Teresa Harcourt: NAJYRC eventing show jumping recap

The highs are high, and the lows are low. After experiencing a little bit of both, Teresa came out the other side with a gold medal and an experience she’ll never forget.

From Teresa:

The Pendulum Effect

Well, Horse Nation…

As I sit on the back patio of a picturesque country house right down the road from the Kentucky Horse Park, I can’t help but reminisce about the events that have taken place in the last 10 days that my team and I have been in the Bluegrass State. There have been many ups and downs on this trip. As I have been told before, eventing is the sport of the highest highs and the lowest lows. I have experienced both in the last 24 hours.

Show jumping day started early this morning with jogs at 7 a.m. All of Area VI horses, Area VII’s Lizzie Snow and Coal Creek alongside Area IX’s Kendyl Tracy’s Ever So Lucky passed the horse inspection. Sarah and I proceeded to get ready for show jumping and finally got to walk the course. It was a beautifully designed course that walked very forward. The course was inviting although elaborately decorated. Skip and I were first in the ring. Unfortunately, my day did not go as planned.

Skip jumped the first fence poorly and continued doing so. He ended up shutting down on me at fence 5, the liverpool, and we were eliminated. As I trotted out of the Rolex stadium, I couldn’t help but feel the tears welling in my eyes. I gave Skip a pat and hopped off only to start letting all of my tears go. Lizzie Snow and Coal Creek jumped a wonderful double clear round! Kendyl Tracy with Ever So Lucky had one rail, while Sarah Braun and the lovely Perfect Intentions had two rails. Our team remained in FIRST!!!

Now this is where the pendulum swings: Five minutes after my flood of tears I am being given a gold medal and galloping around the arena next to my teammates. I turned to my mom and said, “I don’t really know what to think of this.” It was hard to be sad when you have a gold medal hanging around our neck but it was hard to forget about the circumstances. I keep telling myself I contributed to that team and I did have a great weekend up to that show jump round.

As I said before, everyone who is involved with this sport knows that the highest highs will make you ecstatic and the lowest lows will put you in quite possibly the biggest hole you will ever be in. However, the weekend is over and it is time to crawl out of the hole and jump down from cloud 9 that I was on while standing on the podium. I have a horse at the end of the weekend, great teammates, wonderful family, coaches and overall supporters.

The CCI* combined team from Area VI and Area VII finished 8^th after the weekend. Erin Murphy and Myster E pulled three unfortunate rails to finish the weekend. Jordyn Horowitz on Nicodemus flew around the course and incurred two rails. The final one to go into the Rolex stadium was Gigi Herron on Beacon Hill. Gigi had no jump penalties and only three time penalties. All of these girls left Lexington with smiles on their faces and positive attitudes.

Thank you to Dayna Lynd-Pugh, Shannon Lilley and Laura Powell for your endless dedication to all of the Young Riders. Y’all make this possible and we could not be more thankful for everything you have done for us to get us to Lexington. A personal thank you to Jackie Mcrae for making the trek to Lexington to watch Skip and I. Jackie, you have been a role model for me and I could not thank you enough. Our sponsors were incredible! Thank you to Fleeceworks, Toklat, Western Saddlery, Ulcergard and Ride On Video. Thank you to Tex Sutton, Lightstar Transportation, Sara Shade-Kleintop, Dr. Emily Sandler, Dr. Laura Werner and Eric Parsons. Finally, thank you to all the parents for your devotion to us and our dreams.

Until next time!

Teresa