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July 21-23, 2006 found me at Morven Park, in Leesburg, VA, but this time as coach. Coach is a new role for me, as when I go to a show I usually bring multiple horses, which barely leaves time to check students scores and catch a glimpse an occasional ride. This show was the Region 1 Jr/YR Team Championship, which left me unmounted, and what’s an instructor to do when left afoot? Pick on those mounted, of course!

On Friday we loaded both horse and human and caravanned down. None of the riders, Victoria Bohrer, Victoria Franzen, Lizzy Hassel, or Maddy Mangen, or their stable manager, Kristen Chelmow, had competed at a multi-day show, so to make sure they were properly packed, I sent them pages and pages (and pages and pages) of things to include.

This was our first year participating in this sort of an event, and I had no idea what the competition would be like. As we headed out, I hoped the girls were prepared well enough.

Once we arrived, we set up stalls and headed out to school. All four horses, Pene (S.A. Pentacle), Clyde (Silver Lining), Eddie (Classic Edition), and Sam (Samurai) settled right into their work, which did more to calm the girls nerves than I ever could.

Saturday the girls competed in an individual warm-up dressage test and their first team ride. With so many rides and the barn so far up the hill from the competition ring, having Kristen along with a radio at the barn was invaluable. Whenever I started to worry about a rider’s warm-up time, I’d just call her, and she’d start motivating riders, finding whips and tracking down stray numbers, in addition to raking and tidying.

Both Victorias and Lizzy competed in warm-up dressage tests. Maddy chose to do dressage equitation on Sunday instead. Victoria Bohrer finished 2nd in the Training 1 warm up class, with a score of 66.818. Lizzy was just out of the ribbons at 7th with a 58.636%, with 12 in their class. Victoria Franzen rode Training 2 to a score of 56.154%, putting her out of the ribbons in a large class of 24 riders.

Their first team test went even better, with all four rides well in the 60’s, (Victoria Bohrer  a 69.545%, Maddy scoring 68.182%, and Lizzy and Victoria Franzen both scoring 64.545, giving us an average of 66.704%. That strong showing stood us 2nd in the team placings.

Saturday was my birthday, so we all headed to dinner at Primavera to celebrate, then back to the hotel to watch videos of the tests. Our pillows felt good after such a busy day.

Sunday dawned hot and humid, but the girls rode well again.  Classes were spread throughout the day, with Maddy’s equitation at the other side of the park in the middle of it all. Maddy did well, finishing 3rd. In the dressage ring, Sundays’ judge was less generous overall than Saturday’s judge. Victoria Bohrer and Pene earned a 66.154%, Maddy and Sam earned a 56.538%, Lizzy and Eddie earned a 54.615, and Victoria Franzen and Clyde earned a 51.932, for an overall team average of 57.310%, maintaining our 2nd place for the Championship.

We stripped our stalls and headed home. It was a great weekend, even if I didn’t get to ride.