Imagine you and your horse are competing in your first two-star. You think back to when you first saw the horse in a cow pasture in Wyoming and had to have him. You may think all the times you were bucked off trying to start him weren’t worth coming all this way to have him rear–not once, but three times–during the reinback in your dressage test.

In Christian Eagles’ mind, it was worth every second to experience the thrill of winning her first CCI** at the Colorado Horse Park, Parker, Colo., May 26-29.

Eagles, 32, of Laramie, Wyo., handled her horse’s rearing with complete composure and even a smile. After exiting the arena she said, “I am pretty sure he was just practicing his airs above the ground.”

As she expected, her dressage score reflected the mishap, placing her last with a score of 73.8, more than 20 points behind the leader, Debbie Rosen on Quito 10. “I think I got a 1 or a 2 on that movement. My score for submission was pretty low too,” Eagles said with a laugh.

After discovering The Gingerbread Man, or “Alan,” an 11-year-old, 15.2-hand, appendix Quarter Horse gelding, Eagles also discovered he was not going to be an easy horse. “He was nearly impossible to start. He was barely broke to lead when I bought him as a 2 year-old, and he bucked me off on a regular basis. We named him The Gingerbread Man, as in ‘You can’t catch me?’ because he is very hard to catch.”

All of Alan’s eccentricities fell away to efficiency on the cross-country course with the pair posting by far the fastest round, adding only .8 time penalties to their score to move up from seventh to second place.

“He is like a different horse out there–I don’t know what it is,” said Eagles, who is a single mother to 3-year-old son John and works as a trainer/instructor in Laramie. “He handles everything so well and makes me feel so safe.”

Only 5.2 penalties separated the pair from the leader Shannon Lilley and High Mountain Road going into show jumping. “He just jumped out of his skin today. He was really on it, and we had a rail but it was totally my fault,” said Eagles, who finished on a score of 78.6, which was good enough to take the win. She credits her mother, Suzy Eagles, with helping her riding.

Last-Minute Decision

Hometown favorite Rochelle Costanza, 37, owner of Platinum Farms in Franktown, Colo., took top honors in the CIC** with the lovely, black Canadian Sport Horse mare, Enchanted.

Costanza only decided about two weeks before the event to ride in the CIC. “I really wanted to do the CCI* but then they cancelled it. Then I found out my scores qualified us for the CIC** and decided to go for that,” she said.

A dressage score of 61.8 put Costanza in third place behind Chelsea Zimmerman and Revere Road (59.4) and Anne Lindley and Merlin (58.5). “This was our first FEI-level competition and first time doing that test. I was really just hoping to remember it,” said Costanza.

Although she won the intermediate division at the Colorado Horse Park Horse Trials in the fall of 2004, Costanza was nervous about a few of the new jumps “Zena” hadn’t seen before.

“I was really nervous about the double corners, but I walked it like three times and had a good plan. Then on course I stuck to my plan and it worked,” said Costanza.

Her round was fast enough to launch her into first place going into show jumping. Only one rail came down, clinching the win.

“The course was tough, lots of tight turns, but she was really obedient. It was difficult to keep her light in front. I got her in way too deep going into the triple, and she really saved me,” she said.

Costanza hopes to do a CCI** later in the year.

Stepping Stone

Making the 24-hour trip from Redmond, Wash., proved worthwhile for Alexis Bramley, who went home with a win in the CIC* aboard Karen Halverson’s Vincent.

“Amy [Tryon] wanted to come run advanced here and talked me into coming,” said Bramley, who runs her training business, No Faults Farm, out of Tryon’s Mapleleaf at Upson Downs Farm in Duvall, Wash. “We have had success at prelim and figured the one-star would be a good stepping stone.”

Bramley and Vincent were off to a great start after earning a dressage score of 54.3, which put them in second place in the field of eight. Dressage leaders Tory Smith and Bantry Bay V were eliminated on cross-country, while Bramley ran clean with only 2.8 times penalties, moving them to the front of the pack.

“Karen is a great owner. I give her so much credit for letting him succeed. He is a great ride for me and is an incredible horse. He has a ton of heart and talent and scope,” said Bramley, whose double-clear show jumping round secured her a blue ribbon.

“[Vincent] trusts her so much; they are great together,” said Halverson, who bought the 16.3-hand, Thoroughbred gelding (Adbaff–Hub City Dancer) through agent Janet von Presentin as a 3-year-old off the track. “It’s a great opportunity for both of them. And it is really fun to see where they can go!”

Topping the field of nine in the advanced horse trials division, Ildiko Hites, 22, Fullerton, Calif., enjoyed a come-from-behind victory aboard her 16-year-old Thoroughbred, Ben Fox. The pair scored 44.4 penalties in dressage, putting them in eighth place.

The cross-country narrowed the field to seven and propelled Hites to the top of the scoreboard after she was the only rider to make the time.

Going into show jumping, Hites had a rail in hand, but second-placed Sandra Donnelly on Buenos Aires and third-placed Tryon on Smoke Signal were close on her heels. Tryon was having a flawless round until the second-to-last jump, an airy combination, when Smoke Signal quite unexpectedly refused the first element. Donnelly then had two rails down.

Hites’ lead increased to two rails in hand, but she and Ben Fox, her coach Jil Walton’s former advanced horse, went double-clear in impressive form to end on their dressage score.

“I was really nervous because I don’t think I have ever jumped this big before. I just told myself to really ride every fence and just make it happen,” said Hites with a big smile. “I really loved it–and I want to thank my parents Em and George Hites and my coach Jil Walton for all of their support.”

When Reed Ayers and his 7-year-old Thoroughbred Shiver (Sinistry–Capable Beauty) won the intermediate division, Ayers fulfilled a dream that just a year ago he thought might never happen.

A crash at Jackson Hole Horse Trials (Wyo.) left Shiver with infected tissue in his knee. “This time last year he was up to his elbow in a leg splint and on stall rest for six weeks,” said Ayers, 40, of Golden, Colo. “We debated doing surgery but decided to be conservative and try this first. Then in July I got on and walked him. In August we trotted, and in September we moved up to canter. We did our first jump in January of this year.”

Before the accident, Ayers was enjoying success at preliminary and had his sights set on moving up. “I admit I had my doubts about whether or not he could come back. But every step of the way he just kept getting stronger. I started thinking I would really like to get back to where we were schooling intermediate, and now here we are.

“Someone said to me, you know, you two really look like you are having fun out there. To me, that is the best compliment,” added Ayers.