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Concluding the 2022 Area Championships season was the Area X Championships held during the SAzEA H.T. which took place November 19-20 in Tucson, Arizona. Three Championship divisions were offered, allowing three horse and rider pairs the opportunity to conclude their 2022 eventing season by being crowned champion!
Training Champions: Barbara Crabo & I.M. Over It | 26.7
Barbara Crabo’s 6-year-old Swedish Warmblood mare I.M. Over It (Irco Meno x Over Easy) is a homebred out of Crabo’s Advanced mare and by the sire who sired her former five-star eventer Eveready. Crabo introduced “Kiwi” to competition life in the fall of 2021 and has brought her up from the Beginner Novice level to the Training level over the course of the 2022 season. Their win in the Area X Championships is their first win together.
“At the championships at SAzEA Kiwi was fantastic in all three phases,” Crabo commented. “She is still struggling to focus with whatever she does and she was the most focused she has ever been.” And that focus paid off with the pair kicking off the weekend in a tie for second on a dressage score of 26.7. Fault-free performances across both jumping phases would move the pair up from second to first to claim the victory.
Novice Champions: Anastasia Keyser & Samson | 23.5
The win in the Area X Novice Championships was a sweet one for Anastasia Keyser and her 19-year-old Appaloosa gelding Samson (All Hands on Zip x Feature Me Bigtime). “I had decided that this was going to be our last year eventing together which means the Championship was our last show,” shared Keyser. “I need to focus on my younger horses, and he earned the right to have an easier time. We started eventing back in 2019 and that first year was a rocky one. We did manage to get all the pieces together to win the 2019 Area X Beginner Novice Championships so to come full circle and win at our last show was perfect!”
The pair led their division from start to finish on their dressage score of 23.1 and just added 0.4 time penalties on cross-country to secure their win on a total score of 23.5 with a five-point lead over the second-place pair.
“Samson is not a fancy mover, but he is a great dressage horse. Show jumping is his weakness as he is built more downhill. It is more common to get a rail than be clean so when we finished show jumping double clear, I knew the win was possible! Generally, he loves cross-country and this time was no exception. Samson may return to showing but at a lower level with a different rider. He is retiring from Novice as a Champion!”
Beginner Novice Champions: Meghan Martin & LBA Otis | 27.4
Jill Breckner’s 7-year-old Clydesdale cross LBA Otis may have just kicked off his career as an event horse, but that didn’t stop the young horse from rising to the top of the Area X Beginner Novice Championship with Meghan Martin in the tack in only his third event ever.
“Otis had a fabulous dressage and a decent show jumping as he is still green. Cross country is his biggest challenge not because of the jumps, but because he is a bit spooky with all the jump judges and things around the jumps. SAzEA put on a lovely Area X Championship and I look forward to next year.”
Martin and LBA Otis started the competition in first on a score of 23.4 and only added one rail to their dressage score to solidify their win with a total score of 27.4.
