Maryland Eventing: Valerie Pride & the Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill, continued...
be Pride and Favian’s five-star debut and Pride felt they were more than ready. Unfortunate- ly, the pair had a mandatory retirement after Favian fell on cross-country. Both horse and rider were unharmed and ran around the Jersey Fresh International CCI4*-L in May. After taking a summer break, Pride and Fa- vian placed 22nd
the American Eventing Championships before finishing 11th
in the Intermediate division at at the Stable View Okotberfest
CCI4*-S in September. All in all, the fall at Kentucky is the only cross-country jump pen- alty on Favian’s record.
The Maryland 5 Star In a special twist of fate, Pride’s first five-star
completion came on the very grounds of her first event, as her first eventing experience was at Fair Hill while participating in the Delmarva Region’s annual eventing rally. “It is crazy to think that I’ve now jumped around the five-star at the same place!” she added. Pride arrived at Fair Hill for the Maryland 5
Star with a mix of excitement and anxiousness to see what the new five-star would look like. “No one knew what Maryland was going to look like but everyone was talking about fitness and if their horses were fit enough for the hills,” she said. When she pulled into the event, Pride was pleasantly surprised by the grandeur of the venue. “Tey made it feel in so many ways that you weren’t just competing at a horse trials at Fair Hill. You were at a five-star! I’m pretty sure I said to myself, ‘this is really happening!’” By the first horse inspection on October 13,
Pride felt ready, and so did Favian. “He totally puffs himself up for the jogs,” she said with a chuckle. “He knows they are all watching him.” Te next day, Pride headed to dressage warm up aboard Favian. “I didn’t have anyone there to coach me and that was rough. I started to doubt what I knew about dressage but got some en- couraging words from David O’Connor as I entered the warm up ring so that helped,” she said. “Favian felt amazing in warm up! He was so much stronger than this spring.” Pride, who is also a licensed judge, ended the dressage phase with a score of 31.9 to sit in 11th place after the first day of dressage. “It was fun to know that your week was off to a great start,” she added. Competing on the first day of dressage also
gave her all day Friday to focus on cross-coun- try and gave Favian a rest day before the big cross-country test. “Te cross-country course was so unique. Like the double keyhole cor- ners… how did [course designer] Ian [Stark] dream that up!” she said. After walking the course several times, Pride
and Favian left the start box on October 16 ready to attack the course… well at least Pride felt ready. “Favian was so distracted by the tailgaiting at the start of the course. I actually had to tap him with my whip to try and get him focused on the job at hand. I kept trying to tell him that
all those people were his admirers,” she laughed. By the time they got to fence 5AB, the first
water on course, Favian clicked into gear. “Te course started to turn away from the tailgates at that point and he locked on and just kept on going. I had my horse back,” Pride remarked. As the course progressed, Favian felt more and more confident and Pride took all the direct routes. Ten at the last water, “I second guessed myself a little and thought about taking the longer, easier route but Favian felt great so we took the direct route.” Te hesitation at the start of the course caused the pair to add 12.4 time faults to their dressage score and moved them down to 23rd place. Te drop in placing did not dampen Pride’s excite- ment over how well cross-country went. “It just felt great to finish my first five-star and to have so many people there supporting us,” she said. “But then you had to put it all aside and get ready for the next day.” Te “next day” being the final horse inspection before show jumping. Favian passed the final inspection Sunday
place overall. “He got a little tired at the end [of the course] and was slightly twisting away from the jumbotron while we went into the triple,” Pride explained. “To have two rails in the final second was disappointing but you just don’t know what horse you will have left at the end of shows like this.” In the end, Pride was the only Maryland- based entry to complete the CCI5*-L and for this, she is very proud. “I’m so proud of being a Marylander and being in Area II,” she said. “And so proud of Maryland. It is really special to get to compete at home and I hope other Maryland eventers get to experience this sort of thing. Being able to compete at the highest level of our sport right in our home state.”
morning and Pride entered the show jump warm up ring later that afternoon. Overall, the show jump course was presenting competi- tors with technical questions that were causing several rails to drop. Unfortunately, Pride and Favian also dropped a few rails but stayed in 23rd
Winter Homework Heading into winter, Pride is planning a trip
to Florida to compete at the World Equestrian Festival in Ocala. Her winter competition plans include jumpers, however, not eventing. “Favi- an needs the practice and to get his show jump- ing muscles more fit. I’m hoping doing a lot of jumper shows will help improve this phase for him moving forward,” Pride explained. While Favian will be working on show jump-
ing, Pride is continuing her own education as an international eventing official and judge. Pride is currently a Level 2 Eventing Judge through the USEF and a Senior Eventing Judge through USEA. “I’m working on my Level 3 so I’ll be able to judge at the five-star level,” she stated. After Florida, it’s off to Kentucky to take an- other stab at a five-star.
28 | DECEMBER 2021 | THE EQUIERY YOUR MARYLAND HORSE COUNCIL PUBLICATION
The Mighty Theodore An additional member of the Blue Clover
Eventing team is Teodore, a 13-year-old registered Miniature Horse that accompanies Favian everywhere. “Favian is kind of mean to- wards other horses but also hates being alone and we kept trying to figure out a companion that could help keep him relaxed,” Pride ex- plained. “And then we found Teodore and it was love at first sight!” Pride also explained that she always asks
permission to bring the Mini to competitions but so far, all show organizers have said yes. “Tey seem to understand that some horses need a companion in order to perform their best,” Pride said. In order to travel to FEI-level competitions, Teodore is micro chipped and has his own passport!
800-244-9580 |
www.equiery.com
Valerie jokes about how picking just the right outfit for the international jogs can be just as stressful as the competition saying, “Favian is just so stunning!”
Chelsea Spear
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