By Chris Grould / CWHBA
Photography: © CWHBA

A very well run International Young Breeders Championships held in Denmark, wrapped up this past month and the CWHBA team had an outstanding competition with individual placings and excellent team rankings.

However competition results aside, the value of sending a team is much less tangible and very personal.
Last month we shared some of the expectations of our team prior to the event. Now they are back home I had a chance to meet with some of the team members and their coaches. I wanted to find out what stood out about the experience, if it aligned with their expectations, and what impact it might have on their respective futures. Here are some highlights from that conversation.

Avery Caine

Avery Caine from Ontario, a second-time member, talked about the pre-competition training camp: “Coming into the competition I felt a lot better about it, knowing that as a team we had trained together and I knew everyone going in. We had been working and judging horses together so we were able to go into it with a bit more confidence and a bit more knowledge behind us. I wasn’t feeling so out of place there. I thought that was really beneficial, honestly. During our training we had a lot of really cool opportunities to work with some very skilled people. Which, again, just helped us prepare more.”
According to everyone it was a well run event and the Stutteri Ask facilities were impressive, but the weather was another story. Avery again “Well, yeah, the weather was quite interesting, I’m not going to lie. When we were conformation judging outside I was terribly cold in the wind. And I guess it didn’t really help the horses either, as they were jumping around. So you’re trying to judge what you see four-feet off the ground. You’re just kind of having to take a quick snapshot and roll with it. Which is okay because, at the same time, that’s horses. You’re never going to have a horse that just stands there where you can perfectly judge.”

Hailey and Jessica Larkin

This year’s team was unique with twin sisters, Hailey and Jessica Larkin from Ontario, competing for the first time. Jessica started our conversation: “I would say one of the highlights for me was definitely being able to work with everyone on the team and meet so many other people who share the same interests. Then getting together to get better, to learn and expand in the judging, and all the skills that we needed for the competition. I think this experience really made me want to continue being involved with the Canadian Warmblood and breeding. Just being involved in whatever way I can. Whether it’s helping out at inspections or wherever the opportunities present themselves.”.. To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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