The LLRP inbox is starting to dwindle, but we still have many more EN members to meet! This week we would like to introduce you to Gretchen and her horse Lily. If you wish to be featured in an upcoming profile, fill out the Questionnaire and email it to [email protected]. Have a happy weekend!!
FEATURED RIDER:
Your Name: Gretchen Oberfranc-Creesy
Age: 59
Location: Princeton, NJ
Primary horse’s name: Tigerlily (Lily)
Age, breed, pertinent info: 10-year-old TBx (1/2 TB; ¼ QH; ¼ Clyde)
Level currently competing: BN
Short term goals this summer:
Volunteer at the Green Mountain T3D and N3D to find out what they’re all about and help some friends who are riding there. Go to Denny Emerson’s summer adult camp and find out whether I’m ready for Novice (my horse certainly is).
Year-end goals: Get comfortable at higher speeds and fences and move up to Novice.
Overall goals? Can a 15.0 hand mare and her aging rider get to N3D next year?
What’s the best thing you’ve learned recently? Any big epiphany or light-bulb moment? What are your strengths/weaknesses?
Before starting to ride again in 2001 after nearly 20 years of not riding, I knew nothing about eventing, and before getting my first-ever horse in 2006, I had never done much jumping. Falling off in a jumping lesson and breaking my wrist early in 2007 did not help matters. We spent the rest of that year doing nothing but dressage, which really built up our partnership. After a slow return to jumping, we entered our first recognized BN event in June 2009 at Plantation Field–and won!
I learned this early on, but it bears repeating: eventers rock! A friend and I went to Fair Hill for the first time in May. We had no idea the xc course was so far away from the trailer parking. We must have looked anxious and bewildered because a nice young trainer in a red car stopped and offered us a ride. Not only that, she was waiting for us after the course walk and took us back to our trailer.
Favorite eventing moment/story? (can be anything, something you did, felt, witnessed, realized…?)
My wonderful husband and I took Lily to AECs in Illinois last September. My parents, both in their mid-80s, live about 30 minutes from Lamplight and might have only this opportunity ever to see me and Lily compete. It was only my sixth or seventh recognized event, and I had never come across galloping lanes. I guess I hadn’t really been paying attention the three times I walked the course, because I suddenly found myself on the wrong side of the ropes after the fifth fence. Instead of turning around and going back, I kept going forward, looking for a gap across the two lanes–and found one just before the next fence. Having made such a time-costly mistake, I relaxed somewhat and really enjoyed the fantastic ride my horse gave me over rest of the course. I couldn’t hope to have a better partner.
