9th Annual Spring Horse Trials Recap
Friday Morning: Jim Moyer, USEA 2023 Volunteer of the year, watching Dressage with Lou Leslie current USEA President.
First of all, thank you to everyone who put in effort and time to make this one of the best events yet! Thank you for choosing Spokane Sport Horse as a venue to event! As a SSHF team, we truly feel that this was one of the smoothest, most enjoyable, and fun events to date. We had incredible volunteers, officials, competitors, and enjoyable weather on Saturday and Sunday.
Thursday kickstarted our event with the Young Event Horse Divisions riding their dressage and completing a derby style course out on XC involving Show Jumping and XC Fences. As the only Area VII site to host Young Event Horse classes, we are proud to provide the opportunity for the four horses in the Young Event Horse 4-year-old and 5-year-old divisions. Throughout the day two arenas of schooling dressage tests and show jumping rounds continuing allowed riders to prepare their horses for the weekend.
Wind proved to be the most complicating factor for Friday Dressage Day, as it affected Arena 3, which had to remain flat on the ground to avoid any potential overturning during subsequent rides. Despite this, we successfully ran four dressage arenas throughout the day with many scores under the 30.0 mark showcasing the exceptional talent here in Area VII. Addisyn Parahoniak on ADR’s Fausto took home the award for Best Junior Dressage score with a 27.7. A team of great volunteers, Sarah Airhart managing the warm-up arena and others rotating throughout the day on the in-gates were able to keep all 293 tests on time. At the end of the day, we had a helpful crew of volunteers hustling to pack up the dressage arenas in record time—a mere 30 minutes. A separate volunteer crew came in to set up the Show Jumping course, many of them SSHF boarders!
Saturday’s weather turned the corner and provided exceptional conditions. Preliminary Cross Country started off the day, followed by a competitive Intermediate Division and a successful Advanced/Intermediate Division. FEI course designer Adri Doyal’s courses rode well all day for a full Saturday of cross country, with an afternoon of shifting scoreboards in the Modified, Training, and Starter Divisions.
Sunday showed incredible turnout for Show Jumping with a course designed by William Robertson. During the second day of cross country, Beginner Novice and Novice made their rounds. A slight change in the posted optimum times for the Beginner Novice and Novice cross country gave a good chance for Show management to remind and encourage riders to follow the event’s “What’s App” group for important updates and time-sensitive notices. Sunday tested the perseverance of the final Beginner Novice Riders on cross country when a 10-minute deluge of rain soaked everyone unable to find quick cover. Thankfully, the remaining Show Jumping Divisions of the day benefited from naturally watered arenas and warming sunshine. Perfectly concluding the weekend was the completion of the Open Starter Division in Show Jumping. To the proud excitement of the SSHF team, Spokane Sport Horse’s own bred and born Pillow Talk SSH, aka ‘Spicy’, ridden by Catie Cejka, completed on her dressage score to take home second place.
Results Standouts
The lowest combined score over the weekend, 24.3, was put up by Chris Gianini riding Breezie McDuff. This pair also won the SSHF Vintage Combo Award with a combined age of 88 years.
Sophie Click on Tarantino 54 took home the blue in the Advanced/Intermediate Division, adding only time penalties to their dressage score, ending on a 31.3.
Sarah Sullivan won in a very competitive twenty-four horse Modified Division with a 26.5, adding only 1.2 time penalties on cross country during her weekend aboard La Copine.
Sarah Buehler, riding Orion's Shining Star, won the Junior Novice Division, completing on her dressage score of 28.1.
There was a familiar name across three divisions, Marc Grandia won Open Intermediate, Open Training, and Open Novice A.
Team winners were Mojo and the Boyz, consisting of Sarah LeGear, Addison Parahoniak, Dakota McGill, and Chanelle Dahl. Their final team score of 122.1 narrowly beat the 2nd place team Girls Just Want To Have Fun, who scored 126.9.
Show Connect made its debut here at SSHF. (Link to all division results here.)
Melia Langdon, a loyal XC jump judge volunteer is now a fantastic XC Jump Judge Volunteer Coordinator.
Special Thanks
We are extremely thankful for our dedicated and loyal volunteers who have made these show weekends part of their calendar for many years. Although each and every volunteer deserves high praise and recognition, here are a couple big shoutouts for volunteers this weekend. Melia Langdon for serving as Cross-country jump judge coordinator, organizing the cross-country jump judges and managing score sheets, we can’t imagine doing it without her! Jim Moyer, for arriving early to set up, volunteering all show and leaving late after take down. Jim was awarded USEA’s Volunteer of the year award last year in 2023, and we are thankful for his continued support! Sarah Airhart for her enthusiasm, strong voice and positivity covering critical positions all weekend. The Flying B Farm, or the Tomson family who volunteered all weekend. Caley Thomas and her crew of SSHF boarders who jumped into the world of Eventing to volunteer all weekend long! Susan Zenier, who can do most anything stayed all weekend and really did it all! Greg Haff, who for the 9th year in a row started every horse on cross country (that’s a lot of horses!) while his wife Sarah volunteered and took home a ribbon this weekend. To ALL of our volunteers: Your commitment and hard work is truly appreciated! This sport would not be possible without you.
Feedback and Future Events
As the years go by, we continue to use your feedback to improve each and every event. We are glad to hear that riders appreciate the larger warm-up area for cross country, the water tanks at the barns, two bags of shavings per stall, porta-potties next to every barn, and the ability to choose where to warm up for your dressage tests. We are proud to support the desire for Thursday Schooling opportunities and are glad to provide set arenas for ring familiarization.
