Andrew Nicholson on Calico Joe

Andrew Nicholson was unbeatable today, claiming both Advanced sections at Gatcombe as his own, taking advantage of a good dressage and clear show-jumping to hold on to his lead in Section 2 on Quimbo. Following about ten withdrawals in each division, including the dressage leader Lucinda Fredericks and Prada in Section 1, he takes that trophy home with him too.  Andrew also finished 6th in Section 2 on Shady Grey.

Will Faudree and Andromaque jumped a lovely clear. Andromaque (Missy) was careful but bold, and just ballooned over everything, and Will rode her beautifully, very calm and quiet.

The US can certainly be proud of the performance they put up in the show jumping in the Advanced this morning; Tiana Coudray also jumped a smooth clear round on Ringwood Magister, who’s looking fitter than I’ve ever seen him. 

Sadly Sandhills Tiger was not as obliging for Hamish Cargill and booted out several fences; let’s hope he redeems himself out on cross country.

The complete opposite to Tiger was Mopani, ridden by last year’s British Open winner, Daisy Berkeley – a stunning jumper, and although you cant see it in the pictures, he had the daisy flower on his bum, definitely the best quarter marks we’ve seen yet today – it was actually Lily who noticed it!

Welcome to the Festival of British Eventing presented by BETA at Gatcombe. 

Harry and I walked the British Open course first thing this morning, and with the terrain, it’s as tough a course as I’ve seen this year. The field of entries is both full in quantity and quality, and the next three days promise to be jam-packed if you add on the  Burghley Young Event Horse Qualifiers, Express Eventing, Pony Club Jumping, two full advanced classes running alongside the Championship divisions,  of course the Shetland Pony Grand National and Dog Agility, and that’s before we even start on the Tradestands (over a hundred), the food, drinks and the Pimms Tent. I am back in England, the mecca of Eventing and there’s few events better than this. Here is your British Open Cross Country Course, designed by Captain Mark Phillips and built by The Willis Bros, (of Badminton fame and more) David Evans and Richard Taylor, fence by fence.

The course gets serious at fence 3, there’s an alternative because the straight route sits on the lip of a very steep descent, and into the dark woods. I took a couple of pictures to try and illustrate the angle!

I’m sad to report Harry may be the first casualty of the weekend as he fell in a heap at the bottom of the hill; obviously I won’t be applying for “Mother of the Year” after this holiday! 

The table here is massive

This is right out on the “back 40” of the course, and riders have to do a U-turn between A & B, so it will just depend on how tight they want to make their approach to this big solid brush as to how much time they waste/save.

I feel like there was just one toadstool here last year, and it’s surely too early for me to be seeing double? Nonetheless, after a steep climb, even if is a slightly different profile, it’s still bound to catch out the unwary.

This is the only water this year – in over the log drop, and out over one of the loops of the monster, depending on your grade

By now, near the end of Sunday afternoon, it’s getting really exciting as time is everything at Gatcombe, and as the British Open is run in reverse order for cross country which is the final phase, the riders are kicking for home as much as they dare, or with as much petrol as they have left in the tank. 

What a Feeling – home at last! 

Wishing all competitors safe rounds this weekend, and looking forward to bringing you lots more from Gatcombe.  Go British Eventing!

 

Prada moves into the lead in Advanced Section 1

Thank heavens for William Fox-Pitt, and not only because he, along with Rodney Powell,  managed to break the Antipodean stranglehold on the Gatcombe leaderboard in both Advanced sections after the dressage phase.

Although today, Friday, is a quieter day here at The Festival of British Eventing, it’s already all systems go. Mark Todd has just taken the four year old Burghley Young Event Horse Qualifier on the lovely Opposition Supremacy.

By Fleetwater Oppositon, he’s a 17hh black stallion, does he remind you of anyone?

Also by Fleetwater Opposition, the amazing Opposition Buzz.

Dogs are about on a par with kids here, or perhaps a level above?!

Dogs, kids and horses everywhere. The tradestands are already doing brisk business

Lunch is served: the EN picnic hamper!

If you can’t afford the mac-daddy Range Rover or Land Rovers on display here, then there’s a more eco-friendly alternative.

Many thanks and full marks to the Press Tent here – super fast internet, sandwiches with the crust cut off, and tea and shortbread biscuits. When I die I think I’m coming to Gatcombe! 

More soon, thanks for joining us, and Go Eventing!

Welcome to the Festival of British Eventing presented by BETA at Gatcombe. 

