United States Eventing Association

Adrienne “A” Classen and Dale Hinman (pictured left juggling a baby and a camera) of Wits End Eventing had their hands full with eight yearlings, 2-year-olds, and 3-year-olds at the IDHSNA/USEA Future Event Horse East Coast Championships. Adrienne documented the excitement and frequent hilarity of qualifying and showing young horses. “A” writes…

In January, we decided to get as many of our ten 1 to 3-year-olds to the FEH championships as possible. We find the shows (along with our mini donkey, mule, sheep, 3 goats and general farm chaos) invaluable for getting the youngsters inured to life as a competition horse. By the time the babies are actually ready to be ridden, everything is no big deal.

I find these plans always sound great when you are eating breakfast at a warm table in January avoiding going out to feed in the snow. Dale is more practical and tries to bring up issues like the fact that we only have a 4-horse trailer and no funds for something larger, and I wave them away as minor details. Sharon White rides our horses, and Dale says that getting her and me to plan is like herding cats but harder because all he has to do with our cats is break out a food dish. Sharon and I are lovers of last minute adjustments – don’t worry everything will surely be fine, and of course it will work out somehow. Dale is an engineer and a certified saint. By the way, Dale and I both work more than full time jobs in addition to running an ever expanding horse farm.

So, first came the qualifying. Royal Alyance (Aly bred by Leslie Allen) and Comet Royale (Comet) were qualified after they were exhibitors at the Future Event Horse demo at Rolex. Talk about a good experience for babies! Copperfield won the 2-year-old division at the spring Ark, and Riptide managed to get shown and qualified despite needing stitches after he busted his face in the trailer. The African Queen (Africa), Ready or Not (Spicy bred by Sharon White), and Rabble Rouser (Rab) qualified at the Maryland Horse Trials. Cartman LF (bred by Sharon White and named by Dale) pulled an ugly duckling into swan move when he won the overall championship at the fall Ark show despite being butt high three days before the show and again three days after. With the help of our farm manager, Sarah Agner, and best buddy, Hillary Irwin, we managed to also show Savin Puchis FX (Zoe bred by Amber Bauman), Comet again, and Valiant Voyager (Val) at the Ark. A testament to the benefits of frequent trailering and Wits End chaos came when one of the babies walked off the trailer and put his nose down to sniff a passing rooster.

Well, even I had to admit that 10 horses and three trailer trips to Maryland was excessive. Rab took himself out of championship contention by cracking his pelvis in the pasture. We have NO idea how he did it. Fortunately, he is expected to make a full recovery after a blistering six months of stall rest. That got us down to nine, and, after much deliberation, we decided to leave Val at home. Val is by the German Sport Pony stallion Voyager, who was a 3-time Bundeschampion in dressage and eventing, out of our 13.2 hand Haflinger mare. Val is lovely and scored quite well at the Ark, but judge Nanci Lindroth gave him his lowest score on overall with the note that height might be an issue for the upper levels which is certainly valid so we decided perhaps he would be the best to leave at the farm. He has an ego the size of Texas so we were not worried his feelings would be hurt.

I made the videos because I got a new video camera in Montana to film Rafferty’s Rules (Reggie), and I figured taking eight babies to a horse show in Virginia with a 4 horse trailer had to be somewhat entertaining, at least to us. We could NEVER have done it without the support of Sharon White at Last Frontier Farm and Alice Suddeth and her sons, Jack and Andrew, as well as all the awesome people who volunteered, cheered us on, and patted us on the back along the way. Pretty much everyone we know is well aware of the fact that we are crazy, or at least I am, and Dale is a very good sport.

Click here to watch the rest of Wits End Eventing’s FEH adventure.

IDHSNA/USEA Future Event Horse Results