September 27 – 28, Devon and Malvern, PA (Dressage at Devon show) by Cathy Leddy
I arrived in Pennsylvania on Monday evening, so I could start work on Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning, I arrived at the DAD showgrounds in Malvern, PA. I was surprised at how small it was, vs how big the show is. The showgrounds are very old and are nestled in among car dealerships, grocery stores and various other businesses. The barns (for the most part, anyway) are very old fashioned, with smallish stalls with openings between boards between stalls. I checked out where our Tekes were supposed to be and found they were scattered in several different barns, even though the competitors had asked to be together. After some reflection, we decided that was ok, as we had 5 stallions coming and in the interest of peace and quiet, having them with their known associates seemed to be a good idea. Sabine Desper had gotten an extra stall for the ATAA as a hospitality stall. We ended up setting up mostly in the aisle way though, as the barns weren’t very full (horses came and went depending on when they showed). Trisha Urban came with the stall drapes that were donated last year by Golden Years Retirement Home (her place of employ at the time) and I had brought the ATAA banner and shipped some items to Sabine Desper to bring with her horses. Trisha, her significant other (nice guy, but I’ve totally forgotten his name!) and I put up the stall drapes and banners and set up a display in the aisleway outside of Shenandoah Farms stalls. We had an extra stall, thinking it would be for visitors, but the barn was empty enough that we were able to use it for
View of ATAA stalls at Devon
storage. The stalls were in a good area also, not far from the vendor village and entrance to the showgrounds. We put up the multicolored Akhal-Teke banner outside the barn to help guide traffic in.
Sabine Desper and her significant other showed up later on Tuesday with The Akhal-Teke Stud stallions Anikit and Kurizma, as they had classes on Wednesday morning. Katrina and Giles Ardiel showed up Tuesday also with two of their stallions, Gerald and Hendrick. Trisha Urban brought her two-year-old colt early on Thursday morning, as he was only in the AT breed class.
We got everyone settled Tuesday night and then I headed back to the hotel. Wednesday morning, we met at the barn bright and early and I helped Sabine get Anikit ready for his in-hand class, as she was still on Kurizma in his under saddle class not long before Anikit’s. I got to shave off his mane and groom him up a bit, what a lovely guy he is! Both Hendrick and Anikit showed in the 4 year and older stallion class (in hand) and placed 4th and 5th with scores of 68.8 for Hendrick and 67.8 for Anikit under judge Carter Bass. Kurizma showed in the 4 year and older stallions and geldings under saddle, which was a very large class and showed himself quite nicely, although he wasn’t in the ribbons.
Hendrick showed in the 4 yo stallions and geldings Materiale, coming in 9th out of 10 with a respectable score of 68.00.
Katrina had a very busy day Thursday, riding Gerald in 4th Level Test of Choice and Hendrick in USEF YH Test for 4 year olds along with showing in the AT class in the morning.
We did our General Membership Meeting during the day on Thursday, as Katrina wouldn’t be available later on. As we only had 9 people show up (not all ATAA members) it worked out fine. We took a table in the beer garden and had a very good meeting and discussion. Our banquet back at the hotel was pretty dismal though. We had wonderful food, a nice room and only 5 people showed up. Live and learn, next year will be a run to the grocery store the day of. The 5 of us that were there had a good time, but it certainly did not make back what it cost
us. We had so much food left over that new Teke friend Katherine Levandusky (who took time off from work to come and volunteer and see the Tekes) suggested we donate the rest for the volunteers at DAD. Our donation was very appreciated!
On Friday, Katrina rode Hendrick in another USEF YH Test for 4-year-olds. In one of these (or maybe both? I don’t remember), the judge gave comments after the ride to help the riders with their young horse’s training. That was both interesting and informative.
We were able to watch quite a bit of the Friday afternoon and evening classes before heading back to the hotel.
Saturday, Katrina showed Gerald in 4th Level test 2 and Pat, Amrita and I got to watch. She tied for 9th place with a 63.889. Sunday, they did 4th Level test 2 again and got 4th place with a score of 61.25.
Our association name was up on the big reader board many times during the show, but every time I’d try to take a photo, it would be too late. It was pretty neat though, to see our ‘name in lights’. We did hand out quite a few brochures and DVDs and several people said they had come to DAD specifically to see the Tekes.
I did enjoy the vendor village (and spent quite a bit of money there!) I spent quite a bit of time shopping. I bought 4 nice browbands for the ATAA Holiday Silent Auction (going on through December 17th at: https://www.32auctions.com/ATAAholidayauction2017
It really was a wonderful week and I have to say, Pennsylvania is quite lovely (at least around Devon!). I hope I can get back next year and that we will have more horses showing there. It is excellent exposure for our breed. Thank you again to everyone that brought and showed horses, and everyone that made this possible!
IBC Akhal-Teke Class, Judge: Carter Bass R(VA)
1. Kurizma, Phil Case, 71.400
2.Gerald, Giles Ardiel, 71.400
3. Arslan Jorap, Trisha Urban, 71.225
4. Hendrick, Giles Ardiel, 69.025
5. Anikit, Phil Case, 68.950
