We were a little late to the party and didn’t discover the live stream from Arville until, well, tonight — but have no fear, Tamie Smith is keeping us well in the loop on her Instagram page all week long.
Tamie’s got three horses (the Ahearn family’s Mai Baum, Ruth Bley’s Danito and Julianne Guariglia’s Solaguayre California) with her on her latest international journey, and while this weekend was intended to be a pipe-opener, she nonetheless impressed with two impressive clear cross country rounds. Well, two and a half, if you could Mai Baum’s clear run that ended in a planned retirement. Mai Baum is headed to Aachen next to contest the Nations Cup as a part of Team USA.
“I was so pleased with them,” Tamie said. “Arville is stunning! The officials and staff were amazing! What more can you ask for! It was great getting back out there.”
Catch up with Tamie and Danito, whom Tamie says “zipped around like it was just another day at the office. I’m so proud of him!”
And for fun, a bit of Solaguayre California.
Tamie reflects, “And California … well what can I say about her just blazing around her first four-star! Wow! What a horse and how lucky am I to be riding her! I have only run around Twin Rivers as a school before we flew the horses over to meet up with the black stallion and I was super pleased with them both! They put in three solid phases to knock off some rust before gearing up for our fall long format at Boekelo.”
And hey! Why not warm-up the black stallion with one of the all-time greats, Michael Jung?
“Lexus was like letting a dragon out of his cage,” she said. “I was so happy to be out galloping him after having to keep him up for so many weeks leading up Tokyo and then him not getting to run was difficult. We let him down a bit after he returned to Germany to help him put some weight back on and just take a breath. Arville was more of a prep run for Aachen and originally I wasn’t going to go cross country but after he bolted in his canter depart in the dressage, I thought I should probably take him out for a spin. I sure wanted to keep going before I pulled up to retire but I knew I needed to do what was best for him and his preparation and well being.”
