A double-clear show jumping round solidifies their 2nd place finish at The Ark.
In this series, Cassidy Sitton chronicles her experiences as she and her OTTB, Subway Prophet, prepare for the FENCE SmartPak/USEA Training 3-Day in the beginning of April.
After spending the winter months doing trot sets, playing in the sandbox (dressage arena), and trotting over what seems like a million gymnastics, we now have the first event of the season behind us, and we are careening full speed ahead towards the Training 3-Day at FENCE Horse Trials. The T3D plan for my horse (Subway Prophet, aka P-Diddy) and I actually began last year when I received an entry to the Ocala T3D for Christmas from my parents — but when real life got in the way (found myself unemployed, had a brief scare with what I was for sure going to be a long-rehabbed injury to Diddy, etc…), I put the Ocala goal on the back burner. Diddy and I had a very up-and-down 2009 season, with his poultry lineage and my blond-ness both making inopportune appearances during several events.
It’s amazing how everything can change in a year (or even in a winter).
Diddy puts on his big boy pants, and proved his maturity during cross-country.
Like everyone else on the East Coast, I’ve been dogged by gloomy weather this spring–I thought I’d left all this snow behind me in the Midwest, but I guess I was sadly mistaken. Convinced not to let sleet, nor rain, nor snow (I’ve taken up the persona of a postman) get in my way, Diddy and I have found ourselves doing 6:30am trot sets in 25 degree weather–often enduring 40 mph wind gusts, dodging wet footing and sometime becoming confined to the length of our driveway.
We prevailed over Mother Nature, and last weekend we made our first stop along the way to the T3D–The Ark Horse Trials in Monroe, NC.
I think you really never know what kind of horse you have until you get there and ‘get it done’ — especially for the first event of the season. Having not stepped foot on a cross-country course since November, hearing that 10…9…8…7…. definitely left my head full of what-ifs: “What if I’m not prepared?” “What if Prophet doesn’t want to play eventing anymore?” “What if he’s not fit enough?” “What if I fall in the water?” “What if I forget to turn down the path after fence 12?” “WHAT AM I DOING HERE? AH!” Luckily, my brain doesn’t work fast enough to process each question, and by the time I heard “Have a nice ride!” I was off galloping to Fence 1 with not a worry in the world.
Cassidy felt that Diddy’s dressage performance left the door open for improvement, but were nevertheless thrilled to be seated in second. Apparently, my horse grew up over the winter. All weekend he acted like a mature boy–so much so that I just knew he must not have been feeling well. Dressage could have been better, but considering the frozen footing, I was very happy with our 31.8 and second place standing. He rocked the show jump course–lessons with our local jumper rider have really been paying off and the jumps are seeming very small–what a good thing! Cross-country was quite possibly the best “AH-HA!” moment I’ve ever felt my horse have… EVER. You know that feeling where a horse just ‘gets it’? Well, Prophet got it.
Now we are back to doing trot sets, jump lessons and playing in the sandbox until the next stop at Southern Pines I Horse Trials. Guess we’ll soon find out if Diddy’s new found maturity was just a fluke!
Cassidy Sitton, 25, bases her C-Horse Eventing business out of Raleigh, North Carolina where she enjoys teaching and training, and is also a marketing professional for an equine-related business.
What’s a Hunter Pace? The Sherwood Forest Equestrian Center's Hunter Pace is a cross-country-style course around Sherwood Forest over various natural obstacles/terrain. The course ends with a final treat for riders to take in stunning views of Mt. Hood with a loop through the old Far Hill Farms field. The beginning of the course will first start with a warm-up loop around show jumping obstacles in the outdoor ring at Sherwood Forest and then riders will continue directly onto the course. Sign up as a solo rider, pair, or team.
Claire Allen remembers when she was 11 years old, having just made the switch from the hunter/jumper ring to three-day eventing. She told her new eventing trainer that her goal was to one day compete in the United States Equestrian Federation’s Eventing Young Rider Championships.
As he was finishing tacking up his horse in preparation to navigate the cross-country course at the 2024 Twin Rivers Summer Horse Trials, James Alliston expressed concern about navigating the 101 Freeway. That’s because as soon as he crossed the finish line aboard Intermediate level winner Addyson (Ampere x Nickerbocker) at 10:38 a.m. on Saturday—his fifth cross-country round of the morning with three at Preliminary and two at Intermediate—the West Coast-based five-star rider had to drive 185 miles on the 101 Freeway from Twin Rivers Ranch in Paso Robles, California, to San Francisco International Airport to catch a 4:35 p.m. flight to Frankfurt, Germany.
There is so much more to proper grooming than keeping your horse picture-perfect for the horse inspection. Good grooming practices are critical to proper horse management, no matter if you are planning for your next FEI appearance or your Starter level debut. To help you maximize your knowledge of grooming practices, we opened up the opportunity for USEA members to submit any questions they might have on our Instagram and Facebook stories. In this week's episode, Host Nicole Brown sits down with three of the highest-regarded grooms in this industry, Max Corcoran, Emma Ford, and Stephanie Simpson, and asks them all of your questions and more to help you perfect the art of grooming.
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