Junior Focus A
A Trip East, Then Back By Haley Webster
trip back east has been a dream of mine since I started riding with
Patty Ball as an eight year old. This year I went for my first attempt at the “Big Eq” Finals as they are called, and the first thing I will say is riding there was definitely a much different atmosphere than I am used to. An educational experience filled with anticipation and excitement from the start, every rider is amazing and the horses are incredible.
I was fortunate to be able to take my own horse since most people lease a horse that’s already there. Luciano (Moose) is a 12 year old Oldenburg that flew for his first time in October when I showed him at Harrisburg, PA in the USEF Pessoa Medal Finals.
Because there were shows going on at home
during Harrisburg, Patty Ball wasn’t able to go so I trained with Karen Healey. As a student, I appreciate the work relationship between Patty and Karen; it has been a great support to me the past few years on this journey.
I had always heard crazy stories about riding at 2:00am in the morning but being able to
actually experience it was amazing, and very stressful. Since the warm up ring is always crowded, the only opportunity to ride is at that time of the morning so we do.
On Friday we took the
horses to a facility about 20 minutes away from the show to practice where we could set a course and have our own arena. After we rode, the horses got a turn out in nice grass pastures for a while, it had to relieve a little of their stress.
The warm up round on Saturday was a simple
hunter course, I was happy with my round. Sunday was the finals and I went 119th out of 256. I had a good round but was not in the top 25. Karen did have two other girls that made it to the top 25 so I was really excited for them!
From here Moose went to a layover barn in
Maryland for a few weeks with Nick Haness before he then went to The Kentucky Horse
The riding schedule at this show was crazy. One of the days I had 4 lessons……….. let’s just
Park for the ASPCA Maclay Finals. The park is beautiful and huge so we rode every inch of it including the giant cross country field, which helped relieve some of the nerves!
I was lucky that my trainer Patty Ball could
join us for this Finals and she and Karen both helped me. I had a great support team when Patty’s assistant, Sara Knudson, and her parents came as did my best friend Abby Dentino and her mom. Of course my mom and grandpa were there as always.
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