Fantastic Fair Hill

 Crackerjack Photo by Laurie Cameron

We saw another fantastic weekend of eventing at the Fair Hill Horse Trials in Maryland. My crew of young horses definitely is starting to hit form and they all began feeling somewhat like experienced horses after a productive winter. Hats must go off to the wild man of our barn, Crackerjack, who started to show his potential by running a close third in the CIC2*. He was closely followed by his stablemate Merging, who also gained a Jersey Fresh qualification after an impressive run in her first FEI outing. Cold Harbor and Trading Aces put in stellar performances around the near identical track in the intermediate divisions.



Cold Harbor Photo by Laurie Cameron

Quinn Himself showed brilliance in the training division, finishing in second on an impressive score of 21, where Partyboy, who has just finished a long winter of dressage boot camp with Silva, finished in a very credible 6th place behind some very fancy horses.




Quinn Himself (top) and Partyboy (bottom) photos by Steve Berkowitz


My small entourage of students and riders also enjoyed successes at Fair Hill. Caitlin Silliman and Catch A Star showed signs of being very competitive in the upcoming 3*s with a good ride to finish in 4th place in the advanced. Sara Gumbiner enjoyed the sweet taste of victory with a dazzling performance, winning the training on Polaris. My new working student, Beau Guimond, has not only been impressing Silva's dressage girls, but also has been wowing the judges with an impressive performance on Otter. The "Arkansas Assassin", Abbie Golden, looked impressive gaining her qualification to strut her stuff at the Jersey Fresh CIC 2* in a couple of weeks.

The only sad news of the weekend was poor little Emily van Gemeren had a disappointing ride in the advanced on Berkley. Unfortunately, they misread a huge corner early on the course which lead to an early shower. Look for Emily and Berkley to regroup and come out firing next start.

Lastly I'd like to salute the fellow on the tractor who did all of the aerovating at Fair Hill. There is no question that the hours and hours of aerovating improved the footing at Fair Hill from being firm to pretty damn good. It is wonderful seeing events go beyond the call of duty and put a huge effort into improving the footing which these horses run on.

-Boyd

RESULTS

CIC 2*
Crackerjack, owned by Lucy Boynton and Colin Davidson, 3rd
Merging, owned by Laurie Cameron, 7th

Intermediate A
Trading Aces, owned by the Trading Aces Syndicate, 1st

Intermediate B
Cold Harbor, owned by Manny and Dana Diemer, 4th

Training B
Quinn Himself, owned by Bonnie Stedt, 2nd
Partyboy, owned by Fernanda Kellog and Nick Meyers, 6th