Name: Lindsey MacDonell
Age: 16
Location: Worthington, Ohio (Area VIII)
Relationship to Eventing: Novice level rider, working student
Favorite Eventing moment/story?: I have a few! My first recognized horse trial was quite an experience. I was riding my friend’s hunt horse who hadn’t been to an event in at least five years. I laughed the whole way through Dressage and when I was done, the judge jokingly
told me that Dressage wasn’t supposed to be fun! Stadium went well, although Jager thought that an orange and blue oxer was scary and ran out. Cross country was absolutely perfect, except I forgot to jump a down bank and locked onto the water at the bottom of hill, thus
cantering right past it and finishing the rest of the course without a clue. Although I was sad to not bring home a big ribbon, I had the best cross country trip of the year and now I course walk a little bit differently!
At a recent horse trial with my (new) horse Annie (actually our first together), we had a decent Dressage and went about a minute too fast on cross country but had an absolute blast. And I didn’t miss a fence! On Sunday morning, I was awoken by a lovely thunderstorm rolling
through. Luckily by the time I went, the storm had past and the arenas were fairly dry again. I was given some false information that due to so many withdrawals from the rain, the divisions were running much faster than scheduled. So, I hurried to warmup to find that nothing
had changed. I took a seat to watch the course, and quickly noticedthat the first fence was causing a ton of trouble. I was told by my trainer to drive to the fence if Annie even thought about backing off, and I absolutely agreed when I watched the girl before me fall off at
the seemingly harmless green oxer. To my relief (and gut instinct), Annie didn’t even bat one of her precious lashes at the trouble fence and had a fantastic round. (I missed a fence, but circled and took it again. So much for “I don’t need to walk the course because I’ve
watched it for an hour.” Lesson learned!) We ended up eighth, but were mistakenly given the ninth place ribbon. It was a great event to kick start our career together, and now we’re going Novice!
If you had to pick one reason why you love Eventing, what would it
be?: There are so many things to love about Eventing, from the kind volunteers to the fun each horse trial brings. I think that what I love most about Eventing is the bond you have with your horse. Especially for a long format, this sport demands that you know every little detail about your horse in order to be a successful team. By having to be so versatile, horse and rider are mentally and physically tested all the time, and I feel that it can only be done with a true partnership.
Overall Goals in the sport: Like most riders, I would love to someday
stand on the podium for my country. But short term, I would like to
finish this season (2011) successfully at Novice, and then next year
(2012) run Training!
Biggest Role Model: I’m quite an old school romantic, therefore I look
up to masters such as Lucinda Green and Mark Todd.
Link to blog or website, if applicable: http://anniegreensprings.wordpress.com
Photo(s) or videos: http://youtube.com/lindseyymac
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