Maddy, Susan, Zoe, Anika, Josh and I made the trek to Santa Fe for a return to the old Goose Downs Horse Trials, now renamed ‘The Event at Santa Fe’. What a fun show!!
The weekend was full of driving adventures, swimming pool time, bad Chinese food, hard rides, course walks and of course…tack cleaning. Every minute was worth it. Anika and Zeke finished with a four place ribbon after an excellent dressage test, a very honest and straight-forward show jumping, and one silly, green run-out at fence four on cross-country. Coming across the finish line, Anika was grinning ear-to-ear and Zeke looked pretty proud of himself, too! Zeke’s first real show- yippee!!!
Maddy and Dime took home a second place in the Pre-Beginner Novice Division after three very solid performances over the weekend. Even though Maddy took an ‘unexpected dismount’ in stadium warm-up and Dime was pushing her buttons, Maddy gathered herself and got back to work, making her show jumping the most effective and well-ridden round the two have had together. Great job to Maddy(!) and way to go, Dime:)
Zoe and Timmy were a last-minute addition to the group after Grace Kelly/Sara’s unfortunately withdrawal (GK is feeling much better now). Zoe and Timmy really stepped up to the plate ending in 3rd place in Beginner Novice. The highlight of their weekend was a foot-perfect stadium round, which was only possible as a result of Zoe’s diligent eyes and legs!! The two worked through a few cross-country stops on the last day of the event, but left the show with plans to put their show jumping work to practice on cross-country. Well done to both Zoe and Timmy.
And although Ms. Alekhine didn’t get to compete, she has graduated to warming up with all the ‘big kids’ and she handled the stress, pressure, and energy like the champion she is.
