From Julia:
This is a photo of my old horse Joey at his first event. Joey was born on a ranch in South Dakota, mostly QH. When I bought him he was barely backed and barely four years old. Erstwhile to opening date for FENCE horse trials, he had never worn English tack. On something of a dare, and with the security of knowing I had one of the best trainers in the business to get him started, I entered the event (recognized BN) before I bought the horse. So his education the first week was steering, week two was poles on the ground, week three was crosspoles, week four was xc schooling, week five was stadium jumping, week six was review, and then we went to the horse trials! While I wouldn’t recommend this with just any horse, it turns out that Joey took to eventing with his whole heart. No matter what question we asked, his answer was, “Sure mom, I can do that.” We kept all four feet in the dressage arena, had one rail in stadium, and a whole lot of time on xc (poor thing wasn’t fit, so I gave him a walk break) to finish in 7th place. A lot of credit goes to my trainer at the time, Nadeem Noon, who knew just how hard to push. But most credit goes to Joey, who went on to complete a prelim, became a packer at training level, and is now a pampered field hunter with his new owner.