Harry and I walked the British Open course first thing this morning, and with the terrain, it’s as tough a course as I’ve seen this year. The field of entries is both full in quantity and quality, and the next three days promise to be jam-packed if you add on the  Burghley Young Event Horse Qualifiers, Express Eventing, Pony Club Jumping, two full advanced classes running alongside the Championship divisions,  of course the Shetland Pony Grand National and Dog Agility, and that’s before we even start on the Tradestands (over a hundred), the food, drinks and the Pimms Tent. I am back in England, the mecca of Eventing and there’s few events better than this. Here is your British Open Cross Country Course, designed by Captain Mark Phillips and built by The Willis Bros, (of Badminton fame and more) David Evans and Richard Taylor, fence by fence.

The course gets serious at fence 3, there’s an alternative because the straight route sits on the lip of a very steep descent, and into the dark woods. I took a couple of pictures to try and illustrate the angle!

I’m sad to report Harry may be the first casualty of the weekend as he fell in a heap at the bottom of the hill; obviously I won’t be applying for “Mother of the Year” after this holiday! 

The table here is massive

This is right out on the “back 40” of the course, and riders have to do a U-turn between A & B, so it will just depend on how tight they want to make their approach to this big solid brush as to how much time they waste/save.

I feel like there was just one toadstool here last year, and it’s surely too early for me to be seeing double? Nonetheless, after a steep climb, even if is a slightly different profile, it’s still bound to catch out the unwary.

This is the only water this year – in over the log drop, and out over one of the loops of the monster, depending on your grade

By now, near the end of Sunday afternoon, it’s getting really exciting as time is everything at Gatcombe, and as the British Open is run in reverse order for cross country which is the final phase, the riders are kicking for home as much as they dare, or with as much petrol as they have left in the tank. 

What a Feeling – home at last! 

Wishing all competitors safe rounds this weekend, and looking forward to bringing you lots more from Gatcombe.  Go British Eventing!

 

One of the legs on our “British Tour” has led us to my aunt’s house, and a huge thrill for Lily has been riding my cousin Elder’s fabulous retired advanced eventer Whitey, aka Pebbley White Stuff. He’s the nicest horse she’s ever ridden and may ever ride by miles,  and I’d be a liar if I said I’m not a tiny bit jealous myself!  Whitey is the first horse Elder took to advanced, and just last summer they were sixth in the advanced section at Aston le Walls, as well as previously recording 7th place finishes in the 2*’s at Tattersalls and Hartpury among many other placings.

At the grand old age of 18, Whitey’s still got it and looks wonderful, and is now enjoying the good life doing the odd bit of show-jumping, and he may pass on some of his experience via a bit of  lower level eventing next year with a very lucky novice rider, sadly probably not Lily, or me!  

After a short hack down the lanes, (heaven, I miss the hacking, and yet used to get SO bored and dread it, what a brat I was!) Lily has been riding in the arena the last couple of days, and might have been the happiest girl alive. However, all’s not well that ends well! I should have known it was too good to last – we spent this afternoon here….

One of the legs on our “British Tour” has led us to my aunt’s house, and a huge thrill for Lily has been riding my cousin Elder’s fabulous retired advanced eventer Whitey, aka Pebbley White Stuff. He’s the nicest horse she’s ever ridden and may ever ride by miles,  and I’d be a liar if I said I’m not a tiny bit jealous myself!  Whitey is the first horse Elder took to advanced, and just last summer they were sixth in the advanced section at Aston le Walls, as well as previously recording 7th place finishes in the 2*’s at Tattersalls and Hartpury among many other placings.

At the grand old age of 18, Whitey’s still got it and looks wonderful, and is now enjoying the good life doing the odd bit of show-jumping, and he may pass on some of his experience via a bit of  lower level eventing next year with a very lucky novice rider, sadly probably not Lily, or me!  

After a short hack down the lanes, (heaven, I miss the hacking, and yet used to get SO bored and dread it, what a brat I was!) Lily has been riding in the arena the last couple of days, and might have been the happiest girl alive. However, all’s not well that ends well! I should have known it was too good to last – we spent this afternoon here….

Hamish and Tiger doing dressage in front of Wilton House

Another day, another continent: Hamish Cargill and Sandhills Tiger are re-united in competition and emerge from their initiation into English Eventing unscathed, well, physically so. I’m sure we’ll hear more about how Hamish is coping with the after-effects on his wonderful blog, hopefully soon, hint hint, Hamish!  Credit to the beautiful turn-out of Tiger goes to Lucy Griffiths and Mouse; for Hamish, I’m not so sure.  The Aussies and Kiwis were out in full force, perhaps because they were taking advantage of the Brits celebrating a certain union in Edinburgh, or maybe I’m over thinking it!

