In this series, Cassidy Sitton chronicles her experiences as she and her OTTB, Subway Prophet, prepare for the FENCE SmartPak Equine USEA Training 3-Day in the beginning of April.
When I was growing up in Southern Illinois, we had this wonderful little show circuit called the Heart of America Horse Show Association (HAHSA). Even though events within six hours were few and far between, we had plenty of local barns (within an hour) where there were shows. We could go and run hunter and jumper classes all day long (for some ridiculously low price per class). The eventers and hunters and jumpers and 4-Hers and back yard enthusiasts all mingled in one, big, happy family horse show version of a melting pot. Each barn offered its own twist on the show bill, with some having outside courses, some inside, some on a hill, some featuring afternoon fun classes… pretty much, it was a blast. Plus we got to have a year-end banquet, which, I’m sure is probably the first place I ever got to wear make-up.
Now that I’m an East Coaster, I sometimes get a little stuck just going to event after event, since there are so many in close proximity. I would like to think that I’m not an eventing snob since I take my clients to a wide variety of shows, but I was wicked spoiled with the well run local shows of Southern Illinois, and have found discovering the same quality competitions a bit difficult out here (especially now that I need some bigger fences in front of me!). I think my horses lose out a bit on the experience of just going and running jumps all day long. If you mess up in the event, you have to take that experience, stew on it the whole drive home, and then fix it in your homework. If you mess up at a jumper show, you enter the next class and pretty much as many classes as it takes to figure it out!
Coolest horse show dog–Annabel. Great entertainment to pass the Hunter/Jumper time. Cassidy Sitton photo. So keeping the idea in mind that my horse needs to be more rounded, and not behave so square… last weekend I traveled north for the Thoroughbred Celebration Hunter Jumper Show at the beautiful Virginia Horse Center. Prophet has become quite my little traveling partner, and I thoroughly enjoyed arriving there by myself late Friday night, and enjoying a little ‘alone time’ walk around the complex in the dark with my boy.
Saturday morning we made our hunter pony debut, placing well (even though I forgot my stack of hunt coats in the closet at home, and showed up to the ring in my navy blue dressage coat with light blue trim — not exactly hunterly!). P was pretty sure that flat classes were the best dressage tests ever! He didn’t have to listen nearly as closely, and if the judge wasn’t looking, he even got to throw in some naughty faces at the passing horses.
The day wore on, and finally the afternoon/evening jumper sessions rolled around (the whole waiting game is not something I miss about H/J shows — although I think it’s good for the ponies sometimes). P was stellar! I think it’s safe to say that he likes the tighter turns of jumpers as opposed to the sweeping turns in show jumping. He was a little firecracker, entertaining the crowd with some well placed romps and head shakes. We managed to qualify for the Sunday stakes class in both the 3’1″s and the 3’7″s, even picking up a win in the latter! Sunday was much of the same, with a slightly less exuberant Prophet. He wound up with Reserve Champion in the 3’7″, and a bit of a fan club headed by the nice owner of the tack shop Riders Up! Outfitters (who donated the award for reserve).
Prophet made friends with the neighbor–he would even try to share his dinner by dropping it on Bryce while he was napping. Cassidy Sitton photo. The Stakes class was its own devil, as I managed an epic fail at the last fence of the long course, yet my horse managed to turn himself inside out to pull off a clean round. During the jump off, I saw a perfect spot four strides out to the same jump and just KNEW we were going to have a foot perfect ride (where I’d expertly cut this wicked inside turn with my handy-dandy pony). Pony promptly paid me back for my epic miss, and dropped a hind into the last rail of the oxer — a botched end to an otherwise perfect weekend. I quickly apologized to my horse before leaving the ring, gave him a pat for a job well done, and we were on the road back to the Triangle Region of North Carolina.
I am now basking in the glory of knowing that my horse made the 3’7 classes feel small and not once did he jump me out of the tack (this nasty habit he has when he jumps a foot or two taller then necessary). I am now committed to securing my lower leg over the fence, and riding all the way to the other side, rather then getting to the base, becoming dramatic with my upper body, and then gathering things together again when we land (a nasty little habit I’ve picked up along the way).
There’s no traveling for us this weekend–this being the last weekend before we head to FENCE! Time to get in the last trots/gallops/jumps/and a few lessons about behaving in the sandbox… Oh, and I need to shop for a jog outfit, since I’m thinking my horsey-goo-stained jeans probably won’t fly. Until next time… ciao, ciao!
Cassidy Sitton, 25, bases her C-Horse Eventing business out of Raleigh, North Carolina where she enjoys teaching and training, and is also a marketing professional for an equine-related business.
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The United States Eventing Associations’ (USEA) Eventing Coaches Program (ECP) is pleased to announce the dates and location of the upcoming 2024 ECP Symposium. The annual ECP Symposium, which is held in the southeast to accommodate the migration of eventers for the winter season, will be hosted at ...
