Kat Drake: Coconino Summer I Horse Trials

Kat Drake attended the second event in the Coconino Summer Horse Trials Series in Flagstaff, Ariz., and was kind enough to send in a report. Many riders use Coconino as a prep run for Rebecca Farm and drive straight to Montana following the event, so Coconino attracts a top-notch field. Many thanks to Kat for writing. Go Coconino!

Miles of trails for hacking surround the event; this was a ropes course we found on our hack the day before the show. Photo by Kat Drake.

From Kat:

Coconino is an absolutely beautiful venue and is very different from the events Californians like me attend on a regular basis. As an added bonus, it has the cleanest porta-potties of any horse show you’ve ever been to! The last point is especially important, since the majority of competitors seem to camp at the event. The camping is between and around the barns, which are in the midst of Fort Tuthill County Park’s pine forest at about 7,000 feet above sea level.

James Atkinson’s cross country course weaves through this same forest and offers courses from Pre-Comp through Intermediate. One of the notable features of all of James’ courses that I just discovered this weekend is the courtesy cooler built into one of the jumps on each course. I guess the trick is to make sure that if you fall off it happens near the cooler so that you can grab a beverage on your way back to the barn!

Some of the big highlights for the second Coconino weekend are the Novice and Training 3-Days, which have a big focus on education and feature practice jogs, talks on roads and tracks and the vet box, and steeplechase schooling — all under the guidance of upper-level riders. Heather Capps-Drager aboard Noblesse Oblige won the Training 3-Day, while Janet Gordon on Irish Beginnings took home the prize in the Novice 3-Day.

Our group had the good fortune of being stabled next to Janet, who had come down from Colorado with only a friend who hadn’t been around horses in 20 years to help. We were able to help her in the 10-minute box along with our own Novice 3-Day rider, and we made a new friend in the process. To me, the fact that Janet was confident that she would be able to find more help for the vet box at Coconino and was able to do just that is one of the great things about eventing; I am sure we would not have been the only group there to volunteer to help her.

In addition to the horse trials and 3-days, Coconino offered combined tests at every level, and several riders who are going straight on to Rebecca Farm used these in preparation. Barb Crabo rode both Eveready and Over Easy in the Advanced Combined Test and is headed on to the CIC3* at Rebecca, and Taren Atkinson rode both Gustav and Annie Oakley III in the Intermediate Combined Test in preparation for the Open Intermediate on both horses at Rebecca.

In spite of everything going on, the organizers and volunteers did a great job keeping the show running smoothly. Coconino seems to be in one of the few areas of the country that still has an afternoon thunderstorm every day, but amazingly the show was only held once for a storm over three days! The show office kept a watchful eye on the storm radar and did a fantastic job speeding things up when necessary to keep us all ahead of the thunderstorms.

The mandatory briefing that stressed horsemanship and two competitor’s parties (a welcome party and a dinner) also made the event feel very welcoming and homey. Thank you to all of the volunteers and officials for making Coconino such a great event; I will certainly look forward to coming back next year! Go Eventing!