Report from the Gold Coast Finale in Fla—April 12,13 2008

We finished up the season with a bang! BeSe stayed at home to rest after a very active and successful season at Grand Prix. He won the last 3 Grand Prix classes that he was in, and Lilo Fore gave him a 70%! We have been striving for that all season!! We did take all of the young horses to the last show and they did great!!

Jen got a 1st and a 2nd on Valentino with scores of 68.333% and 69.667% in First Level. I got a 1st and 3rd on Don Leonardo with scores of 69.667%(tied with Jen and Valentino) and a 70%!! Jen got two 1st’s and a second with Bentley at First Level with scores of 75%, 67.386% and 67.105%. The 75% was our highest score of the whole season.!!! Jen had an almost perfect test as far as I was concerned and I cried when she came out of the arena. Bentley’s frame, relaxation, rhythm and accuracy were all pretty breathtaking! I was soooooo proud of them both!

Leslie Valente had a very exciting time on her new mare Raphaela. Leslie has not showed for some time, and she was really nervous and VERY excited!! Her mare was an angel for her, and she is looking forward to competing her this summer. She received a 63.2% and 3rd place in Training Level Test 4, close behind me and Don Leonardo in quite a large class!

Lynn Leath had a fabulous season of all training and no showing. She definitely made the right choice not to show because when you really start working on the Grand Prix movements the horse can get confused if you try to mix in showing PSG. Her wonderful horse, d’Artagnon, made tremendous progress toward the Grand Prix and we think that he has gotten a good foundation for it. We will try and get some videos or photos of them on our owner’s page also. Lynn will head back to her own North Star Training Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. and get ready for the her show season this summer. Loads of best wishes to Lynn and d’Artagnon from all of us.

We all had a wonderful, wonderful season in Florida and are ready to go back to N.J., have a “ little” rest and then begin the summer show season up north. We will keep you all posted with updates! Best Regards, Cathy