Region 5 Juniors - Silver Medalists!

Today was an amazing day to say the least. I was nervous going into this ride today because of some of the trouble I was having with Cookie earlier this week. I watched my teammate Brooke Santangelo compete early this morning and she had a beautiful ride on her mare Daylight, earning a score of 65.757%. It was nice to start the day with such a strong ride from our team, but I was also feeling pressure to have a good ride, and not let down my team. It came time for my ride at 9:20. I gave Cookie about a 30 minute warm-up, with breaks in between to ice down his main veins to keep his body temp cool. I used a bucket of ice water with rubbing alcohol, a sponge and a sweat scraper. It was a good way to refresh him before our test.  I make my way around the arena to each of the 5 judges booths and Cookie is feeling great and I'm really trying to focus on keeping him supple and attentive because in a test, it can take a split second for Cookie to escape my aids and the movement I was doing could go from a 7 to a 4. All throughout my test he was quite consistent... A few times he stiffened in the poll but nothing too detrimental to our score. He was a true professional and when I was exiting the arena after my final salute I saw our score of 64.575%! I was so happy and soooo relieved... It was at this moment that thoughts of a possible team medal entered my mind.

(Brooke, Talia, Taylor, Devon... thats David O'Connor in the white polo, so cool!)

It was a long day but after two more good rides from my other teammates Talia Hershaft and Devon Wycoff, we secured our standing as 2011 NAJYRC Silver Medalists! It was an unexpected victory. Although I knew we had a solid team going into the championships, I hadn't thought at all about medaling or placings. I think all of us had our minds occupied with thoughts of how to produce the best performances out of ourselves and our horses but once we saw the scores coming in, it all became a reality that medaling at the 2011 NAJYRC was a tangible possibility. I think I can speak for everyone on the team when I say that we were beyond thrilled, and all of us being first year attendees to the Championships made it that much more exciting!

Also a congratulations to Region 5 Young Riders Brandi, Maddi, Catherine. and Aylin on team gold!