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The Morven Park Horse Trial has been plagued by bad weather in year's past-in fact locals often joke that storms go hundreds of miles out of their way to ruin Morven weekend--but this year took that experience to new heights. After two days of torrential rains, riders arrived on Saturday knowing that there would be changes to the schedule. But no one expected all that would occur over the next few days.

Saturday dawned with heavy rains punctuated by lightening strikes that put a two hour hold on all the outdoor rings, and had the young rider preliminary divisions cancelled outright for the day. By about 1:00pm , the rain had stopped, and everyone cuddled up in their warm clothes and rain gear and slogged through waterlogged warm-ups to complete their tests.

On Saturday they announced no jumping would occur that day (the original schedule had been to run dressage and show jumping on Saturday, with cross-country on Sunday), and the cross-country, if it ran at all, would run later in the week. Show jumping was scheduled to start at 9:00am the next day, with the preliminary young riders doing their dressage as well.

Sunday morning everyone was happy to see no rain, but we couldn't help but notice that the wind was blowing . . .hard. After an abortive attempt at outdoor show jumping, it became clear the winds were far too strong (gusts would later be clocked at nearly 70 miles an hour) and the jumps were blowing over as soon as they could be righted.

So, everyone on the grounds-officials and riders alike-scrambled to set up show jumping in the diminutive indoor. A course was designed and hastily constructed. One of the fences had to be jumped twice, but the course proved a good challenge, requiring strong careful jumping and very adjustable horses.

The real challenge was found outside the ring, where the small indoor warm-up space could only hold six or so horses at one time. But, everyone was on their best behavior, and the show jumping cycled through with few hitches. Organizers announced that cross-country would run on Tuesday, and a sign up sheet for riders who would be returning to ride was placed at the outgate of show jumping.

Cross-country Tuesday was beautiful, but many combinations, even seasoned ones, seemed to have trouble with the course-perhaps because of the broken rhythm of the weekend, and having to attack Morven's notorious questions more or less cold.

Liza Horan and her Radnor Hunt CCI** ribbon winner Johnny McCarthy showed the transition to advanced has been an easy one by taking the blue in Advanced division one. They had stood tenth after dressage with a 42.6, but a clean show jumping round by the enthusiastic, airy-jumping bay gelding moved them in to 4th. They then put in the only clean cross-country jumping round in their division to win. (Liza and Johnny McCarthy are pictured at the top right jumping out of the water at Southern Pines.) Sharon White and Imageleaf were second with one stop and time.

Division three winner Jan Thompson and the attractive chestnut Waterfront had a similar path to the winner's circle. She put in a smooth test on the fluid-moving gelding to stand second with a 33.0, and show jumped clean to retain her place. But after all of her competitors had mishaps on the cross-country course; she took the win with the only clean jumping round in her division.(Jan and Waterfront are pictured at the middle left jumping into the water at Red Hills.)

Division Two winner Heidi White, and the venerable Northern Spy had a bit more competition, with three clean cross country rounds in her division. She stood fourth after dressage with a 36, and then moved in to second place with a clean show jumping round. Though she garnered 18 time penalties on cross-country, it was enough to keep her ahead of her coach Phillip Dutton on his Olympic mount Nova Top, who settled for second place. (Heidi and Northern Spy are pictured at the right jumping into the water at Red Hills.)

No advanced competitors made the time, and most of the mishaps took place at the many combinations featuring narrows on broken lines that made up designer Tremaine Cooper's course. And, of course, Morven's notorious Leaf Pit took it's share of victims as well. Two competitors were discussing how odd it was to go cross-country on a Tuesday, and one said it was like schooling. "Oh yay," responded the other wryly, "Let's go school the Leaf Pit!"

On a more somber note, the recent passing of Beale Morris cast a pall over the entire weekend, and many competitors were sporting red and yellow (Beale's cross-country colors) lapel pins to remember their friend.