Monday, October 8, 2012

First horse trial

Briar Rose competed on October 7, 2012 in her first horse trial at Olde Hope Farms in Earleville, Maryland.  It was their Oktoberfest (unrecognized) schooling event and a well-produced event at a beautiful facility.



She was entered in the Elementary Horse division which was split into several groups, and since it was a rainy day with a sudden cold snap (highs in the 50s) there were many scratches. We arrived a little late for an 8:20 start so had a very brief warm-up.



Julia Jesu rode her in the 2011 USDF Introductory Level Test A and scored 33.7 penalty points, or a 66.3% dressage score. She earned an 8 on a lovely square halt at the end. She ended up FIRST out of six horses after dressage - how exciting for her first real competition!



Stadium was a brief round over 8 fences up to 18" in an enclosed area and then out on the rolling cross-country course of 10 obstacles.


She was staring at the huge standards on each obstacle (something we don't have at home) and at the pond. On one obstacle she had a moment of confusion and Julia took her around again, but eventually she did finish  her first cross-country course scored with one refusal.

That knocked her down to 5th out of 6 for the day in her division, but we counted it as a huge success for a young lady only 4 years 6 months old this week and less than a year off the track!


Her stablemate and trailer companion Gandy (Silver Maestro) also ridden by Julia Jesu finished 2nd in pre-Novice on his dressage score, going double clear in jumping, so an excellent day was had by the Close Up Show Stables team!

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