United States Eventing Association

The inaugural Twin Rivers Ranch Future Event Horse competition last weekend was a huge success thanks to the support of west coast eventing breeders, the Twin Rivers Ranch staff and organizers, and the Future Event Horse title sponsors the Irish Draught Horse Society of North America.

Nineteen of the area's finest young eventing prospects came out to compete at the show held in Paso Robles, California on Saturday afternoon, and though the temperatures were in the triple digits, the spirits were high--as were the scores!

FEI judge Janice Linan awarded Maggie Weems' two-year-old gelding Henry the top score of the day with an astounding 90.7.

Trained and handled by Theresa Simmons, the stunning Holsteiner gelding (Hunter--Marveles) earned solid 9's and even a 9.8 on his scoresheet, receiving such comments as: "Attractive and elegant; great shoulder; quality walk; lovely suspension, reach, and natural engagement; very correct."

"Jim Graham and David Adamo recommended that we show Henry in the Future Event Horse classes, because they thought he was so typey and fabulous. So, it was really fun to come out and watch Henry be so successful," said Weems, of Fairfax, CA.

"David's going to compete Marvy [Henry's dam] and her new owner Marion is going to do embryo transplants (or so goes the plan). The long range plan is to hand Henry over to David when it is time for him to go to work as an event horse."

"The thing that is cool about Henry," added Weems,"is that although this is probably the one time I'll do this I did a ton of research and engaged a lot of very knowledgeable, successful professionals to make sure we had a great mare, a great stallion, and that we were producing a horse that had chance to succeed in our sport--and we've done it on a pretty strict budget too! Henry lives in Theresa's sister's backyard these days, and runs around on a 1/2 acre with her very solid quarter horse named Rico."

Weems bought Henry's dam Marveles from Holsteiner breeder Wendy Webster, of W2 Holsteiners, who imported the mare specifically to breed to Webster's stallion Hunter. Hunter is half-brother to the German horses Abraxxas and Butt's Leon who were members of the gold medal event team in Hong Kong last year.

Webster won the 2005 American Holsteiner Horse Association Breeder's Choice Award, and bred such renowned sporthorses as Le Samurai, and also imported Lady Calido, the CIC3* winner at Twin Rivers. (check out this neat article about Wendy and her breeding program. PDF - 3.66M)

Topping the charts in the very competitive group of yearlings was Foxwood Farm's Blue Suede Shoes (pictured left), one of the seven yearlings sired by Bridon Beale Street, a RID stallion who events at Training level and is well-known for his fabulous temperament and incredible athleticism. Blue Suede Shoes, shown by Lisette Healy of Foxwood Farm, scored an impressive 88.6.

Sirius (pictured right), an Oldenburg colt sired by Sir Caletto and out of Papillon, took top honors in the three-year-old division, earning a 88.5. The stunning grey was shown by his owner Maurya Faulkner and bred by Clare Jacobson.

Special thanks to Lone Tree Farm and the IDHSNA for bringing out a huge group of lovely youngsters and also providing refreshments for all of the competitors and spectators.