$40,000 Nutrena Grand Prix

Finally, an eon later, I bring you the $40,000 Nutrena Grand Prix from Midwest Horse Fair:

In the past couple of years I've noticed a lot more events for the hunter/jumper people.  Before, a lot of the people I knew didn't attend because they thought there wasn't anything there for them.  Two years ago, Stacia Madden did an equitation clinic and last year, Nick Karazissis has put on a great clinic for the past two years and last year MHF introduced the Nutrena Grand Prix. Suddenly, everyone from every barn I've ever ridden at is going to the Fair and more specifically, to the Grand Prix.

Last year, the place was absolutely packed. This year it was still pretty full, but there were a couple of open sections.  I don't know if this is due to the ticket price ($18 for the cheap seats and $35 for the lower level seats) or the weather.  As you might recall from my earlier post, the weather was very crappy.

Still, the course was challenging, the competitors were good, and the hot pretzels were delicious. (I have a bit of a food obsession, don I?)  

Both last year and this year's fence had a bogey fence. Last year, it was a liverpool with wavy planks wherein the pool was pushed completely under the jump with no groundline.  This year's bogey fence didn't claim as many good rounds as the liverpool, but the first jump of the course still saw its fair share of knock-downs. From my height I couldn't determine why the riders had the first fence (pictured above ) down, maybe the horse sighted in on the fence next to it, maybe the cups were just shallow.

The crowd noise played a factor for some, but there were a lot of really good rounds at the grand prix. I was excited to see so many young riders there (even if it does make me feel old) doing well.  The horses were great, one of the horses is a half-brother to my horse so it was cool for me to see him in person albeit from high above.  To sum up, it was a great time and I can't wait for next year!

Sorry for the extremely brief (read a little lame) post about the prix that happened over a month ago.  Finals got in the way and I really want to move on to some newer (read exciting) announcements.  Stay tuned!