PrintTamra Smith is reinspired after a CIC** win with a new partner.
This spring, Tamra Smith’s eventing career seemed to be stalled. She’d returned home with an injury from her first four-star (see sidebar), which she wasn’t able to complete, and she’d already determined that it would be the last season of advanced for her 18-year-old horse.
But things started to look up when she was sent a 12-year-old English Thoroughbred, Bubbles At Brickey, to be sold. And with a win in their first FEI event, the CIC** at Richland Park, Aug. 20-23 in Richland, Mich., Smith is once again optimistic about competing at the top levels.
“It’s a refreshing feeling to have ‘Bubbles,’ ” she said. “I have high hopes for him. He definitely has the talent to do the job, and I just hope there are no bumps in the road.”
The quirky gelding belongs to Dani Sussman, who used to groom for Amy Tryon. When Sussman moved to Colorado to follow her husband’s job, she found there wasn’t much eventing to be had in their area, and she hated to see her horse wasted.
When Smith and Bubbles immediately began winning their competitions—in addition to the win at Richland Park, Smith won the open intermediate at Rebecca Farm (Mont.), placed second in the intermediate at Coconino II (Ariz.) and won a preliminary division at Copper Meadows (Calif.)—he came off the market.
“He’s been quite a fun horse for me,” said Smith, of Temecula, Calif. “He’s lovely on the flat and has been a phenomenal cross-country horse. He and I kind of click.”
Bubbles had a bit of a reputation for being difficult on the ground.
“When I first got him, I got calls from people saying you’d better be careful, he’s crazy,” Smith said. “Dani did a good job of getting his ground manners better and did great work on his flat. He’s been a get-on-and-go type ride for me.”
In preparation for Richland Park, she’d schooled the water at Three-Day Ranch (Calif.), since she’d felt some hesitation at water in previous events.
“He was pretty sticky at the water before Richland, so I was nervous going in as to how he’d be,” Smith said. “But he was phenomenal, really confident.”
Now she plans to go back and school the water again, with a different goal in mind: “I want to do an easy water, so he stays confident and knows that not every time he jumps in it’s going to be tough.”
Bubbles easily made the time over the cross-country course, one of eight horses to do so in the CIC**, to move up from second after dressage to the lead.
“He’d been easily making the time at horse trials before this, but I was not sure if that would be the case at Richland Park, with the terrain and woods,” she said.
“It was easy. He felt fantastic, and I was up [on the clock] 5 seconds at the third minute.”
Show jumping is the one thing that hasn’t always come so easily to Smith and Bubbles. The same relaxation that makes his dressage good can work against him in the final phase, said Smith.
“He tends to be a little lazy, and I’ve been working hard on his show jumping,” she said. “I was beyond excited to do a double clear. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Smith trains with show jumper Susie Hutchison at home, and she’s also worked on her jumping with Capt. Mark Phillips, who’s had her focusing on staying up off Bubbles’ back. “That [advice] seemed to be the ticket,” she said.
