We are so proud to announce an exciting new blog series from our 2019 CANTER Pennsylvania Ambassador, Logan, an up and coming junior rider, and her gelding Four Star General. We are sure you will love these stories as much as we do! Check back for more updates from this exciting pair!
| My name is Logan Williams and my horse Four Star General “4star” is a Canter PA Alum. I train with Lillian Becker at Sky Farm in Millerton, NY, which is where I met 4star. 4star was born in Saratoga, NY and he is a 13-year-old, 16H black gelding. Recently I was lucky enough to be chosen as a Canter PA Scholarship Winner and the 2019 Canter PA Alum Ambassador. As part of my work with Canter PA, I will be sharing with you each month a glimpse into my life with 4star. I am excited to share that, although it took some time, and a lot of hard work from both of us, 4star and I have developed a strong partnership. This past month we reached one of our short-term goals, which was to finish top 5 in a recognized horse trials. On June 23 we competed Beginner Novice at the Kent School Horse Trials in Kent, CT and placed 4th. The day of Kent I was a little worried about reaching our goal. Unfortunately we did not start the dressage phase on the best foot, I got nervous when the bell rang to signal my start, and I turned 4star down the center line from the left. This was not good because he enters better from the right. It meant we had a bit of over bending on the right circles but luckily the rest of the test went better and in fact it was our best eventing dressage test so far. The stadium round was a tough course with a lot of bending lines and two gates but luckily we had been practicing 10-meter circles recently. My trainer Lilly had suggested I take lessons with Adam Gershberg who specializes in dressage, but surprisingly this work really paid off in the stadium round, so I felt prepared and wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be. We started off great but unfortunately I didn’t steer correctly as we approached jump four, which was the first bending line, so he ran out to the right. I have been practicing what to do if this happens so I quickly corrected my error but this mistake still cost us four points. |
Next up was cross-county which is my favorite and 4star’s too I think. He came out of the start box like a rocket – must be all the race track starts he used to do – and kept going full speed ahead! Although, there were jumps we were not used to we did not have any problems and had the fastest time in the division. In fact it is almost too fast so that is something we will need to work on.
I love that 4star is brave and always up for anything, which is why eventing is a good choice for us. We both like the challenge and versatility of training for the three different phases of the sport.
Next up is a two-day clinic with Eric Horgan and three days at the Youth Dressage Festival in Saugerties, NY. If you are nearby please come and support us and be sure to stop by and say hi. If you ever have any questions for us, I would be happy to answer them.
