For those of you who do not follow the Facebook Recover Page ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rebecca-Greene-Eventing-Recovery-Fund/212695958819924 ), this past weekend Chris and I presented the first ever "Scooby Who And Cassidy Blue Remembrance Award" at The Maryland Horse Trials. This award is something that I thought up the week following the fire. I wanted to find a way to keep Scooby and Kaz's name alive while honoring what I love so dearly, Off The Track Thoroughbreds. The award was given to the highest placed/lowest scoring Off The Track Thoroughbred at the Preliminary Level. I chose Preliminary for the first year because this is where Scooby and I left off in our partnership together. In years to come, we will switch up the level to give all horses an opportunity to win!
Sadly, in the months leading up to the award, I had a lot of dread about it...To the point where I never even talked about it to anyone. Things got so difficult that I emailed Carolyn at The Maryland Horse Trials and told her I just could not get it together to do this award. The thought of having to write or talk about the horses at all, just hurt so much. I am so thankful though for her pushing me to do it and letting me know that so many people were excited about it. With the help of family, great friends (new and old), and a lot of tears, we got it done and to my huge suprise, Saturday was such a wonderful day! We drove down to Baltimore Friday night and had a great evening with Shane and Mike. Saturday morning we headed over to Loch Moy to watch the Preliminary cross country and show jumping before presenting the award. Being there ignited something in me that I have not felt in so long...PASSION!! Passion for the sport and my future..and passion to go Prelim, Intermediate and Advanced on Phoenix! I truly felt excited for what I have, not the heavy sadness and dread for what I lost. We walked almost all of the Prelim course and everything looked totally doable and nice. It made me want it so badly again! The anger and sadness still weigh heavy on my life, but to have a moment in a day to feel complete excitement and eagerness was just an amazing feeling.
After the completion of Preliminary, we were informed that Kate Chadderton and her horse VS McCuan Civil Liberty were the winners of the award! We got to meet with Kate and Liberty, and Kate even went on to tell me that after watching Scooby compete last year, she went to my website to see if he was for sale! How exciting is that?!?! A top rider wanting one of my horses?!?! That definitely made me feel good... both as a trainer and the proudness of my wonderful Scooby Who. It ignited the drive again to keep producing ottbs. Thank you so much for that Kate! You will never know how much that is going to do for me! Kate also blogged about the award ( victorysporthorses.blogspot.com ). Liberty sounds exactly like the type of horse I love...quirky and unique!! I do not think the award could have went to a better thoroughbred for the first year!
I want to give a very special thanks to all of the 2012 Sponsors:
- Caitlin Taylor from OTTB Designs ( http://ottbdesigns.com/ )
- Maryjo Smith from Mane and Tail ( manentailequine.com )
- Jen Roytz from Three Chimney's Farm (Jen will be publishing an article about Liberty in the Paulick Report).
( www.paulickreport.com )
Here is the link to the article Jen did on Scooby following the fire. All agree that this is the best segment done on him!
( http://www.paulickreport.com/features/ottb-showcase/ottb-showcase-scooby-who-a-k-a-scooby/
I also want to thank Carolyn Macintosh and Mary Beth from The Maryland Horse Trials. Such a great group of kind, supportive people!
A very big congratulations to Kate and Liberty! You will always be dear to my heart =)
I'm so glad you were able to get thru everything and give out the award. By the sounds of it the award was given to an amazing horse and rider. What a great way to keep your fur babies name alive. (:
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