June found us showing up at Thunderbird again, with Maia continuing to get her miles in the .90's and Toby moving up to the 1.20 classes for the first time as he and Katherine participated in the Ride & Rally - a fun class over jumps and driving a golf cart through cones. They turned in a very exciting round over fences (Chelsea says Katherine needs to learn to speed up in her driving!) and wound up 4th overall in a very competitive and fun class. Maia also enjoyed a chance in the Grand Prix field in a Young Horse Class over 1.00 jumps and was great at handling all the excitement of the Thunderbird Grand Prix field. If you haven't had a chance to see the grounds at Thunderbird in person, put a drive up North on your agenda and check out their show grounds - we are lucky to have something so great so close to home!
July was the month of the Emerald Classic and a large group head down South to Auburn to play in the sun (minus one very wet hour!). All the horses were great - including a 1st place for Mexico and Amelia, a Championship for Aidan and Phalcon and Nicholas and Finesse. Phalcon also participated in the Hunter Derby and earned a Reserve in the class after negotiating some very scary rocks. Toby and Maia continued in the jumper ring and Chelsea got to ride Toby in the 1.15's for the first time - having one rail and the fastest time for the class - pretty fun day! Sundancers enjoyed dinner under the tents together and enjoyed a fun week of showing.
July also meant our yearly trip to Wild Waves! We had some really nice warm weather which meant time in the water without the normal freeze. Sundancers enjoyed the play day and came home charged up and ready to head to the Evergreen Classic in August.
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| Farley & Katherine at a previous Evergreen Classic |
Evergreen was a lot of fun this year. Farley showed everyone how the old pros do it and came home with a Reserve Champion in the .90's ring out of a large group of competitors. Aidan and Phalcon made their official debut into the Children's Hunter ring, a goal Aidan has been excited to reach for a long time and we were all delighted by her wonderful rounds. They've both worked super hard to get there and it was great to see all that time and energy pay off for them! Phalcon also had the chance to show in the Grand Hunter Ring in the Bunny Coffin Memorial Hunter Derby. The class was as big as the name with over 30 riders and large jumps. Phalcon was amazing and wound up getting a 7th for the class - we couldn't have been prouder! Toby finished up the show going into his first Mini Prix (his 3rd official 1.20 class!) and turning in a very nice round.
At home, Alex took over the barn job for Thomas and has been putting in long hours cleaning the place up and making everything nice for horses and riders. As the show season settles down, we are looking ahead at some more barn projects coming up for this fall and are excited to get to work at home polishing up our favorite place!
We have two more shows coming up in September with Octoberfest at Donida and then the NW Autumn Classic in Monroe. If you aren't showing, make sure you stop by to cheer on your Sundance Team! After that we have our annual barn work party, so make sure you put that on your calendars so you can come out and help with jump painting and (as always!) weeding the hill so we can make things pretty for winter (yes, winter... sigh...).
Hope you are all enjoying the sun - the horses are getting some great, blanket free days before the rain returns!
See you at the barn!!
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