Sterling hopped into the trailer and we closed the back
doors. The horses were clipped, the saddles and bridles sparkling, the rig
just washed. Then a moment of silence; we were about to leave for a show,
and everything was ready to set off on another journey. This show, however,
was unlike any horse show we have ever attended. We were off to Nationals.
Janna, Blu, and Julia had read the show’s dates over and studied the class
offerings on paper for quite a while. It was a date, a marking in the
calendar, and nothing more. Nationals were an idea, a goal for the future
that we would eventually be attending, but did not give much thought to
because it had never seemed real. The idea of winning a national
championship had not occurred to me to be anything more than a dream up
until now. It had always been Monterey, Woodside, Charity Fair, Santa
Barbara, Salem, and Diamond Hills Fun Show, as our show schedule for the
year. Never before was there a Vegas. All of a sudden it was time to turn
the key in the ignition and set an 11 hour course to Las Vegas, Nevada.
We arrived at 1:30 a.m. and shuttled to the
huge indoor facility by the name of South Coast. Poor Blu was exhausted from
sitting behind the wheel for the entire duration of the trip! He is our
savior because he, along with 5 or 6 large coffees and a few Monster and
Sobe energy drinks, were the reasons we made it through the long haul to
Vegas. We put up the boys and hit the sack for a good 7 hours. After the
horses settled in for a day, it was time to show!!
Barend, our dressage trainer from Holland,
started us off with a National Championship with a Reserve National Championship with Laurens in 3rd level dressage. His test was intricate and confusing but that didn’t stop
Barend!! He is the best dressage rider we have ever had on our teamJ
You know a show is going to be good when
Big and Rich, Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy, the Macarena, and Madonna are
played while showing in the arena. Stormy and Bruce and Stacey Griffin took
a Reserve Grand National Championship in the Open Gelding In-Hand Class.
Then, Blu and I went in for the Amateur In Hand Gelding class to run Stormy
around by ourselves. The class consisted of running the horse around the
ring once, I ran along side the horse, and Blu behind the horse with a whip,
then we stood along the far side of the rail. Each horse entered, one at a
time, and once all the horses were in, the judge called them up one by one,
examined their conformation, and sent them around the ring again at the
trot. Finally the awards were called. The top five were called, and as the
announcer said, “and then there were two.” Reserve Champion was called, and
we were still in the ring. That meant, WE WON!!!!! Stormy won the Amateur
Gelding In Hand Class!! I excitedly returned my National Champion to his
stall, but poor Blu again had to sprint around the ring in Ate’s in hand
classes. Ate won both his National Grand Championship In Hand Classes,
Baroque Stallions with Bruce, and Amateur handler, with Janna running at
Ate’s side, and Blu at whip.
That was a great start!! We were not done
though. The day seemed to never end. It had started with the morning
dressage classes, and then the in-hand classes. Now, Janna and I would
compete under saddle. I was to compete in Country Pleasure, and Janna in
Friesian Walk/Trot Pleasure. Stormy and I had a great class full of various
gaits: the trot, extended trot, canter, extended canter, reverse, reverse
again. It was the strangest called Country Pleasure class I have competed
in. Well, it was definitely one of the best classes we performed in, Stormy
carried out every command perfectly, and returned to a trot after the
extended canter, which is something we never practice. The crowd cheered
while the judge passed, and I was asked to leave the class as a finalist! I
did not even make the top five. I was excused with last place. Well, many
people in the audience came back to the barn and said the class was placed
incorrectly. I did not mind at all because when I can go in the ring and
execute everything correctly, I am happy with the outcome because it means I
accomplished my goal. In the end, the placing is merely one person’s
opinion. I was proud of Stormy’s job which was well done.
Laurens and Janna took on the
competition in the Walk and Trot class and were Reserve National Grand
Champions. The pair stole reserve after Janna had ridden him only twice
before the class! Laurens is a very special horse to BSF. He is a new member
of our family, and before we set off to Nationals, he was for sale. Laurens
is no longer on the market, as we have fallen in love with him. He is the
BIGGEST sweetheart, always nuzzling you with his face and then finding a
comfortable position and resting his nose on your shoulder. Well, to say the
least, Laurens has more talent contained within himself than we know what to
do with. He could go either dressage OR saddleseat, he is an exceptional
mover!!!! So we are officially making Laurens a part of our show string.
Welcome Laurens!