Hamish’s partner in crime, Chris Burton on his lovely WEG ride, Holstein Park Leilani, one of several he rode on sunday – Good luck to Hamish in finding a spot on that shared lorry!

Australian Sam Griffiths, and gracious hero host to Hamish and Chris Burton, here on Motion Bound, also seemed to be constantly switching from one nice horse to the next.

Clayton Fredericks on the lovely Be My Guest; a day he’d rather forget but I’ll let him explain in his own words…

I rode at Wilton many years ago now, and I found it quite reassuring that it still looks exactly the same, most of the cross country included! Here’s former World Champion and all round Kiwi Eventing Legend Blyth Tait warming up with last year’s 7th place WEG finisher and rising Kiwi star Jock Paget. 

Blyth is back on the scene and bidding for Olympic selection next year with Santos

Jock now finds himself in the enviable position of having two really nice horses aiming for London next year, Clifton Lush, and his 2010 WEG ride Clifton Promise. 

Jock Paget on Clifton Promise.

Jock told me he rates both horses very highly, and if forced to pick one, would choose Promise only because of their longer history together. Promise and Jock will do the dressage and show-jumping at Gatcombe next week, the Test Ride at Hartpury, and then have one more run before Burghley. Blyth and Santos eventually finished 2nd at Wilton, you can find all the results here. 

Dressage: only for fans!

The Royal Wedding notwithstanding, the Brits were still ably represented, not least by experienced Badminton 2009 and 2010 campaigners Tony Warr on Coolgrange Merger

Mary King in grooming mode for daughter Emily, who had a great day. Mary rode in the Novice later once her duties were over!

Longing to be out on course, or anywhere but here! 

The show-jumping was a basic course in a grass arena, not much fanfare, with an oxer, four tightish strides to a vertical in the middle that caused some trouble, and then a treble coming down the hill.  I was surprised by how well it rode on the whole, and by how well it was ridden – I think I’ve been in the States too long!  You can see a few of the rides on video here.

The cross country is quite hilly, which is useful for those using Wilton as a last prep before Gatcombe next weekend, and has a bit of everything on it: two waters, a drop, corners, skinnies, big, galloping fences and quite a few combinations. The first and last couple of fences on the intermediate course are shared with the novice, and although when you walk it, it seems straight forward enough, the course claimed it’s fair share of scalps today. You can see some of the cross country video below, but be warned, turn down the sound so you don’t hear the wind, and my two fractious children whining and arguing!

Wilton is an extremely compact event: the dressage takes place in front of the house, with limited warm up space around outside of the arenas, and verging on show-jumping warm up in one direction, and back towards the lorries and the cross country in another. The show-jumping and tradestands are the centrepiece of the event, and are bordered by the dressage on one side, the lorry park on another, and with cross country running along two other sides – sort of! – we’re getting into geometry territory a bit here, not my forte. The cross country starts and finishes in the same place, virtually in the lorry park, and so apart from walking the actual course, nothing is really more than a couple of minutes away. You can see quite a lot of the cross country from the lorry and car parks, which make it something of a social event, but I’d forgotten how busy everyone is at a normal one day event over here, and how quick you have to be if you have multiple rides – doesn’t leave much time for chatting until the end of the day, by which time my poor children were knackered, so the only thing to do was to get out and take some pictures! 

Hamish and Tiger

Vicky Brake

Clayton Fredericks and Be My Guest looking good at the double of corners, but sadly came a cropper later

The 2nd Corner

Wendy Harris and Just Appeal

Lucy Wiegersma on Simpson II

Jump judge

Finally, I was thrilled to meet Rachel, Michael and Lily, the delightful Uptown Eventing Team today. We’ve been virtual friends for a while now, stalking each other via twitter, websites and various social media, and Uptown Eventing is a terrific source of news, but far more importantly, they find, and match you with really good horses. How good? Imperial Cavalier, Fernhill Urco and Manoir de Carneville good. Did I also mention how charming they are? I can’t think of anything more wonderful than going on a horse shopping spree with them, and we’ll be bringing you lots more about how it all works in more detail soon. Until then, I’m very glad that Lily and Harry have made a new friend on the English eventing circuit, and me too!

The drive home was long and slow because we inevitably kept getting stuck behind horseboxes on narrow roads, but we all had a terrific day at Wilton, and now after squeezing in some visits to more family and friends this week, we’ll be gearing up for the Festival of British Eventing presented by BETA next weekend at Gatcombe, what a treat. Go English Eventing!

