
Mr. Parks had an excellent dressage test, scoring a 30
(70%) that put him in 3rd place heading into the jumping
phases. Courtney on United Notion and Kelley on Scout
were in the same Novice division and both had very good
dressage tests, with Scout earning a 30 as well and
Notion getting a 30.5, good enough for 4th and 5th place
respectively after dressage. Mr. Parks and Scout
finished on their dressage scores and Notion just had
one stadium rail, but all three showed good form and
confidence through the stadium and cross-country jumping
phases. Mr. Parks managed to garner his first Novice
level win, and Notion finished sixth. Kelley and Scout
had their best finish to-date, both in terms of their
final score (30.0) and placing (2nd).
Jasmine and Bella had been working very hard coming
into this event, and there were a considerable number of
challenges for them to overcome. It was Bella's first
time competing and being ridden away from home. They
displayed many of the improvements that they had been
working on in flatwork during the dressage phase. They
lost a little bit of focus in stadium and ended up with
8 faults but then had a terrific cross-country run to
move them up to 11th place. It ended up being a very fun
and educational weekend for all four competitors!
