Culpeper Day 1

El Espiritu and Pati Pierucci
Culpeper, VA 2012

It was a great first day for us at the Virginia Summer Dressage show at Commonwealth Park in Culpeper, VA. We showed Espritu in the DSHB division where he won champion stallion, champion mature horse, and reserve grand champion! This qualifies him to show in-hand at Devon later this year.

Thanks to Tommy Doyle for catch handling Espiritu after his regular handler Christine Smith suffered an injury (not horse related)

Then we threw a saddle on Espiritu for his first ever ride at 4-3. He and rider/trainer Pati Pierucci did an awesome job and brought home a second place ribbon. They only missed first place by a point or two.

This afternoon JC Armando won his Intro B class – his first time ever under saddle at a dressage show. If there’s something we’re more proud of than the ribbon, it’s how well behaved he was in the busy warmup area that was shared with three arenas. He was a perfect gentleman.

In a mini-family reunion, JC Patricio, one of Espiritu’s first foals is here with Pita Wylie; And a Half-Andalusian who is a cousin to JC Andaluza! It’s so much fun to see them grown up and out in the big show world!