Hamish and Tiger doing dressage in front of Wilton House

Another day, another continent: Hamish Cargill and Sandhills Tiger are re-united in competition and emerge from their initiation into English Eventing unscathed, well, physically so. I’m sure we’ll hear more about how Hamish is coping with the after-effects on his wonderful blog, hopefully soon, hint hint, Hamish!  Credit to the beautiful turn-out of Tiger goes to Lucy Griffiths and Mouse; for Hamish, I’m not so sure.  The Aussies and Kiwis were out in full force, perhaps because they were taking advantage of the Brits celebrating a certain union in Edinburgh, or maybe I’m over thinking it!

Hamish’s partner in crime, Chris Burton on his lovely WEG ride, Holstein Park Leilani, one of several he rode on sunday – Good luck to Hamish in finding a spot on that shared lorry!

Australian Sam Griffiths, and gracious hero host to Hamish and Chris Burton, here on Motion Bound, also seemed to be constantly switching from one nice horse to the next.

Clayton Fredericks on the lovely Be My Guest; a day he’d rather forget but I’ll let him explain in his own words…

I rode at Wilton many years ago now, and I found it quite reassuring that it still looks exactly the same, most of the cross country included! Here’s former World Champion and all round Kiwi Eventing Legend Blyth Tait warming up with last year’s 7th place WEG finisher and rising Kiwi star Jock Paget. 

Blyth is back on the scene and bidding for Olympic selection next year with Santos

Jock now finds himself in the enviable position of having two really nice horses aiming for London next year, Clifton Lush, and his 2010 WEG ride Clifton Promise. 

Jock Paget on Clifton Promise.

Jock told me he rates both horses very highly, and if forced to pick one, would choose Promise only because of their longer history together. Promise and Jock will do the dressage and show-jumping at Gatcombe next week, the Test Ride at Hartpury, and then have one more run before Burghley. Blyth and Santos eventually finished 2nd at Wilton, you can find all the results here. 

Dressage: only for fans!

The Royal Wedding notwithstanding, the Brits were still ably represented, not least by experienced Badminton 2009 and 2010 campaigners Tony Warr on Coolgrange Merger

Mary King in grooming mode for daughter Emily, who had a great day. Mary rode in the Novice later once her duties were over!

Longing to be out on course, or anywhere but here! 

The show-jumping was a basic course in a grass arena, not much fanfare, with an oxer, four tightish strides to a vertical in the middle that caused some trouble, and then a treble coming down the hill.  I was surprised by how well it rode on the whole, and by how well it was ridden – I think I’ve been in the States too long!  You can see a few of the rides on video here.

The cross country is quite hilly, which is useful for those using Wilton as a last prep before Gatcombe next weekend, and has a bit of everything on it: two waters, a drop, corners, skinnies, big, galloping fences and quite a few combinations. The first and last couple of fences on the intermediate course are shared with the novice, and although when you walk it, it seems straight forward enough, the course claimed it’s fair share of scalps today. You can see some of the cross country video below, but be warned, turn down the sound so you don’t hear the wind, and my two fractious children whining and arguing!

Wilton is an extremely compact event: the dressage takes place in front of the house, with limited warm up space around outside of the arenas, and verging on show-jumping warm up in one direction, and back towards the lorries and the cross country in another. The show-jumping and tradestands are the centrepiece of the event, and are bordered by the dressage on one side, the lorry park on another, and with cross country running along two other sides – sort of! – we’re getting into geometry territory a bit here, not my forte. The cross country starts and finishes in the same place, virtually in the lorry park, and so apart from walking the actual course, nothing is really more than a couple of minutes away. You can see quite a lot of the cross country from the lorry and car parks, which make it something of a social event, but I’d forgotten how busy everyone is at a normal one day event over here, and how quick you have to be if you have multiple rides – doesn’t leave much time for chatting until the end of the day, by which time my poor children were knackered, so the only thing to do was to get out and take some pictures! 

Hamish and Tiger

Vicky Brake

Clayton Fredericks and Be My Guest looking good at the double of corners, but sadly came a cropper later

The 2nd Corner

Wendy Harris and Just Appeal

Lucy Wiegersma on Simpson II

Jump judge

Finally, I was thrilled to meet Rachel, Michael and Lily, the delightful Uptown Eventing Team today. We’ve been virtual friends for a while now, stalking each other via twitter, websites and various social media, and Uptown Eventing is a terrific source of news, but far more importantly, they find, and match you with really good horses. How good? Imperial Cavalier, Fernhill Urco and Manoir de Carneville good. Did I also mention how charming they are? I can’t think of anything more wonderful than going on a horse shopping spree with them, and we’ll be bringing you lots more about how it all works in more detail soon. Until then, I’m very glad that Lily and Harry have made a new friend on the English eventing circuit, and me too!

