Lft to Rt above: Amber Zaratsian, Rio Landa, Elizabeth Moore, Alison Eyth and Queen Chloe. This year’s show was quite blustery and we all got a bit windburned and wore multiple layers all weekend. Huge congrats to my students Rio Landa for winning both the championships at Training and First level AA divisions and Alison Eyth for being the Reserve Champ in the 2nd level AA division on her recently purchased from Blake Atherton “Queen Chlo Chlo” ! Rio also got the coolest big purple ribbon ever and lovely gift basket for winning the Radka Heiniman Memorial award for a dedicated AA rider, (please see gallery pic and other details below:) This award is sponsored by Donna Kelly Dressage to honor one of her former students who lost her battle with cancer recently but according to everyone who knew her fought hard and always had a good attitude. Thank you very much Donna and Radka!
Pics
Our weekend began with a few challenges with this being Rio’s horse’s (5 yr. Hannoverian gelding Dushay HFF aka D.J. at the barn) first trip to the horse park, (and Rio’s first recognized show with him), he was a little “up” and needed a quick ride prep from E on Fri before she got on. Rio said he was leaping around after an hour of lunging and resembled something other than the horse she knows, so she was not sure she even wanted to compete. Luckily we were all able to convince her to ride and they did not put a foot wrong after that!
Then Amber’s horse Jetta (14 yr. Fresian Qtr. cross mare) unexpectedly stumbled during the canter work of her Championship T-1 test, which unseated Amber, and although they were both fine, it still disqualified them from the championships. Luckily, they had a much better test during their 1st-1 ride later that day and scored a 67% which earned her a third in that class, and they were also able to better some movements in that same test on Sunday.
Elizabeth and Melissa Johnson’s horse Belissimo Volto (coming 10 yr. Hannoverian gelding) made their 4th level debut Sat. earning a 60.132 with an error in 4th 2, and a 63.462 in 4th 1. Volto was absolutely terrific and I am fortunate to have such a lovely horse to train. Sunday he warmed up very nicely but apparently I (Elizabeth) now need to admit I need a reader on occasion though, (especially in 4th 2 apparently) and that I also need to triple check the arena I am riding in, as I made some unnecessary mistakes which led to our being disqualified from the 4th level championships and made me annoyed with myself since we had earned a 70% in the same test at a schooling show 2 weeks before that! Thank you very much to our wonderful sponsors Custom Saddlery, Ezium, and Cartilast LLC, without which we could not do this amazing sport. All four of the horses we brought to the show go in Custom saddles and two use the Ezium supplement which has made a big difference in them both.
Victory Hill Farm 