Courtney and Neal made the long trip to the Land Rover / USEA American Eventing Championships in Fairburn, Georgia (just southwest of Atlanta). The event was hosted at Bouckaert Farm, home of Chattahoochee Hills Eventing. Courtney competed with Nevaeh in the Novice Horse Championships and Who’s a Star (Tag) in the Intermediate Championships.
With about 700 entries, 7 permanent barns, 5 temporary barns, 6 dressage rings, sponsor tents, vendor tents,…it was a big event. And with all of the horses needing to have qualified during the year, and large divisions, the competition was fierce.
Four-year old Nevaeh led things off for Courtney doing her dressage Thursday morning. She did a great job especially considering the atmosphere, scoring 29.8 and placing 4th out of 54 horses. She followed that performance with a clear cross country round Thursday afternoon and moved up to 2nd place.
Nevaeh had the day off on Friday and returned to competition Saturday afternoon with stadium jumping. Standing in 2nd place, Courtney and Nevaeh were the next to last to jump. They put in a nice round, but unfortunately knocked down a rail, moving them down to 7th place.
The Intermediate Champions began Friday morning. Tag was the the first horse to go. He had a good dressage test but did not perform quite as well as he had at some of his recent horse trials this fall, scoring 33.6 and placing tied for 18th. Also the first horse out on cross country the next morning, Tag went great jumping clear and finishing with the 12th fastest time of the 47 horses who started cross country, moving up to 12th place.
With the stadium jumping for the Intermediate Championships being held Sunday afternoon in the main ring, there was quite a crowd in attendance. Tag had a good round but added a rail to finish in 13th place.
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