United States Eventing Association

Nearly ten of the finest young horses in southern and central Virginia turned out for the inaugural IDHSNA/USEA Future Event Horse Classes at the Green Hill Park Equestrian Center in Salem, Virginia. It was nearly a perfect day for Lauren Seitz as her three-year-old filly Just About Perfect added another win to her already impressive record.

Yahoo! Time for Yearlings!

Dr. Rebecca Splan, Associate Professor of Equine Science at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, brought a handful of eager Virginia Tech students and interns who showed off two well-bred young warmblood geldings in both the breeding classes and the Junior/Amateur Handler classes at the end of the competition.

Rubicon VT (pictured right), owned by the Virginia Tech Foundation, was the highest scoring young horse of the competition, earning a 83.0 when shown by Kellie Beavers. Lauren Kinter also showed the youngster in the Amateur/Junior Handler class. The Oldenburg gelding is sired by Royal Appearance, a talented Holsteiner stallion standing at Virginia Tech whose own sire is the well-known stallion Riverman, one of the most prominent warmblood stallions in North America. Riverman has sired such talented eventers as Kristi Nunnink's mare R-Star, who recently finished third at the Rebecca Farm CIC3*-W. Rubicon VT's dam is Consuela, who's sired by Contucci, another popular sport horse sire from Hilltop Farm. Contucci also sired the rising star El Cid, who had great success in the Spalding Labs/USEA Young Event Horse series and is now successful at the Preliminary and one-star level, winning his last four events.

Ducati VTwas another yearling gelding owned by the Virginia Tech Foundation, and shown by Laura Krohn. This lovely Hanoverian gelding scored a 75.5 to take second in the yearling colts/geldings class. Ducati VT is sired by De Laurentis, a talented young stallion who's sired by the acclaimed Hanoverian DeNiro, and out of Fertherlicht, who's sired by Werther. Josie Gomon also showed Ducati VT in the Amateur/Junior Handler class.

The sole yearling filly was Indigo Art, owned and shown by Leslie Allen of Blacksburg, Virginia, who scored a very notable 76.5 in her class, and also participated in the Junior/Amateur Handler class. The Irish Sport Horse filly is sired by Touch of the Blues, and out of Artful Luck. Touch of the Blues is one of the most well-known Registered Irish Draught stallions in the world, has sired many outstanding eventers, and also competed at the Intermediate level when he evented in England.

Tantalizing Two-Year-Old

Antony Phillips of Greeneville, TN, showed the single two-year-old in the competition--Sue Rowdon's Ballygrace Rebel, a lovely purebred Irish Draught gelding who scored a 80.5. The grey gelding is sired by Snowford Bellman, a popular and very talented RID stallion who stands at Blackberry Ridge Farm, and is out of a Rebel Yell mare.

Thrilling Three-Year-Olds

DC and Steve McBroom of Owl Hollow Farm in Floyd, VA, showed off their handsome three-year-old warmblood gelding Vandenburg , who scored an 80.0 in his class. The 17.0-hand gelding is sired by Hall of Fame (AWS) and out of Apalachee Anne, a Thoroughbred mare. Unlike his sire Hall of Fame and his famous grandsire Art Deco, the blood-bay gelding hasn't a stitch of white on his athletic physique, but shows all the promise of a future eventing partner for DC. Art Deco is one of the top sporthorse sires in the country, having sired a huge selection of talented progeny, including Hall of Fame, who has an impressive record in the hunter and dressage rings.

Alicia Daily of Cady O' Daly Farm in Goode, VA brought one of her homebred Connemara/Thoroughbred crosses to compete in the three-year-old division. Cady O'Daly Lazarus is sired by Tre Awain Goldsmith, a dun Connemara owned by Alicia who competed through Training level eventing and had great success in the jumper and dressage worlds as well. The young palomino gelding is out of a Class Secret mare, who's sired by Secretariat, one of the most well-known racehorses in the world. At the show, his first outing, 'Hokie' showed well, earning a 77.0.

Lauren Seitz's Oldenburg filly Just About Perfect added another notch to her belt picking up another win in the FEH series, this time scoring a 81.5. The 16.3-hand filly is sired by the jumper stallion Corlando and is out of a Thoroughbred mare named Quick Confession.

Including winning her three-year-old filly class, Just About Perfect (aka "Chaiya"), took home top honors as the overall Grand Champion of the FEH classes. Last fall, Chaiya earned the Reserve Champion at the FEH Finals, and like fine wine, seems to be getting better with age.

"I couldn’t be happier with Chaiya’s (“Just About Perfect’s”) development this year, both physical and mental," said Lauren. "As you know, she’s always been a bit of a baby giraffe, but she’s finally begun filling out this year. Each time I take her somewhere new, she takes it all in like a pro. Nothing seems to phase her, and it makes traveling much less stressful."

