Holly Hill horse Trials: Recap

The whole AAF team had an excellent weekend at Holly Hill Horse Trials in Benton, LA! 

Although the weekend started off wet, muddy, and gloomy, the sun was shining by Sunday. Everyone always enjoys this beautiful venue with nice courses, friendly people, and great atmosphere. 

The absolute highlight of the weekend was Aaron competing in his first rated horse trials in the Starter division with his own horse, Lacy. Aaron had a steady and well ridden dressage test, a careful and clean XC, and ended the weekend with a beautiful double clear SJ! Aaron and Brad are also literally the best people to horse show with, and dramatically improved the hospitality of our stall row. Seriously....we are never horse showing without Aaron and Brad again! 

Anna Zweig, recently returned to AR after living in TX for years, and also had a wonderful first show with her new horse Cal. She placed 4th in the Senior BN Rider division, adding just one rail to her dressage score.  I don't think anyone has ever worked harder at a horse trials than Anna did this past weekend, and she really deserves this placing. 

Flight School "Ludo" was entered in the Area V Novice Championships.  He qualified just last month,  at his very first Novice, a 3rd place at Feather Creek.  He is still very green and makes it easy to forget that because of his overall rideability.  He carried some tension into his dressage test and had a disappointing score of 37.  He then went into show-jumping and got a little star struck by the area surrounding fence #2, resulting in an uncharacteristic stop. He came around and jumped it on the next try, but was still a little looky and pulled that rail.  He stormed around the rest of the course clear! XC he came out of the box a little slow off the leg and I probably compensated by riding him too fast. His gallop felt great but he could not process fence #8, a tiny ramp in the shadows coming out of the sun, and had another stop.  Although I've never had two stops on any horse, and never would have expected to have a stop on this one, I still feel like this horse has tons of potential and had a really great show! I was most proud of him for powering into the water without hesitation! I can't wait to ride this horse in just two more weeks at Texas Rose because I think he is going to put all the pieces together and be a force to be reckoned with! 

Fat City "Knox" competed in the Novice Horse division. He was really a perfect pony the whole time and did exactly what was asked of him. This horse has grown up so much over the past year and feels like an old friend at this point. We have a lot of winter homework to work on not pulling at the gallop and some more strength on the flat, but I don't think I could have asked for any more from him! He ended the weekend on a total score of 39.7 having added just one rail to his dressage score.  

No rest for the weary! We now are back home and practicing for Texas Rose on November 9-10, 2019.