Gwen Dean completed her final Young Riders as Area II’s co-coordinator this weekend and her riders sent her off with a weekend of wonderful memories. For much more from Area II please visit their website. Thanks for writing this Gwen and thank you for reading.
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Connor, Gwen, Audrey and Molly
From Gwen:
Well, it’s finally over. Everything that these kids have worked so hard for these last 12 months has come to an end. Saturday gave us some really high highs and some really low lows. The morning began with the 2* XC and Connor Husain was the first horse on course. He certainly did his job by coming in one second under the time and jumping a flawless round showing everyone how to get it done. After watching Connor cruise around the course at a pretty good clip and only be one second under that the time was going to be a factor this year. Our other teammates, Lexie Scovil from Area IV and Jamie Doolittle from Area III, also posted clean and fast rounds. Next out for us was Molly Curtiss and Savannah IX. That little mare made the 2* track look like a walk in the park and came home without adding anything to her dressage score. Our 2* team was the ONLY team to have four double clears! Those kids rode their butts off and secured our silver medal position going into SJ with quite a comfortable margin over bronze and only 10 points from the lead.
We had five kids in the 1* this year and our first one out, Savannah Fulton on Ringfort Tinkatoo, started us off with a brilliant ride and coming home with a double clear. Our next rider, Caroline Quanbeck, was having a great go until the coffin where she had an unfortunate fall at the ditch. This put a lot of pressure on the two remaining to start to go out and get the job done. Andi Lawrence set out on course on a mission. She was riding with great determination until her horse, Armani IV, hung a leg at the in of the first water and gravity took over and Andi took an unwelcome bath. Both of our kids and their horses were physically fine but the girls took it pretty hard emotionally. Our last team member, Hanna Krueger and Pinney North, had a great ride to finish the day with a double clear. Our individual, Morgan Booth on Cameron Creek, had a good ride despite a glance off at the second corner of the double corner combination toward the end of the course. Over all I felt that the 1* XC was quite tough and shook the standings up pretty good going into Sunday’s competition.
All of our horses jogged up great on Sunday and were all accepted without a second look and it was on to show jumping. This is the phase of the competition where I turn into an emotional train wreck. I have been in this position for six years and it never gets any easier. I think I get more nervous than the kids do and anyone standing within arm’s reach is probably going to get grabbed or slapped at some point during our SJ rounds. This Year was no exception and I am going to officially apologize to Andi and Jane Lawrence for sending them home with bruises.
Morgan Booth started us out with a super clean round and we couldn’t have been happier for her. Savannah Fulton was having a flawless round until the last fence and ended up adding only 4 points to her dressage score. Next in was Hanna Krueger who was sitting in 6th place with less than 5 points separating her from the leaders. She had the ride of her life and finished her first NAJYRC on her dressage score. Then it was time to wait and see what the next few horses did. One by one the rails fell and before we knew it, Hanna was taking home a silver medal. Wow! You couldn’t have written a better ending.
The 2* began fairly quickly after the 1* finished. Molly Curtiss was the first to jump and had a bit of a rough ride finishing with five rails down. Next in was Jamie Doolittle who finished strong with only 8 faults. Lexie Scovil was next in the ring for our team and had a brilliant double clear to end on her dressage score posting her best finish to date. The final rider for us was Connor Husain and Piece of Hope. There was absolutely no room for error and he didn’t disappoint going double clear and securing at least a silver medal with only .6 separating him from gold. We all watched and waited for the final horse to enter the ring and when I saw the rail fall I knew he had just won gold and the team won the silver. No words can really describe. It was truly an unforgettable moment with a story book ending.
Well, my time as coordinator has come to an end. I am truly going to miss coming to NAJYRC but most of all I am going to miss being able to share this experience with the kids and their families. This job has hasn’t always been easy but I loved every single minute of it! Thanks guys, it sure has been one wild ride!
One final time……
Go Area II Young Riders and Go Eventing!
