Terry column: The Event raising the bar

With mountain views in every direction and the scenic, rolling hills of the West Valley as a backdrop, the Event at Rebecca Farm offers one of the most unique venues in equestrian competition.

A far outpost of the United States, Kalispell, Montana, isn’t the most convenient location to hold one of the top events in the sport. Yet, as the competition begins today, 600 riders and hundreds more spectators have come to the Flathead Valley to experience one of the most challenging, and rewarding, courses on the continent.

Now in its 14th year, growing the competition to this scale, and making sure everything runs properly, has been a labor of love for Sarah Broussard, her family and the staff at Rebecca Farm.

“Every year since we’ve started the event has gotten bigger,” Broussard said.

“My mother wanted to accept everybody and for everybody to have a good time and be able to come.

We keep trying to do that.”

Part of the draw is the level of competition.

This year, the Event will offer a CCI three-star cross country course, the second-highest level of competition in the sport, one offered in just three other locations in the U.S.

Two of those events are held on the East Coast, one each in New Jersey and Maryland, held in the spring and fall. The other is a fall event in southern California. The only other tournament on the continent is held in late spring in Quebec.

That relative sparseness of competition in the West is what drove Broussard’s mother, for whom Rebecca Farm gets its name, to begin the competition here.

It was also an effort to spread the charms of one of the most enchanting areas of the country.

“It’s not just any horse show, (The Flathead Valley) is really part of the whole package,” Broussard said.

“The Event at Rebecca Farm, and even when we were at Herron Park, isn’t just about coming to the Event. It’s about coming to Kalispell and coming to the Flathead Valley. My mother loved this area. She thought it was beautiful and everybody needs to see it once in their life.”

Rebecca Broussard, who died of cancer in late 2010, helped grow the Event to its lofty heights. She began the competition out in Herron Park and expanded it from there, five years ago organizing for 18 riders to fly in from the East Coast, many of them Olympians, to compete at the Event. She grew into one of the preeminent figures in equestrian community and helped advance the sport as a whole in the West.

In the time since she’s passed the Event has continued to grow. Three years ago, the roster swelled to 450 riders, with more than 200 still on the wait list.

“(That was) not acceptable,” Sarah Broussard said.

“We found 80 more stalls and we accepted 80 more horses, which bumped us up into the 500s.”

This year, the farm rented more than 500 stalls for the competition and is again reaching capacity.

Even on the edge of nowhere, more and more riders are clamoring to compete at what has quickly become one of the most anticipated weeks in the sport.

Much of that draw, along with the high level of competition, is the Flathead Valley itself.

“This is a destination event,” Broussard said. “People want to come here and spend the whole week with their family. It’s the great part about living here in Montana.

“They come on Saturday and they go whitewater rafting, they go zip-lining on Big Mountain, they go huckleberry picking, they go to Glacier, they do all that stuff.

“Logistically, it is difficult to get here. But they do continue to put in the effort to get here. And they’re getting here earlier and earlier.”

The community has also helped, with more than 300 volunteers and dozens of staff on hand to make sure everything runs smoothly, from the competition to the trade fair.

“(The support is) what I love about this community,” Broussard said. “They’ve really come to support the Event and come out and enjoy it and take part.”

Word of the Event has traveled around the eventing community, with many top riders listing it among their accomplishments at the country’s top competitions in Kentucky and along the East Coast. Many riders have ventured to compete in Kalispell at least once, some reserving spots on their calendar years in advance.

The growth of the competition, and what it means to the eventing community out West and the local community in the Flathead Valley, is a source of pride for everyone involved at Rebecca Farm.

“I smile because I know that my mother put a lot of time and energy, and her soul into this,” Broussard said.

“Whenever she took anything on it was always to the hilt.

“I try to do it the way I think she would do it and do it in a way that I think would make her proud. Overall, I think she’d be very happy with how everything is going.”

The work and effort put in to expanding the Event and making it one of the country’s top completions is evident to nearly every person that attends the four-day spectacle. Even if it takes a few extra days to get here, the Event has made an impression.

“Logistically, creating an international-caliber, high-quality event in Kalispell, Montana is tough,” Broussard said.

“It’s one thing when I call it the best event on Earth. It’s a completely different thing when a competitor who has ridden at the Olympics comes here and says this is one of the best events they’ve ever been at.

That refers to the jumps, the footing, the organization, the people.

“Montana is the last, best place. This is the last, best event.”