MCTA recap: from no tan to farmer’s burn

40 years of MCTA events!

iHola ENers!

I bring you my MCTA recap. I was super excited to go to my first east coast event in recent times. I’d never been to MCTA, but I was pretty sure it was in Maryland, hence the “M”in MCTA. Upon arrival, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was in Australia nestled between Ryan Wood, Sally Lofting, Kate Chadderton, and Boyd Martin. I was loving every minute though! (C’mon, they’re Australian.) Saturday, the novice and preliminary did a full HT, while intermediate and advanced did their dressage (for HT) or dressage and show jumping (for those in CT). Ryan Wood had asked me to help him with his five horses because his working student was off to prom. How could I say no to that? Everyone should go to their senior prom even though I didn’t go to mine.

So, I was bustling about, getting to know the back side of MCTA reliving my glory days as a working student when I first met EN John. It was muggy and nasty in the morning on Saturday. We’re talking Florida Everglades in July kind of muggy nastiness. Ryan’s groom, Stacy, and I were shining up the ponies in the shade of the trailer, not really affected by said mugginess as we were still donning jackets when Ryan rode his first dressage test at 8:06am. He came back and looked like he jumped in to, and took a roll around in, the water complex, he and his horse were just dripping sweat (sorry Ryan). Thank goodness MCTA provided hoses for the horses and riders. Everything was running smoothly across the show grounds. Dressage was underway, the amazing volunteers were guiding trailers to parking while others were being briefed for jump judging, and the smoothie stand was open.


Most of the riders were coming off course quite happy and pleased with themselves. Others, not so much, but I still saw smiles through the tears at the wash “stall” area. Or was that sweat? The weather broke just after the preliminary horses finished their cross country mid-afternoon. It got a little breezy as it felt like a storm was coming in. The show jumps were being raised for the intermediate and advanced combined tests. Callie Judy put in a double clear to take home the blue in the Advanced CT, while Caroline Martin’s rail on Petite Flower left Caroline Martin and Quantam Solace in first in the Intermediate CT.

Several of the trophies awarded

MCTA has a very rich history that I was reading about on their boards and handouts they had set up by the secretary’s stand. To read more about the history of this lovely event: click here. Below is a list of the trophies and awards given out (they open as word documents for more information). Really quite a big ordeal that is lots of fun for the riders.

The Captain Andrew B. DeSzinay Memorial Trophy (Jr/YR, N)
The Jackson Hole Farm Trophy (Sr, N)
The Pancho Villa Memorial Trophy (Jr/YR, T)
The Distant Fire Memorial Trophy (Sr, T)
The Cider Is Sweet Memorial Trophy (Jr/YR, P)
The Seneca Trophy (Sr, P)
The Treasurered Motor Car Services Trophy (non-members too, I)
The Social Cat (“Scat”) Memorial Trophy (non-members too, A)
The Joan Leigh Thomas Barthel Memorial Trophy (best dressage score)

That was the end of Saturday.

As John had reported, it was Hawley Bennett’s birthday on Sunday, and she could be seen buzzing around the grounds on golf cart with Buck all weekend. Sunday brought about the fun runs of the intermediate and advanced show jumping and cross country while the training level ran a full one day. The weather was ideal cross country weather. A bit overcast, and cool, but not cold, no rain. Wonderful. Lots of good xc videos from VideobyPatrick. I also want to leave you with the little tidbit that all of the winning rides finished on scores less than 40. Dream big, EN, dream big.

As a spectator EN correspndent I set out to take a video of the training xc course a la Buzzterbrown. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but, alas, I ain’t no Buzzterbrown. I did do the video, and also took fence by fence pictures of the training and preliminary level cross country courses for your pleasure. That’ll be up in a bit. Until then, I leave you with the show jumping course of the weekend:

Show jumping

The rider’s about 6’2″ and the pony is about 14.2 hh that Chris has had since he was born. And, if my calculations are correct, the horse is about 8 feet taller than rider.. Oh, wait, something about conversions…

Kim Severson:

Rider 232:

The horse’s name is “Steve.” I like it.

Boyd Martin:

 

And some intermediate xc videos:

1st water:

Boyd @ 2nd water:

Sally @ 2nd water:

 

For more information on MCTA, visit their website. They have xc schooling today and tomorrow, May 8 & 9, as well as two more unrecognized horse trials this summer. A huge thank you to all of the organizers, staff, and volunteers that went in to making MCTA another successful event!

GO MCTA.

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