The drive home was long and slow because we inevitably kept getting stuck behind horseboxes on narrow roads, but we all had a terrific day at Wilton, and now after squeezing in some visits to more family and friends this week, we’ll be gearing up Festival of British Eventing presented by BETA next weekend at Gatcombe, what a treat. Go English Eventing!

About a month ago an article in Horse and Hound caught my eye, and with the few clicks of a mouse, a life-long ambition was fulfilled and I became a racehorse owner.  What makes this deal particularly sweet though is the cost – zero. Funded by Racing for Change, Tweet Lady truly is the people’s racehorse, owned by her twitter followers and fans.  The beautiful and ever more popular 2 year old is one of 50 horses in training at Rod Millman’s family style yard, The Paddocks, nestled among the hills in Devon, and we went down to meet her as she was prepping for her third race. 

I’ve always been told that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, but in this instance I might be wrong. As trainer Rod Millman explains to me, 

“Racing has been in the Dark Ages for a long, long time. It’s like anything – if you look at how the Premier League is run now it’s totally different to how it was 25 years ago, and Racing has sort of stayed a bit the same, so it’s got to move with the times a bit, and this is just one of the initiatives to try and bring more people in.  The idea behind it is for people like yourself to get the feel of racehorse ownership without the massive expense, hopefully you will enjoy it, maybe you will come in to another partnership or even buy one on your own. It’s a taster. We’ve had a good contingent come to the races each time she’s run; one of the men was all keen to get his own racehorse and his fiancee was trying to put a damper on it because the wedding was coming up! It’s definitely getting people interested.”

Rod started out at The Paddocks as an exercise jockey and jump jockey in the 80’s, and has been resident trainer there for 21 years. His son Patrick is Tweet Lady’s regular exercise rider, and Patrick’s brother James rides her in races.  As I write this Tweet Lady has just over 1,200 followers on twitter; every time she runs there’ll be competitions for Owner’s badges, and extra tickets can be arranged for those who don’t win. The Millmans will be organising an open day at The Paddocks for owners, who also get to decide which charity any prize money she might win should be donated to. Tweet Lady’s next race is this monday night (1st August) at Windsor, and she’ll have 3 enthusiastic owners cheering her on. My thanks to the team at The Paddocks for showing us round and introducing us to her, and wishing them a succesful campaign with the people’s racehorse. As they say in American racing, Go Baby Go! Go Tweet Lady! 

I was thrilled recently when the stars aligned, and my being home in England coincided with the inaugural  Team Fredericks Eventing Camp held over three days the week before the Wilton Horse Trials which is local to the Fredericks’ Rosegarth base. Catering specifically for riders in the UK who might not otherwise get a chance to ride with them, Lucinda and Clayton were tentatively calling the camp a success when I visited them about half-way through, but their students were much more enthusiastic,

I was thrilled recently when the stars aligned, and my being home in England coincided with the inaugural  Team Fredericks Eventing Camp held over three days the week before the Wilton Horse Trials which is local to the Fredericks’ Rosegarth base. Catering specifically for riders in the UK who might not otherwise get a chance to ride with them, Lucinda and Clayton were tentatively calling the camp a success when I visited them about half-way through, but their students were much more enthusiastic,

Somehow in the middle of organising a weekend of both national and international events, a long format three day event and future event horse classes all of which added up to some six hundred horses converging on Rebecca Farm, Sarah Broussard-Kelly managed to sit down for a brief chat with me. I’d like to thank her for taking the time to talk to Eventing Nation, and for showing us such wonderful hospitality all weekend.

Not only was 2011 a milestone for the The Event at Rebecca Farm because it was the tenth anniversary of the competition, but it was also of course the first year without Sarah’s mother, Becky Broussard at the helm.  Sarah, a keen rider and eventer herself, knows she has big shoes to fill, but has been groomed for the job by the very best, and has had plenty of time to hone her skills, 

“I’ve been involved organising the event here at Rebecca Farm with Mom, since the inception, since 2002. Before that I helped with being the secretary at Herron Park Horse Trials which was a local horse trial that we had here in the Kalispell area. That had just grown too big, and that was what drove my mother and father to find this property and create this course. So I’ve been the Secretary here since the beginning; four or five years ago we hired Christina Gray ( now also of Rolex fame!) to help with that, and theoretically my mom kept saying she was going to retire as Organiser and I was going to take over, and we even called her Organiser Emeritus, but it was her baby, she just wouldn’t let go! Last year she was supposed to be out of it as far as the organisational side went, but she still pretty much did everything, and was continuing to do a lot of stuff for this year. Since January I’ve had to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing as an Organiser because she never let me do any of it before, and then, once I had that figured out, figure out what she’d already done, because she had done quite a bit for this year! It’s been an interesting six months, my learning curve has been quite steep, and so at least now having one year under my belt as the “only” organiser, I’ll do better next year.” 

