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Gracie's Page!

"Two Grays and a Bay" team
Photo by Erin Harty, Chronicle of the Horse

We played for keeps in the "Chronicle of the Horse" Adult Team Championships, West, Training Level, and it worked! From left, TD Wayne Quarles, and "Two Grays and a Bay" --  me, Merry Hanson, and Lisa Carton. Cool nugget of synchronicity: We won the Stonefield Farm Trophy, sponsored by Jan Royce Conant with whom  I was a working student exactly 20 years ago.  Thanks, Jan!
Photo by Ed Lawrence

Here's Gracie feelin' groovy in the stadium at the ATC event in Flagstaff, AZ August 15 and 16, 1998. Lots-o-mud, but a clean round, big trophy, nice cooler, stall plaque and a gaudy ribbon!

-- Gray Skies --

Goose Downs Dressage
Gracie is a 14-year-old Thoroughbred mare
of lovely conformation and movement.
She's been eventing now for four seasons, and moved up to
Preliminary Level in 1999. . . for now we're having
enormous fun exploring eventing in USCTA Area X and Area IX.
Great people, fun courses, and lots of good competition to keep us sharp.


Stadium, Strang Ranch, Colo.'98 Strang cross country
Above and right, stadium jumping and cross country,
Strang Ranch Horse Trials, 1998, Carbondale, Colorado.
Strang Ranch Photos by Tricia Jones

Gracie, Training Level XC Fence 2, Boca Negra
Grace tackles her first Training Level event at the
1998 Watermelon Mountain
Pony Club Horse Trials,
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
She finished 5th, despite being just a little on the  ***TENSE*** side in dressage.


And how do you develop such a wild and crazy girl?
Here's Gracie practicing to be a grownup eventer back in 1997
at Boca Negra Horsemen's Complex, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Photo by Perry Gray

An average day with a Gracie horse is better than a good day with most others, in my humble opinion.
Gracie and George
And before she was an event horse? Here's Gracie in
her previous incarnation: failed dressage horse, turned broodmare.
That's little George in the background -- he's a ranch horse
in California now, quite unlike his mom.
Below are shots of her when she arrived in Virginia after a cross-country
trailer ride and some difficult times before her trip.
Skinny Grace, after shipping cross country

And who are Gracie's fairy grandmother and grandfather, who shipped her, sheltered her
and showed her a new way to travel?
Captain and Mrs. Douglas A. Williams of Spring Grove, Virginia, whose farm is shown above.
Thanks Mom and Dad!

Capt. and Mrs. Douglas A. Williams


Grace's eventing adventures include the following:

2001
1st, Open Training, Watermelon Mtn PC HorseTrials, Albuquerque NM
and then off work for a while with a fractured coffin bone.
2000
2nd, Open Training, Trojan Horse Horse Trials, Cave Creek, AZ
9th, Open Preliminary, Summer Coconino Horse Trials, Flagstaff, AZ
and then toted Laura around her first Novice event at Grass Ridge, Sonoita, AZ
1999
1st, Open Training, Watermelon Mtn PC Horse Trials, Albuquerque, NM
2nd, Training Rider, Las Cruces Horse Trials, Las Cruces, NM
7th, Open Preliminary, Coconino Summer Horse Trials, Flagstaff, AZ
12th, Open Training, Goose Downs Horse Trials, Galisteo, NM
Wipeout, Open Preliminary, High Prairie Horse Trials, Parker,CO
(but 5th after stadium!)
1998

1st, Chronicle of the Horse Adult Team Championships West, Training, Flagstaff, AZ
3rd, Senior Training, Goose Downs Horse Trials, Galisteo, NM
4th, Training Rider Area X Championships, Flagstaff, AZ
4th, Sr. Novice, Las Cruces Horse Trials, Las Cruces, NM
5th, Open Training, Watermelon Mtn PC Horse Trials, Albuquerque, NM
6th, Open Training, High Country Hounds Horse Trials, Flagstaff, AZ
6th, Senior Open Training, The Event At Goose Downs, Galisteo, NM
9th, Senior Training, Strang Ranch Area IX Championships, Carbondale, CO
1997
4th, Open Novice, Goose Downs Horse Trials, Galisteo, NM
5th,  Beginner Novice, Watermelon Mountain PC Horse Trials, Albuquerque, NM
13th, Open Novice, High Prairie Horse Trials, Parker, CO

E-mail Grace's Mom Go back to 
the Boring Person's page.