‘Welcome to Eventing’ is the newest of all the series here on Eventing Nation, and was the idea of one of our most loyal readers. The objective of the series is to chronicle the stories of either your first event, or the first event your horse competed at. We all know that Eventing is a game of experience, which usually translates into some comical recounting of those days before we had any idea what we were getting into by starting to event. If you’d like to submit the story of your first event, please send it along with a picture to [email protected]. We are running low on profiles, so please send yours in!
I am so proud of my son and his new mare in their first season. This is 18 yr old Stephen Hall and his 6 yr old Selle Francais Mare – Prospect’s Lillian.
How far we have come – at the first combined trial of the season, Lilly only did w/t at her first dressage test and Stephen decided not to do Stadium as he didn’t think she was ready.
That was April 2011 at Grandview. She did her first cross country schooling in June.
Fast forward to October 2, 2011 – Grandview Fall Horse Trial – their third full event – Dressage score was 10% better than a month earlier 65% (52 penalities Canadian) a beautiful stadium round and her third clear cross country.
Prior to the last fence, Lilly slipped and almost went down – Stephen almost came off but she righted and he stayed on but lost his right stirrup – the last jump – with no stirrup – the reason he was riding a bit to the left.
In all three events she did this season she did not have a single refusal cross country. One run out stadium (rider error) and finished with a lot of confidence and skill to move up to pretraining next year. They have worked so hard and had a great first season. Thanks so much to our coaches Michele Mueller and Karin Davis.
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We welcome submissions from parents of eventers! From the EN Census, we’ve learned there are lots of proud moms and dads who also read the site. We would love to hear about the sport of eventing from the parents’ perspective. If you have anything to share, please email it to [email protected].
