The first West Coast Spalding Labs/United States Eventing Association (USEA) Young Event Horse (YEH) Competition of the year was held last Thursday at the Twin Rivers Spring Three-Day Event and Horse Trials in Paso Robles, CA.

Although there were only two entries in the four-year-old division, the competition was neck-and-neck throughout the day with Pam Fisher riding her own Oldenburg/Thoroughbred gelding, Rigby, finishing only 0.4 points ahead of the Rheinland Pfalz-Saar mare, Bobbi Brown, owned and ridden by Jessica Erbstoesser.

Rigby (Kairo x Tayler's Princess) came to Fisher through an interesting arrangement. After training a few mares for Trudi Peet, she offered Fisher a horse in exchange. “I chose Rigby because he was just such a sweetheart,” Fisher explained. “He is the type of horse that you can just give a hug, and he will wrap his head and neck around you. I think that he is going to be the ultimate amateur ride at any level because he is a lovely jumper and mover and he is not difficult to ride at all.”

“This was my first YEH Competition, and I think the format is really excellent,” Fisher said. “I had watched the competitions in the past and thought it would be really neat to participate with a baby of my own someday. Rigby was just started in December and basically only had three weeks of prep before the competition. The YEH was only his seventh time jumping, and it was a perfect format for him. ”

Rigby will be competing at the Novice level this spring and summer and will contest another YEH competition at Rebecca Farm in July.

The five-year-old division boasted five entries, but competition was just as fierce with barely seven points separating the entire class. At the end of the day, it was Olympic Silver medalist Gina Miles who pulled out the win aboard the Hanoverian/Thoroughbred gelding, Larapin II, scoring an impressive 81.2.

“I got the ride on Larapin II (Landkonig x Cassandra) because his owner, Ashley Anderson, is a student and couldn’t get out of class,” Miles explained. “Anderson is one of my students, and I was happy to compete Larapin for her. Larapin with Anderson riding ended up winning their Novice division over the weekend as well.”

“I think that the YEH classes are a great avenue for the young horses,” said Miles. “However, I am glad that I agreed to ride Larapin before I saw the dressage test because I might have refused! I was a little bit intimidated about riding such a young horse through the difficult test, but I am glad I did because YEH really is more about showing off the horse’s potential rather than riding a picture-perfect test. The competition was great because it was held the day before the show and gave the horses a great opportunity to get in the ring and settle. I think that not enough people realize that YEH is out there, and it is a great format that needs to be promoted more.”

Complete Results can be found at http://useventing.com/competitions.php?section=yeh&id=2299.