Crystal Brown
cbrown@weatherforddemocrat.com
Competitors from six states converged on the Greenwood Farm in Weatherford this weekend for its Fall Horse Trials.
Among those riding was Stephanie Martin of Willow Park who rode Boston, an 18-year-old Bay Quarter Horse owned by Christie Tull. It was Boston’s first competition in 10 years.
“We’re doing it for the fun of it,” said Tull, owner of Greenwood Farm. “He loves it.”
Martin rode two horses in the competition, leaving her little down time between events.
“It’s a little crunched for time,” she said, and added her favorite part is cross-country, where the horse is faced with multiple obstacles like ditches, hills and fences to jump.
“Cross-country is the biggest adrenaline rush you will ever get,” Martin said.
Martin came in third place on her second horse, Velvet Reflections, owned by Caroline Barthen, in the Novice Horse category. Boston also took third place, only in the Beginner Novice Horse division.
Martin will travel to about 10 shows this year across the country from Texas to Kentucky, Colorado and Illinois. She said competition and training is a year round job with a few winter months break for the horses.
“I think the horses are little bit edgier at this one because it is a home event,” Martin said. “They get use to it being quite and then all of a sudden it’s show mode here.”
Also competing this weekend were husband and wife team Jody and Kim Taylor of Aledo. They are the owners of the Star T Ranch and had four horses in the competition. Each rode one and the other two were handled by students of theirs.
“It’s a lot less travel and one of the nicest facilities you can go to in Texas or out of Texas,” Jody said. “It just doesn’t get much better than this. The travel is what takes a toll on you the most.”
While he too enjoys the thrill of cross-country, he stressed the importance of the dressage competition.
“Dressage is the determinant,” Jody said. “If you can’t get the dressage down, then the stadium and the cross-country aren’t going to be as good. If you can do the dressage, then the stadium and cross-country are going to come more easily. Dressage is real important.”
The couple has been competing for about five years, something they picked up after purchasing their ranch.
“My wife wanted to be able to ride a horse across the pasture and then being able to throw jumps in on top of it made it good for her,” Jody said. “For me, we have two arenas and one is suppose to be a roping arena, but we haven’t got it set up yet and we had a horse sitting there we needed to do something with.”
Jody placed sixth in the Novice Horse division with his 6-year-old Bay Quarter horse, Crystal Gold Dust. His wife, Kim, placed and her horse Bridle Imp placed second in the Beginner Novice Horse category.
Other Parker County riders included Elissa Goad, Bailey Snyder, Maggie Roberts and Barrett Phillips of Aledo; April Hatcher of Poolville; and Ellen Doughty, Taylor Wood and Howard McClurkin of Weatherford.
Doughty took first place in the open training division riding Sir Oberon and receiving an overall score of 30 points.
Local News
September 28, 2009
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