Clearhearts first show since moving to AZ and training with Frederic was a great success!  The show season started off at the Galway Downs CIC-W*** World Cup qualifying and International Horse Trials in Temecula, CA.

 

Clearheart was shown in the Sr Novice division and placed 2nd overall!  He was first after the dressage phase, recieving a score of 27.0 (73%).  Stadium jumping left us in 3rd after having one rail down, but cross-country was clean and we moved up to second in the overall standings.  Congratulations to Clearheart on a great first outing.

 

Twin Rivers Ranch international three day event and horse trials in Paso Robles, CA was also a success.  After scoring a 35 (65%) in dressage we were in 5th place, but a double clear round on cross country and stadium jumping moved us up to 2nd.  Clearheart was very brave on the cross country course, faced with a new course with many jump types he had not seen before.

He had many admirers at the show, one person stated that he looked like a breyer horse model!  Everyone who meet him was surprised to find out that he was a stallion.

 

After successful additional Novice outings at Flagstaff and St. Johns, Clearheart and I are currently placed 2nd overall in the national USEA standings list for Senior Novice division!  We will be moving up to Training level at the next event.

 

Clearheart was amazing at his first training level event! He attacked the larger fences with great zest! We were 1st after dressage with a score of 33%, but a rail in stadium and a few time penalties on cross country knocked us down to 2nd overall.  It seems that bigger is better for him! He loved the challenge that training level presented him.  We missed placing 1st by only a few time penalties on cross country; it was muddy from an overnight rain, so I wanted to be careful on his first training trip out.

 

3 Day Ranch in Aguanga, CA was also a great sucess!  We finished 2nd overall.  This was Clearheart's 2nd training level event.  The course was designed by olympic rider David O'Connor (his first on the west coast) and was quite a challenge.  Every fence was large and technical with multiple combination fences, there was even a complete coffin complex on the training course!  Many of the fences looked like prelim fences you would find on other courses.  We had a great time, Clearheart was fearless on the bigger course, we finished clean with no time  faults.  Our dressage was also nice, we scored a 32.0 and that was with 2 point error as well! We would have won if not for the error on our dressage test:(  Everyone we ran into comented on how beautiful Clearheart was. We will definately be visiting this event again!

 

The training level championships at Grass Ridge Horse Trials in Sonoita, AZ was a personal disapointment.  We were 1st after dressage with a score of 32 penalty points (68%), and remained in 1st after a very nice stadium jumping round.  Unfortonately, and due soley to rider error, we had a stop on cross country(our only stop all season!) that  knocked us out of the running.  Better luck next year!

 

All and all, Clearheart and I had a wonderful first season.  We will be working hard over the winter and look forward to "cleaning up" next season! We will be returning to training level and plan to be moving up to preliminary level by mid season and then possibly doing some one stars by the end of the year and into the next season. 

 

November 2006: Clearheart just finished his AI training.  He was a little confused at first, but he is a fast learner and figured it out quickley!  Dr. Longworth and his staff were very impressed with how well behaved he was.  We have an excellent report on his semen-good quality and lots of it!

 

Please check back to see our progress and some more great pics next season.