DEVON, Pa.--Monica Spencer on Valkyrie won Arena Eventing on a rainy Sunday evening, May 24 at the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair.
Monica Spencer on Valkyrie (Photo by Phelps Sport)Originally from New Zealand, Spencer now lives in Cochranville, Pa., and this was her first time in Arena Eventing, although she had previously competed at Devon in 1.30m jumpers.
In April, she finished seventh in the Kentucky 5* on the thoroughbred Artist after leading in both dressage and cross country.
At Devon, Spencer finished in 78.522 to win over Ariell Aharoni on Notorious, clean in 79.043.
Boyd Martin on Miss Lulu, who had won for the two previous years, was third, clean in 83.021.
The 12 with the best scores from the first round of 18 went in the second, jump--off round, and eight were clean again.
The first round course, designed by Mark Phillips, wound through both the Dixon Oval and the Wheeler ring, incorporating both cross country and jumper fences, and the second course was just in the Dixon Oval.
"THIS WAS Valkyrie's first time in an atmosphere like this," said Spencer. "The horses have to get comfortable in an atmosphere like this, and the only way to get comfortable is to get into the atmosphere. You find out how they'll react when they get here."
"I've had Valkyrie since she was 3, and she's coming 9 now," said Spencer of the New Zealand warmbred mare. "She came over from New Zealand with us. She's doing 3* now and shows a a lot of promise. I think she's going to e a great 4* horse."
"We live in Cochranville," she said. "We watched arena eventing on TV last year and thought we'd like to do that next year..
"Devon is such a special venue. The locals and spectators really support the show. I've been here to show jump before. I've come to just canter around a 1.30m class just to prepare for an event.
"Given the small space he had to work with, Mark built an awesome course. It was great and rode well. My plan was just to be smooth and fast."
Spencer said she had no idea, after she had gone, whether her time would hold up.
"When I head I'd won, I said,"Oh wow, that's pretty cool,'", she said. "We'll go home and celebrate and just let this sink in."
