Advanced Course Debuts at Texas Rose Horse Park
by Mary Hirsch
Julie Norman and Consensus win against a thunderstorm at Texas Rose Horse Park’s first run over a newly-built Advanced course.
Sunday update from Texas Rose Horse Park
Those who looked at Texas Rose results online, but haven’t yet gotten direct word, may be wondering – what happened? The positive point of view: Although the early morning sky was as threatening as the forecast for this day has been for the past week, I have a pretty good weather prayer that I put into action and the thunderstorm lasted for less than an hour, not the all-day rain-out some forecasts had predicted. Well of course I don’t know if the prayer had anything to do with the short (but intense) duration [pretend there is a cute wink-grin icon here].
How hard was it raining? Bad Eventer (Laura Szeremi) shows us that It was raining this hard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
(I am one of Bad Eventer’s many friends and blog readers.)
In Texas it’s not uncommon for terrifying dark clouds to mass and cover the sky, abruptly darkening the landscape. It was weird to see a suddenly-dim cross-country course, in the middle of the morning, dotted with the headlights of official vehicles. Lightening was spotted, and shortly afterward a heavy thunder-boomer of a storm had water cascading from barn and building roofs. But in spite of the dire appearance of the sky these storms can pass quickly, and less than an hour later the rain moved elsewhere and patches of blue sky could be glimpsed behind the receding storm clouds.
Preliminary had got around before the storm, but not the Open Intermediate group, with Advanced and Training following after. The footing showed very little visible mud, but the majority of OI and Advanced riders elected to save their horses for another day. Training began after the course had some time to air and there were few withdrawals, primarily clean jumping rounds and a fair number inside the time.
Well aware of the forecast, cross-country officials, including Cross-Country Show Manager Carsten Meyer and Event Organizer Kathy Brunson, as well as Technical Delegate Roger Haller and Ground Jury President Marilyn Payne, are to be saluted for efficient storm management. With threatening clouds rolling in early in the morning, a number of jump judges and officials were placed on course inside vehicles. When lightening emerged the course was quickly cleared of people and horses. Once dangerous conditions subsided, all was rapidly re-assembled, and despite the brief but heavy rainstorm, horses were going out of the start box with only a 30-minute delay in assigned ride times (a gap that was made up during the day).
So that is how it came to be that only two of the seven Advanced division riders rode the course on Sunday. The seven entries all had previous experience at Advanced except for two, and most are planning to move up again within the next 12+ months (read: Rolex Kentucky). Although the ground readily absorbed the heavy rain with very little visible mud to spare, only Julie Norman and Ellen Doughty elected to continue.
Two positive, forward clean jumping rounds were turned in by Julie Norman on Consensus and Ellen Doughty on Sir Oberon. Both considerably exceeded the optimum time of 6:02. Julie’s 40.3 from dressage became 61.1, while Ellen’s 33.8 dressage ended at 87.
“I think Capt. Phillips did a great job with the course,” said winner Julie Norman. “He had a lot of the questions we saw on the east coast and Florida this year. It rode great, my horse just kept going forward to it. It was fun, I enjoyed it quite a bit.”
“My first Advanced was at Rocking Horse in February. This course at Texas Rose I think was more challenging. At Rocking Horse there was quite a bit more galloping room where you can get the horse out in front of the leg. Here the questions come up very fast, and they were a lot bigger. You have to be smart and think about making the tighter turns to save time. You can’t go too fast because the jumps come up fast. There weren’t very many breathers on the course. It was big table, big question, big table, big question. At Rocking Horse they had some jumps where you could think “these are my easy ones, let me think about the question coming up.” Here you had to ride all of them,” said Julie.
As for Julie’s preparation team, “I train with Regis Webb at Holly Hill Farm [in Benton, La., owned by Bobby and Tracy Hewlett]. Last week I clinic’d with Karen O’Connor at Holly Hill. While I was in Florida over the winter I rode with Clayton Fredericks. I’m very fortunate that I get to train with some great people. They have all really helped me and Consensus.”
As for Julie’s future plans for her riding, “I graduated with a Biology degree in 2011 , and right now I’m riding horses. I keep going back and forth as to whether I want to go back and get my Masters and possibly a doctorate. I really enjoy riding, and it’s hard to do both right now. I train and give lessons. I’m very fortunate to be based out of Holly Hill, they are such a big support group. “
Although Ellen Doughty and Sir Oberon led the field after dressage and show jumping, Ellen stayed with her plan to give Obie a confidence-building ride on cross-country without pushing for time in their first Advanced. “I didn’t even start my watch,” she said. Happy with Sir Oberon’s solid trip, Ellen and Obie look forward to posting qualifying Advanced rounds at Rebecca Farm, Richland Park (her home state), and Fair Hill later this year.
Jacob Fletcher elected to forego cross-country on The Prof, giving up 2nd place after dressage and show jumping. “It’s a great open, galloping course which would have been phenomenal had we missed the rain! It looks to me like Area V is more than ready to be the proud home of the 2013 AEC’s.” He explained further, “I felt that it rained too hard for too long. With Theo having a great cross-country at the last three shows, I wanted to practice the dressage and show jumping at Texas Rose. I am going to Holly Hill Horse Trials [April 19-21] three weeks from now in prep for the Chattahoochee Hills CIC***. After that, it’s on to the Bromont CCI***, assuming all goes well at Chatt.”
For those who wish to follow some of the emerging Advanced riders who participated at Texas Rose this weekend, here’s a summary of the future plans they shared (as of the day they shared them, of course):
Julie Norman & Consensus – Julie says she is thinking about qualifying for Rolex Kentucky 2014 vs. getting a Master’s and possibly a Ph.D. From where Julie’s home base in Louisiana, including her own professional lesson and training program, qualifying means long-distance travel and possibly training time in another state. Texas Rose’s Advanced course, only 2 hours drive for Julie, is not available for training until after the AEC’s to allow preparation by September.
Ellen Doughty & Sir Oberon: Rebecca Farm; Richland Hills; Fair Hill this year
Jacob Fletcher & The Prof: Holly Hill; Chattahoochee Hills CIC***; Bromont CCI***
Emma Kate Fisher & Carlingford’s Forever: qualify for Rolex Kentucky 2014
Here’s Ellen and Obie at the drop …
https://www.facebook.com/
-
- caption
