United States Eventing Association

This 29-year-old Adult Rider from Maryland found that personal successes can be just as rewarding as colored ribbons, both of which she brought home from the Millbrook Horse Trials in July, where she competed with her Adult Team Challenge crew, the “CDCTA Ladies In Red.” And while achieving goals gave rise to new ones she hadn’t even considered, the interest and health of her horse always remain the first and foremost consideration when deciding where they’ll go next.

Because I live and compete in the heart of Area 2, I ride along side all the “Big Kids” every weekend. Whether I’m riding a baby horse in their first beginner novice, or taking Vernon around at preliminary, I warm up and ride right alongside the same riders who fill our equestrian magazines and sell things to us in the tack shops.

(The Lady’s in Red, from left to right: Tracy Young and Rosy Red, Helen Hayn and Aqua Tom, Amanda Tamminga and Vernon, and Wendy Masemer and Likolina.)

But traveling north to the Millbrook Horse Trials with Vernon and the rest of my CDCTA Adult Team Challenge team (the “Ladies in Red”) a couple of weeks ago certainly made competing against those very same riders feel, well, like we’d hit the big time. Needless to say, we had a great time! It was fun to make the trip with some new friends (we “trailer pooled” with teammates Helen Hayn and Wendy Masemer), and the comradery and support that came with riding on a team made the event that much more special and exciting.

(The Area II contingent of the “CDCTA Ladies in Red” after cross-country. Amanda Tamminga, Wendy Masemer, and Helen Hayn.)

Vernon and I were, by far, the greenest of our teammates. Both Helen and Wendy rode in the Virginia CCI* this past May and both are considering the move up to Intermediate soon. Our other teammate, Tracy Young from Area 1, is obviously very proficient at the Preliminary level, judging by her results over the weekend (2nd in a very competitive Preliminary Rider division!). For Vernon and I, it was only our 5th Preliminary horse trials!

Vernon is a pretty cool customer about the majority of things in his life, but leading up to the trip, I was a little anxious on how he would handle a long weekend of stabling. Millbrook was only his second overnight trip, his first being Fair Hill this spring (we are SO spoiled here in Maryland!). But, he proved to live up to his coolness and handled that aspect of the weekend very well. In fact, I think he loved it! He basically had me at his beck and call and felt like he was exactly where he always thinks he should be—the center of the universe.

It was a relief to see that stabling and spending multiple long days away at a show don’t change anything in his general outlook on life, especially considering he has a few more to do this year!

We had worked very hard on our dressage leading up to Millbrook, and while our schooling sessions at the venue on Thursday weren’t looking promising (nothing is as good on the nerves as when your horse decides to act like a hooligan the day before his dressage test), it came together in the end. I figured out how to warm him up, finally, by piecing together some of my ideas along with some of Tom Water’s (my long-time coach and friend) ideas, as well as thoughts dressage trainer, Susan Graham-White had for Vernon.

Lots of flexing and bending, lots more short breaks to take a breath, and the occasional “thank you for being a good boy” peppermint got Vernon to the ring happy, relaxed, and listening. We finished our not-brilliant but pleasant test with a remarkable (for Vernon) 37! I was ecstatic! This is roughly a 10 point improvement from our spring and summer scores. We can only hope the trend continues through the fall!

But, this is where playing with the big kids comes into play. Vernon and I performed the test of our lives, our scores were markedly improved, and we scored a decent-ish 37, to finish solidly in second to last place after dressage!

The rest of the open division, which kinda reads as a “Who’s Who in Eventing,” was almost nothing but incredible riders on some really brilliant young horses (my teammate Wendy is included in this. She and her lovely mare, Likolina finished second to Will Coleman). The top 12 or so in the division scored 20s. Maybe the judging was overly generous, some might wonder. I didn’t think so. The tests I saw and read seemed dead on and the judge used the whole scale. Not only was she willing to give 9s when they were deserved, she had no problem giving out plenty of 4s and 5s.

Despite not scoring in the teens, I was still thrilled. Vernon is still young and the dressage is certainly not his easiest phase. He is, quite literally, bred to run and jump. Which is exactly where he shined on Saturday.

