PrintThree former collegiate equestrians have defected to the sport of eventing.
Their GPA helmets may have betrayed their hunter/jumper roots, but the girls from Vermillion Valley
Equine Center were perfectly acclimated at the Heritage Park Horse Trials in Olathe, Kan.
In fact, Dehlia Burdan, Ashley Foster and Casey Finnell proved virtually unbeatable, taking top honors in the novice division of The Chronicle of the Horse/USEA Central Adult Team Challenge, Aug. 22-24, on a combined score of 102.7.
Burdan led the Vermillion team to victory, winning the novice horse division aboard Bob and Pattie Stalder’s 9-year-old Connemara stallion, JEF Sir Lancelot.
“He has been one of the coolest horses,” Burdan said. “A lot of people don’t even realize he’s a stud. He loves his job and is very willing to please. You can take him to an event one day and win it, and then the next day jump on him bareback and take him swimming out in the pond.”
The Stalders’ website also features a photo of “Lance” cheerfully giving toboggan rides in the wintertime.
“He’s done the hunters, but he really loves the eventing,” Burdan said of the barely-14.3-hand stallion. “He’s just such a solid citizen.”
Burdan, 27, and Finnell, 23, met in college when they rode together on the Kansas State University varsity equestrian team. Finnell and Foster now serve as the KSU assistant and head coaches, respectively, and in their free time all three girls ride together with Ann White at Vermillion Valley.
Burdan served as KSU team captain in the 2004-05 season, and unlike her ATC teammates, has also evented up to the preliminary level. In the spring of 2006 she moved to Aiken, S.C., to train with Craig Thompson, then galloped horses at the racetrack in Laurel, Md., from April until December, when she moved back to Belvue, Kan.
Foster finished just .2 points behind Burdan to take second in the novice horse division with a borrowed KSU team horse, James Dean.
“He’s a saint,” Foster said of the 12-year-old Thoroughbred. “I can put anyone on him in practice, and he just goes around. He used to do the jumpers, and I’ve been taking him in the hunter derbies, and now he’s an eventer too.”
Foster, 25, rode on the Virginia Tech equestrian team in college and assumed the role of head coach at KSU in Manhattan, Kan., in 2005.
“My [college] coach called me up one day and said, ‘I have the perfect job for you. You have to apply. But it’s in Kansas,’ ” Foster recalled. “I said, ‘There’s no way I’m moving there.’ I really thought Kansas was flat and brown and had tornadoes every day. But I came out here for the job interview, and I really liked it. Manhattan is just gorgeous. It’s really a lot like Blacksburg [Va.], with green, rolling hills. And there are lots of opportunities for horses too, which I didn’t expect.”
Their GPA helmets may have betrayed their hunter/jumper roots, but the girls from Vermillion Valley
Equine Center were perfectly acclimated at the Heritage Park Horse Trials in Olathe, Kan.
In fact, Dehlia Burdan, Ashley Foster and Casey Finnell proved virtually unbeatable, taking top honors in the novice division of The Chronicle of the Horse/USEA Central Adult Team Challenge, Aug. 22-24, on a combined score of 102.7.
Burdan led the Vermillion team to victory, winning the novice horse division aboard Bob and Pattie Stalder’s 9-year-old Connemara stallion, JEF Sir Lancelot.
“He has been one of the coolest horses,” Burdan said. “A lot of people don’t even realize he’s a stud. He loves his job and is very willing to please. You can take him to an event one day and win it, and then the next day jump on him bareback and take him swimming out in the pond.”The Stalders’ website also features a photo of “Lance” cheerfully giving toboggan rides in the wintertime.
“He’s done the hunters, but he really loves the eventing,” Burdan said of the barely-14.3-hand stallion. “He’s just such a solid citizen.”
Burdan, 27, and Finnell, 23, met in college when they rode together on the Kansas State University varsity equestrian team. Finnell and Foster now serve as the KSU assistant and head coaches, respectively, and in their free time all three girls ride together with Ann White at Vermillion Valley.
Burdan served as KSU team captain in the 2004-05 season, and unlike her ATC teammates, has also evented up to the preliminary level. In the spring of 2006 she moved to Aiken, S.C., to train with Craig Thompson, then galloped horses at the racetrack in Laurel, Md., from April until December, when she moved back to Belvue, Kan.
Foster finished just .2 points behind Burdan to take second in the novice horse division with a borrowed KSU team horse, James Dean.
“He’s a saint,” Foster said of the 12-year-old Thoroughbred. “I can put anyone on him in practice, and he just goes around. He used to do the jumpers, and I’ve been taking him in the hunter derbies, and now he’s an eventer too.”
Foster, 25, rode on the Virginia Tech equestrian team in college and assumed the role of head coach at KSU in Manhattan, Kan., in 2005.
“My [college] coach called me up one day and said, ‘I have the perfect job for you. You have to apply. But it’s in Kansas,’ ” Foster recalled. “I said, ‘There’s no way I’m moving there.’ I really thought Kansas was flat and brown and had tornadoes every day. But I came out here for the job interview, and I really liked it. Manhattan is just gorgeous. It’s really a lot like Blacksburg [Va.], with green, rolling hills. And there are lots of opportunities for horses too, which I didn’t expect.”
