Area VII’s Lizzie Snow is competing at the 2* at young riders this weekend. Lizzie was kind enough to send us a quick guest blog about the dressage and looking ahead to the cross-country on Saturday. The photos in this post are courtesy of Lizzie and Lexi Scovil from Area IV. For more coverage of Friday, check out the USEA press release here, and photos here. Thanks for writing this Lizzie and thank you for reading.
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From Lizzie:
Hello Eventing Nation!
Time is flying by at NAJYRC this year. It is ridiculously hot here in Lexington and the sun is relentless. Tomorrow is already Saturday and David’s cross country courses look fantastic. The crew here has been aerating and trying to help the footing as much as possible. The ground is quite good and we’re supposed to get some rain tonight which will make the ground excellent.
As far as dressage results go, my (very small) 2 person Area VII team both had very good tests. Florence Miller and Tuck are currently first in the one star with a very forward, fluid test. Devon and I had a great test and are currently sitting in fourth going into cross country tomorrow. Forward and accurate tests seemed to be making the best marks in both the 1* and 2*.
One thing that stood out to me is that even at the junior and young rider levels, is that Canada is producing top results with the 2* team in 3rd and the 1* team in 2nd. Their horses and riders were all very correct and obedient. There were many great tests and the scoring was very consistent throughout both days of dressage. There were no scores under 50 in the 2* and only one in the 1*. Kyle’s group of kids in Area III had super tests and the results showed with the 2* team sitting in 1st.
Now back to cross country… The courses have some decent questions on them but they are very open and gallopy which, to me, makes it more inviting. The 2* questions certainly keep you on your toes and make you ride forward. I haven’t walked the 1* but what I’ve seen of it looks positive. David has set up questions that if you ride accurately and forward, they should work out correctly. Lots of people, including myself, have been running fluids on their horses in prep for tomorrow because of the heat and I’m sure everyone will be running lots of bags tomorrow.
Things get started early tomorrow with the 2* starting at 8 and the 1* shortly after. They’ve already condensed the interval times to 3 minutes instead of 4 and can cut out loops if we get thunderstorm delays and have to run later in the day. Everybody is looking forward to tomorrow and I have a fantastic support team with coach Jon Elliot and lots of great helpers and grooms and parents. They’ve been a great support system all week! Of course I’m wishing extra good luck to my team mates Lexi Scovil and Scott Kuhlman. And if we run out of things to do tomorrow there’s always the campground yard sale where we can go shopping….
Until next time, stay cool. Go Young Riders.
