CDCTA Eventing Teams Find Success At LHPC HT
Coree Reuter-McNamara | Published on 7/7/2025
The CDCTA Eventing Teams had a great weekend at the Loudoun Hunt Pony Club Horse Trials, June 21-22, 2025.
The Blood Horse Brigade (Farrin Wallace-Shaffer, Julia Korey, Jodie Potts & Michaela Yowaiski) finished 2nd in the Team Competition and Team Chaos (Suzy Gehris, Karen Conk, Caroline Monaco, Kate Rakowski) had mixed results on Sunday, finishing 4th, but everyone was supported with great team spirit.
CDCTA Team Chaos
From Kate Rakowski:
"On Sunday, June 22, I was privileged to join CDCTA Team Chaos at the Loundon Pony Club
Horse trials at Oatlands. It was very fun having teammates to message with to decide on a
name, joke around, and support each other. My horse, Maxington Bear, is a bit of a weirdo and
has struggled with standing quietly on the trailer so we brought his comfort pony, Mic (Comic
Relief) to stand with him. Of course the weather decided to turn full Virginia summer with high
heat and humidity but we all survived.
Max was happy in the trailer but came out to the dressage field and was very wound up. His test
was tense but fairly obedient until the end when I sort of had to pulley rein to halt at X. Oh well.
A not spectacular score of 40+. I have struggled with maintaining the right pace in show jumping
and we did pretty well with that, but I let him get flat and leave out a stride in the long bending
line so he rolled the front rail of the oxer. No big deal. On XC, I had also struggled with pace
having time faults (time fault at Beginner Novice, really Kate?!) at Virginia horse park last month
so I decided I would just let him cruise at the pace he wanted to cruise. He stormed around
having a great time. He is still tentative about water so I pulled him up to let him have a look and
then as we jumped fence 15 on our way out, I checked my watch. We were about 45 seconds
under speed fault time with one jump to go. So we did a super slow canter to and after the last
jump but we still had several speed faults. That’s ok, he was happy and we should go Novice
anyway because he will eat up the bigger jumps and faster pace.
This is the second time I’ve been on a CDCTA team and it has been a great experience both
times. I met new friends, enjoyed time with folks I already know, felt like I had a support team
with me even though I’m almost always competing by myself. Join CDCTA, do your volunteer
hours and take advantage of the opportunity to be on a team next time it’s offered."
Kate and Max. Erin Gilmore photo.
From Julia Korey: "G Man and I had a fantastic experience competing as part of the CDCTA Blood Horse Brigade at Loudoun Hunt PC Horse Trials. It was so much fun to be there as a group. It was G's 3rd time out at training level, and I was thrilled with his bold, clear cross country round. He grows a bit with each event. G and I rode first for the team, then afterward were able to cheer on everyone else, who also had great, clean x-c rides, and we ended up the second place team! It was so much fun to have a group to help and encourage each other. We even had a picnic afterward.
We are so grateful to CDCTA for the opportunity to represent the club as part of a team."
Julia and G Man. Erin Gilmore photo.
From Michaela:
We had a great day representing the CDCTA Eventing Team at the Loudoun Hunt Pony Club Horse Trials!
I was so happy with Tego for winning his first recognized Novice event. He’s come so far, and I couldn’t be prouder of how he performed.
Thank you so much to CDCTA for the opportunity to be part of such a supportive and fun team!
Michaela and Tego.