Proud moment: SSHF’s own Pillow Talk SSH
We really would like to hear your feedback from the event! Please tell us what you would like to see again and what we can improve for the next event. Competitors, volunteers, and spectators can submit evaluations on the USEA (Site here.) We also have a quick survey on Prizes/ Party Favors and how we can improve those, please include ideas of what you would like to see for future prizes. (Here.)
Looking forward to our September 26th-29th, 2024 Fall Horse Trials, Classic Three Day, and FEI Event now! Reminder that we will serve as the Area VII Championships site for Starter and Modified.
Sponsors Highlight
Suzy Dix Realtor - suzydix.com
Mark Aden - https://www.dci-engineers.com/locations/spokane-washington
JARBA Farm- Kalispell, Montana Crew
Kurtz Family- Montana Crew
Shingle Mill Stables of Sand Point Idaho: Jodie found time to volunteer as your Dressage In-gate steward on Friday as well!
Frank & Paula Sweeney of Whitefish, MT
Flying B Farm- Steve & Dee Tomson: As well as sponsoring Dee was your start timer all weekend, Steve was a XC finish timer all weekend and Erin Thomson ran the SJ Warmup on Saturday, SJ Course set up and SJ In-gate on Sunday!
Redi Driver- https://redidriver.com
Cross Country App, who sponsored 1-year Pro subscriptions as prizes for every division and for those who had an unfortunate TE for going off course.
Voltaire Saddlery gave $100 Gift Certificates for 10 divisions.
Gallops Saddlery provided mugs and gift certificates for winners in all divisions.
Christine Jenkins who sponsored the prize for Lowest Scoring Junior Dressage Score in Starter, Beginner Novice or Novice.
Photographers on site over the weekend: (Link Here. )
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
SUZY DIX
MARK ADEN
JARBA FARMS
KURTZ FAMILY
SHINGLE MILL STABLES
FRANK & PAULA SWEENEY
FLYING B FARM- DEE & STEVE THOMPSON
REDI DRIVER
JONNA KELNER
IDAHO POST AND POLE
LIZ TUKEY
LOUISE LAROUE
LOIS JAMES
LISA MORSE
BARRINGTON BEMER
PARADISE CREEK PONY CLUB
RAMADA INN
TRU-NORTH HOME BUILDERS- GRAFF
ANDORA TRAGIAI
BE BALANCED PHYSICAL THERAPY- AMY GIBBS
MARCY MONGAN REALTOR
AARON CHAVEZ- CHAINSAW CARVING
VOLTAIRE SADDLERY
BONJOUR TACK
PAC INSURANCE- DRUFFEL
CHRISTINE JENKINS
JEFF & JULIE GOODWIN HIGH GRADE EXCAVATING
RIVERWOOD STABLES
GALLOPS SADDLERY
CROSS COUNTRY AP
ASHLEY WIDMER
MOVING IMAGES
THANK YOU TO EVENT STAFF
Organizer: Christel Carlson & Cyra Carlson
Volunteer coordinator: Gail Mackie
Secretary: Christina Gray
Announcer: Malcolm Hook & Buck Smithson
Safety officer: Dennis Yanuszeski & Tom Torvik
Chief scorer: Katie Trafton
Veterinarians: McKinlay & peters, Dr. Jennifer Earnest
Farriers: Tully Kasparek & Cody Millholland
Technical delegate: Sarah Rajoy
Dressage judges: Sue Smithson, Deeda Randle, Diane Royce, Amanda Wilgenberg
XC course designer: Adri Lee Doyal
Show course design: William Robertson
Xc builders & decoration: Adri Doyal, Tatum Doyal, Madeline Issacks, Greg Thompson, Jessie Callier
Grounds Staff: Brenda Hill, Isaac Evere, Scott Currey, Gary Powell
XC jump judge coordinator: Melia Langdon
Chief compliance officer: Jim Moyer
XC Starter and Timers: Greg haff, Dee Tomson, Steve Tomson
THANK YOU TO OUR VOLUNTEERS
Sarah Airhart
Jim Moyer
Melia Langdon
Palmer Anderson
Christine Armstrong
Rebecca Ballou
Lauren Barker
Liz Tukey
Betty Tukey
Craig Barsuhn
Clayton Sanders
Karen Barsuhn
Kathy Batdorf
Libby Beck
Karen Dale
Amy Gibbs
Barbara Grant
Greg Haff
Sarah Haff
Tracy Hopper
Lois James
Kim Johnson
Matt Johnson
Becky Paull
Rachel Saathoff
Sandra Saathoff
Jana Schultheis
Caley Thomas
Dee Tomson
Steve Tomson
Erin Tomson
Viktor Torvik
Stephanie Waterman
Chad Waterman
William Weigel
Reiko Weigel
Olivia Brakefield
Lei Broadstone
Annie Budiselich
Sam Clement
Dallie Cobb
Jodie Corless
Pam Dale
Karen Dale
Tija Danzig
Leslie Davis
Heather Dennison
Briella Gates
Annabelle Gibbs
Dot Hamilton
Kelli Harrington
Nicole Aden
Jaye Jones
Dallis Koch
Caroline Kurtz
Karen Lounsbery
Kimber McKay
Susan Zenier
