High Times Hits His Stride At The Woodside $15,000 Preliminary Challenge

High Times gave his best all around performance, at his most difficult competition to date, during the 2011 Woodside $15,000 Preliminary Horse Challenge to finish in a strong second place.

After a very quiet and steady Dressage test with Jennifer McFall in the irons, "Billy" was tied for second place with Gina Miles' seasoned Preliminary competitor, Sunsprite Patronus, and just a few points out of first. Following Dressage day, the cross country course was full of technical questions and hills to navigate. Billy overcame most of his desire to study each fence closely before jumping and put in his fastest round yet, with just one second over the time at the finish. This gave Gina the edge to break the tie and go into the Stadium round in second place.

The Preliminary Challenge runs the Stadium on the eve of cross country day during the competitor's party so that all can enjoy the intense battle for the prize money from the comforts of the party tent. So, even though there is a very electric atmosphere, most of the horses are feeling quite fatigued after their morning's exertions, and Billy was no exception. The course had several bending lines and square oxers, but to great applause, High Times gave a beautiful clear round to put the pressure on second and first place. As it was, second place had an unfortunate stop and a rails, so Billy moved up in placings and prize money.

High Times and Jennifer McFall at the second water complex on cross country.

Dropping in.

Across the pond.

Water to water canoe.

CWD Corner out of the water.

A clean Show Jumping round.

Thank you to our DF sponsors: CWD, Nupafeed, KEP and Eurostar

Tim Terrific and Earl McFall

Tim Terrific, a four year old American Thoroughbred, made his debut performance with Earl McFall riding. This stunning steel gray was a super star, finishing the weekend in fourth in his Beginner Novice division.

Tim Terrific and Earl McFall

Danny California and Merissa Underwood after their winning performance.

Merissa Underwood and her lovely mare, Danny California, were also sitting in second place after Dressage in their Training Level division. After a text book, perfect ride across country, they added no more penalties after the stadium round to finish on their Dressage score. This sprung them ahead of the field in the end and they came away with the blue ribbon for first place.