"The Event" at Rebecca Farm

As it is known around Kalispell, "The Event" took place July 21-24, 2011. The Broussard Family has built an absolutely beautiful farm with a world class event course. And they want to include everyone, so they run everything from novice through CIC***, as well as a Training Level 3 day event (last year they had a Preliminary 3 Day). They had 540 horses this year, and it is an international event. I know there were many representatives from Canada, plus various other countries including Belgium and Venezuela. As they did last year, the Broussards flew in horses from the east coast, which included several Olympic riders (Karen O'Connor, Phillip Dutton, Buck Davidson) and riders from the World Equestrian Games (Buck Davidson).

And for some fun video's, you must visit the Rebecca Farm web site. From this year's event, there is a video with Hawley Bennet-Awad (who won the CIC***) on her clean and fast cross country round. I have not walked all of the course, so it was fun doing it on the back of Hawley's horse, Gin N' Juice. And they have a "fly through" course walk video by "Gravity Shots".

(Hawley Bennet-Awad and "Gin N' Juice" through the "Keyhole")

The whole concept of Rebecca Farms was the dream of Rebecca Chaney Broussard by creating a world class international facility for education and competition. Unfortunately Rebecca (known as "Becky") passed away last year. This was the 10th anniversary of the first event, and it was dedicated to Becky.



(Karen O'Connor & "Veronica" - owned by the Broussard Family)

The event is run by Sarah Broussard Kelly -- an amazing woman herself. And the family does so much for the sport of eventing as well as the community. This year they donated $4 Million to the Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC) to build a new educational facility for nursing (Becky was a nurse). This year they have also initiated the Rebecca Broussard Developing International Rider Grant, to inspire, advance the skills and expand the knowledge of developing riders at the international level. I believe I read this grand to be about $50,000.












(Carl Bouckaert representing Belgium)

I volunteered as a Dressage Ring Steward last year to meet horse people and get involved in the horse community around Kalispell. And this year, I assisted the Head Dressage Steward -- and had a fun time. One of the highlights of my 2 days was meeting the legend, Sally O'Connor. She has been a force in the Dressage and Eventing worlds, not to mention being the mother of David O'Connor, Olympic Gold Medalist. It was fun to listen to her giving direction to riders who were entering the wrong warm up ring, or tell Mark Phillips that he couldn't be in that ring while he schooled one of our premier riders.

And of course, this left me free to attend Cross Country Day -- the heart of the sport. They started at 7:30 AM, and I was there. The advanced divisions went first (CIC*, CCI*, CIC**, CCI**, CIC***, and Advanced) and lasted until about 3:00 PM. Armed with my chair and my new Nikon camera, I headed out onto the course. One of the great things about this event is the natural hill in the middle of the course. The spectators can sit on this hill, which overlooks the main water fence (a crowd favorite) and see over half of the course.

And there is always some new creative complex. This year it is the Western Village. This picture is a full size horse pulling a wagon (an advanced fence). The horse is made out of horse shoes -- don't know who put this piece of art together, but it was amazing. There is also have a Jurassic Park complex, and I love the Moose Fence.



(Buck Davidson and All the Aces)

And the weather couldn't have been better this year. Both dressage days were cool in the 60's, and cross country day was sunny and about 78 degrees -- perfect for the horses and riders. No major mishaps on course, which is always good.

(Yes, this rider did hang on to jump the next fence -- amazing)


I'd invite eventers to come participate, and if you live or are visiting the area the third weekend of July in 2012 -- don't miss it!!

For more pictures, I'll putting a gallery on my Facebook page.