[easykeeper]

Fillabeana, I second Lily Glen! Beautiful area and a well run event!

I also miss Wild Horse Valley Ranch in Napa, CA. I have the BEST memories there (and at Ram Tap) with my with my trainers and barn mates. We used to stay at a scary "No Tell Motel" and in March it ALWAYS rained like crazy! We froze and our tack got soaked and we swore "never again" but, found ourselves there , rain soaked many many more times! Rode at some GREAT clinics hosted at Wild Horse too...good times, good times!

[Xctrygirl]

The houses were inching in closer and closer at Canterburry for years before they finally quit running recognized horse trials. Immokalee was a blast, but it was supposed to be a fund raising event..

OHHHH Finally someone said the name I was trying to recall!! I have only been in Florida one winter. I won Canterbury (SHOCK) and then went to Immokalee riding my high horse and had to scratch before xc. I was soo bummed. It was a cool as hell course but my horse pulled a muscle in the deeper sand warmup.

That course is the #1 regret I never got to ride it xc as it was huge and so creative. The waterjump was calling to me and I never got to answer.

Others I miss...

Fort Rucker. I went and helped groom for a friend and I thought it was an awesome course.

Water's Gift- Had some great go's there.

The Greenspring Horse Trials. - First event I ever attended was the 1984 selection trials there.

I later was a runner at Ship's Quarters and Potomac Horse Center among the truly old days events.

Lest we forget North Georgia at Bouckaert Farms. LOVED it so much.

~Emily

[LookmaNohands]

Blue Ridge.

Radnor.

Immokalee sure was nice!

And, a bazillion years ago--Mumford!

[yellowbritches]

I know it is still running as an event, but I miss CDCTA at Great Meadows. The "new" venue is nice, but Great Meadows just gave it a really cool feel, I thought.

It's funny how you can tell how long people have been in the eventing world based on what they miss. Some of these I've never heard of. Some of them I've heard of but only from reading and from hearing stories about them.

[Appsolute]

WILD HORSE - Napa, CA

Loved that event. Stadium and dressage on the grass, below the vineyards.

Big white tents with wine - back before eventing got so "fancy"

[Blugal]

It's funny how you can tell how long people have been in the eventing world based on what they miss. Some of these I've never heard of. Some of them I've heard of but only from reading and from hearing stories about them.

Well, some of us can only be "so old"... the old timers around here lament the lost events from the 70s and 80s... the one my parents ran in 1980-1982 is still spoken about... I was born in 1981 and technically I was "along for the ride" mowing and organizing for all three!

[CdnRider]

Chase Creek was also my introduction to eventing as a 16 year old. I went as a groom for my new coach to her first CCI*. I had no idea, what eventing really was, or how important helping out at a * was. I learned about the 10 minute box, icing legs (in the creek!) and how fun this community is! I only got the oppurtunity to ride there once, but it was amazing!

[yellowbritches]

Well, some of us can only be "so old"... the old timers around here lament the lost events from the 70s and 80s... the one my parents ran in 1980-1982 is still spoken about... I was born in 1981 and technically I was "along for the ride" mowing and organizing for all three!

Well, I didn't say anything about age, just length of time in the eventing world. You and are the same age, but I've only been eventing for 13 years. But there's events people twice are age probably have never heard of because they just came to the sport in recent history (and then there really are some people that are just OLD. ).

[groom]

Awww gee. Thanks whoever you are!

We've met. I am a dear of friend of SwizzleStick.

[PhoenixFarm]

My first everything event: Rancho Murietta (first event, first, training, first prelim, etc.)

Favorite party event: tie between Wild Horse and Lily Glen (remember the beer tanker? Budwieser was a sponsor and they'd pull up a full tanker truck with a tap on the side, and leave it, LOL). (Yes, the courses and the shows themselves were awesome too, but I'm categorizing them, and this is how, LOL).

Flat out amazing experience: Pebble Beach. Going cross country alongside the Pacific Ocean is an experience simply not to be described. It was just remarkable and beautiful. Even if you were terrified of falling off and your horse ending up rocking and rolling along Spyglass, LOL.

Favorite/first east coast event: Blue Ridge. When I moved to the east the first place I lived was literally around the corner. We could hack to the show. As a Californian, that was totally unbelievable to me.

[NCSaddleFitter]

Down here in FL, I miss Suncatcher. It was a grand lil' show but well run and lots of fun. The Wishard's did a great job on the property they owned in McIntosh.

Valhalla up in Wellborn was another show that was fun and now gone.

I LOVED Suncatcher! Valhalla was a blast too. But Basingstoke was always my favorite. Lots of space, tons of jumps, and a great place to take a youngster to school. Martie ran a great event, and in a way, she still does. She runs Equestrian Secretarial Services, which organizes and runs most of the recognized dressage shows in the Raleigh area.

I also remember going to Rocking Horse when it was still called Sharpton. Man, I'm old.

[Joan from Flatlands]

So many great ones gone from Area 1 its hard to list them all but some of my faves were Sheply Hill (1st recognized event and got sooo lost in those woods!), Flying Horse, Ledyard and Dornhof!

[Riverview]

I miss Menfelt. Only got to do starters there, but the courses were always fun.
I found it neat that they had from itty bitty lil stuff right up to the BIIG fences. We were so sad that they closed. What Did happen to the place? I heard divorce forced sale or something along those lines, but what happened to the actual farm?

[Riverview]

I miss Menfelt. Only got to do starters there, but the courses were always fun.
I found it neat that they had from itty bitty lil stuff right up to the BIIG fences. We were so sad that they closed. What Did happen to the place? I heard divorce forced sale or something along those lines, but what happened to the actual farm?

[smay]

In Area 8, Hearthstone, Applewood, and now Gemwood.

[Ltc4h]

Whatever happened to Menfelt

The original side Woodvale- still a boarding facility.
The backside Menfelt, littered w/ McMansions on 1/4 acre or less.

[flutie1]

We've met. I am a dear of friend of SwizzleStick.

Rumor is that Swiz has left the building!

[GotSpots]

Rumor is that Swiz has left the building!

Swiz will never be truly gone, not so long as we remember and love em.

[Big Spender]

Radnor, Chesterland and Essex....hands down the best in Area II. Does that age me? Radnor, however, was never the same for me after losing a great childhood friend, Keith Taylor, there in 1998.

[tm]

Agreed, Big Spender. Radnor was never the same for me either.

Ledyard, though.... That was the first event I ever went to. I was barely out of high school, and I borrowed mom's car and lassoed a couple of friends and drove to MA to see it. It rained the whole weekend and the friends didn't speak to me for weeks afterwards, but the moment I arrived I knew that this was the world I wanted to be in. That weekend, seeing the other photographers at work, was probably the first time that it had occurred to me that I could make a living photographing horses.... That was 35 years ago any I'm still at it! Having come from a time and place that Training Level was a Big Deal, I still remember the electric excitement that weekend of seeing big time horses jump big time fences.