Page 27 - IDHSNA 2016 Annual Blarney

Around the Regions (con’t)
South Central Region- BY DEBBIE FULLILOVE
In some ways it was an eventful summer here in the scr, but
also ‘un-eventful’. unfortunately for some of us, due to the
flooding events, our riding and eventing competitions were put
on hold. During the turmoil 2 foals were born, Baby Jane and
Baby Bree, both out of tB mares by Braveheart rID.
ann o’Donnell had planned on travelling to the IDhsNa national
show with her mares this year. she has not been showing, but her
horses have been actively participating in clinics. rosie has been
to a greg Best clinic in June at Valhalla stables and a Dressage
clinic last month. roxie has attended two Pam goodrich clin-
ics (June & august) in flower mound tX. Jacqueline hawks is
training both girls in dressage. ann says she is the “good cop” and
enjoys hacking about and taking in the scenery. “shelley Peters
(eventer) is training both my girls and she is loving the rides she’s
having on the Irish Draughts. often she comments how easy
going they are and the power underneath her -- she’s never felt
such!”
christine
mccarter
is back on
track and
travelled with Diane cunningham and family have owned Jamie for two years.
her IDsh,
Deanfield Kit
Baloo (left)
to Virginia
in october
for the ccI
1*. Kit was
bred by scr
member
Doug Wil-
lard, By scr
rID stallion
Braveheart,
so this was
truly a scr team!
christine says, ‘I always had dreams of going to the upper
levels of eventing, so my first big plan was getting to a one
star. When I first met Kit in 2010, I knew he could get
me there. We worked really hard and went through some ups and
downs. But this year, 2016, all our hard work paid off. We set our
IrIsh Draught horse socIety of North amerIca | 2016 aNNual BlarNey eDItIoN 25
sights on the fall ccI * at the Virginia horse center. so off we
went at the end of october; Kit, mom, reggie the horse show dog,
and I. It wouldn’t be a road trip for our family without a tire blow
out, but an hour later tire was changed and onwards we went.
once we got to Virginia. the excitement began! all the amaz-
ing riders stroll in. then the nerves begin. What does my outfit
look? how do our braids look? We made it through the first jog,
what a relief. Now on to dressage. Kit’s ride time was in the chilly
morning. he was absolutely fabulous! throwing down a 49.3.
Just thrilled with how he performed. on to cross country day...
full of hills! Now we are from texas, so we don’t see many hills at
all. there were tons of hills! thankfully Kit loves to gallop and the
hills didn’t bother him one bit. he went double clear with ease!
the second jog is always nerve racking. What to wear this time?
Does he look ok? It was a ‘yes’ to go on to show jumping. With
only two rails down, put us just outside of the top ten, finishing
twelfth place. our first one star was a success!!! We are so thankful
to have all the people that helped us get here. and I couldn’t have
done it without my Irish Draught sport horse’.
JohNNy’s PrIVate collectIoN and ava cunningham (age
15) pictured above. 1st place BN and lowest scoring young rider.
colorado horse Park horse trails september 18, 2016. Johnny’s
Private collection (aka Jamie) is an IDsh by hang on Johnny rID,
bred by Jennifer herzog.
ava started out doing h/J and switched to an eventing trainer at
age 13. In 2015, Jamie & ava were area IV champions in Intro-
ductory eventing. they have done very well at dressage shows too.
the cunningham barn has many blue ribbons on the wall. During
the summer of 2016 ava travelled and wasn’t able to attend many
shows. she said, “winning in september was a thrill”.