News

• • Talladega Places 8th at 2010 USEA American Eventing Championships
  • Black Lace earns Top Score at First Level at 2010 PVDA Ride for Life
  • Talladega named the 2008 American Warmblood Society's In-Hand Stallion of the Year
  • Talladega Wins at 2008 USEA Future Event Horse Championships
  • Dual Reserve Champions at 2007 USEA Future Event Horse Championships


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The American Eventing Championships (AEC) was held Sept 9-12 at its newest venue, Chattahoochee Hills in Fairburn, Georgia where it is reported that over 700 horses and riders participated to contest the top spots in our sports true national championships. Two members of Team Cool Breeze (Mark Susol and Julia Witthoff) travelled to GA to compete in this largest horse trial on record.

Mark Susol of Orrtanna, PA qualified to ride in this year's AEC on Talladega a 5 year old AWS stallion owned and bred by Cool Breeze Farm LLC. Talladega started his cross country training this spring and had only completed 3 horse trials at Beginner Novice (BN) before departing for GA. The pair qualified with 1st place finishes at both The MD Horse Trials at Loch Moy and Olney Farm Horse Trial, finishing on their dressage. The trip to GA was also Talladega's first time stabled off the farm, so the trip was full of many first time experiences for sure. Talladega handled everything amazingly well given the electricity of this event, but the heat did take away from his brilliance some.

The pair garnished a dressage score of 36.7pp putting them into 11th place before cross country. The cross country course rode really well with a bit of a challenge for the level but no penalty points were added to the total. On the final day of show jumping the long week was starting to wear on Talladega and his jumping was a bit flat, but managed a clear round. In the end Talladega finished in 8th place on his dressage score in a very competitive BN Horse division.

Julia Witthoff of Biglerville, PA riding her thoroughbred gelding Phantom qualified for this year's AEC at both BN and Novice levels with a recent 2nd place at Surefire Horse Trials at N. The pair came to Team Cool Breeze 2 years ago with only hunter/jumper experience and Julia was quite clear in stating "she wanted to do something big."

Julia, who is a junior at Biglerville High school, has never been to a national championships before and the whole week was a learning experience in itself. They completed the horse trial with one stop on cross country at a tricky fence that caused 8 rider falls in her division alone, and one rail in stadium after having to rush into compete due to a scheduling issue. Julia already had her game plan to get back to next year's AEC and improve upon her results before arriving home. Keep an eye out for this pair, they will continue to improve and represent Team Cool Breeze well.