The roster of horses at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Bridgestone, reads a bit like this, “16-hand Thoroughbred gelding, 17-hand Thoroughbred-cross, 17.1-hand Irish Sport Horse, 17-hand Selle Francais, 16.3-hand Oldenburg, 16.1-hand Holsteiner, etc.” It paints a picture of a sport dominated by Thoroughbreds, Sport Horses, and Warmbloods. But one Half-Arabian gelding is also making his mark in the top levels of three-day eventing.
Technically he is an Anglo-Arabian, which means he is Half-Arabian and Half-Thoroughbred. This combination makes for an athletic cross, one that has been successful in a variety of disciplines…from hunters, jumpers, dressage, trail horses, and beyond. So it’s no surprise that this 15.3-hand chestnut gelding can compete with the best of them. And that roster of top horses from around the world means he really is among the elite of the sport.
His name is Snooze Alarm, and if you were at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, you would see a beautiful, eager, athletic chestnut with a floating trot in dressage, ears pricked during cross-country, and a careful jumper in show jumping.
Lauren Kieffer is his rider and owner, and she herself is one of the top up-and-coming event riders. She has been in the sport for 10 years, from age 12 to her now 22 years. This Illinois native now makes her home in Middleburg, VA, as a working student for David and Karen O’Connor. And she and Snooze Alarm have been racking up the awards and gaining experience since they started together in Training Level.
Lauren’s parents bought Snooze Alarm in 2002 from his breeders, Lawson and Jeanne Williams. He is sired by the Canadian stallion Serazim, who won the Canadian National Exhibition Halter Stallion Championship, and who was shown in show hack, hunter pleasure, costume, halter and ridden on trails. Serazim, whose pedigree goes back to the famous Arabian imported stallion *Serafix and to some desert-bred Arabians, even won at racing at age eight. Serazim became a “Supreme Sire” of racehorses, endurance horses, sport horses, eventers, and show horses, both in the U.S. and beyond. Snooze was the first foal for the Thoroughbred Wake Me Gently. She has a pedigree that traces to great Thoroughbred racehorses, such as Native Dancer (one of my favorites), Tom Fool, Polynesian, Rock Sand, Isinglass, and my favorite, Man o’War.
He wasn’t Lauren’s first horse though. She started riding at age six and got into the hunter shows and local shows around Mt. Carmel, IL. An Appaloosa was her first horse, and then she moved on to an off-the-track Thoroughbred at age 10. She and Cardinal competed in Novice events under the tutelage of Susannah Lansdale, but eventually Lauren needed to move on with a better horse for eventing. Snooze Alarm was at the barn where she trained, but he proved himself not the most cooperative horse at the beginning. But Lauren persevered and fell in love with the spirited gelding. And with some begging, he was soon hers.
Lauren and Snooze attending an Eventing Camp at the O’Connor farm in Virginia in 2005, and that year they were part of the Bronze-medal team at the North American Young Rider Championships (NAJYRC) in the CCI*. In 2007, Lauren became a working student for David and Karen O’Connor, and the pair had quite a successful year. They qualified for the American Eventing Championships for the third year in a row, finished 13th individually in the NAJYRC, and helped the Area 8 team win a Silver medal. Also in 2007, Lauren made her mark with a few other horses, including winning first in the American Eventing Championships on Walk the Moon, and winning the Markham Trophy at the Jersey Fresh CCI*** aboard Tigger Too.
Most recently, Snooze and Lauren finished The Fork Horse Trials and CIC-W***, they came in 10th at the Poplar Place Farm March Horse Trials in the Advanced division and finished ninth in Advanced-B at the Pine Top Farm Spring Advanced Horse Trials. And in 2009 they finished seventh in the Morven Park Fall Horse Trials in Advanced, won the Open Intermediate-B at Plantation Field in September, and placed eighth in the CCI*** at Jersey Fresh.
This talented chestnut with a star has made his mark on the Arabian world as well as the eventing world. He was the 2007 Arabian Horse Association’s Ambassador Award winner for outstanding achievement in representing the Arabian horse community. He has even been on the cover of Modern Arabian Horse. You can see him as he flies over a cross-country obstacle on one of the magazine’s most popular covers.
And now this Anglo-Arabian just put in a strong performance at his and Lauren’s first four-star event. Their dressage was marked with a floating trot and nice rythym, smooth transitions, and beautiful flying changes. They came out of dressage with a score of 58.5, which had them in 32nd place out of 53 competitors going into the difficult cross-country course.
Snooze galloped around the cross-country course with ears pricked, carefully jumping the large obstacles. One of the smaller competitors, although there was another horse at 15.3 hands, he managed to jump quite big over many of the obstacles. It looked like the pair were having a good time as Lauren gave Snooze a big pat after The Hollow, which was more of the more difficult elements on course, and again after the Kentucky jump. They finished with no jumping faults, but had 25.6 time faults, bringing their score up to 84.1, moving them up into 28th place.
Unfortunately in show jumping, they had a refusal at fence #3, which knocked the entire fence down, when they missed the distance to the fence. They had a hard rub at the first part of the Rolex double combination, but it held. At the FEI jump, they had another rub, possibly from cross-cantering up to it. They stopped the clock at 95.65, but didn’t have any jumping faults after the refusal. With eight time faults and the four faults from #3, they ended with 12 faults and a three-day total score of 96.1, landing them in 29th place. Quite a good finish for their first four-star among the world’s best.
The world is sure to see more of this talented pair. And perhaps they will eventually see Lauren eventing her new horse, Snooze’s three-year-old full brother, Boogie Board.
