Sally Cousins & Joule, winners of the Intermediate division (all photos by me)
Yesterday was the first event of the year down here in Aiken, South Carolina, and it was full of surprises. While those of you up north might be jealous of our warmer weather, you should know that it was cold as all get-out yesterday, and I could have easily been mistaken for an Eskimo wandering around cross country with a camera.
The turnout for the day was decent, and with divisions of Intermediate through Beginner Novice running all in one day, it was definitely busy. Sally Cousins showed up with her string of fast and clean jumpers to win the only division of Intermediate on her seasoned campaigner Joule, and also to win a division of Preliminary by more than 10 points on a young horse named Oliver that I actually sold to her a few years back (wishing I hadn’t now!). Our own Jessica Bortner-Harris had a nice clean first outing on her horse Bug, to claim 2nd place in the same Intermediate division.
Kate Chadderton & Collection Pass in the Preliminary
I thought that the Show Jumping course was lovely, and as always just challenging enough for the beginning of the year. The arena that they use has just enough terrain, which makes the jumps a bit trickier, and they always have a big oxer or triple bar downhill to a short strided vertical, which catches quite a few people out. Accurate and forward riding was rewarded; horses who were spooky and balking were finding that it was a troublesome course.
The Cross Country courses were fairly twisty, as it always is at Full Gallop, and it showed in the time penalties that people were collecting. I think combined with the fact that the ground was a touch hard, riders were being smart and taking it slow. Most riders had time penalties in the double digits, but I think on the whole this was a good collective decision.
Chris Talley & Tucan Tango in the Preliminary
However, there were a fair amount of people with the cursed “first-event-itis” resulting in some technical eliminations. Canadian Peter Barry was having a lovely round on his Preliminary horse Qorry Blue D’Argouges when he jumped a Training level table on his way to the coffin. It happens to the best of us, Peter! In the same division, Allie Knowles of “The Training Diaries” also fell victim to a technical elimination, although I did not see her round.
The next event that most upper level riders are gearing up for is the first Pine Top, in two weeks in Georgia. Then we will see a bigger group of Intermediate riders, and some more of the Preliminary folks either getting ready to move up, or warming up for a big season.
