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!
