Otter Creek News

2011 North Country Eventing Challenge Winner Congratulation Liz Lund! Liz Lund and Rhine Maiden won the North Country Eventing Challenge by having the lowest combined score at the five events: Otter Creek Spring, Summer, Fall, and Roebke's Run Summer and Fall. Ann Bower was a close second on Prospero.

Read about the chronicle of the horse Adult team challenge held at during the new Otter Creek Summer Horse Trial 2011 Click here (pdf)

Mid West JR Challenge was hot on Saturday but the rain that feel cooled everyone down enough to have lots of fun! The games were played in the indoor arena with some exciting riding to try and outmaneuver each other in the musical bales game. Sundays schedule included the hunter ring with fun courses designed by Jenny Warner and in the Jumper Ring the Eventing stadium rounds started in the morning followed by the awards ceremonies. Only a few kids did the jumper classes and the show ended early on Sunday. This years Best Sports Award was given to team En Fuego who racked up lots of points in the hunter ring with many blue ribbons for Abigail Blair riding her pony Buddy. Each team member collected points for all the ribbons won in the different classes for a total count of 406 points!

 2011 Spring Horse Trial. The late spring this year did not stop riders from competing at the spring horse trial. In the I division Liz Lund on Hannah B beat Erika Treis Petersen riding Notelo De  Rox . Only one point separated the two going in to the stadium round, Liz went clear and Erika ended up with time penalties. Lisa Borgia on Frodo of the Shire took home the Prelim win. In the JR Training division Talia Henkle riding Harlan's Flight finished first on their dressage score of 33.6. In the open Training division Ann Bower and Prospero broke the 1st place tie with Kelsey Votoupal and Time World by finishing with one pole down instead of two for Kelsey. Fed Hund came in second riding HRH Odessa. This was the first year that Otter Creek has offered a Starter division,  Virginia Stockburger riding her horse The Last Desperado easily took home the win in that division.  For complete scores go to Eventing Scores

2010 Fall Horse Trial; it's amazing that 5" of rain did not stop the event from running. I could not believe how many riders were out in the dressage rings on Thursday getting lessons from devoted trainers. That is dedication! The rain stopped and Friday turned out to be a perfect riding day. Janet Briggs and Kate Phillips judges the dressage and had many super nice rides. Saturday cross country and the sun did shine, the footing could not have been better.  There were a few more spills than what we are use to seeing, fortunately no one was injured. It is exciting to see a few more I and P riders competing this time. Madison Foote with her 4 Intermediate horses, made cross country challenging for all the jump judges who had to judge P and I fences at the same time.  Madison did a great job with her horses and everything worked out fine. Jump4Joy provided all the equipment for the courses as a fund raiser for breast cancer research. The all pink course was part of the October breast cancer month "jump for a cure" theme.  It proved to be a challenge for many horses and riders.

The news section is a bit neglected this year! I will try to catch up...The Spring Horse Trial and CIC 2010 marked the end of the CIC competitions at Otter Creek. It is sad since so much work has gone in to developing suitable courses etc. for this level. We are sad to see this end but at the same time glad that we can spend more time on the lower level courses. Lots of new fences will be constructed this year and through next year to replace some of our old fences.

Otter Creek Fall Fest October 3-4, 2009. Last show of the season and nothing but rain! Well it could have been worse. We did ride all tests in the indoor on Saturday, Intro through I1. In the eventing Nancy riding Winter Solstice rode a fun freestyle to music by Ella Fitzgerald and Julie riding Stewart performed a costumed musical freestyle to the Pirates of the Caribbean,  while the audience enjoyed some wine and cheese. Sunday turned out nice and we were all happy to ride outside. The footing was great and the sun did come out. Horses seemed a lot happier to be outside as well.  Hope to see some of you back next year!

September 25-27, 2009 Otter Creek Horse Trial, it was dry for a month and started to rain the night before dressage. No need to water the dressage rings! No one complained knowing that the cross country footing would be that much nicer with some moisture. We were pleased to have a small group of Future Event Horses competing at the show. The winner was a filly by Updyce (Dutch) out of a Swedish Warmblood mare owned by Lisbeth Bengtsson.

Saturday was a beautiful day, what a day for cross country.  This was our 10 year anniversary and we were totally surprised by the kind words and bottle of Champaign presented to us during the competitor party. Thank you so much! Molly reminded us that a lot of the Jr. riders learned how to ride at OCF. What a fun ride it has been!

September 2-6, 2009.  Once again the sun was shining every day on the 4th annual Hunter Jumper show "Otter Creek Classic".  Charles Throckmorton did a great job designing the hunter rounds in the two competition rings. Everyone was pleased with the new expanded hunter ring as well as the enlargement of the warm up pad next to the large ring. The extra decorations around the in gates etc. made the rings look stunning.  We were happy to have had just enough rain to make everything fresh and green.  Andy Barone designed the show jumping courses and did a great job. The first ever Dog Challenge was well attended by many not so well trained dogs, and very well trained owners. The trainer party on Saturday sported some  challenging games, good food and dancing by the bon fire. Mark started a new dancing tradition by bringing the biggest cross country fence, a picnic table to the pavilion for some brave dancers to dance on. Yes, we all had a chance to show our moves! For more fun pictures check out our show photographer pictures at xpress foto.com below are some of our pictures.

Fall show season at OCF started with the Mid West Pony Cup August 21-23. The date was a lot earlier than before, no school to worry about! The kids showed in eventing, hunter jumper, and dressage. But one of the big highlights is the costume class. This year was no exception, just take a look at some of the costumes.

