Glacier grad at home at The Event

Just ask international-level rider Ashlynn Meuchel: people around the eventing world love coming the Flathead Valley.

“It’s a total destination event,” she said of this week’s competition at Rebecca Farm.

“Everyone all year, even in California, (says) ‘are you going to Montana? I’ll see you in Montana! How excited are you for Montana this year?’”

Meuchel is fired up, too, when The Event rolls around, but for the 2013 Glacier High School graduate it’s in part because it’s right in her back yard.

“It’s so spectacular that it’s here,” she added. “It’s a really great feeling (to ride in Kalispell). I haven’t been around a lot lately with school but it’s fun to come back every year and see the changes that happen and see how it’s just gotten so big.”

Meuchel rode two horses on Saturday as most divisions completed the cross country phase of the equestrian triathlon. Riding in the second-highest of the four international divisions run at Rebecca Farm (CIC3*), Meuchel and her horse Morning Star could not complete the cross country course and were eliminated.

In the late afternoon, however, Meuchel rode cleanly atop Theoretically and made the full trek through the cross-country course in the Open Preliminary division, a class that includes riders with a wide range of experience levels atop primarily young horses. Meuchel and Theoretically completed the course with a 15.2-point penalty and sit in 13th place entering today’s show jumping phase.

Meuchel and her sister, Brynn, began riding horses at a very young age and have been coming to The Event as both spectators and competitors for nearly a decade. While Brynn no longer competes in eventing, her younger sister has traveled across the country for competitions and hopes to make a career out of it someday, even as she purses a finance degree at Montana State University.

“My plan is to keep eventing, but we’ll see,” Ashlynn said. “It’s kind of a tough thing to do, for sure. Tough to make money at.”

Meuchel’s parents own property in south Kalispell, and it was here the girls first became involved with the sport. Ashlynn hopped on her first horse because her older sister was doing it, saying “what one sister did the other sister did” but her love of the animals and the sport only grew from there.

“It’s kind of like nothing you ever experience,” she said of eventing.

“Just the feeling like you have a challenge and then you go out and conquer the challenge with a 1,200-pound animal who you shouldn’t really be able to make do anything, but somehow you get it done. It’s a really nice feeling.”

Meuchel and Theoretically are scheduled to compete in show jumping starting at 9 a.m. today in Arena 2.

In the top (CCI3*) level on Saturday, the rugged cross-country course proved its might, causing fits for a number of top riders.

The first horse on the course, Cooley Dream, ridden by Hannah Sue Burnett, smacked violently into the moose-shaped jump at fence 11, knocking free the moose’s antlers and spilling the rider, who then remained prone on the course for several minutes.

Three other horses also did not complete the circuit and only five of the 14 entrants made it through without any penalties.

Remarkably, Burnett shook off her injuries and hopped on her second horse in the class, Under Suspection, minutes later and rode a flawless trip around the farm to take the lead entering today’s show jumping phase. Burnett and Under Suspection have amassed a score of 45.6 through two phases, just ahead of Bruce (Buck) Davidson and Copper Beach with 45.7 points. The lowest score at the end of the three phases will win.

Hawley Bennett-Awad and JollyBo are in third place (53.9 points), followed by Davidson and Approved Power (56.3), and James Alliston and Parker (59.5).

The CCI3* competitors will round out The Event today, performing in show jumping beginning at 3 p.m. in Arena 1.

Full results from the first three days of competition are available at www.eventingscores.com.