United States Eventing Association

The Young and Future Event Horse article series is being provided through a partnership between Mythic Landing Enterprises, LLC., and the USEA.

Andrea Baxter has had a passion for horses since before she could talk and has been riding since she could walk. She began her riding career with the United States Pony Club program where she went on to receive her “A” rating. After competing at the North American Young Riders Championships in 1998, 1999, and 2001, she was named to the USEF Developing Rider list from 2006-2008. Moving to the East Coast in 2008 proved to be a very influential time for Andrea as she was able to gain knowledge from both Buck Davidson and Leslie Law. That year, she was the Reserve Champion in the Bromont CCI3* with her proven homebred mare, Estrella. Andrea and Estrella went on to compete at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI4* in 2008.

Andrea has brought her current upper-level mount, Indy 500, along from the beginning, and she believes the Thoroughbred mare is a positive ambassador for the Young Event Horse program. She has progressed from the YEH 4-year-old division through the CCI3* level where she recently qualified for Rolex by finishing 7th at the Galway CCI3* in November 2014 and winning the Twin Rivers CIC3*. Andrea bought Indy 500 as a 4-year-old, just a few months after the mare arrived at her barn to be trained and sold.

“She was just a plain Jane bay mare. There was nothing super fancy about her, but I liked her attitude and willingness so I figured I’d give her a try,” said Andrea.

Immediately after buying her, Andrea decided to breed her. “She was super keen and learned to jump right away so I figured it was a good time to force myself to take her training slowly as she was pregnant and couldn’t move her along too quickly. I competed her in a few Novice and Training events while she was pregnant and ultimately finished in 3rd place at the West Coast Young Event Horse Championships in the 4-year-old division.”

Next up for Indy was maternity leave during her 5-year-old year, when she foaled Laguna Seca (Linaro – Indy 500). When she came back to work as a 6-year-old, she made the move up to Preliminary and was able to compete in the Young Event Horse 5-year-old division due to the “maternity year” rule. She finished the year by winning the Long Format CCI* at Twin Rivers and received the highest jumping score for all 4- and 5-year-olds at the USEA YEH West Coast Championship at Twin Rivers in 2011.

“Although the YEH qualifiers were easy for Indy, I found that they really helped her settle at each show. She can get a bit nervous and hot in the dressage so having a 'warm-up round' to go through a dressage test and then an easy jump round before competing in the actual event was something that was super beneficial to her as a young horse and helped her education in the sport progress.”

The Young Event Horse program bases itself on creating a non-stressful environment for these young horses to be able to understand their jobs. “This program is a great building block for the young horses and I attribute a lot of the success that Indy has had moving up the levels to this program. The program is a really good schooling situation for the horse. Each time out at the qualifiers, Indy gained more and more confidence so that by the time she went to the Championships, she was well-prepared to perform,” Andrea said.

Andrea also speaks highly of the Future Event Horse program. “It’s a great opportunity for these babies to start to get ready for their first competition at younger age rather than just being out in a field doing nothing. By the age of two, they’re learning to be handled and start trotting in hand. They’re also traveling a bit, learning to load and unload off the trailer, get baths, groomed, etc. Any handling is good! All of the prep work really pays off when they arrive at their first show and they already have a 'been there, done that' attitude,” Andrea explained. “I have also had good luck using the FEH and YEH programs as a marketing tool for any of my young sale projects. The cost to take them to a competition is a low and the benefits have been very rewarding for all of my young horses.”

Andrea plans to aim for Rolex next spring with Indy, and Indy's son, Laguna Seca, recently received the highest jumping score at his first YEH 5-year-old class at Twin Rivers. These horses are a true testament to the Young Event Horse program and its production of competitive upper-level horses for our sport and our country.

To learn more about Andrea and her program, please visit her website at www.twinrivershorsepark.com