Finally we slept on Friday nite…
The next morning, Sterling, Ravello, Ate
and Stormy were scheduled to show. The show started at 8:00 a.m. so we had
to get up extra early for our “horse wash.” The alarm went off at what
seemed like an hour after we hit the sack, 6:00 AM. WHY???? I could have
slept forever. The talk of the show, and the star for the morning was
without a doubt Blu and Stormy, who competed in the National Champion
Friesian Show Pleasure Driving Amateur. Nine entries were to be expected in
the class. I polished that freakin’ harness for so long and it shined
beautifully on Stormy. Blu warmed up and readied Stormy for the challenge
ahead. This class was open to all types of carts, and lets just say Blu was
the only driver with a light cart and harness, meaning, he competes with the
only cart to cost less than 10 thousand dollars!! He wanted to stand out;
he wanted to show. He concentrated and conquered each gait with such ease.
When the line up was called, Janna and I turned to each other and agreed on
Reserve. We both thought Blu had an excellent drive, but we were not too
hopeful because he had MAJOR competition. For most of the class, Stormy and
Blu were in front of a lovely pair of Friesians driven by our friend’s from
Holland. Their turn out was exceptional. Blu and Storm bucket stood in the
line up until the words again slipped from the announcer’s mouth, “and then
there were two.” He did it!! He made it into the top two. We were psyched!!
But what was to come was even more astounding. The reserve number was
called, and it was not Stormy’s number. That meant, he won!!! The smile that
spread over Blu’s face was unforgettable, he won a National Championship,
solely on his own—and not only that, but he had some major competition.
Stormy made a victory pass and the photographer captured a stunning victory
pass picture with our Storm bucket wearing the roses.
Sterling took a third in the giant Open
Western Pleasure Class. This was a shock because the crowd was on his side
and no one could understand why he wasn’t first. Although disappointed,
Janna decided to focus on her next class with Sterling on Sunday.
Ravello placed Reserve National Champion Friesian Walk
and Trot Amateur to ride, under my direction. This was a great
accomplishment because Ravello has not been feeling well recently. He picked
up the trot and made a few nice passes, nice enough to place Reserve in a
big class.
Stormy and I won the Friesian National Champion
Equitation class. We were the only saddleseat rider/horse combination and we
came out on top. I rode Stormy a little slower and more conservative and it
made a great picture. I was so proud of Stormy, three National Championship
titles!!
Laurens won the Friesian Dressage Hack Amateur with
Janna in the irons. The class had a few bobbles, but the thing was that each
horse made bobbles. There was a pile up of horses at the canter going second
direction, and Janna shifted her weight in trying to avoid a “stalled”
horse, and Lauren’s switched leads. Knowing Lauren’s does solid flying
changes, she quickly cued him and he switched back to the correct lead,
never missing a beat. Lauren’s trot is so unique and the ease of entry into
his different gaits is so spectacular that the pair stole the heart’s of the
audience, and the judge, in this large class.
On Sunday, the final day of the Grand Nationals,
Sterling and Janna won the Friesian Western Pleasure Amateur class!! I was
unable to see the class because I was asked to catch ride a wonderful mare,
Zenobia, in a saddleseat class a few classes after Sterling’s western
class. Sterling was called champion, but because they call the winner in
reverse order, last to first, he thought he was called in third and gave a
big buck in protest because he was the last to leave the line up. That
Sterling horse is one SMART Friesian, and he is very accustomed to being
called out of the line up first! Janna said her ride was much smoother than
her first class on him and she had a huge smile as she led her National
Champion to his stall for treats!! While in the line up, the judge
approached Janna and commented, “I just love his muffins.” Well, the word is
actually feathers but muffins, feathers…I can see the connection!!
Ate: Hunt Seat Pleasure Amateur National Champions,
and again, I did not see the class because we had three classes back to
back—Janna, me, then Janna again. I understand Ate stepped up to the
challenge and had a phenomenal performance. I caught the tail end of the
victory lap and they were flying!! Funny note in this class…Janna thought
she heard her name called out as a top five finalist when Deb Goldmann’s
name was called, so she trotted to the in gate to pick up her top five
ribbon. The folks at the in gate were waving their arms, “NO! Janna, wrong
Goldman, go back, Janna. NO!” So you should have seen how happy Ate and
Janna were when they were called out as National ChampionsJ
Ate did his magnificent extended trot around the ring in the victory lap,
which was captured on film by the photographer, Osteen.
And all the sudden, I was readying Stormy
for my LAST class!!! This long, long, exhausting, time-consuming, stressful
week was coming to an end. I had initially signed up for the Amateur
Country Pleasure class, but decided to switch into the Ride and Drive class.
This is a very unique class because you first drive the horse in the cart
and have the saddle and bridle in the cart, then you switch tack in the
middle of the ring, and ride. We had never competed in such a class before.
