A single rail decided the winner of the SmartPak Equine/USEA Training Three-Day event at the Texas Lions Camp Charity Horse Trials on May 22-24 in Kosse, TX.
At the end of the day, Delphine Largeteau of Houston, Texas and her 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare, Picante, pulled off the win with a score of 26.8. Karen Shull, of Bryan, Texas, finished just behind Largeteau after catching a rail during Sunday’s stadium round aboard Finale, a 6-year-old Paint gelding owned by Sharon Shull.
“It was a tight competition. I am walking on clouds!” Largeteau said. Neither she nor Picante had ridden in a long-format event prior to the T3D at Meadowcreek. Largeteau’s trainer, Lucy Chalcraft, encouraged her to set the Training Three-Day as a goal.
“I wanted to ride the roads and tracks,” Largeteau said. “My mare is a warmblood so I did a lot of preparation before the event to ensure she would be fit and ready. We had a few time faults, but she recovered nicely. I was very impressed with the help everyone got in the vet box after the endurance phase.”
While education is top priority at the Training Three-Day events, Largeteau and the other participants were introduced to roads and tracks the day before the competition, including instruction and a walk-through of the three additional endurance phases of the long-format.
Largeteau and Picante have been on a roll as this outing marks the pair’s fourth consecutive win at Training level in the past six months. She hopes to step up to Preliminary in the fall. “Overall it was a great experience,” Largeteau resolved, “and I’d like to especially thank my trainers Lucy Chalcraft and Rebekah Wesatzke and the organizers.”
The Training Three-Day Event at Meadowcreek Park was the second of the SmartPak Equine/USEA Training Three-Day Series which includes 12 events throughout the year in nine Areas.
About the SmartPak Equine/USEA Training Three-Day Series
Training 3-Day events are long-format events held at the Training level, and pride themselves on being fun, educational, and still competitive. Over the past few years, this series has taken the eventing world by storm, with horses and riders of all ages making these three-days their destination events!
Winners of each of the Training Three-Day Events take home a $200 gift certificate from SmartPak Equine, a pair of FITS breeches, a pair of Nunn Finer American Style open front boots, and also a pair of ProChaps. At the end of the year, two winners are chosen during a random drawing to receive a very special prize: a Stackhouse saddle or a year's supply of SmartPaks.
Want to learn more about the Series? Click on the T3DE logo.
This year’s USEA Area VII Championships took place across two weekends with the Intermediate, Preliminary, Training, Novice, and Beginner Novice levels taking place at the Aspen Farm Horse Trials in Yelm, Washington, from Sept. 13-15, and the Starter level running as part of the Spokane Sport Horse Farm Horse Trials in Spokane, Washington, from Sept. 27-29. There were 13 new Area VII Champions crowned across the various championship divisions. Get to know each of them a little bit better below!
Sixteen-year-old Izzy Lenk (Clarksburg, Maryland) loves eventing and absorbs any opportunity she can that allows her to be further involved in the sport. She recently just wrapped up a month-long working student stint with her trainer Woods Baughman in Lexington, Kentucky, and participated in the Young Rider Mentorship Program at the Young Rider Eventing Championships. She is especially proud, however, of her ongoing efforts of supporting the USEA Interscholastic Eventing League (IEL) Club that she founded, the East Coast Eventers.
The United States Eventing Association (USEA) American Eventing Championships presented by Nutrena Feeds (AEC) is the annual national championship for every level of the Olympic equestrian sport of eventing. The USEA is officially accepting bids for the following service providers at the 2025 USEA AEC which takes place Aug. 26-31, at Galway Downs in Temecula, California.
The MARS Maryland 5 Star entries have been revealed, and as of Oct. 2, 23 pairs will contest the featured division at the event, held Oct. 16-20 in Elkton, Maryland. Inaugural Maryland winner Boyd Martin will bring forward three horses; veteran five-star rides On Cue and Tsetserleg TSF, and five-star first-timer Commando 3.