It was a BIG weekend for team Havarah at Pine Top.
Maddie Parisan and John Nunn were both moving up to prelim for the very first time and we all had high hopes for them. And..... I'm pleased to announce that they succeeded and rocked it!
John said his dressage is always a work in progress but it actually went really well and he ended up with a 38, not bad for the first prelim dressage test!
He said his show jumping was also great, he wants to pick up the pace a little bit next time but it was a big, scopey course and Smiley handled it like a champ. They did have one rail and some time penalties but overall it was a really good course.
"Cross country just couldn't have been better, he was very clever," John said about Smiley. The nerves began and ended for John with dressage, and he was completely confident to conquer the cross country course.
Moving forward he's of course going to keep working at the dressage and show jumping, it's back to training at the Fork as John doesn't want to over-face Smiley too fast and believes he should now go have a fun, confidence building course after the big move up.
Perhaps one of the best parts of the weekend was the fact that John got to have his biggest fan, his wife Ann, here on the sidelines to root him on.
"Kudos to my coach for her dedication to helping me get there," John said in giving a shout out to Miss Molly.
Now for the second prelim dominator: Maddie.
She said she was confident going into dressage after a strong warm up and she put in a solid, positive test. Of course once she got the dressage out of the way it was time for the fun stuff.
They only pulled one rail stadium but it was a smooth course according to Maddie, and Carson wasn't even too strong.
Cross country was "absolutely the best part" - Mom, Kim Parisan, was more nervous than Maddie was, Im sure many other mothers out there can relate! - Maddie said everything rode really well and they finished on just time-faults. Which both, John and Maddie agreed Molly told them they HAD to have time faults - slow and steady wins the race when moving up.
So did Maddie feel a difference between training and prelim? She said training fences prepare you for prelim, but at the prelim level you can't second guess yourself. You just have to ride with confidence and that she did.
Other team members rode this weekend too: congrats to Hannah and Robyn with their double clear rounds no one had any stops! This included Molly's rides on Bugsy (who finished 4th!) and Toulousse. Rivan wasn't so sure about the hay bales but after introducing himself he jumped them no problem. Molly is super excited for Riven's season as she says he has never felt so confident and smooth on a competition course.
~MJ
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