First we entered at the trot and then stepped up to a working trot. Stormy
was behaving himself and we were called into line up. Headers were asked to
come in and help un-tack. I was working off adrenaline and Blu and I had
Stormy completely un-tacked and were about to put on the bridle and saddle
when the announcer said, please re-harness your horses…WHAT?? Re-tack? But
we just took it all off! We were supposed to reverse and go the second
direction and since we had not, we had to re-tack and drive second way. It
was really really really funny because no one else even had their carts off.
The staff in the arena helped us because we were so far along. Well, Stormy
is bad about bridling and almost got away… but we were holding his head. So
we struggled to put on the harness and put the bridle over his head-shy
ears. We got it over one ear, and over the next, and the overcheck was
twisted, and in the forelock. It slipped off the first ear, so Blu went
around to the other side of Stormy’s face to put the bridle back on the
first ear. Stormy showed us the whites of his eyes and held his head up
high!! Then, it slipped off the second ear so we had to run to the other
side of Stormy’s face and put it back over, so it wouldn’t slip off. Well
that was a comical experience!! So we finally got the harness back on and I
got into the cart and went the second direction. We came back into the
center ring and tacked the horses up in their respective riding
equipment---some saddleseat, some going dressage, some horses being ridden
huntseat. I had a very nice ride both directions at the walk, trot, and
canter. We lined up, were asked to back our horses again, and then….the
placings are called. There were seven in the class and the finalists were
excused. The top five remained in the ring. Then three were left, and as the
announcer said, “and then there were two.” Bruce Griffin and I. I walked
Stormy over and we stood together as we waited for the final results. The
reserve goes to….not my number. Stormy and I won! I shook Bruce’s hand and
waited at center ring for my horse’s name to be called as National Grand
Champion Ride and Drive. It was so great…. Words do not express the emotions
I felt after that class, AND I was the only Junior Exhibitor.
All of the sudden, it was all over. BSF
walked away with 10 National Grand Champion Titles, and 4 Reserve National
Grand Champion Titles. We brought 5 horses. Now I am not good at math, but
from my calculations, we were first or reserve in 80% of classes entered.
At Las Vegas, we met and reacquainted ourselves with
many people who share the love for these big black Labrador-like horses, and
to all of you that supported us, cheered for us in the stands, and helped
behind the scenes when we had 4 or all 5 horses going in a performance, we
say THANK YOU.
Team Black Sterling had a phenomenal IFSHA Grand
National Championship Horse Show and when I say team, I am not only
referring to the five boys we brought to Las Vegas, I speak for ALL the
people who trusted us with the purchase of their Friesian Horse that found
success in this gamblers paradise. Janna and I felt proud upon watching
classes with numerous Friesians we sold, competing at the National level, and receiving top honors. BSF horses we sold to delighted customers that
were also in Vegas competing, included [and I apologize if I missed a few!]:
Alibi, six Top Five placings in dressage hack and
huntseat and training level dressage
Nysbert, Reserve National Champion Saddleseat Country
English Pleasure
Azul, Dressage Hack Open National Grand Champion and
Julia’s favorite in the Costume Class, 3rd in Third Level Dressage
Gerrit, English Pleasure Saddleseat Open National Grand
Champion AND Eng Pleasure Amateur Saddleseat National Grand Champion, and
the crowd’s overwhelming favorite in the Costume class.
Dolce, Top Five in Walk and Trot Amateur
Cole, Intro Level Dressage National Grand Champion
Shakespeare, National Champion Hunter Hack and Reserve
Intro Level Dressage National Champion
Attache, Reserve First Level Dressage National Champion
out of 19 entries
We thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the stands and
watching the HUGE costume class which had 6 entries sold by BSF! CONGRATS to
all the BSF Champions!!!
Janna will tell you that her very favorite part of
being at the Grand Nationals was the warm reception from so many past
customers and trainers that stopped by our stable area to relate their
satisfaction with their Friesians purchased from BSF, many of which were
customers we had never met, as they purchased their horse site unseen.
This national venue included a thrilling assortment of
dressage, saddleseat, huntseat, driving, and show hack classes providing
something for every skill level of horse or rider. Since not every Friesian
foal born is destined to become a Grand Prix super star, the variety of
pleasure and pleasure driving, liberty, and in hand classes offered at the
IFSHA Grand Nationals helps satisfy our ever growing Friesian market—and
presents an affordable opportunity-for many people of all ages to enjoy this
athletic, willing, versatile breed.
What we, and most importers, are selling, ultimately, is FUN. As the internal combustion engine spelled the demise of Friesian
horses as an element essential to survival, the trains, planes, cars, horse
vans and trailers that followed have ushered in a whole new chapter of
unbridled FUN with our Friesian horses.
