Marsha Spencer kindly sent us a short piece about going to Fair Hill in the YEH Championship. With all the excitement of the CCI2* and 3*, the Young Event Horse Championship gets a little overshadowed. Here’s a story of a homebred and an amateur rider set to take on a prestigious field of up and coming young horses– the stars of tomorrow! Thanks to Marsha for writing, and thank you for reading.
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Salute the Captain as a yearling, with Erin Durst
From Marsha:
We are heading to Fair Hill International in Elkton, Maryland to compete in the Young Event Horse Championship. We have a full Thoroughbred, a homebred that was born and raised in wild and wonderful West Virginia. Yes sir, eastern panhandle. Not many of our kind in these parts (and I don’t count Sharon White, as she is way too close to Virginia and the main stream of civilization) . Hauling to lessons, shows, and even vets and farriers, is just part of participating in the sport of eventing. It’s not like living west of the Mississippi but it’s close– there is not one recognized event in the state of West Virginia!
Our gelding is out of a beautiful OTTB mare that was a give away, which we bred to Salute the Truth. Her first and probably last foal, has been everything we could have hoped for. Sharon White called him the most trainable horse ever! He won three Future Event Horse classes as a yearling, and as a two year old placed 2nd in the colt and gelding class at the East Coast Championship at Virginia. We took him to the Rolex FEH demo as a two year old and were overwhelmed by a wonderful offer to buy our wonder boy, but as I look at it, we can’t afford a horse like him, so why pass up the chance to ride and compete such a nice young horse. He won his first novice event at Loch Moy 2 and placed 10th in the recent Novice Championship at Morven Park when one rail down knocked him from 4th place.
He’s not a fancy mover, but is so unflappable due to the fact that we have dragged him everywhere and can almost be too quiet and lazy in dressage. He led after dressage in one YEH competition when the white dogs at Waredaca started barking from their kennels and added the needed energy to his dressage test! Thanks big white dogs.
I know Fair Hill will be a very tough young horse competition, but it will be so exciting to see our 4-year-old West Virginia boy, with my daughter Erin Durst riding, going up against the pros and horses that have the blue blood of the future of eventing in their veins. But oh heck, bring it on!
