Hi Elizabeth and Barry,
I have an exciting update on Grayboo and Amanda. They completed their first Preliminary Horse Trial at Poplar Place a week and a half ago and had a great run. They had a dressage score of 39 – not bad for their first attempt at this level and then proceeded to jump a clean stadium round. The course was not ideal for Grayboo – it was very spread out and gave Grayboo a chance to build speed from jump to jump, but Amanda managed to get him around OK (that and he absolutely can’t stand to touch a jump). Grayboo was an absolute super star on cross country – he jumped clean and Amanda finished 7 seconds over the optimum time, so added 2.8 penalties to their dressage score. I was surprised that Amanda was able to finish close to time her first time out. They finished 10th in a large Open Prelim division of 24. 5 of the 9 horses that beat her were ridden by: Jonathan Hollings, Werner Geven, and Becky Holder. Not bad company to finish behind. Amanda had a blast and can’t wait to do her next prelim – most likely at River Glen in August.
Amanda has taken cross country lessons with Werner Geven at Poplar. Werner loves Grayboo – he says he is a super talented horse (but we knew that already!). Grayboo is extremely smart and careful on cross country – he always knows where to put his feet.
I bought all of the digital pictures from the show but have not received them yet. I will send you some photos when I get them. In the meantime, if you follow the link from the Poplar Place Website for the June show, you can look at the pictures on the website.
That’s all for now. I’ll let you know how things go over the summer and fall shows.
Karen