Southgate Farm Blog

Lili Bennett, 2004 USEA Groom of the Year, now has her own page on the Southgate Farm website at www.southgatefarm.com/lili.htm. Find out why Lili wants to wear the watch. Hint: it’s a Rolex.

Lili and Flo are also shown on the home page of the website in our featured video, “How to Bridle a Difficult Horse.”

Lili has been riding, training and competing our horses for the past 2 years. She has done a marvelous job this past year getting Kite and Trudie going at Anne Riley’s Warren Hill Farm. In addition, Lili has taken Beau up to the Intermediate level of eventing, and Flo finished the season at Preliminary.

Next year’s goals are to run Beau in the Jersey Fresh CCI** and Flo in the Virginia Horse Trials CCI*.

Lili also has her own website at www.lilibennett.com .

Southgate Farm’s Redemption Song (Marley), ridden by Liz Riley competed in his first recognized horse trial at the training level. Marley and Liz looked very nice in dressage on Saturday morning, posting a 42.0. Showjumping was on Saturday afternoon, and Marley jumped effortlessly as usual, but nudged one rail just a fraction too hard, coming away with 4 faults.

Saturday night, the miserable cold rain that plagued us all day down here in Atlanta, arrived in Virginia, dumping over 2 inches on the Horse Center. Sunday morning, Liz rode her first horse Cross Country at Training, and the course had disintegrated overnight into a sloppy, muddy mire. Not wanting to give Marley a bad experience on his first go at a Training level cross country, we made the decision to scratch him and wait for a better day.

All in all, Marley made remarkable progress in his 5th year, and he is on track to follow his sister, Flo by excelling at Training in 2010 and moving up to Prelim at the end of the year.

Southgate Farm’s Full o’ Fancy (Flo), co-owned and ridden by Lili Bennett, had her second outing at the Prelim level at the 2009 Virginia Horse Trial. Flo had a passable dressage score of 47.00 on Friday. Saturday, Flo and Lili set out on Cross Country and had a beautiful, flowing round. The object was to build Flo’s confidence by getting her around safe and clean, which they accomplished with 22 time penalties.

On Sunday, Flo took 2 rails on the way up in an otherwise nicely jumped round. Flo showed a little of the flash of her sire, Pallas Digion, who often won showjumping speed classes. Overall, our pair finished in 9th place, but it was an excellent way to end the eventing season. We’re expecting that Flo and Lili will have a great year in 2010, as Flo turns 7, ready to learn and progressing.

The Future Event Horse Championships were held on Friday at the Virginia Horse Center in conjunction with the Virginia Horse Trial. Southgate Farm’s Killiney Hill (Kite) placed 5th in her class for 3 year-old fillies. According to the scoring sheet, Kite showed the best walk in her class (a double-point movement). The FEH Championship was a great opportunity to get Kite exposed to the spectacle of being at a big show and performing in front of a large group of people.

This coming Halloween weekend, the Virginia Horse Trial will be the last outing of the year for Beau, Flo, Marley and Kite. Beau and Flo will be running at Prelim. Marley will be doing his first recognized show at Training. And Kite will be participating in the Future Event Horse Championship; this is a great way to get her used to the pageantry and crowds at a major event.