We are so sorry for the sudden loss of Uni, he was a true cross country machine and loved every minute of it. He will be sadly missed by everyone who knew him. Our thoughts go out to Lisa Fergusson and Mike.

July 28th Arena improvements have been made to enlarge both the ring located by the pine trees as well as the larger arena with the stone retaining wall.  The pine tree arena has a new retaining wall on one side and is wide enough to set up fun courses for the OC Classics. During the OC Fall Fest this ring will be used as a warm up ring. The large ring can now hold two full size dressage arenas witch will be set up during the Dressage Shows. The warm up pad next to that ring is much larger with the same lime stone footing.

John Holling Clinic June 20-21 Lisa Fergusson and Uni Griffin over the corner.  Jill Wellman and Einstein Saturday during the gymnastic lesson. Jill Beuch schooling the coffin. John Holling keeping an eye on everyone going through the grid work! It was a hot day on Saturday but Sunday was perfect for cross country with overcast skies and a misting of rain in the afternoon.

Brad Cutshall Dressage Clinic June 27-28  Betsy Claudia and Mark auditors  Michelle Keen on her TB Harley she has made a lot of changes since last time we saw her.   Jenny Warner on Bogart starting the half passes and other lateral work. Brad once again demonstrated the importance of going forward to the connection and keeping the shoulders straight in front of the hind leg. "You can not put a horse on the bit if he is not going to the bit" One of many Brad quotes. We had a lot of rides on Saturday and did not finish until 7:00 pm.

We all enjoyed Nancy Gerkink and her horse Winter Solstice musical freestyle performance that she had received the amazing score of 73.75% at last weekends dressage show. Later we had a wonderful dinner together with friends. See you back in August.

JDRP Clinic at Otter Creek with Holly Hepp June 27-28, 2009 The group of Junior riders gathered in the water complex for some one on one instruction given by the on farm trainer REX. Horses were all in agreement that the weekend was a success! John Pierro showing of his bare back riding skills was one of several parents who came with their own horses.  

May 22-24 Otter Creek Horse Trial and CIC 1-2*. This year the sun was shining, what a perfect weekend! Please check out the many pictures at Xpress Foto

The courses designed by John Williams proved to be fun not only to ride but to spectate. Hundreds of people lined up to watch the CIC riders compete. John's courses had just enough challenges and galloping lanes to produce many successful rides.  Several new cross country fences where introduced at all levels as well as changes made to the track. Congratulations to our local rider Kendell Torrel on her 2nd place finish at her first CIC*.

Jordynn Sahagian on Nestor and Hannah Ross on Fantasia made the CIC ** very exciting coming in to show jumping with exactly the same score of 60.1 after dressage and cross country. Hannah dropped one rail in stadium forcing Jordynn to produce a clear round, Nestor was up to the challenge and jumped clear. Congratulations to both Jordynn 1st place and Hannah 2nd place. The CIC 1* was won by Lexi Scovil on Sky Show with a final score of 67.3.

It is with great sadness that we have decided NOT to host the CIC 1-2* next spring. The cost of producing this event is  prohibitive. 

May 9-10 May Flower I and II. The show was small this year, we do hope to continue this venue next year and hope to see a few more dressage riders compete. Fran Dearing "S" and Dorita Kozak "S" gave out some very nice scores during the two days. Congratulations to  Deanna Landwehr riding Quarts 5 on her I-I ride scoring a 70.526% and to Jenny Warner on her first Fourth level test 1 ride on Ymer with a score of 60.698%! We were pleased to see so many qualifying scores during the two shows. Thank you to volunteers who helped with scribing and ring stewarding. We can't do this without you!

Wim and Ovatsio entering the dressage arena

April 25-26 Dressage Schooling Show. Thank you Wim Foekema for judging the show and to all the participants who came to show what they had been working on all winter. This Schooling Show might be one of the oldest still running shows in the area.

2008

Mid West Pony Cup Had some fantastic kids competing this year! Pictured above left to right is Tyler Zuzek competing in the lead line class and Kristine Burgess all dressed up in the costume class. This show is for young people 21 years old and under and offers classes in games, costume, eventing, hunter/jumper, and dressage. It's a great way for the kids to learn the ropes, and just having fun with friends and horses. This show is truly a team effort bringing parents, friends and show staff together. Congratulations to the Winning Eventing Team Hot to Trot" Ann Osterbauer riding Chocolate, Emilie Juelian riding Frosty and Morgan Campbell riding Cody

Otter Creek Classic The new Hunter Derby was a big success with +20 horses showing! Congratulation to Derby winner Tracy Grandstrand riding Isaura owned by Stepahanie K. Aanenson. The Jumper Derby Level  1 winner was the amazing pony One Trick Pony rider Ingrid Rich The Level 2 Jumper Derby winner was Kathryn Ott on Sarafina.

New Stabling Completed! The new stalls have now been in use for one season, we have received nothing but complements on how comfortable it is for the horses. During the very hot August dressage show fans were not in use thanks to the open and well ventilated space. 

Congratulations! CIC 1-2**  winners at the first OCF CIC competition May 2008:Crissy Hollnagel on Harlan's Flight rode to victory at the first OCF CIC 2*  (Photo on left ) and Callie Judy on Irish Odyssey were proud winners of the CIC 1* Thank you so much to Agstar Financial Services for sponsoring the CIC divisions.