Pip

The Region 2 Championships were held at Lamplight Equestrian Center in the first weekend of October.  This time of year we could have gotten any weather imaginable.  What we got was rain, rain, rain.  I think the only show it did not rain at this year was in Kentucky!  Pip handled the rain and mucky footing pretty well the first two days, taking a reserve championship in the LEC Championshipsat Grand Prix and I-2.  However, asking him to perform for the third and fourth day in the muck was too much for him.  He is just not strong enough to perform the Grand Prix 4 days in a row, in sloppy conditions.  So next year we will try for the Regional Championships at Grand Prix!  Anakin performed very well, and has really grown up this year!  He was Reserve Champion at First Level LEC Championships, and 3rd place in the First Level Freestyle LEC Championships.  For his Regional Championships he was in the ribbons for an 8th place finish at First Level, in a large class of 32!  He had an minor blow-up in the freestyle for 5th place finish.  Jamaal had a difficult time with the footing, with his massive size and platter feet, he was sliding around a lot.  He still performed with much gusto, put in pretty mistake free tests.  He came in 8th place for the Second Level LEC Championships, and finished a respectable 12th out of 27 in the ABIG/USDF Second Level

Vemilion B

Championships.  The lovely, exuberant, Vemilion B had some exciting classes at the show.  He started off on the edge, but put in a pretty clean Open Training 4 for a 70%, for his second class in the scary arena 7, he spent most of his canter work bucking and leaping around and trying very hard to tell me we need to vacate the premises immediately!  When he was good, he was very good, and we ended up with a 61%.  I wanted him to have a good Regional Championship test so I took a risk and rode him with no whip or spurs, thinking a dull lazy test might be better than a brilliant test with a high possibility of bucking.  He was very good during his Training Level Championship ride, but boy did he feel lazy!  His ride was good enough for 8th place out of 24!  Glissando was 3rd in the First Level LEC Championships, and 5th at Second Level.  In the Regional Championships he came in 12th place at First Level, and 15th place at Second Level.  My students also did very well, Dee Glen and her horse Dimitri showed in their first Regional Championships and came in 5th in the Training Level AA LEC Championships, and 8th at First Level AA LEC Championships.  For their Regional Championships they placed 8th (out of 34!) at Training Level AA, and were 19th out of 33 at First Level AA.  Nicole Chiappetti and her horse Oxford showed great improvement over the weekend, taking a 3rd place in the Regional Junior Championships, Reserve Champions Third Level Jr/YR LEC Championships, and 5thplace Third Level Regional Championship Jr/YR with a career high 67.558%!  Finally, Renee McKinley had a fantastic weekend!  She was Champion Pr. St. Georges AA LEC Championships, Reserve Champions I-1 AA LEC Championships, had a 9th place finish for the Regional Championships I-1 AA, and they were ABIG/USDF Region 2 PSG Adult Amature Champions!  They even got a fancy write up about their wins in the Chronicle of the Horse!  Congrats to all for a very successful Region 2 Championships, may next year bring better weather!