Well, I'm sorry to be writing this so late, but you could say I've had one crazy summer and things haven't slowed down since! My horse Verdicci (known as Chance around the barn) and I made it onto the Region 5 Junior (3rd Level) Team headed to the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships (NAJYRC) in Lexington, Kentucky held July 28th through August 1st. We also qualified for the Junior National Championships held in Gladstone, New Jersey at the United States Equestrian Team Headquarters on August 13th-15th. I have trained Chance since he was a five years old and I was twelve so, three years later, it was great just qualifying for both. After doing a lot of fundraising my family raised enough money to get my mom, my horse and I to both Championships, and we were gone for four weeks! I have to say it was definitely the best summer of my life, and I learned a lot about myself and my relationship with Chance. This is our story...

Chance and I arrived at the Kentucky Horse Park five days before the NAJYRC started. We spent a lot of time getting to know our teammates and touring the facility, but training was number one on our list. We had competed at the NAJYRC the previous year where we placed 9th individually, so at least we were both familiar with the environment. Coming from Arizona the humidity was brutal, but luckily Chance is very refined and seems to have a lot of Thoroughbred in his Dutch Warmblood lines, which helped him handle the heat better than a lot of the heavier horses. A couple days into our training I noticed Chance was acting really funny in the bridle and soon discovered he had an abcess on the corner of his mouth. I was devastated and thought it would ruin our chances because he was so sensitive and backed off in the bridle because of it, but luckily with A LOT of hot compresses it healed up right before the Team test and, although it derailed our training a little bit, I had a healthy horse ready to compete!

Chance getting a hot compress. He actually liked it!

The Team test went well and we brought in the highest score for our team with a 66%, but we both faded in the canter and I knew we could do better. I was determined to give it my all in the Individual test because we had worked so hard and come so far to get here, I was not going to let my dreams slip away. I knew that this was the time for our skills, heart, and drive to be tested. We were both ready for the challenge and things seemed to fall in place as I got the last ride time out of thirty-six Juniors, a good place to be. With some words of encouragement from my trainer and my mom we went in and had the best test of our whole career together. We were rewarded with a 70% from all five judges and a silver medal, less than 1% behind the gold medalists! I was in disbelief for the award ceremony and press conference. But I had to focus again soon because we still had to ride our freestyle, another chance for a medal...

I had created a new freestyle just for this ride and I was going to make sure it was well worth it! I picked music from the Harry Potter movies and it fit Chance perfectly. It was a magical evening and once again Chance and I rose to the occasion, producing another silver medal on a 72%%!!! Chance was just outstanding the whole time and I had never been more proud of him. But I had little time to dwell on our accomplishments because we were off to New Jersey the next day to vie for the title of Junior National Champion.

After a couple more weeks of training day one of the two day competition was upon us, but we were ready. After watching some of the other National Championships, including the Grand Prix selection trials for the World Equestrian Games, I was inspired to perform my absolute best. I had this newfound confidence after the Championships in Kentucky because I now knew what we were capable of and I was able to believe in both myself and Chance. The first day went smoothly and we had a good ride resulting in a 68.4% and second place out of the 12 Juniors invited, but I wanted to feel just a little more jazz in our ride. We really pushed for it the second day and it felt at least as good as our rides in Kentucky, we only had one mistake when he broke in one trot extention. We were given a 69.89% and all I could do was wait for the last rider to go which was Jamie Pestana. She had won the gold medals in Kentucky and was in first place from day one. As she was performing her test I thought it would be the worst five minutes of my life, but I was wrong. I felt happy, content. I knew that Chance and I had given 100% into that ride and their was nothing that I would have changed. When I found out the we had won the Reserve National Championship only .3% behind Jamie and her horse I was elated! This is what we had worked so hard for and more than the ribbons or medals I knew I could always count on Chance to be there for me when I needed him most. He is really the best thing that has happened to me and on that day being second best felt just like winning.

"Did I do good mom?"

~Catherine~

P.S. Check out our videos from Nationals on my home page.