Sarah sells herself short; the event ran like clockwork all weekend. Five dressage arenas, three show-jumping rings, a long and packed day of cross country action, and everyone absolutely thrilled to be in Montana,

“My mother had a great group of people here that are very good at their portion of the puzzle, that are still here, and without having those people here I’d be lost. We all work well together, we all know that everyone is going to do what they’re supposed to do, everyone knows what their job is, so that makes it very much easier on me.” 

Sarah last competed a couple of summers ago on the former Ralph Hill ride, My Boy Billy, a match made by Karen O’Connor, and an extremely successful one, “we had an absolute blast”. Sarah also just acquired another horse after a chance ride at a Leslie Law clinic at her farm on a mare “that made me look good after not being in the saddle for eight months and was so much fun”, and course builder Bert Wood actually competed her in the Training Division at Rebeca Farm.  The sculpture of Sarah and Guinness, see picture at top,  is her on her young rider horse who she sadly lost on course in 1994, and there is a wonderful award in his name –  The Guinness Award Perpetual Trophy is awarded to the Highest Placed Young Rider each year at Rebecca Farm, along with a cheque for $1,000. It’s just one of a long list of extra awards that make The Event feel so special and like one of the premier three days of the world. (Of course my favourite is the TS Maxwell award given to the highest placed OTTB in the preliminary division – it’s the little touches!)

The amazing new show-jump standards for 2011

Sarah lives on site with her two young children and she tells me there’s usually an assortment of older horses and ponies in the paddocks for them to ride, and play around on. She laughs and tells me that even though her daughter is barely trotting, all she wants to do is jump, and so she’s picked out a future eventer for her already, perhaps the nice Irish horse that she had going in the YR prelim this weekend! 

“IF eventing is what she likes to do. At this point she likes to ride, they both like to ride (Sarah’s daughter is 7 years old, her son is 5 and a half) but I’m not going to force them one way or another, although I will say she’s barely off the lead line, can’t control her pony to go anywhere, and every time we go up to the arena all she wants to do is jump!”

Sarah says that Montana is a wonderful place to raise her children, and of course a fantastic venue for The Event at Rebecca Farm, and usually the most difficult hurdle is persuading people to come for the first time; after they’ve visited once, generally they’re hooked,

“For all those first time competitors that have never been to Rebecca Farm that I try to convince to come, I tell them it’s a vacation. This valley has so much to offer. I tell them to bring the whole family, plan the vacation with your husband/wife/kids; whoever isn’t competing can go hiking, fishing, zip-lining, whitewater-rafting…. There’s just so much to do here, not to mention the beauty of the valley, and the graciousness of the community and once I get people here then they’re addicted!”

On the wednesday evening of this year’s competition there was a special ceremony to commemorate Becky’s life, and after pictures, speeches, food, drinks, laughter and a few tears, everyone laid a flower at the water’s edge in her memory.  What is astounding is how many people Becky touched throughout her life, and how wonderful that her legacy will carry on in such tremendous style, just as she would have wished. 

“My mother really wanted to have a showcase event for the riders in the West so they didn’t have to travel East in order to qualify to go international or anything like that, so we created The Event here at Rebecca Farm. She wanted it to be a true international event, with true international flavour. With having the horses from the East, obviously that’s the first step; the next step would be having the Europeans come over.  I don’t think they really travel internationally for a three star competition so there is that speed bump, but having the East Coast horses come really made her happy last year. I don’t think happy even encompasses it, she was proud, she was excited, she was honoured, there are so many adjectives I could use to describe how my mother felt last year when that plane (Air Horse One) landed in Kalispell, it was amazing.”

Sarah is a lot like her mother, with big heart and big dreams, so it didn’t feel completely out of the realm of all possibility when I asked her if she’d ever considered having a four star event at Rebecca Farm?

