I want to start by saying that Sarah never had the desire to do Jumpers. It was too "fast" for her. She was content with doing Hunters and Equitation. That is, until the girls started training with Aaron Vale and Sarah met and fell in love with Vigo. It wasn't love at first sight though. Vigo arrived in Lexington, Ky by way of Europe in May of 2011. Fresh off the truck, Aaron put Lizzie on him. That didn't turn out very well. He then told Sarah to get on Vigo. Sarah, never one to talk back (to anyone other than her mother!) got on Vigo and was in the schooling ring. I was standing at the top of the hill and happened to look down at the ring just in time to see Vigo standing on his hind legs and Sarah going straight to the ground!! Oh my heart! I hopped on my golf cart, sped to the schooling ring as fast as the rental golf cart would go!! Aaron was on Vigo, Sarah saw me and came to the cart. We didn't speak. I've learned as the mom of three riders not to say anything but observing that she was in fact, ok. She got back on Vigo and they showed. Sarah would get dumped off two additional times by Vigo that weekend. We leased Vigo at the shows the rest of the summer and Sarah was winning and checking her standings. She announced to Aaron that she wanted to take Vigo to finals. He smiled and said "ok!" Sarah ended up qualifying for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC!! They take the top 30 riders in the country and Sarah was one of them! She ended up winning Pennsylvania which was so incredibly exciting!! We went to Washington two weeks later and she ended up having the first rail down. That is horse showing for you! Up on minute and down the next! But it keeps you humble and that is a good thing! Here is Sarah's winning round at Pennsylvania!
No comments:
Post a Comment