If you’ve already read my posts on our social media about Freedom Fest, you’re probably thinking there isn’t much more here to read that hasn’t been said. You’re wrong!

My social posts were a brief rundown of each rider, but I could go ON AND ON about these riders. I promise I won’t go on forever, but here is some more detail about each pair that rode in the competitions held at Skyline Eventing park last weekend.

Olivia and Remus competed in the 2-Phase Friday and Mini Event Saturday, at Intro. We had only schooled Remus cross-country once and still had a lot of unknowns about him. Cross-country always brings up so many questions with a horse you don’t know extremely well. Is he barn sour? Buddy sour? Antsy about the startbox? Spooky? Worried about people or other horses on course? Scared of flowers? Scared of water, ditches? Does he know how to go up and down a bank or different terrain? Does he trust the rider enough to jump something he’s never seen before? Cross-country is all about training and trust. What we found out is that Remus has had an incredible foundation of trusting humans and someone has done a superb job at training him. Paired with our careful training program to make sure he kept the confidence he had and was able to build on it, he totally shined. He took every question and situation in stride, and when he did show a little less confidence, Olivia was right there to reassure him and show him that she would help him. Olivia’s last ride was Jack, a very seasoned event horse who was a “point and shoot” type, so going from him to a big elephant who isn’t totally sure about everything was a huge difference! Olivia did so well at adapting her skills to her mount and giving Remus a confident ride. Their dressage was beautiful and accurate, their show jumping smooth and clean, and cross-country so fun to watch. They placed 3rd in the 2-Phase and 5th in the Mini Event, but more importantly, accomplished their goals of gaining confidence for Remus and being able to change and manage different aids for Olivia.

McKinley and Sam have been working super hard all winter to compete at Beginner Novice and this was their first try at that level! After competing Intro all last year, we polished their skills through practice and training and they were ready. Sam had a few issues with show jumping this weekend, but McKinley was so patient and had such a great attitude and made me proud to be her coach. I have seen A LOT of teenagers throw fits, threaten to sell their horse, or even abuse their horse because they refuse to jump. McKinley kept her cool, didn’t blame Sam, and instead rode him forward to the fence and tried again each time he stopped, getting him through the whole course while keeping his trust in her. We decided Saturday that if he was still feeling like he didn’t want to jump, she would retire on the cross-country course and bring him in. But it would have to be her call and her decision out there. I was nervous putting the responsibility in her hands but I trusted that I had taught her well and that she was sensible and mature enough to do what’s right for her pony. After hearing multiple times from her things such as, “I’m just happy to be here!” and “I want him to have fun and be ok,” I knew she would make the best decision for Sam. Happily, they went out and Sam was keen to jump around the entire cross-country course! I may or may not have threatened him with selling him to a dressage only home…but hey it worked! Haha! McKinley’s attitude impressed me all weekend, from the times she encouraged and supported the other riders to her maturity in handling what could be a disappointing weekend with Sam, to her literally making friends with anyone and everyone she saw at the show.

Freedom Fest was Alakea’s first show ever! She and Huey did the grasshopper 2-phase on Friday and were totally awesome! It’s so overwhelming to go to your first show. Even if you’ve been to shows before there’s always lots of unknown factors. Plus Alakea was super brave to trust Huey after we took him to the Lynnleigh 2-phase the previous weekend and he was pretty wild! Luckily Huey is the absolute best boy, and switched gears in his head and was super calm and quiet for Alakea. I have rarely seen horses who can go and do the bigger jumps with that much enthusiasm and then be quiet enough for a new rider to trot around the crossbars. I was trying not to laugh when everyone at the show jumping in-gate were commenting on how slow and quiet he was! If only they would have seen him last weekend! Alakea also impressed me with keeping her cool when she forgot a part of her dressage test. It’s always frustrating and can be embarrassing to mess up your test (trust me, I would know!), but when it happened she didn’t melt down or even lose her focus. She kept riding and did the best she could with the rest of the test. That’s one thing I love about dressage-you can score a 3 on a movement and feel terrible, then go on to have an amazing next movement and score an 8. I love that there is always another chance and that you can always improve.

When Brooklyn got Hades 6 years ago, he was not exactly the type of horse you’d recommend for a kid, or even a teen, wanting to event. He was terrified of going outside the arena. He would spin and bolt back to the barn every time he went out the gate. He flat out refused to get in the trailer, and that was literally the smallest problem we had with him. Cross-country was a disaster. He had zero confidence and would go into “fight” mode every time we tried to convince him to do something like go into the water. It was very apparent that he had absolutely no trust in humans and feared abuse at every turn. There were multiple times Brooklyn and her parents were ready to sell him because he would progress a little, then we would hit another giant roadblock in his training. I didn’t blame them at all and even recommended selling him myself once. Something kept telling me to push through though, and I told them so. I saw a lot of potential in him, even when all the odds said he would never make an event horse. Brooklyn persevered with him and we spent years undoing bad training, slowly gaining his confidence and trust in her, and training him up to be the horse he showed us he could be. Last weekend proved that, when they put in their best dressage score to date, double clear show jumping and double clear cross-country for 2nd place in Beginner Novice. More importantly, that horse trusted Brooklyn the entire time and she rode impeccably, giving him the support and confident ride he needed. They were competing in their division against some really expensive, nice horses, as well as some very talented riders who had years more experience than they did. The win was made so much more rewarding for Brooklyn though, who had taken her cheap horse someone hadn’t wanted and trained him herself, putting in the blood, sweat, tears, time, perseverance and dedication to put in 3 spectacular phases and prove that correct training and time always pays off. As they came through the finish flags, Brooklyn collapsed onto Hades’ neck, patting and praising him like crazy and holding back tears. I had ran around the course with her to watch the whole thing, and as I ran up to them I told her “don’t hold it in-let it out because you’ve earned this!” As she burst into happy tears I followed suit and we proceeded to cry all over Hades while petting and praising him. I’ll never forget that moment and the sweetness it brought-not because of any ribbon or placing but because hard work had paid off and we knew the horse was so much better for it.

