Working Equitation 2013 IALHA USA Nationals "EOH"

Working Equitation

The Journey to a USA National Working Equitation Championship Nothing like a little adversity to build character I always say. "We all know the toughest journeys have the sweetest rewards."~Patty Carlson. Well said Patty because the journey was a tuff one, let me explain: As I rode Carbon into Watt arena in Fort Worth Texas for the EOH phase, the gate keeper kindly said, "Good luck Randy." I turned to look at her with a crooked smile and replied, "It was not luck that got me here." To play at this level it takes: planning, preparation, talent, tenacity, heart, try, desire, a support team, money, time, blood, sweat, tears, drive, patience, etc, etc… It would cheapen the win if it was all due to chance. Little did she know that I have been training Carbon for the last five years and worked the last six months practicing specifically to win this championship, but that is just part of the journey. Three days earlier, I was stuck in a little town in South Carolina looking for a mechanic to repair my truck. The short story is that it took $1,000 and 48 hours to figure out that the catalytic converter was clogged and the water pump needed to be replaced. As you can see by the picture, Carbon supervised the mechanic to make sure the truck met all safety requirements. Now that I spent my mad money, the question was, do I have enough money to make the 3,000 mile and 10 day journey to get to TX and back home? Well we said our good byes to the mechanic and drove straight through to Forth Worth. With eight exhibitors in level 4, we had our work cut out for us. All the exhibitors were excellent riders and had great horses. We were pretty much on pins and needles the whole time. At this point I trusted in Carbon's training and rode what I brought to the show. I knew he was better than he was a few months ago, but I was not sure if the other fancy horses would kick our butts. We placed 2nd in the dressage phase and I thought we received a 3rd place in speed. After knocking down two polls in the EOH phase, I thought for sure the best we could do is reserve or 3rd place. Carbon and I had no idea we had won until they announced it at the awards. Well the rest is history and if it was not for Sierra Nevada Lusitanos prize money, we would not have made it home. So you could say that Carbon earned his ticket home. I want to give a special thanks to all of Carbon's fans that watched us on live streaming provided by AndalusianWorld.com. Don't miss the video of our EOH below. We made some mistakes, but Carbon was in good form.. Special Thanks to: Sierra Nevada Lusitanos... Sponsorship Andalusianworld.com... Videographer Moonfyre... Photographer Amy Star... Show Chair Susan Watkins ... Scribe Joao Ralao Duarte... Portuguese judge USFWE.... Rules/tests USAWEA...Membership Ellen Ziemer Rougemont Sport Horse.. Sponsorship