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| Neville Bardos |
One of the best events of the winter had their first show on the weekend.
Pine Top Farm in Thomson, GA is one of my favorite events due to the venue. It has super dressage rings with great footing, and a nice, open cross-country course that gives a flowing, galloping feel to it. This is especially good for the young horses to start to learn to run.
The intermediate course was very well designed by Johnny Williams. It was not too tough, which was a smart move to get the horses confident early in the year. It was also very flowing with not too many sharp turns. All of the horses finished the course well with a great feeling.
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| Belmont |
I was lucky enough to catch ride a few special horses thanks to my good mate Kate Hicks, who is currently 'up the duff'. She has done a super job in training Muggle and Belmont through her pregnancy in PA. I only rode each horse the day before the event, and they were both beautifully schooled.
I chose to ride the majority of horses a little slow around the cross-country at Pine Top, as all of them are not quite at the peak of their fitness yet. We have a long season of eventing ahead of us, and trying to avoid calling the vet is a top priority.
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| Caitlin and Ballyneety |
It was good to see
Caitlin Silliman back competing again. She managed not to miss any jumps, or have any course errors in the dressage, which is a great indication that she has recovered from her brain injury.
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| Caitlin and Hoku |
Lindsey Taylor once again did an outstanding job of organizing the the entire weekend. Between the crew at the farm, and the horses at the show, it is a massive job of management. It amazes me how one person can handle so much. I am considering having her drug tested, as she never seems to tire.
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| New Cadet |
It was great to see a large group of the owners out and about at Pine Top. It is a real thrill and honor to ride such an awesome group of horses. I have said it earlier, but without question this is the best group of horses I have ever had. I get a real kick out of riding awesome horses of any age.
A big thanks must also go to the bride for coming out and helping me with the dressage. I am very lucky to have Silva training me and the horses in this terribly frustrating phase of the event. She has been working very hard with Master Frisky, and it was exciting to see him out in a smoking test destroying a star studded field on a score of 27. I'd say the test was easily 10 marks better than
Pollard's test on Mensa down in Ocala.
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| FYI |
The results on the weekend from our crew:
Intermediate A
Master Frisky, owned by Stephen Blauner, 10th
Belmont, owned by Kate Hicks, 14th
Neville Bardos, owned by the Neville Bardos Syndicate, 16th
Open Prelim
FYI, owned by Venesa Crumpley, 9th
Preliminary
Muggle, owned by Melissa Stubenberg,
2nd (
VIDEO)
Steady Eddie, Owned by George and Gretchen Wintersteen, Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin,
3rd
New Cadet, owned by Anne Hennessey 10th
Remington XXV, owned by Ron and Densey Juvonen and ridden by Caitlin Silliman 14th
Catch a Star, owned and ridden by Caitlin Silliman 19th
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| Quinn Himself |
Training
Quinn Himself, owned be Bonnie Stedt 8th
Ballyneety, owned by George and Gretchen Wintersteen, ridden by Caitlin Silliman,
1st
SBF Cortez, owned by Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin, ridden by Caitlin Silliman,10th
For complete list of results click
here.
A big Thank you must go to
Samantha Clark, EventingNation.com super reporter, for allowing us to use some of her amazing pictures for this report. She is a great equestrian journo, even if she sneaks in a picture of me the one time I have a donut!
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| Sharing a Snack with Steady Eddie |