“I have thought about it, I’m not going to say that I haven’t. I’ve also been very interested in hosting Young Rider Championships; there is always that possibility if we could pull it away from the Kentucky Horse Park that I would put a bid in.  I know that at one point they were trying to find a permanent home for Young Riders, and as much as I’d like it be somewhere else, I know that Kentucky is a good place for it – it’s a wonderful facility, it’s fairly centrally located and they have good courses. I have wanted to run a CCI 3*, we only have the CIC 3*, but Robert Kellerhouse has the CCI 3* at Galway, and my mother very graciously said to let Robert have it, and we were curious if the West would be able to support two? As far as a four star – I’m not going to say no, but I’m not going to say that I have any plans at this point in time.”

Somehow in the middle of organising a weekend of both national and international events, a long format three day event and future event horse classes all of which added up to some six hundred horses converging on Rebecca Farm, Sarah Broussard-Kelly managed to sit down for a brief chat with me. I’d like to thank her for taking the time to talk to Eventing Nation, and for showing us such wonderful hospitality all weekend.

Not only was 2011 a milestone for the The Event at Rebecca Farm because it was the tenth anniversary of the competition, but it was also of course the first year without Sarah’s mother, Becky Broussard at the helm.  Sarah, a keen rider and eventer herself, knows she has big shoes to fill, but has been groomed for the job by the very best, and has had plenty of time to hone her skills, 

“I’ve been involved organising the event here at Rebecca Farm with Mom, since the inception, since 2002. Before that I helped with being the secretary at Herron Park Horse Trials which was a local horse trial that we had here in the Kalispell area. That had just grown too big, and that was what drove my mother and father to find this property and create this course. So I’ve been the Secretary here since the beginning; four or five years ago we hired Christina Gray ( now also of Rolex fame!) to help with that, and theoretically my mom kept saying she was going to retire as Organiser and I was going to take over, and we even called her Organiser Emeritus, but it was her baby, she just wouldn’t let go! Last year she was supposed to be out of it as far as the organisational side went, but she still pretty much did everything, and was continuing to do a lot of stuff for this year. Since January I’ve had to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing as an Organiser because she never let me do any of it before, and then, once I had that figured out, figure out what she’d already done, because she had done quite a bit for this year! It’s been an interesting six months, my learning curve has been quite steep, and so at least now having one year under my belt as the “only” organiser, I’ll do better next year.” 

Sarah sells herself short; the event ran like clockwork all weekend. Five dressage arenas, three show-jumping rings, a long and packed day of cross country action, and everyone absolutely thrilled to be in Montana,

“My mother had a great group of people here that are very good at their portion of the puzzle, that are still here, and without having those people here I’d be lost. We all work well together, we all know that everyone is going to do what they’re supposed to do, everyone knows what their job is, so that makes it very much easier on me.” 

Sarah last competed a couple of summers ago on the former Ralph Hill ride, My Boy Billy, a match made by Karen O’Connor, and an extremely successful one, “we had an absolute blast”. Sarah also just acquired another horse after a chance ride at a Leslie Law clinic at her farm on a mare “that made me look good after not being in the saddle for eight months and was so much fun”, and course builder Bert Wood actually competed her in the Training Division at Rebeca Farm.  The sculpture of Sarah and Guinness, see picture at top,  is her on her young rider horse who she sadly lost on course in 1994, and there is a wonderful award in his name –  The Guinness Award Perpetual Trophy is awarded to the Highest Placed Young Rider each year at Rebecca Farm, along with a cheque for $1,000. It’s just one of a long list of extra awards that make The Event feel so special and like one of the premier three days of the world. (Of course my favourite is the TS Maxwell award given to the highest placed OTTB in the preliminary division – it’s the little touches!)

The amazing new show-jump standards for 2011

Sarah lives on site with her two young children and she tells me there’s usually an assortment of older horses and ponies in the paddocks for them to ride, and play around on. She laughs and tells me that even though her daughter is barely trotting, all she wants to do is jump, and so she’s picked out a future eventer for her already, perhaps the nice Irish horse that she had going in the YR prelim this weekend! 

“IF eventing is what she likes to do. At this point she likes to ride, they both like to ride (Sarah’s daughter is 7 years old, her son is 5 and a half) but I’m not going to force them one way or another, although I will say she’s barely off the lead line, can’t control her pony to go anywhere, and every time we go up to the arena all she wants to do is jump!”

Sarah says that Montana is a wonderful place to raise her children, and of course a fantastic venue for The Event at Rebecca Farm, and usually the most difficult hurdle is persuading people to come for the first time; after they’ve visited once, generally they’re hooked,

“For all those first time competitors that have never been to Rebecca Farm that I try to convince to come, I tell them it’s a vacation. This valley has so much to offer. I tell them to bring the whole family, plan the vacation with your husband/wife/kids; whoever isn’t competing can go hiking, fishing, zip-lining, whitewater-rafting…. There’s just so much to do here, not to mention the beauty of the valley, and the graciousness of the community and once I get people here then they’re addicted!”

