Sidelined from December to the middle of March with a broken tibial plateau, 19-year-old Katherine Breunig was back on her game at the Greenwood Farms Horse Trials in Weatherford, Texas, May 1-2. She won the intermediate division on her 8-year-old Irish Sport Horse, Hugh Knows, and now she hopes to qualify for the Area V North American Young Riders Championships team this summer.
After a ride on Christmas Day at her family’s ranch, Breunig dismounted awkwardly, injuring the top of her tibia, which required surgery and ten weeks out of the saddle. The win marked her return to the intermediate level after winning preliminary at Sky Vista Ranch Horse Trials (Texas) in April.
“I was back in the saddle about the 15th of March,” said Breunig, a student in her first year at Southern Methodist University (Texas), “and jumped again for the first time the week before Sky Vista. It doesn’t hurt really; my knee just feels weaker, definitely not 100 percent.”
Breunig credits Lynne Partridge, who finished sixth at Greenwood, with keeping “Hugh” prepared at her Pear Tree Farm in Argyle, Texas, where he is boarded.
After dressage, Breunig stood tied for first (37.5 penalties) with Stacey Quarles on James Henry. Breunig and Quarles both took a rail down in show jumping to sit in a second place tie. Janet Marden-Lester moved into the top position on her stallion Flagmount’s Freedom with one of only two double-clear show jumping rounds of the division.
John Williams designed the show jumping course, which was set upon uneven terrain with several short turns to related combinations set on long distances and uphill slopes. Four inches of rain had fallen overnight, and many horses found the going challenging.
Directly after completing her show jumping round, Breunig settled Hugh for the afternoon and drove back to Dallas to take a Spanish final. Returning from the 80-mile round trip, Breunig completed the cross-country phase, adding only 2.4 time penalties to finish with a 43.9.
Land owners and organizers Marvin Savage and Christy Tull have continued to rely on the expertise of Williams for the cross-country course design. This year, Williams added a bounce bank complex and adjusted the corner-ditch-corner fence, each of which rode well.
Breunig’s mother, Mary, shares her enjoyment of eventing, and her father Bob, a middle linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys from 1975 to 1985 under Tom Landry, shares her love of competition.
“My father inspires me to set goals and to go for it. He taught me the importance of focus. He always tells me, ‘Coach Landry said winning is a distraction from what you have to do.’
“My parents offer me a lot of support for my sport with the caveat that I must continue my education,” she added. “It takes really good time management, and the good care that Hugh gets definitely allows me to go to the barn, get my ride in and get back to school.”
Coached by Mike Huber in jumping and Mary D’Arcy O’Connell in dressage, Breunig placed second at last year’s NAYRC CCI* and has high hopes for a good performance in this year’s CCI**.
Her time management skills again came in to play as directly after cross-country, she prepared Hugh to be hauled to Middleburg, Va., where she trained with Karen and David O’Connor to prepare for the Jersey Fresh CCI** (N.J.). “I lived in Virginia last summer and worked with the O’Connors and really learned a good work ethic. They establish such a high standard,” she said.
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Breunig has ridden Hugh for two years, bringing him from the training level to intermediate and hopes to take him advanced. Courtney Cooper of Unionville, Pa., imported the bay gelding from Paddy Hughes’ Carlingford Stables in Ireland.
Repeat Performance For Twinkle Toes
Rebecca Brown, 17 and Twinkle Toes, her 8-year-old, Thoroughbred gelding, repeated their win from last spring in the junior/young rider open preliminary division and now are preparing for the Virginia CCI*.
A Seattle Slew grandson sired by Digression, out of the mare Really Mean, “Twinkie” was given his name by hunter/jumper trainer Jennifer Wheeler, from whom Brown received the then 3-year-old.
The gelding’s toes were by no means twinkling after his dressage test; the grass arenas had been marred by a morning’s worth of hooves cutting through the rain-sodden turf. “My ride was pretty good, but it was very deep in there,” Brown said of the 29.5-penalty test that placed her in second behind Coren Morgan and Early Acheiver’s 26 penalties.
Of 35 horses jumping the preliminary course between the seniors and juniors, Brown turned in one of five double-clear rounds. Going into cross-country in first place, her confidence was bolstered by the change she has seen in her horse since beginning additional fitness work.
“I gallop up Flagpole Hill in a public park in Dallas. In addition to better physical fitness it changes his mental perspective as well. I noticed it at Sky Vista; he’s really locking in on the jumps,” Brown said. “He’s keener; he’s really willing and gallops away after the fence. He doesn’t seem to be second guessing anything now.”
Brown considered her cross-country ride to be the best she’s had. “He was perfect, especially at the bounce banks up, three strides to the box, which I jumped off the angle. The water, which has changed also, was great because sometimes I can tell that he’s thinking about it. Going up to it I was nervous about it because I get nervous about anything that is new, but he was just completely focused.”
Brown and Twinkie missed the Mid-South CCI* (Ky.) in October because of a bucked shin and couldn’t compete at the Ft. Worth Trinity CIC* (Texas) because of the SATs. Now she is excited to be heading to the Virginia CCI.
An only child, Brown grew up in Dallas the daughter of trainer Becky Brown. Educated at Talland in Cirencester, England, Becky Brown returned to Dallas and taught at a number of different barns, including the Willow Bend Polo Club. Now Brown, 51, is at Rocking M stables, located within the city limits of Dallas.
“I’ve always been in horses; probably I wouldn’t have a choice even if I wanted, but I couldn’t imagine what it would be like without them,” said the younger Brown. “I got my first pony when I was 3, and I have been showing ever since.”
In addition to her mother, Brown has been getting help from Rainey Sealy Andrews and will work more with Andrews this summer at the Champagne Run Horse Trials (Ky.), the final competition for the Area V Young Rider selectors to evaluate candidates for their NAYRC teams.
Roth Digs Up A Novice Win
Partnered for less than a month, Glynis Roth and Indian Artifact carried home the blue ribbon in the senior open novice division. Roth, a small animal veterinarian from Southlake, Texas, recently purchased the 12-year-old, Paint gelding from Adri Doyle, seeking a ride that would restore her enjoyment of the sport after it was challenged with a couple of less pleasurable mounts.
“Win or lose it was a good weekend,” said Roth “It was nice to be on a sane horse who knows his job and did his best. I had fun, and if you are not having fun you need to find another sport. ‘Indy’ kept his head about him, and that let me keep mine about me and do what I have been taught to do.”
Ft. Worth, Texas-based trainer Peggy Friauf recommended the horse to Roth and has worked with the pair on dressage. Roth and daughter Maeve McFall compete and train together, receiving help in their show jumping from jumper trainer Glenn Ronden of Showtime Stables.
The weekend proved very busy for the mother and daughter who interrupted their Sunday competition schedule after Roth’s morning show jumping round by making a one-hour drive back to Southlake for McFall’s confirmation mid-morning, then driving one hour back for McFall’s afternoon cross-country ride.
Roth exclaimed, “I got home, took off my breeches, pulled a dress over my head, and we headed to the church!”
McFall placed second in the junior open training aboard her own Smooth Operator.