6th Place at the American Eventing Championships!!!

Nothing could be more groovy!
I just wanted to come, have a good time, not fall off, and not get eliminated so that we actually got to do all 3 phases....and what happens? We kick butt!

I finished on my dressage score of 28.4! Really great. Fantastic. Super! I was tied for 5th, and lost the tie because I was farther away from the optimum time for cross country.....Yeah, like 25 seconds early...only 6 seconds away from being penalized for going too fast....so no complaints here! Guess that he's pretty much set for his training pace!

Check out this picture from the USEA web site.


Oh! and I won prizes!!! and MONEY!!!
Yes! I actually won some money!! (Dr. Mangold will be so proud!)

I can't remember everything, but...I won $250, a $100 gift certificate for the Bit of Britain tack store, a pair of SSG gloves, a pair of ice boots (I've always wanted a set of these for Ronan), and something else too...can't quite remember what. But, holy crap, I've been doing this for 20+ years, and I've never ever won any money!!! Woo-hoo.
Oh, and our beautiful green ribbon ain't too shabby either!

Our show jumping round was great. I think that he would have done it regardless....really acting like he knows his job now, but I rode great...exactly how I wanted. The course was very nice and flowing. No real scary jumps, only 1 two stride combination. Oh, but it was pouring down rain, and had been for the last several hours, so that put a bit of a twist on things. Very sloppy, but not slippery....Hey, thank goodness for the Irish horse! Ronan was like...what mud? what puddles? All I see are show jumps!

Ronan got 3 stud muffins yesterday, and lots of hay, so all was good in his little Ronan world.