When we first arrived at the event, I was nervous about the jumping. He and I had not jumped anything of substance since Surefire at the end of June, and what little jumping we had done was small, easy, and more like playing. The ground here has just been too hard to risk his legs and feet, so it has been nothing but dressage and hacking for us. But once I saw the course, I knew we would remember how to jump. We did.

Cool customer Vernon was a wild man. He left the start box like his tail was on fire and thought about dismissing me at the first four fences. Thankfully, he cooled off a bit, and jumped the rest of the course like the pro he is.

The course was fairly straightforward with lots of big, galloping fences. I had made up my mind (partly because I was riding for a team) that not only did I want to improve our dressage score, I also wanted to really truly attempt to make the time (we have been very consistently adding on about 15 time penalties to our cross-country score all spring. Fine for early Prelims, but it really seemed time to show that we could make the time). The course was perfect for it! We added only 1.4 time penalties to our 37. I was one proud mama!

I have learned over the years that a horse’s first event held over three days is often a good indication as to how they will handle an actual three-day event. Once again, being spoiled by so many one day events close to home and considering this was the first time Vernon had ever done anything but a one day, I was very curious to see how he would feel on Sunday.

He felt great and warmed up very well. The course was big and square and upright, but it rode smoothly and was lots of fun (I can say that now. I was a nervous wreck on Sunday morning). Amazingly, as well as our course rode, Vernon just kept ticking the poles out of the cups and ended up with four rails. We are still working on our show jumping skill.

Vernon’s idea of jumping is attack now, ask questions later. Very nice for a cross-country fence, but a little too flat for big, upright, and square stadium fences. And, sadly, the canter I can get in warm up doesn’t always follow us into the ring.

Needless to say, I was all over the place in how I felt about our performance. On one hand, I was thrilled with the improvement in the dressage and I’m always a giggly, goofy mess after cross-country with him. But the show jumping was just a little aggravating and it was a little disheartening to make such a massive improvement in the dressage, and still end up way down in the order.

But as the silver lining, the Ladies in Red won the Adult Team Challenge! Vernon and Likolina got to model their very beautiful blue ribbons (I’m pretty sure Vernon was mad when I took it off for the trip home), and we did some nice group shots with all the horses, the ribbons, and the big shiny trophy back at stabling. I was so proud of my teammates and their incredible horses!

Tracy Young and Rosy Red finished second in the Prelim Rider division, while Helen Hayn and her big, handsome, and very sweet, Aqua Tom finished fourth in the same division. Wendy Masemer and Likolina finished a very impressive second in our extremely competitive Open Prelim division (I don’t think I’ve ever wished so hard for Will Coleman to have a rail!).

It was a great weekend full of great riding, brilliant horses, lots of learning, and lots of fun. I came home knowing so much more about my silly, wonderful horse and I am so proud of him and his cool cat way of taking on bigger and better challenges. He’s still got a lot of learning and growing up to do, as do I, right along side him. But every now and then he gives all of us who love him and have been in love with him since he was a scruffy, scrawny three-year-old, a glimpse of what’s to come.

All that being said, the long drive home gave me time to do a lot of thinking. Having qualified for the AEC was such a surprise and a thrill, but after our trip to Millbrook, I decided that a trip to Georgia this fall is just not in the cards for us this year.

I know we would have fun and enjoy our trip immensely, but this is not the best year for us to do it. We had hopes and goals for Vernon long before the AEC email showed up in my inbox (namely, a Preliminary Three-Day Event in October!), and I came to realize on that long drive home that a long and expensive trip in the middle of an already jam packed fall season was not what was best for getting us to our ultimate goal.

I’m sad and every now and then, and I wonder if I should just suck it up and go, but I am often heard ranting on how I wish more people would do right by their horse. Not making the trip this year is doing right by Vernon; for his education, development, and his health. It was a tough call, but I know it’s the right call. There’s always next year.

So, we’ll stick close to home, work on our dressage and show jumping, hopefully do the CIC* at Plantation Field in September, and get both he and I fit for October. I am already excited about getting to go out on steeplechase, and already pondering the all important question: What to wear for the jogs?

Let the trot sets begin!