This image doesn’t nearly do this amazing venue justice.
Well hello Eventing Nation!
While all the cool kids were out at Jersey Fresh over the weekend, the coolest kids were running around Plantation Field. If you haven’t been, and I recommend you go, Plantation Field is located in Unionville, PA in the heart of where most of the PA eventers are located. The FENCE HT in Landrum, SC may have competition for best view. Plantation Field has 360 degrees of gorgeous rolling hills. They hold 4 recognized and 3 unrecognized events each year with the CIC in September being the biggest draw. If you’re not riding, and even if you are, this would be the place to volunteer. They take care of their volunteers the usual way, water, lunch, etc, but there’s so much more. Each volunteer gets a raffle ticket that’s entered to win a $100 Bit of Britain gift certificate or $1,000 towards a trip to next year’s Rolex! Sign me up! For more about Plantation Field, visit their website.
This May event was perfect in every way. The weather was unbelievable, the footing was fabulous, the courses rode great, and I saw many more smiles than tears, which is always a plus. As I was making my way around the cross country taking photos and videos, I chatted with almost every jump judge. I met some wonderful volunteers including Cindy Gilbert and Amy Dragoo. Now, of course, I gushed about Amy in the News and Notes, and technically I met her at a photo shoot earlier this spring, but she’s such a fantastic person, I can’t say enough about her. She was doing double duty photographing the water jumps while simultaneously jump judging as well. Thank you to all the volunteers for your hard work! We couldn’t do it without you!
You can check out the results here.
For the upper levels, Sally Cousins took the top three placings in the Open Intermediate on The Robber Barron, Joule, and Kestrel Key, respectively. Allie Blyskal had an unfortunate tumble at fence #17 in their first intermediate. She was looking fabulous around the rest of the course. Horse and rider are both fine and walked away. Alexandra MacLeod and Railroad Man Jim won the JYOP adding just a few time penalties to their dressage score. Courtney Cooper and Decorated decorated themselves with a blue ribbon in the OP, while Sally Cousins followed close behind picking up the second, third, and sixth place spots. Benita Stirini scored an impressive 18.7 in the dressage on Sammy Jo in the Preliminary Horse division. They led from start to finish. Stephanie Davis and Tall Chai Latte won the Preliminary Rider division. Starbucks should sponsor them. Also in the Preliminary Rider division is EN favorite, John Nunn. I caught up with him and his lovely daughter, Jennifer as they were packing up.
Here are the Intermediate and Preliminary xc for your viewing pleasure. Of the two, I would rather jump the intermediate. It as much more straight forward than the preliminary. Take a look:
Intermediate:
Preliminary:
There was lots of great riding by all those in the Training-Beginner Novice divisions. These are some of my favorite divisions because of the fashionistas and wild ponies.
This lovely pair is dressed to the nines and I like it!
And who doesn’t love those Thelwell’s running through water?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irj0Otvae-0
The staff and management at Plantation are always updating and making the venue better. They’ve purchased more land in recent years greatly expanding the event. The foundation was a big favorite for me. And, I’m wondering if these stairs take you to better riding. Maybe I’ll learn to turn left finally.
The Foundation
The stairs to better riding?
Well, Eventing Nation, I leave you with Riders #87 and #88 in the training show jumping. (If this is you, please let us know!) I do have to ask though, do you like the course walks/fence by fence? I feel as if the videos of the courses may be a bigger hit than the fence by fence, but Eventing Nation, I am here to serve. Let me know what you want to see!
Go Plantation Field.
