Last weekend the big girls (Torie, Michaela and I) and Isabelle had a fun-filled three day weekend in Aiken, SC watching Torie compete at a 3 day horse trial. She and Brego, her off-the-track Thoroughbred, competed in a 3 phase competition which includes dressage, show jumping and cross-country. It's the same event that you see in the Olympics. As a matter of fact, Phillip Dutton and Kim Severson, both Olympians, were competing at the event this weekend. It was fun to watch them compete in person. Thankfully they competed in a different division than Torie.
On Friday Torie competed in the "ballet" of the event - dressage.
After dressage was over we spent a lot of time just hanging out and watching the other competitors ride.
Isabelle was a good sport. She's learning young how to just "hang out" at the horse shows. The professional photographer at the show, who took all the photos, was enamored with Isabelle. He is a retired businessman who made over 60 trips to China before retiring from the cotton trade. He actually knew how to pronounce the city where Isabelle was born. Quite impressive!
On Day Two, Torie competed in the Show Jumping Phase. She and Brego went double-clean...no rails down and no time faults...
On the 3rd day Torie went cross-country. The course was exceptionally hard. Out of 22 entries, 6 riders had falls on course and chose to retire (stop and not finish the course.) It's the toughest course we have ever seen. Thankfully Torie and Brego went double-clean on the course...no time faults and no stops or falls.
On cross-country the horse and rider gallop the course and jump immovable jumps.
The next 3 photos are a progression over a downhill jump...this one looked scary to me..Torie and Brego thought it was a piece of cake.
Torie and Brego ended up 9th out of 22. We were thrilled with the finish since they were competing against some of the top horses in the country. Horses trailered in from as far away as Canada. Torie has trained Brego completely on her own - no professional trainers involved. She's becoming a professional in her own right.
Their next competition is in a few weeks in Southern Pines, NC. After that Brego will be listed for sale. He will make someone an excellent, well-trained eventing horse.
3 comments:
way to go Torie & Brego!
Good Job Torie And Brego!!!!! I hope To do that someday!! Great Teamwork!!!!!!
Katie
WOW! ! ! Tell Torie I said congrats. Brego is an amazing horse! Is Michaela going to show her horse?
Shelby
P.S. That is so cool that ya'll got to see Phillip Dutton and Kim Severson!
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