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I have been riding since I was eight years old, but have been showing competitively in dressage for the last three years. I started on a half Arab mare two times a week, on a lunge line. From this I moved onto a leased 4-year old Quarter horse Pony mare who I rode 5 days a week. After she was relocated I started riding an older schoolmaster 2-3 days a week. Besides lessons with my mother I had occasional lessons with Wendy Christoff. When we moved to Langley I had to find yet another horse to lease. Here I found an older thoroughbred mare who I showed for the first time at FEI Children’s. She was the first horse I ever took to a “big” recognized show. Before that I had only shown at local percentage days or Delta Riding Club hack shows.
Next I moved onto Dog and Pony Venus who Mrs. Forester, owner of The Dog & Pony Shop, generously sponsored me to ride. In the year and a half that I had her, I took her from solid first level to schooling Prix St. Georges. Recently, in the last 3 months I competed at the Dressage Canada National FEI youth Championships in Ottawa and placed second overall, with Venus. I have just returned from a successful trip to Mexico where I represented Canada as one of four Junior riders. It was Mexico City’s first ever CDI***. I came home with a championship, winning two out of the three classes and placing second in the other. This we had to do on borrowed horses with only 2 days of riding prior to the competition. Now that I have accomplished my goals for FEI junior, I will be starting the process over again with bringing up my young horse, Focus.
Focus is a three year old Oldenburg filly by Flemmingh (Lacapo x Texas) out of Derosa (Deutschmeister x Glencoe). She was bred by my father, Thomas Urff, and given to me at birth as a reward for a successful year in competitive swimming. The deal was if I could place in the top 10 at provincials he would buy me a horse. She was born at a thoroughbred breeder’s farm in Abbotsford and moved to our property at 2months old. As a foal she was inspected and taken in as a premium offspring under the German Oldenburg Verband. The inspector's comment was "What can I say, she knows what she is!"
In both 2003 and 2004 Focus was shown at the breeder’s classic. As a yearling she received 8.5 for her overall impression, 7.5 for her front quarter, 8.5 for her hind quarter 8 for her movement quality and 9 for her movement and correctness. At this show she won all of her classes as well as moving on to be junior champion dressage horse, futurity yearling champion etc. In 2004 she received 9 for her overall impression. 8 for her front quarter. 8 for her hind quarter. 8.5 for her movement quality. 8 for her movement correctness. She won every single class entered as well as being twice prospective to be a broodmare champion. She was reserve champion dressage and hunter sport horse (To a three year old stallion). She also received reserve champion in show! One of the judges made a comment "She's royalty, this is the kind of horse I would like".
She was broke at the beginning of April, and I rode her consistently through the summer. In the early fall of this year she was shown at the Sport Horse classic winning three year old dressage prospect. In order to win this she had to enter Dressage type sport horse in hand as well as ride in two Introductory dressage tests where she scored 71.9% and 72.0%. She also placed second in the prestigious Lieutenant Governors Cup. Currently she is taking things easy as I would like to give her time to grow and mature over the winter. We will start working hard again in the spring.
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