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.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOQm6Fm1Mbc
