It was a glorious weekend for both myself and Anne Hennessey to see her new eventing sensation, Summer Breeze, experience her first eventing competition at Sporting Days Farm in the open novice division. Anne, who is also the owner of Benwald, imported this mare from Australia late last year and I worked with her for about six weeks in November and then Anne gave her a holiday in Southern Pines over Christmas and the New Year. I've been gently working away with her in Aiken teaching her dressage and jumping and Sporting Days was her first official competition: she did not disappoint.
Her character was similar to an angel from the heavens! She was quite enjoying all the other horses hanging around and she looked like she was heading to the dressage at Rolex wearing her fancy Devoucoux competition bridle and Ecogold dressage pad. She was foot perfect in her dressage test and was clear show jumping and cross-country to finish with a top result of sixth place. I must admit she was pretty green in the jumping phases, coming back to trot in front of a few fences and traveled something like an eel, going left and right, but never felt like she didn't want to go. I also think Summer Breeze broke the all time record for eating the most carrots in a 24-hour period thanks to Anne!
I rode seven other horses at Sporting Days with great successes on all of them, many of them moving up to training level for the first time. There are photos of these horses at www.Hoofclix.com. For complete results click here.
-Boyd
No comments:
Post a Comment