Cayla Kitayama had come to the conclusion that she and Docksider would never be competitive at the upper levels of eventing. Due to some physical limitations–kissing spine and TMJ (discomfort in the temporo-mandibular joint, or the jaw)–the 13-year-old Thoroughbred has troubles with dressage work.

“It’s difficult for him,” said Kitayama. “Every day is a struggle.”

But he’s never had problems jumping, and that paid off for him at the MCTA Horse Trials, May 5-7 in Cockeysville, Md. Kitayama, 20, rose from 12th after dressage to score her first advanced win over David O’Connor’s inaugural advanced course at Shawan Downs.

“I’m so excited about it,” she said. “I’m ecstatic. It’s incredible–I’m still in a daze about it.”

Originally from Orinda, Calif., Kitayama moved east two years ago to attend Villanova University (Pa.) and train with Phillip Dutton.

“The level of competition is very different,” she said. “The atmosphere of Olympic-level people makes a huge difference. California is like a big family, and when I came out here I felt like a little fish in a really big pond.”

MCTA was Kitayama’s final run before the Jersey Fresh CCI*** (N.J.), so she was especially nervous over a bigger-than-expected course. “It took us back how technical it was,” she said, citing a table with a turn to a corner and turn to a second corner, severe angled brush fences, two water complexes and a challenging coffin.

Only eight riders completed the eventin each of the two advanced divisions–in Kitayama’s division, three scratched and four retired on course. And before cross-country, the show jumping had already taken its toll, with only one clear round in the division.

“The show jumping ground was tough,” said Kitayama. “Two rails is unusual for my horse this season, but they went a bit differently on the hill.”

Docksider completed last fall’s Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.) and took Kitayama to the North American Young Riders Championships in 2004, where they won a team gold medal with Area VI.

“He’ll never do wrong by you; he will always try,” Kitayama said. “He’s built up a disdain for the flat, but he’s the best horse you could ask for to teach me to go up the levels.”

In addition to working with Dutton, Kitayama said Heidi White has helped her to get the most out of “Hogan” on the flat. “It’s made a huge difference,” said Kitayama. “And my experience with Phillip has been priceless. I don’t think I’d be nearly where I am if I hadn’t been here. I keep trying to get my friends from California to come out here.”

For Kitayama, the hour daily drive to True Prospect Farm, where she keeps Hogan and her preliminary winner, Felix, is well worth the effort. “I sacrifice a lot of sleep, but I like how it’s turning out,” she said. “I think you can do whatever you want; you just have to make it work.”

And she gives her biggest thanks to Hogan. “He’s been with me from the West Coast to the East, from high school to college–he’s my pet, my friend, and the most incredible horse I could ask for,” she said. “He owes me absolutely nothing, and I’m extremely lucky to have found him.”

Kitayama, who has had Hogan since he was 13, couldn’t celebrate her win for long–she had an accounting final at 8 a.m. on Monday.

Working Mom
Jane Sleeper had two reasons to celebrate on the weekend of MCTA. In addition to her advanced win aboard UN, the mare’s first foal by embryo transfer was born. The sire is Harry The Hat, a stallion by Seattle Slew.

“I’ve broken about four of [his offspring], and they’re all good movers and jumpers with such nice personalities,” said Sleeper, of Coatesville, Pa. After Sleeper sold advanced horse Greek Fire, by Bahrain, she went to Ireland looking for a relative of his.

“I wanted a foal out of a mare by Bahrain,” she said. “I wrote to about six breeders, and Tim Brennan had a 3-year-old mare by Cavalier out of a Bahrain mare.”

UN, now 11, loves to jump but has never enjoyed flatwork. The pair moved up from 15th after dressage to win their advanced
division.

“I was pretty excited about it,” said Sleeper, 56. “It was sort of like the oldfashioned times when you were not in the top three after dressage but moved up by jumping clean.”

She didn’t even know she’d won until she was driving home. “One of my students called me and said, ‘You got the blue.’ I said, ‘What’s that, eighth?’ I was already smitten about her having a foal, so it was a great day.”

Only UN and Bruce Davidson’s mare Jam posted clear show jumping rounds in their division.

“She loves to jump–she could do the jumpers,” said Sleeper.

Davidson, who’d withdrawn Little Tricky after an unusually tense dressage test a week earlier at the Rolex Kentucky CCI****, won the division’s dressage at MCTA. He withdrew both of his advanced horses after a fall with another mount.

With their jumping already confident, Sleeper spent the winter working on her mare’s dressage. After the Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.) last October, Stuart Black, who bought his advanced mare Starlight from Sleeper, approached her and said, “We have got to get this dressage.” So he’s helped her a bit, as have Davidson and Donnan Sharp. “It’s been a community affair,” said Sleeper with a laugh.

Now Sleeper plans to compete UN in the Jersey Fresh CCI*** before trying another embryo transfer.

Double Wins For White
Sharon White won both of the inaugural intermediate divisions, riding Peter and Susan Barry’s The King’s Spirit and Kate Pratt’s Ronaldo.

“They both did all three phases great. They’re lovely, lovely horses, and I was glad that came out,” said White, a 32-year-old professional who runs her own Last Frontier Farm in Summit Point, W.Va.

The win was especially meaningful for White since she missed the 2005 fall season with a broken pelvis after falling at home aboard a young horse. She started riding again in January, after almost five months out of the saddle, and competed again for the first time in March.

“I’m not quite 100 percent, but I feel pretty good,” she said. “It took a couple of events to not feel really rusty, and I get tired, which I’m not used to, but everything feels good now.”

After walking O’Connor’s new course, White was glad to be sitting on experienced intermediate horses. Ronaldo placed fifth last spring in the Jersey Fresh CCI**, and The King’s Spirit was fifth in the Bromont CCI** (Canada).

“It’s hard,” she said of the new course. “It’s very much designed to prep people for Jersey Fresh, and I quite liked it. For horses on the verge of moving up, it’s good to have something a little more difficult to tell me where I was with them.”

White started riding The King’s Spirit, an English Thoroughbred mare by Rock King, at age 4. “March” was imported in foal to Primitive Rising. “[The Barrys] are hoping March will be the beginnings of a really good eventing line that they’d like to breed,” said White.

White is excited about the future for March and “Bobby,” a 12-year-old New Zealand Sport Horse. “I’m hoping both will be very special, big-time horses,” she said. “They have the movement and the jump and the attitude.”

Since her accident, White admited that she’s brought a new outlook to the sport. “I wish I hadn’t gotten hurt, but I have a whole new perspective,” she said. “I really want my horses happy doing it, and I appreciate how hard they try. I feel lucky to be sitting on them. Something is different, in a nice way. I just want to be having fun.”