United States Eventing Association

Peggy Moore and Mallory Hogan don’t have much in common.

Moore is a middle-aged adult amateur that owns and runs a boarding and training facility, Graceland Equestrian Center; Hogan is a 12-year-old trying to balance schoolwork with riding her pony. Aside from being eventers, there are few personal similarities between these two.

However, both made the trek to Kalispell, Montana to compete at The Event at Rebecca Farm, July 24-28 to compete in the Novice Three Day (N3D), part of the SmartPak Equine USEA Classic Series. And both, mounted on a 13.2 pony and a 16.1 warmblood, took home blue ribbons and armfuls of prizes.

Mallory Hogan of Belvedere, California continued her winning streak aboard her 14-year-old pony Moonlit Dancer, coming off of a win at the Twin Rivers N3D (Paso Robles, CA, April 10-14) to polish off the field of 19 competitors at Rebecca Farm.

“Going into [the event] I was pretty confident,” said Hogan. “Dancer and I were dedicated to our conditioning schedule and he was improving a lot. He put in a really good test especially with all of the pressure in the big dressage court.”

Dancer, formerly competed at the Novice level by Hogan’s older sister, Madison, is a former school pony that Madison fell in love with. On her birthday, the diminutive pony showed up at the barn with a big bow on his head. Although Mallory now has the ride on Dancer, Madison was there to support her sister and lend a helping hand in the 10-minute-box.

“For the N3D at Twin Rivers he was definitely on a different schedule because it was during the school year. For Montana, I wanted to make sure he was fit enough so he was confident in himself.”

The training and novice cross-country courses were designed by Bert Wood, and the show jumping course was mapped by Marc Donovan. There were so many N3D entries that the competitors were split into two classes. In the N3D B class, Peggy Moore took the field on O’Reilly Factor, finishing on a 31.8.

Moore, who owns an 89-acre California boarding and training facility that formerly housed James Allison, drove 24 hours to get to The Event at Rebecca Farm. The drive has proven to be well worth Moore’s time, as she also won the N3D in 2012.

Moore has transformed “Reilly,” her 8-year-old Selle Francais mare, from a scraggly field horse to a winning event horse. She acquired the horse as an unbroken 4-year-old that was bred by hunter/jumper trainer, Laura Hightower. Hightower hadn’t had the time to get Reilly going yet, so Moore trained her from the ground up.

Moore said that she worked diligently on her own fitness before the event to make her horse’s job easier.

“I knew I needed to be in better shape this year. Last year, I was exhausted! I knew that I could help [my horse] by staying off of her back in the roads and tracks.”

Moore believes that the Classic format is a great opportunity for all riders, and believes there will be more in her future with Reilly.

“I appreciate the fact that the lower level riders get some recognition through this program,” said Moore. “I’m 55 years old. It’s just as intimidating and hard for me at my level as it is for an upper level rider at their level, and I worked really hard to get here.”

Moore also explained that riders who have not attended a long format event before need not worry about the unfamiliarity of the experience.

“The staff explained how to properly jog, and how to practice steeplechase. Ian Stark coached us in the steeplechase last year. They even took us out on the roads and tracks and explained how to approach the 10-minute box,” she said. “You go into each phase completely confident because you have been educated by the event on how to do them.”

Heather Morris won the T3D on Charlie Tango, finishing on their dressage score of a 30.0. Find the full results here. Or, find out more about the SmartPak Equine USEA Classic Series.