‘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 if you send yours in it will have a great chance of being published!
Photocredit: Red Horse Media
From Nicolas:
I grew up in France/Germany and started riding around the age of 5 at a public barn. Sometime in high school I stopped riding altogether. Two years ago I met my wife and she has been eventing since her younger years. I started to get the itch to ride again and decided to go ahead and purchase my first horse ever! Quite the commitment for me. I have a thing for draft horses and ended up with Picasso, a 7 year old Percheron/Quarter Horse/Paint mix. Picasso did not know anything besides being a trail horse. After some intensive coaching by my wife, we discovered that he was actually quite willing to jump and no so bad at it for a draft horse. His first event was a fundraising show at Sharon White’s Last Frontier Farm in Summer 2010. Since then, we have shown in local shows in Virginia and thanks to my wife’s coaching we have progressed to Beginner Novice level. Beginner Novice has been quite the challenge for Picasso and I. We are both green at the discipline and we’ve struggle so far. The potential is there, but we have to put it all together. Our last show ended with Picasso stopping in front of a ditch and me flying over it. We still have lots to learn!
Nicolas was kind enough to send the video of the ditch dismount:
The picture is from this year’s JUMP! event at Sharon White’s farm. Go Eventing!
As a side note on Nicolas’s profile: He and his wife are the developers of the brilliant CourseWalk app that meters your course off to find the minute markers using GPS technology, which means you can do away with the old, cumbersome meter wheels and download this app on your iPhone or iPad.