Freedom Fest was Kate’s second ever show and first event. She took Renly to the Lynnleigh 2-phase the weekend before, which was her first show and Renly’s third. I got Renly last year and he was a total “cowboy” horse, reining trained and used for trail riding his whole life. He had a very natural affinity for jumping and really seemed to love it. He has made a wonderful cross-country horse, with pretty much zero dressage skills! Kate started riding last year and has progressed incredibly fast in her skills. I normally would never put a green rider on a green-ish horse, but Kate has proved time and again that her natural feel and empathy for the horse make her well-suited to help a horse get around all 3 phases. The best (and funniest) part of their weekend was that at the Lynnleigh show they scored a 3 on their halt in dressage because Renly refused to halt. The week before Freedom Fest we practiced the halt, and Kate and Renly scored a 7.5 (their best score) on the halt! That proved to me that Kate was great at setting and accomplishing goals, practicing to improve her skills, and not letting a bad score get her down but instead fuel her desire to improve. They jumped double clean at both the 2-phase and the mini event, placing 6th and 5th on a horse who literally “can’t dressage”! The best part of watching this pair was seeing Kate’s HUGE grin as she galloped through the cross-country finish flags. I knew then that she had really caught the eventing bug and nothing could make me happier!

Hana rode Hades in the 2-phase on Friday, and totally kicked butt! Hana doesn’t have tons of experience showing and has only ridden Hades for a few months, but you definitely couldn’t tell! It was so awesome to watch Hana go into the show jumping ring with no visible fear after a few very intimidating things happened. First, she watched rider after rider get run outs or refusals as almost her entire division had problems with their horses on the show jumping course. Second, we had discussed with her what happened with Hades last year at this show, which was that he had spun and his rider fell off in the same show jumping ring. I had coached Hana on how to handle him if that happened, but I know it had to be scary nonetheless! I told Hana it was her job to give Hades the confidence he needed by not leaning forward with her shoulders, keeping her leg on around the turns and to the fences, and steering him straight. That all sounds so much easier than it is, especially for Hades! It was so amazing to see Hana go into the ring and remember everything I told her to do, not only on show jumping but in the dressage arena too. They placed third in their Intro division and made us all so proud! Hana is such a fun girl to teach because she always tries hard and has a good attitude. She is fun for everyone to be around at the barn too because of these qualities.

Annika and Huey at Lynnleigh-our photographer was riding at the same time at Freedom Fest so we didn’t get pictures of them there

Annika came back from serving her mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in March. She had ridden for years before then, but has only had a few months to get back into the swing of things as she wasn’t allowed to ride the entire 18 months she was on the mission. Before she left she was riding her horse Leo, who was super green and just being introduced to eventing, as Annika herself was. When Annika came back we started her riding Huey so she could get her fitness and skills back, and as Leo sustained an injury it was meant to be that they became a team. Annika put in a ton of time practicing and getting to know Huey before the show. Like I said before, Huey was totally wild and forgot how old he was at Lynnleigh, which could have scared some riders or at least intimidated them. But Annika did an absolutely amazing job keeping her composure and riding him through, laughing when he was trying to be wild instead of punishing him for it. She did the same thing at Freedom Fest when he bucked with her in show jumping, then proceeded to have a completely clean round! Before that they did their dressage test and I was so impressed with Annika and her super attitude with Huey, who not only hates dressage but also has neck arthritis which prevents him from doing really well in the dressage. Annika kept a really great attitude at both shows, not caring about getting a mediocre dressage score or that he didn’t look super fancy but just enjoying the ride and the wonderful qualities he does have-which all manifest over fences. At Freedom Fest, they went around the first half of the cross-country double clear and then got held on course because the rider before her had a fall and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. Annika had to wait for 30 minutes, then restart her course. That can be very hard for a horse and rider combo to be held like that then have to restart, especially with shaken nerves from witnessing a bad fall. But they went and finished the rest of the course double clear! In what Annika called “the biggest plot twist ever", they went from LAST PLACE in their division to FIRST PLACE, being the only pair in their entire Beginner Novice division of 20 riders to jump double clear on both show jumping and cross-country. It was a wonderful confidence boost for Annika and a super fun victory for our team.

Overall it was a fantastic show for our team. Witnessing these riders take their skills they’ve worked so hard to develop and show that their horses have been trained well and have confidence in them is my absolute favorite part of my job. Seeing these girls conduct themselves in the respectful, sportsmanlike, love-for-the-horse centered way that they conduct themselves was incredibly rewarding and I rested easy after the show, knowing I had accomplished my own personal goal of creating not only good riders and horsepeople, but better people overall, with life lessons and character building experiences to mold them into wonderful people.

Freedom Fest 2020 Play-by-Play

Valley View Equestrian