Red Hills

Ashley and Vaughn experienced a disappointing weekend in the advanced horse trials at Red Hills in Florida. After leading the pack going into cross-country she and Vaughn were near the end of a foot perfect cross-country round when Vaughn jumped in big to the second-to-last fence, a combination with cabins set on a turning line. Ashley blamed the miscalculation on pilot error and said that he had to add a half-stride to get out of the combination and hung a leg over the "out" fence and she came off over his shoulder. Vaughn stayed on his feet, and both horse and rider are fine.

"There were some tough questions on course but they were good questions and you had to be aggressive," she said. " He was foot perfect and I was upset with myself because it was pilot error. He's not the type of horse to get rattled by something like this though. It sucks that it looks bad on paper but I can’t think about that, he was really good"

Though it was not the result she was looking for, Ashley was ultimately very encouraged by the rest of the round and said that she practically cantered around on a loose rein, Vaughn was going so well. With undaunted confidence Ashley is sticking to the plan and continuing on her journey to the Rolex Kentucky three-day event in April.