Bigfork women compete in The Event

Amid the more than 475 competitors at The Event at Rebecca Farm last weekend was Melissa Van DerVeer, a rising junior at Bigfork High School.

In just her second appearance at The Event, Van DerVeer earned 16th place out of 23 competitors in the Junior Open Novice B division. It was her horse My Mimosa's first time at The Event.

"He's young and we're not in it to win it. We're just trying to get some experience for him," Van DerVeer said of her horse.

My Mimosa is 7 years old. Van DerVeer has owned him for 13 months and he's been jumping for the past year.

"I'm proud of how Mimosa did because he is so young," Van DerVeer said. "It was really cool to get to see so many Olympic riders, especially because there were so many this year. It was just a great weekend. It is such a beautiful place. We are so lucky to have it here."

At The Event, they earned 13th place in dressage with a score of 36.5. In cross country they were clear on time, but had 20 points added on for a refusal.

"He would've scored really well if it wasn't for the refusal," Van DerVeer said. "It was the most inviting jump on the course. He took a step back though, which counts as a refusal in cross country and we had 20 points added to us which dropped us down a lot."

In stadium jumping they had four points added on for a refusal and six points added for going over the time.

"He was really unfocused going in and he was very tired," Van DerVeer said. "He refused all three of the practice jumps, so I was really nervous going into it. He is just so young. He made it over the first fence and didn't really realize the second fence was right in front of us so he stopped which cost us another four points, but he was clear for the rest. We had some time faults though too because of the refusal."

Although she would've liked to have scored better in a few of the events, Van DerVeer said that the experience of being a part of The Event was reward enough.

"It's super exciting and it's so much fun," Van DerVeer said of The Event. "It's cool being able to see the Olympic riders compete and to get to watch all of their horses."

Van DerVeer wasn't the only Bigfork resident who competed at The Event. Kelli Blair has been a part of The Event since it began eight years ago. In this year's competition she rode her horse Rhonda for the second year in a row and earned eighth place out of 23 competitors in the Senior Open Training A division. The pair had double clear rounds in stadium jumping and in cross country.

"Our dressage needs work," Blair said. "I was very happy to get eighth place though with the quality of riders that were in attendance."