On the wednesday evening of this year’s competition there was a special ceremony to commemorate Becky’s life, and after pictures, speeches, food, drinks, laughter and a few tears, everyone laid a flower at the water’s edge in her memory.  What is astounding is how many people Becky touched throughout her life, and how wonderful that her legacy will carry on in such tremendous style, just as she would have wished. 

“My mother really wanted to have a showcase event for the riders in the West so they didn’t have to travel East in order to qualify to go international or anything like that, so we created The Event here at Rebecca Farm. She wanted it to be a true international event, with true international flavour. With having the horses from the East, obviously that’s the first step; the next step would be having the Europeans come over.  I don’t think they really travel internationally for a three star competition so there is that speed bump, but having the East Coast horses come really made her happy last year. I don’t think happy even encompasses it, she was proud, she was excited, she was honoured, there are so many adjectives I could use to describe how my mother felt last year when that plane (Air Horse One) landed in Kalispell, it was amazing.”

Sarah is a lot like her mother, with big heart and big dreams, so it didn’t feel completely out of the realm of all possibility when I asked her if she’d ever considered having a four star event at Rebecca Farm?

“I have thought about it, I’m not going to say that I haven’t. I’ve also been very interested in hosting Young Rider Championships; there is always that possibility if we could pull it away from the Kentucky Horse Park that I would put a bid in.  I know that at one point they were trying to find a permanent home for Young Riders, and as much as I’d like it be somewhere else, I know that Kentucky is a good place for it – it’s a wonderful facility, it’s fairly centrally located and they have good courses. I have wanted to run a CCI 3*, we only have the CIC 3*, but Robert Kellerhouse has the CCI 3* at Galway, and my mother very graciously said to let Robert have it, and we were curious if the West would be able to support two? As far as a four star – I’m not going to say no, but I’m not going to say that I have any plans at this point in time.”

There’s a strange energy here this morning. The nerves for those who still have to jump, including of course, the CIC 3* which will be last to go in the main arena. An exhaustion after a busy week in all sorts of weather, from freezing, to rain, to baking sun. Some packing up has already started; Hawley Bennet-Awad’s crew are planning on leaving at about 6pm tonight and making the 24 hour drive straight through. On top of all that, an end of term sadness that it’s all over again for another year. 

It’ aint over ’til the fat lady sings! 

However, as I mentioned, there’s still plenty of action to come. Our Questionnaire has been prepped for his CIC 3* show-jumping with the now obligatory red lipstick kiss on his nose from  Cassie Segal, owner of Ballynoe Castle RM. It worked wonders for Heather Gillette and Questy in the dressage, and again yesterday on cross country, so Heather told me she’s going to make sure Cassie’s around to kiss Questy as much as possible from now on!

Heather also told me that Questy pulled a shoe off at the water yesterday, and but for that she might have been a bit quicker, but overall she was really happy with her ride. (she picked up 4 time faults to lie in fourth position going into the show-jumping)

Jessie Phoenix told me Pavarotti also pulled a front shoe on course yesterday, and someone actually handed it in this morning. He looked terrific out on cross country yesterday, very mannerly in a double bridle.  He looks none the worse for wear today either, and trotted up like a champ this morning – they go into the show-jumping with the lead in the CCI 2*.

I spotted supergroom Max on her way back from the tradestands, she’ll be taking a little piece of Montana back to Virginia with her. Karen O’Connor also told me how thrilled she was with her lovely mare, Veronica. Although she was kicking herself for galloping past a fence in Jurassic Park, it’s been a great, educational first advanced run this weekend for her horse, and she certainly came out and looked impressive this morning, she didn’t want to touch a fence. 

Karen said she’s excited that Veronica will get to run every couple of weeks or so now. 

I’m excited because I’ll be re-united with my kids tonight – I left them at the ranch with my long-suffering mother, a big thank you to both, and an apology to the sweet boy of about ten years old today on his bike who asked me a question, and without thinking my maternal instincts kicked in and I answered him, “my darling”, as if he were my son, not sure which one of us was more mortified!  It’s been a fantastic weekend here, I’m just sorry I’m going to miss the very end, but I have a plane to catch as usual. Thank you to all the volunteers, organisers, riders and grooms. Thank you for reading, and Go Eventing!