It’s a glorious thing when you can share your horsey obsession with your family, and the Ashkers and Paynes are prime examples of the joy and success that are a result of that base of support.
ZaZa’s GoPro of her clear Novice Cross County at Millbrook!🌸❤️🌻☘️
Posted by Valerie Ashker on Friday, August 4, 2017
Lainey Ashker and her mom Valerie are competing together at Millbrook Horse Trials this weekend. Lainey competed Kristopher, an off-track Thoroughbred with 53 starts, in his Training debut. Valerie rode her homebred Last Shining Comet, a full sister to Lainey’s up-and-coming two-star mount Calling All Comets, in the mare’s second Novice. The above video is a helmet cam of Valerie and “Dazzle’s” clear cross country round.
What I love most about watching Lainey and Valerie’s helmet cams is how how they talk to their horses the whole way around, praising them, guiding them and making every effort to give them a positive experience. Add to that the mother-daughter duo’s enthusiastic “Woo-woo-woos!” for each other, you can’t help but smile and enjoy the ride.
It was a family affair for the Payne family this weekend as well, with mom Marilyn, sister Holly and brother Doug (returning to competition less than a month after breaking his collarbone–Ironman!) competing eight horses between the three of them. Doug’s wife Jessica was not competing this time but she was of course there helping out and cheering on the team.
The Paynes claimed victory in two divisions; Holly won Open Preliminary A with CharmKing and Doug took Open Training A with Cascor. The “kids” had several other top finishes and Marilyn finished 12th in Open Novice A with SF Double Entendre.
Doug and Debi Crowley’s homebred Vandiver finished 11th overall in the Advanced division. Enjoy the ride along with this pair on yesterday’s cross country!
#MillbrookHT: Website, Ride Times, Live Scores, EN’s Coverage, EN’s Instagram
