The Youngest and Oldest (Two-Legged) Competitors 22 60
at the 2015 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event By Amber Heintzberger
MACKENNA’S HIGHS AND LOWS
This year’s Rolex Kentucky three-day event started like a dream for 22-year-old Mackenna Shea, the youngest competitor at this year’s event. She and 13-year-old Bavarian Warmblood gelding Landioso were in sixth place after dres- sage and they were looking brilliant on their first four-star cross-country. Then unfortunately Landioso misread fence 21, the
double corners, and had a crashing fall, ending their chances
at finishing the competi- tion. But rest assured this young pair is practicing hard to make a comeback and try again. When Mackenna, who hails from Washington state, visited
the Rolex Kentucky three-day event as a spectator in 2008, she didn’t seriously picture herself as a competitor. Like most eventers, she dreamed of competing at Rolex, but didn’t imagine that she would actually compete on the hallowed grounds of the Kentucky Horse Park just seven years later.
On the Fast Track The past year has brought major changes—and growth— for Mackenna, who has trained with upper-level rider Tamie Smith at Next Level Eventing in Temecula, California for the past three years. After falling off Landioso (by Legendar) at Jersey Fresh last spring, she rerouted to Bromont and there was introduced to Olympian Boyd Martin by USEF Direc- tor of Eventing Joanie Morris. Seizing an opportunity, she started work for him the next morning and stayed on, work- ing at Boyd’s Windurra farm in Pennsylvania, until the Fair Hill CCI*** that fall. Mackenna had intended to compete at Boekelo in the
Netherlands after receiving a travel grant from the USEF, but changed plans to ride at Fair Hill after she had a rider error at one of the events leading up to the trip overseas. (Unfor- tunately she popped out of the tack on cross-country at Fair Hill.) Keeping her goals flexible, she traveled back to Califor- nia and finished the season with a solid run at Galway Downs. She’s owned Landioso for nine years now, since he was
four years old. “I know he could do bigger things if he was with a professional, but it’s really special that we’ve done it all together,” she says. That first time Mackenna walked around the Kentucky
Mackenna Shea and Landioso start on a high with a great dressage score, and are here jumping at the head of the lake, but unfortunately a few minutes later suffer a fall at fence 21.
22 July/August 2015
Horse Park back in 2008, the riders seemed unapproach- able. But now she has become one of upper level eventing competitors she once thought so distant. “There are things I didn’t notice; now the atmosphere feels different,” she says. “It’s a different vibe as a rider. It’s
to
Ed Haas
Amber Heintzberger
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