I found this jumper land to be a very different environment from eventing. People come across as much more ‘barn biased’ and like to keep to their own, instead of wandering around and socializing.  Mind you when your horse costs $80,000 -  I can see why. The people stabled around me were very nice and the lady across from me used to own a Standardbred!

This show was a new experience for me as it was my first totally solo competition. I had no help at this show (i.e. no friends or family on site). But it was a new experience for me to be so totally independent.  I ended up spending much more time with Scooter….and with my homework.

On Saturday we were entered in two clear round classes at 0.70m and one clear round class at 0.80m.  The .90m and above classes were being run in the big ring so the smaller classes were run in hall E. As I was very late in the order of go, I was able to watch some of the other riders in my class compete before getting ready myself.  I was a little worried about the time limit as it did seem quite quick (325mpm) and those who trotted, all ended up with time faults.  However, Scooter and I got in there and rocked it! He tried his heart out.  We were not only clear, but fast.  The next class was another well-built course but with challenging questions that Scooter and I aptly answered. The last class of the day was the 0.80m clear round, and did the jumps ever get big!  Many of them were to max height combined with wide oxers off long lines paired with tight turns.  We arrived to warm up (with what should have been 5 rides until I rode), and trotted around half the warm up area when the gate guy told me I had to go in. Turns out they bumped up some riders and the others had scratched creating a smaller class and a shorter line-up ahead of us.  So we went in with no warm up.  Although the jumps were technically not huge – Scooter decided to jump them like they were. But we were clear and fast again!  So we ended Saturday at Spruce with 3 clear round ribbons!

Although Scooter did amazing, I decided that on Sunday we would do a  0.60m clear round jumper, and two 0.70m jumper classes. The .60m class had about 25 entries of competitive kids and adults! No mercy was shown as riders attacked the course. Second last to ride the course all I knew is we had to go as fast as possible (in any gait haha). We zoomed around as quickly as we could, unaware of the fastest time. We ended up taking second place, and pacing about half the course! Turns out we were only .28 of a second away from first place and a champion cooler – how’s that for speed!  Getting to join in the victory gallop was a definite plus! In the following 0.70m clear round Scooter showed up and did amazing with another clear fast round.

The final class of the weekend was the 0.70m jumper.  We were 40th in and the previous teams had set blistering fast times. We went in and went as quick as we could. There were some tight inside corners that Scooter was just not balanced enough to make. The ribbons were out of reach, but I am proud, Scooter tried with everything he had.  We ended up 7th by .73 of a second out of 46 people! He is truly an amazing horse that I am so honored to get to ride him and represent the breed at Spruce Meadows. 

After getting ourselves organized for the day we again headed to the round pen to give the boys some time out of their stalls. Scooter was able to revisit the pedestal, and soon enough we had a small audience interested in what we were up to. 

Amanda and Jose were more than happy to rise to the occasion and gave a mini demo and fielded questions. Brava! 

Following some more meet and greet with the spectators attending the expo that day, and meeting some seriously cool Standardbred enthusiasts, who do everything from racing, to gymkhana, to working cattle - a nice change from our team which is entirely english riders - it was finally time to get ready for the final event of the battle - Trail. In addition to finding out the event was more aptly named “Cowboy Challenge” and we found out that our team had to be in whites, and tacked 1.75 hours earlier than expected (giving us roughly 30 minutes, with Amanda and Jose competing in the middle).

After a little bit of chaos, and a warmup that was again limited to a round pen with 6 other horses, it was time for Amanda and Jose to start off the “Trail” portion of the Battle of the Breeds.  

Entering the ring, Jose was quite surprised by not only the number of obstacles, but the noise from the crowd as well. For only being 4 years old, and this being his first big event, Jose handled the entire situation beautifully. He settled right back down after a lap of the ring, and Amanda made the wisest decision possible and aimed at a positive experience for the youngest team member rather than pushing him to rack up points for a competition.

They were able to complete a few obstacles, which they were awarded full points for, and were even offered the bonus obstacles at the end of their round. Wow! Cookies for Jose!

After trail all the teams were invited in for the lengthy awards ceremony where each team member was briefly introduced. It would have been nice for them to tell the audience something about each individual horse, or even each breed, but the acknowledgement was appreciated regardless. The top three teams, QH, Arab, and Paint definitely deserved their placings, they did well in each event, and were wonderful people. Talk about sportsmanship! They should be very proud of their team mates and their ponies.

We drew the winner for our raffle who was able to come down to the barns to accept her prize bag courtesy of Standardbred Canada! They also provided us with some window decals, and magazines which were a huge hit - we only have a few left!

We’d like to send a huge thank you to Team Paint, and Team Mule who helped make the weekend much more enjoyable! It was great to see others who were out to promote their breed instead of just winning a title. We sincerely hope to see some of their lovely faces and four legged companions in the future! With Love, Kelly Stasiuk (Scooter), Amanda Preston (Jose), and Charlene Barry (Leo)

A rider, horse and border working as a team to move a herd of cows.

Jonathan Field!

No sleeping allowed in this trailer, human or equine. You will get get injured and you will die! (#meangirls anyone?)

This trailer had a surprisingly large closet in the bathroom. Large enough to fit at least one Kelly! ______________________________________

Saturday brought another set of confusing warm up situations. For dressage our warmup was more or less limited to a round pen (with 6 other horses), with a couple laps around the exterior of the arena immediately prior to your test. Not great for a sport horse coming from a cold barn. Despite this, Leo brought his A-game a pulled off a 59% basically going into the ring cold, and earned a solid 4th place.  Even though Leo elected to add a levade to the beginning of his test (“I appreciate he was on his hind end, but seriously.” - Charlene), Leo and Char rode their patterns very accurately, and dealt well with having their test in a ring 20 meters shorter than expected. (Those were some STEEP leg yields!)  Good boy Leo!

Charlene would like to send a big shout out to the lovely ladies who make up Leo’s fan club, she really appreciates your support! Although Leo’s ego was almost too big to fit in the trailer on the way home - the fangirls totally went to his head. <3 Leo sends his love and adoration.

Kelly and Charlene arrived at the barn just before eight, planning to ride as nothing was scheduled until 9:15am in the arena, but found out the arena actually was closing at 8:30. So the boys got to go for a quick walk instead.

Later this morning we took the boys into the round pen to give their brains something too do, Scooter learned how to pedestal! And Leo learned to bow while being ridden. One of the arena events ended, and Jose ended up doing a little show for the spectators as they stopped on their way back to the trade show.

After a couple cups of coffee, we got a kick ass surprise and were able to ride for 40 mins, before heading back to the hotel to crash for a quick nap, while Amanda and Judy hung out at the grounds and held down the fort.

Following another visit to Tim’s (Seriously, we should seek out sponsorship) we zipped back to the barn to get Kelly and Prime Time Scooter ready for the Barrels phase of Battle of the Breeds.

Team Standardbred is so proud of our Kelly Stasiuk and Prime Time Scooter! Following a bit of a confusing warm up situation (12 horses in a round pen just wasn’t working) they were 6th in out of 7 teams to go. The audience was great and WONDERFULLY supportive, the stands were LOUD and it was a very intimidating arena. Scooter went in and took his first 2 barrels well but got a little overwhelmed when being sent down to the far side for the last barrel. He backed up and unfortunately backed over the start line. Kelly handled him beautifully though and got him straightened down and around the final barrel before given ‘er back home.  Good kids!

Tomorrow afternoon Charlene Barry and Leo will be in compulsory test and tomorrow evening Kelly and Scooter are back in for jumping.