Lauren has certainly been busy since last year's FEH Championships at Morven Park! "I took about 10 months off from riding in order to start our family with our first child—a strapping young boy named Thomas born on Tax Day (of all days)." Lauren and her family own Whistling Ridge Farm near scenic Charlottesville, Va.

Now that Lauren is back in the saddle, she's begun working with Chaiya under saddle, and is proud to say the filly hasn’t let her down once. "I’ve ridden her only about six times this year, and she’s already solid at the walk, trot, canter and even doing some basic work over poles. That girl has a huge jump, too (she gets that from her daddy, Corlando). I hope I can keep up with her in the future," she added.

We can look forward to seeing more of this lovely young filly at the FEH East Coast Championships, which will be held at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, Virginia on October 30 in conjunction with the Virginia Horse Trials. "It’s great that they are so close to us, and of course I jump at any opportunity to mingle with Penny and Brian," said Lauren. "The VA Horse Center is one of the best facilities around, and I’ll be competing another one of my horses that weekend at the horse trials. I am very pleased with Chaiya’s development this year, but we’ll have to see how she measures up at the championships. There are a lot of very nice young prospects coming out of the woodwork this year! Looking ahead, I plan to take it nice and easy with her. I’m sure of one thing, I’m going to enjoy this mare for many years to come. Maybe she’ll have some FEH prospects of her own some day!"

The FEH Championships are open to any young horse who has competed at any of FEH shows leading up the Championships. No qualifying scores are necessary. Questions? Give us a call at 703-779-0440 ext. 3015.

The Judge's Commentary

Judge Kim Huffman was very pleased with the quality of the horses presented at the FEH show. "All of the horses shown show excellent potential for eventing as well as other sporthorse disciplines. All of the horses were also very well turned out and especially well behaved for youngsters."

What was it about Chaiya that caught the judge's eye? Kim shares her thoughts: "The Champion of the show had very correct conformation, starting with a lovely head and neck which tied into a strongly built topline. She was built nicely uphill and had a generous spring of rib. Her legs were very correct and she moved in an efficient, yet powerful uphill manner, with lots of reach and push from behind in both her walk and trot. She offered the best combination of all the traits we look for in eventing prospects."

Kim was delighted that the USEA has developed the FEH program. "I think it is very important to educate riders and breeders about what makes a good event horse, helping them to breed better mounts and select better athletes," she said. "The judging criteria are very clear and concise, focusing on correct conformation and movement. The method of calculation allows for little subjectivity, similar to the warmblood inspections. Programs like this are what will make our breeding program in the U.S. stronger. I also think this show is an excellent opportunity to get young horses out and expose them to traveling from a young age."

Fabulous Sponsors

Thank you to our wonderful title sponsor, the Irish Draught Horse Society of North America, who are as passionate about preservining history and bloodlines of talented horses as we are. Also, thanks to fellow FEH sponsors Nutrena and Foxden Equine for their support of this important program.

Yearling Colt/Gelding

Horse	Breed	Sire	Dam	Owner	Handler	Score	Place
Rubicon VT	Oldenburg NA	Royal Appearance	Consuela	Virginia Tech Foundation	Kelli Beavers	83.0	1
Ducati VT	Hanoverian	De Laurentis	Fertherlicht	Virginia Tech Foundation	Laura Krohn	75.5	2

Yearling Filly

Horse	Breed	Sire	Dam	Owner	Handler	Score	Place
Indigo Art	Irish Sport Horse	Touch of the Blues	Artful Luck	Leslie Allen	same	76.5	1

Two-Year-Old Colt/Gelding

Horse	Breed	Sire	Dam	Owner	Handler	Score	Place
Ballygrace Rebel	Irish Draught	Snowford Bellman	n/a	Sue Rowdon	Antony Phillips	80.5	1

Three-Year-Old Colts/Geldings

Horse	Breed	Sire	Dam	Owner	Handler	Score	Place
Vandenberg	AWS (KWPN/ TB)	Hall of Fame	Apalachee	Owl Hollow Farm	Steve & DC McBroom	80.0	1
Cady O' Daly Lazarus	Connemara/TB	Tre Awain Goldsmith	Class Desire	Cady O' Daly Farm	Alicia Daily	77.0	2

Three-Year-Old Filly

Horse	Breed	Sire	Dam	Owner	Handler	Score	Place
Just About Perfect	Oldenburg NA	Corlando	Quick Confession	Lauren Seitz	same	81.5	1

Championship Class

Horse	Place
Just About Perfect	1
Rubicon VT	2
Ballygrace Rebel	3
Indigo Art	4
Vandenberg	5
Cady O' Daly Lazarus	6
Ducati VT	7