United States Eventing Association

The “thrill of the chase” was in rapid decline by the time I had any aspirations to leave the comfort and security of the hunter arena, and practically gone when I could even think about competing at Preliminary. Lucky for me, I was able to experience the early days of the Training Level Three-day at Waredaca and learned the finer points of conditioning, presentation, and overall horse management. Shortly thereafter I completed the traditional three-day at Young Riders in 2006, and realized just how beneficial this traditional format is for the partnership and education of horse and rider.

This year my young horse Paint It Black (Deacon) and I will be focusing on the SmartPak Equine/USEA P3D in May at the Virginia Horse Center. Deacon is an 8-year-old grey-paint TBx gelding my family purchased in 2008 when we believed my pony was maxed-out at Preliminary. Deacon hadn’t done very much, and was a true “green bean” when we first got him, but demonstrated an incredible amount of talent and gumption. He also has an easygoing attitude, is incredibly sweet, a great listener, and tries to do whatever you ask. He even helps put shavings in his stall…pretty much the perfect man, right? Deacon had no trouble progressing from BN levels through Training easily, and moved up to Preliminary in the fall of 2009.

My original plan was to take Deacon to a T3D, but with Jersey CCI** (with the pony we originally didn’t think could go Intermediate) and my graduation from Wake Forest University looming around the corner, none fit into our schedule. Deacon and I started out the season in full swing, placing 2^nd and 6^th in our first two Preliminary outings at Sporting Days and Pine Top respectively. Since Deacon appeared to be comfortable at Preliminary, the Virginia 3Day became our new goal. I’m not sure what my logic behind this event planning was…Jersey, graduation, and Virginia all in the same month… stress anyone?!?!?! We are currently one event shy of officially qualifying, so hopefully in the next month we can even-out the kinks and continue full throttle.

The biggest challenge will be getting Deacon “Virginia” fit. Virginia’s course is challenging not only because of the fences, but because of the mountains it runs on. In Winston-Salem we have one small hill (more of a mound than a hill), but Deacon and I know every inch of it. With Virginia a month and change away, our conditioning schedule is trot, trot, and trot some more. I don’t use an iPod because I find it distracting. Instead I work on dressage movements, listen to my horse’s even footfalls, and wonder how I am ever going to get all of my homework done (this is still an unsolved mystery).

I believe that completing a long format event exponentially adds to a horse and rider’s education. There is no better setting to teach a horse how to go forward to (and over) fences or to teach riders how to properly gallop and listen to their horse. I’m really excited to see just how Deacon and I answer the biggest challenge of our journey together…but first thing is first, we need that last qualifying score. Deacon and I are heading to Longleaf this coming weekend, hopefully we will both bring our “A” game and seal the deal, chasing the dream to Virginia.

Courtney Sendak is a 21-year-old who hails from Sparks, Maryland and attends Wake Forest University. To learn more about Courtney and her horses, check out her website or her blog.