September, 2008:
The ’07 Area I season was a similar schedule of horse trials as the preceeding two years, though now at prelim level. Dressage has always been the toughest of the three disciplines for me and Mac, so that was mostly what I was working on with my trainer Tom Davis, and while my dressage scores and overall placings may not reflect it, we made very encouraging progress throughout the season at very specific technical aspects of my test performances.

When I began the Area III season back in Ocala with trainer Darren Chiacchia, my summer work with Tom really began to pay off with very respectable dressage scores (tougher judges down there, I find, so relatively higher scores overall), but suddenly Mac and I were having pacing issues at Stadium, very out of character for us, and it was killing what should have been great finishes in the opening two HT’s. This new area of focus for our training with Darren bore fruit in the third Horse Trial of the season, the Winter II HT at the Ocala Horse Park – a first place finish! Everything just came together so effortlessly. See the video.

Then, with everything feeling in place for a very successful season, and beginning to think about a move to Intermediate at its conclusion, came the disastrous Red Hills HT. Darren was riding several horses and on one of the less experienced he took what’s called a full rotational fall at one of the cross country jumps – the horse chested into and somersaulted over the jump, landing on top of Darren, still in the saddle. It’s the kind of fall that ends the careers of the riders who survive them. He was removed from the course unconscious; the rest of the details of his six week coma and miraculous recovery and resumption of his competitive career this summer can be found on his website, www.eventrider.com.

The other students and I, not clear on the details of Darren’s fall or his condition, continued in the competition, although shaken. I ran the cross country clear, but very cautiously, and I think others also completed their cross country runs (I honestly can’t remember), but then there occurred two more incidents in quick succession, both involving horses that belonged to or were closely associated with our barn, and at that point a stunned Team Chiacchia withdrew as a body from the remainder of the HT and returned home in utter disbelief.

A lot of tears were shed and a lot of helplessness suffered over the next several days as the enormity of that day sunk in. We went about the barn chores in a daze – it’s hard now even to remember that time at all. Some students understandably ended their Area III season then. The rest of us tried to preserve some sense of normalcy around the farm, and soon were treated to the astonishing blessing of training by some of the legends of the equestian world - John and Beezie Madden, Jessica and Missy Ransehousen, Robert Dover, Jane Savoy, Lauren Hough, all of whom donated their time and expertise to us, Darren’s students - for the remainder of the season. A month later, Darren still comatose, several of us entered the Florida Three Day CCI* at the conclusion of the season; I was rattled throughout, got a horrible dressage score and was overly cautious and unsure on the cross country. Others fared better.

The Area I summer season began at GMHA in Woodstock, VT., and though, with the resumption of Tom’s dressage tutelage I opened with a very nice test score, I still had butterflies going into cross country. We had one turn and re-approach on the cross country which cost us in time faults, then a satisfying stadium run. We didn’t place well, but on the whole, given what we’d been through, it was an encouraging start to the season.

Groton House was next, in Hamilton, MA., and though its size and prestigious reputation had intimidated me somewhat my first time there last year, this time my familiarity with it seemed to actually calm the anxieties I was still feeling at GMHA. Not only that, but word from Independence Farm in Springville, NY was that Darren had definitively turned the corner and was not only on horseback again, but competing - astonishing and delightful news that quickly spread around the stables. I had a satisfying dressage, a clear cross country with much reduced time penalties, and a clear stadium with only two time penalties. Although I only placed 10th in a field of 22, I felt as though Mac and I were back in form and that just a bit more speed, not a difficult goal with our confidence restored, would put us back in the ribbons.

Financial constraints kept me out of competition until Fitch’s Corner HT, outside of Millbrook, NY which was on July 25th. Let’s just say it simply was not our day.

Two weeks later I was back in Millbrook, though not to ride (Mac was fighting an infection from a cut on his leg). Darren, who had debuted his resurrection, if I may put it that way, at Stuart HT on his home turf in upstate New York back on July 19 was, incredibly, riding four horses at the Millbrook HT and needed a groom. He was fully his old self again – I was exhausted by the end of the weekend.

What’s next is very much in question. I will be riding this weekend at King Oak in Southampton, MA. preparatory to the WITS END CCI* in Ontario (my first international competition on foreign soil!) on the weekend of September 27 in continued pursuit of a comfort level at Prelim/One Star to again make possible consideration of a move to Intermediate. Any decisions I make for after that will be, it appears, driven more by a shortage of money than by anything else. We’re working on donors, but the current economic climate is making it harder than before to get people to part with their money, the excitement of an Olympic year notwithstanding. Stay tuned for further updates. It won’t take so long for the next one, I promise.

February, 2008:
Robyn places first in the Preliminary riders' division at the Ocala Winter II Horse Trials on February 15-17.