Despite a downpour, the show still went on

KENT — Sunday’s drenching rain put a damper on the Kent Horse Trials but didn’t stop the majority of the intrepid competitors. Show secretary Erin Kehan said they went into the weekend with 121 entries, started the day with 98 entries and wrapped up the last phase of cross-country with 79 teams. At mid-morning the parking area was nearly full with horse trailers. Competitors getting ready to ride were turned out head to toe in rain gear and the requisite Wellies. But the spectator benches at the side of the show ring were virtually empty. It seemed only stalwart parents, coaches and friends hung on the rail long enough to cheer on their favorite horse and rider before taking refuge from the rain. The horse trials, which took place at the Kent School riding facility on the top of Skiff Mountain, were for beginner novice, novice and training riders. The sport of eventing challenges a horse and rider team in three different disciplines: dressage, show jumping and cross-country jumping. Maude Quinn, 14, of Salisbury, riding her horse, Calypso’s Dream, placed fourth in the novice rider division. Her trainer, Sharyn Cataldo-Antico of Town Hill Farm in Lakeville, said it was her very first novice event and she performed her dressage phase in a “pouring rain but then it lightened up a bit.”This weekend, Riga Meadow Equestrian Center will hold a combined test at its facility at 339 Undermountain Road in Salisbury on Saturday, May 21. A combined test is often considered a warm-up to a horse trials as it has two of the three components. Horse-and-rider teams will compete in dressage and show-jumping. Riders can chose from four levels of competition: beginner novice, novice, training and prelim. As with many sporting events, the activity is geared as much toward spectators as competitors. They are still accepting entries.Riga Meadow will hold its horse trials Sunday, July 17. Also upcoming in the area, Weatogue Stables on Weatogue Road in Salisbury will hold its first schooling dressage show of the season on Sunday, June 26. Both Kent and Riga Meadow Equestrian Center are sanctioned events by the United States Eventing Association and fall within Area One. For more information about other horse trials, combined tests and schooling shows in the area go to www.area1usea.org.For more information on Riga Meadow’s upcoming events, go to www.rigameadow.com. For information about Weatogue Stable shows, call 860-824-7908.