It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and heart to compete a horse successfully – especially if your chosen sport is eventing. We hear a lot about the very top riders, galloping around courses like Rolex and Badminton. But all of those 4* horses had to start from the bottom and work their way up to get to that level.
Today we want to recognize a successful Team SUCCEED rider and her horse who are just starting their journey towards the top: Cathy Wieschoff and her home-bred gelding Simba.
We’d like to congratulate Cathy and Simba on their successful 2010 season, which includes earning the USEA High Point Preliminary Horse Area VIII award for Simba and the High Point Preliminary Rider for Cathy. She was thrilled with these awards: “He had a great year and did everything I asked of him!”
Their 2010 season included 2nd place finishes at the Poplar CIC* and Rebecca Farm Long Format Preliminary 3-Day and a 12th at the Ocala CCI*.
Simba is an 8-year-old Irish Thoroughbred cross out of Cathy’s 4* mare Spelga Dam who ran Rolex and Fair Hill 3 days as well as Rolex and Burghley full formats. His sire is Bruce Davidson’s Lion King.
According to Cathy, Simba is a solid citizen who goes to work and is extremely healthy in his mind and body. He was easy to train, though struggled some with engagement at the canter.
The stress of travel and many competitions, including the 36-hour drive to Montana for the Rebecca Farm competition was a lot for Simba in the past year. Cathy says the fact that he has a very healthy digestive system is testament to the validity of SUCCEED®, which he has been on for the last three years.
As with many of the great event horses, Simba excels out on the cross-country course. He currently needs improvement in show jumping. That will be one focus in his training as Cathy works to move Simba up to Intermediate in 2011 – the next step on the journey to becoming her next 4* horse.
Cathy knows that it’s a little early to tell for sure whether Simba will make it all the way to the top, but she has her hopes. We think they’re off to a great start.
From everyone here at Freedom Health, we offer our biggest congratulations to Team SUCCEED members Cathy and Simba for a successful 2010, and our best wishes for an even better 2011.
Extremely impressive. I also know that Simba has always been healthy.