Beezie Madden rode away as the Vita Flex Victory Pass Award winner when she and Mademoiselle won the $31,000 WEF Challenge Cup. (Photo courtesy of JRPR)
Wellington, FL (March 31, 2011) – Olympic Gold Medalist Beezie Madden and Mademoiselle, owned by Abigail Wexner, raced to victory in the $31,000 WEF Challenge Cup during the sixth week of the 2011 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF). As the winner of the class, Madden also rode away with the Vita Flex Victory Pass Award, sponsored by Vita Flex Nutrition.
“My horse was terrific,” Madden said, as she rode out of the winner’s circle. “She was out here last year so I had confidence that she would be good. She was fantastic, especially in the jump-off.”
The Grand Prix, which was held on the grass at The Stadium, featured 29 entries with nine riders going clean in the first round to advance to the jump-off. Madden commented that she liked the grass field venue and won the $75,000 Grand Prix last year in the same location aboard Coral Reef’s Via Volo. The Challenge Cup was Madden’s first Grand Prix victory of the 2011 WEF season.
Combined Driver Chester Weber proved unstoppable at CAI Live Oak, when he won the FEI Horse Team Division for the ninth year in a row. (Photo courtesy of My Elisabeth Weber)
Ocala, FL (March 30, 2011) – Chester Weber, the eight-time USEF National Four-In-Hand Combined Driving Champion, proved to be an unstoppable force at the CAI Live Oak International Combined Driving event when he drove away as the winner of the FEI Horse Team division. Live Oak International is considered to be one of the premiere Combined Driving events in North America and each year the show attracts an array of world-class competition.
Weber, who has added two new equine members to his team with Jane Forbes Clark’s horses, Uniek and Splash, was pleased with the Live Oak win. “My team went well and were technically easy to drive,” Weber said, adding that it felt great to win nine years in a row at Live Oak. “The two new additions from Jane have proven to be very helpful and have not only added to our depth but have moved our program forward.”
Weber, who is from Ocala and is based out of Live Oak Plantation, first drove into the winner’s circle in March with the new team when he won the FEI Four-In-Hand Division at Little Everglades, a USEF Selection Trial. During Live Oak, Weber competed Rolex W, Uniek, Splash and Para in the dressage phase for a score of 37.63 and followed up with Uniek, Reno, Para and Splash in the marathon and cones, with no penalties and a time of 2:55.63 in the cones.
Dear Friends of Cloud, his family and herd;
Lauryn Wachs and Catherine Stokes, our Cloud Foundation interns, accompanied me on their second journey to the Pryor Mountains. It’s always an adventure and last week was no exception.
According to people who live in the area, this winter has been the worst in 50 years — not only lots of snow but sub zero temperatures for extended periods. It’s a hard fact that winter often selects out the youngest and the oldest in all wild species. This is nature’s way of keeping populations in check and allowing only the fittest to survive and reproduce. So, we really didn’t know who among the wild horses might have died during this stretch of unusually challenging weather. Yet, some things never change and we were thrilled to witness the mating behavior of sandhill cranes on our drive out to the horse range. The male leaped in the air and danced around the female, paying no attention to our car and cameras eavesdropping on his display.
Sandhill cranes in a mating danceKoda Wakan & his mother, High Noon, on the day of his birth 6/10
NO SECRET SO CLOSE is the story of a the most unthinkable betrayal humanly possible — at only 24 years old, Claire Dorotik’s father has been murdered, her mother arrested, and now, in a sinister twist of fate, Claire’s mother points the finger at Claire, accusing her of killing her own father. Battling the feelings of loss, abandonment, terror, and dissociation, and also learning about them, Claire struggles to stay in her master’s program for psychotherapy. However, when Claire’s brothers also betray her and side with her mother, Claire is left all alone to care for the 18 horses she and her mother owned. As the story unfolds, what is revealed is the horses’ amazing capacity for empathy in the face of human trauma, and the almost psychic ability to provide the author with what had been taken from her. Arising from these horrifying circumstances, the most unthinkable heroes — the horses — show Claire that life is still worth living.
Excerpt #12 from NO SECRET SO CLOSE:
I don’t think I’ll ever stop replaying that day in my mind. As if I could somehow make it come out differently. Makes no sense, of course, but I couldn’t stop the endless spooling of memory. If I could, I’d have to let go, I guess of wishing I could have prevented it.
I paid the toll and entered the 405 freeway headed for home looking down at the speedometer, I saw I was going too fast. I’d stayed longer than I wanted to at my aunt’s house, and it was getting late now. The weekend with her had helped clear my head as it always did. Lately I’d been too busy to think. Only one semester away from receiving my undergraduate degree, I was already two semesters into my graduate program. That’s just the way things were: Up at five a.m. to train clients at the gym three days a week, followed by a rushed car ride to school the five jumpers I was training before it was too dark to ride, then a quick run down to the lake and back home by nine p.m. The other two days were back-to-back classes.
