Deacon (Detail Specialist) seems to be keen on his new life as an event horse. In the past, he did some Quarter Horse competition:  hunter under saddle stuff, jumping, and even tried some western pleasure (which probably wasn't very successfully considering his huge, lovely gaits). He started out with us as a sale horse, but after losing Zero, we decided to purchase him ourselves and make him part of the team. Melissa really enjoyed riding him, he rarely hit a rail when jumping; and he was working on learning to gallop and liked to be able to actually move forward!! At his first two trials, he finished on his dressage scores, with the second trial earning him 2nd place and qualifying him for the AECs.

So after the success of that second trial, we decided to buy him and see how far he can go! He completed his first Training level trial this fall, after finishing in 10th place in a large Novice Horse division at AECs.

Melissa has enjoyed working with him this winter in Florida. He's had two very successful Prelim runs. Her plans for 2008 are the 1* at Maui Jim and possibly the long-format 1* this fall.