River King's Journey to Bromont

At 1 AM this morning River King (aka Riley) loaded on the trailer to head from Virginia to Bromont but the real journey began back in January...shortly after the FEI announced the new qualifications based on categorizing riders.  You see, we were able to put together a syndicate to purchase Riley last fall by drumming up interest in having another horse that could potentially travel to compete at the Blenheim Palace Horse Trials in 2013 by way of the Bromont CCI*** in the spring.  Obviously there would be many challenges along the way but the FEI threw in a completely unexpected one when the qualifications changed and Riley and I essentially had to start from square one.  This meant that I had to find a way to complete, with a qualifying result, 1 CIC*, 1 CIC**, 1 CCI** and 1 CIC*** along with an Advanced horse trial or two.  Not a completely outrageous plan but when we took into account the competition calendar and the fact that the first FEI competition did not take place until March we realized there would be many miles to travel...

Without detailing all of the spring competitions I will say that the event I felt was the least productive for us was the CIC* at Red Hills which happened to come two weeks after Riley's first Advanced run at Pine Top (where he finished 7th).  I have no problem with the idea of getting to know a horse at a lower level but the way it fit into the calendar made the 1* something that Riley had no respect for...he even had the most show jumping rails down there of any event all spring. Then there was the nightmare moment at The Fork when I realized during my CIC** dressage test that I had learned the wrong test and therefore had to withdraw.. Of all the hings that could go wrong along the way this was not one that I could have foreseen.  Fortunately I was still able to compete in the Advanced horse trials that weekend which we certainly needed to get to know one another.  But that the only path left to keep heading to Bromont was to head to Ocala for the CCI** the following week.. So I went quietly around The Fork, shipped home to Virginia Sunday night, and left on Tuesday for Ocala.  I wish we received frequent driver miles!

Ocala was a success so Riley earned a week off then travelled to Rolex with Quincy.  After another week we were headed to Jersey Fresh for the CIC***.  Jersey was his best performance yet so low and behold we were Bromont Bound!

With so much to accomplish in such a short amount of time I have to give a huge thank you to Jeff (husband, vet, groom, dad - order varies constantly!).  Plus we could not have accomplished any of this without the support of the great group of people that believe in our partnership and helped make this syndicate a reality. It also tells a great deal about what a great horse Riley is... not only his physical strength but even more importantly his work ethic.  Every day he comes out ready to work and is happy doing whatever is asked of him.. I think he likes being this important!

So now that our trip is officially underway I plan to enjoy every day at what is undoubtedly the most scenic event site on our continent...