With equine therapy abounding, it has quickly become a status symbol among the country’s most prestigious treatment centers. However, while promulgating their use of horses to uncover the hidden emotions of substance abuse and dual diagnosis patients has become popular, many centers have also struggled with how best to offer this valuable treatment.
When equine therapy first emerged on the forefront, there was really no set protocol to be followed. While some centers purchased their own horses — and further advertised the availability of the horses on the grounds — others contracted out this modality through an independent provider. Further complicating the matter, some employed the use of both a licensed therapist and a horse handler, while others simply utilized the horse handler, or the psychotherapist who happened to “like” horses. However, as one can only imagine with any new, relatively unproven, modality, the outcomes were scattered and accidents happened.
And even when there was a clear method to follow, as presented by the Equine Growth and Learning Association, or EAGALA (www.eagala.org), work with horses wasn’t free of harm. To be sure, over the past five years, EAGALA reported more accidents than any other equine therapy approach. (Reports on any psychotherapeutic harm that may have occurred as a result of the inappropriate “interpretations” of untrained horse handlers are not available.) Yet perhaps due to the presentation of exercises such as “temptation alley” that correlated with what substance abuse and eating disorder patients might be experiencing, EAGALA was also the most popular method of practicing equine therapy.
I’ve been dreaming of Vermont. Lots of trees, cool nights and warm days. Big fields for Indy and me to explore, and new videos to make with Jane and Rhett. I love Vermont. We’ll be heading that way soon.
I’m going to miss my friends here in Florida, but I know I’ll be back and so will they. Next fall, we’ll have new stories to share, and new goals to achieve. In the mean time, we’ll concentrate on the work at hand and know that all is well.
Change is not easy for most people and most horses. We all like predictability and security. But with change comes the opportunity for growth. When change happens, it forces us to flex our mental muscles and learn to adapt. It is a GOOD thing, even when it’s a bit uncomfortable.
Photos: Shelly Temple at Live Oak CDE. Photo credit: Ann Schurtz
Ocala, FL – Joe Yoder driving Jack Wetzel’s pair of Gelderlanders won his first USEF National Pair Championship Sunday at the CAI Live Oak. After finishing second in dressage and winning the marathon, Yoder went into the final Cones phase with a 15-point lead over Katherin Dancer. Three balls down incurred 12 penalties for the young man who just recently relocated from Bozeman, Montana, to Aiken, SC, to drive for Wetzel. Yoder squeaked in just under the 3 minute time allowed to secure his win. Alan Aulson moved into second place, driving his own pair of Morgan horses, after Dancer knocked down five balls and incurred time penalties.
Shelly Temple of Windsor, SC, went into cones with a narrow lead over Suzy Stafford, but managed to keep all the balls on the cones, incurring just 1.61 time penalties to retain the lead and win the USEF National Championship for single ponies. “It was a competitive class,” said Temple. “I was thrilled that my pony went so well. Jack Wetzel kindly lent me a four-wheel Spider Phaeton which made a huge difference from the two-wheeled road cart I usually drive, and it had a very positive effect.”
Thousand Oaks, CA – March 28, 2011 – In celebration of the eight disciplines competing at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, The EQUUS Foundation (in partnership with the United States Equestrian Federation) established the America’s Favorite Equestrian program. On March 31, 2011 two Para-Dressage athletes will be eliminated and the top six Para-Dressage riders will move on to round two. It is up to every person to vote for his or her favorite Para-Equestrian.
These are the eight equestrians listed presently with their rider number in parenthesis.
Jennifer Baker (49)
Jonathan Wentz (50)
Laura Goldman (51)
Mary Jordan (52)
Rebecca Hart (53)
Robin Brueckmann (54)
Susan Treabess (55)
Wendy Fryke (56)
WELLINGTON, FL – March 28, 2011 – Have you voted yet? Round 1 of America’s Favorite Equestrian will end on March 31st. Two favorite equestrians with the lowest number of votes in each of the eight disciplines that participated in the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games will drop off the list. Don’t let it be your favorite! All it takes is a $5 gift to The EQUUS Foundation to keep your favorite in the competition.
For a $5 contribution, you can select your favorite equestrian (listed by discipline) and follow the instructions provided to use mobile texting to vote. After texting your vote, you must reply YES to confirm your vote and $5 donation.
You can also vote using an online form or vote by mail.
All donations received by the EQUUS Foundation will be used in support of horse-related charitable causes.
Three days of live coverage from the Southern Pines Horse Trials at the Carolina Horse Park at Five Points. Chris provides coverage of the final day of the event. Take a listen….
Eventing Radio Episode 130 by Bit of Britain – Show Notes and Links:
