Photo with kind permission by the wonderful Jenni Autry
Lillian Heard and Share Option capitalised on a nice dressage test with a clear show-jumping to take the overnight lead in the Advanced Division Saturday ahead of the cross country on Sunday. This is Share Option’s first competition back at this level after a layoff following an injury, “I’m really excited, this is my horses’ first advanced back in a couple of years so I’m really happy about how it’s going so far. He injured his tendon two years ago and I just took a really long to rehab him. I also went abroad for a year traveling and working and riding, so now that I’ve come back I’m bringing him back. I worked for Carol Gee of Fernhill Sporthorses in Ireland and then a couple of people in England, namely Tim Russbridge, a New Zealand guy living over there. I learned a ton, it was like a crash course in everything you don’t know in horses. It was a lot to learn over here in the US, but they do everything differently over there in England so it was intensive and amazing. They do everything a little bit differently. It wasn’t that I saw that I saw the way they did everything a little bit better, but more that I realised that there are a lot of different ways to do this, and there’s a best way for each one of us specifically as riders.” The weekend started well for Lillian and Whitey, so nicknamed due to his four white socks and white eye, with a good test on Thursday, “His dressage was really good, that’s normally a weak point and he was really good and I’ve been working really hard on seeing what works and what doesn’t work, playing around with the warm up, riding him twice, and it came together yesterday, I was really really excited. My plan for the cross country is to go out and to have a really positive ride for him, I probably won’t be chasing the time since it’s my first one back so I’m not going to be grasping on to the lead because I don’t want this to be the last event we ever have, I just want him to jump nicely, take it easy around the turns and be really positive, that’s my plan. I like the course, it’s really nice, I think it’s a good first advanced back for me, I’ve been here before with him, the last time I was here I thought it was a little bit tougher so I when I walked around I was worried thinking it might be a really big Advanced to come back but it looked like it should ride pretty well. My plan is to do the CCI*** at Bromont and then probably the CCI*** at Fairhill but we take it day by day, I don’t like to make too many plans too far in advance! ” Lillian imported Whitey from England as a four year old with the help of Jan Byyny; he’ s now eleven and has brought him up through the levels herself, “he’s sort of like my pet, he’s probably my last one that’s like my young rider pet type horse; when he broke down and I thought I’d maybe never event him again, I wasn’t ever going to get rid of him – this is my horse. I brought him up and he has never done me wrong. He’s a really really good boy. He’s not the fanciest nor the best, he doesn’t look like much but he takes care of me so I love him.” Is it the wine talking or don’t we all wish we had horses like that, or could find horses like that for our daughters? Lillian on the show-jumping, “He show-jumped really well, he felt really great. I thought the course was pretty hard, it came up fast and you had to be really calm in order to execute it well, and I think there are a lot of horses that probably do a bit better show-jumping after they’ve gone cross country when they’re more relaxed, but Whitey is always relaxed, and so we actually benefitted, this format is very well-suited to him because he’s a quiet horse so if I can do the show-jumping before I go out and exhaust him on the cross country then he jumps way better so I was really really happy with him.” Lillian brought two Irish horses back with her after her trip, “they’re great too, all Irish too, not intentional but I fell in love with Irish – they just find me!”. Lillian worked with Boyd Martin for a few years before her trip abroad but says Jan is always with her, “She was outside the dressage ring to tell me how I did, they’re all there, even when they’re not there, they’re all there!” Lillian taps her head and laughs!
Best of luck to Lillian this weekend and we’re happy to see Share Option back in action. Thanks for chatting to us, thanks for reading Eventing Nation, and Go The Fork Eventing!
