“We have been able to take our time with this mare, and she is truly just such quality and so competitive,” detailed Ballard. “We had an unlucky rail on Wednesday of this week, so when she came out today she was like, ‘I do not knock jumps down, and today we are winning.’ She is just the kind of horse that you could bring out to jump in a halter and lead rope, and she would do her best to try and win.”

Ballard has had the ride on the young mare since the beginning of her eight-year-old year and has taken the time to bring her up slowly over the summer and into FEI ranking classes starting this past fall.

“I think it is very cool and unique that I have been able to develop her this past year, and that she has been so successful the whole way along,” said Ballard. “She is a fast horse with a careful jump and, unlike some of the other horses that are careful over the fences, she is forward and not slow. From the first jump to the last today, I never had to make an adjustment on her; I just continued turning and the jumps kept coming right up, and that is where you make up the time in classes like these.”

Results

source: Press Release