Brandie Holloway ends HITS on a winning note with Argentina in the $25,000 HITS Grand Prix
There is no doubt when she returns next year with Argentina she will be the one to watch. Holloway is thrilled with her new horse and says, " There is just something about certain horses. They are just winners, and I believe he is one of them."
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PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
March 13, 2007
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Brandie Holloway & Argentina take home $25,000 Footing Authority™ Grand Prix
Tucson, Arizona (March 13, 2007) - A lightning-fast, double-clear round for Brandie Holloway and Argentina was all it took to win Sunday's $25,000 Footing Authority™ Grand Prix during the fifth week of the HITS Arizona Winter Circuit. Out of a starting field of 29 horse/rider combinations, Holloway was the fastest of four riders who returned for course designer Chris Brandt's jump-off route.
Holloway was third to go in the jump-off and set the Great American Time to Beat at 44.954. Her time would not be surpassed as she took home the top prize of $7,500 for Hays Investment Corporation. She was also eighth aboard S & L So Be It.
Last week's $25,000 Footing Authority™ Grand Prix winner, Michelle Parker, advanced to the jump-off but could only muster up a fourth place finish aboard Charisma 57 . Parker collected $2,000 in prize money for Cross Creek Farm.
Gretchen Lof and Zambezi also advanced to the jump-off and had a single rail down. Their time of 42.770 was good enough for second place and $5,500 in prize money for owner Jamie Hormel. The final horse/rider combination advancing to the jump-off was Paul Rohrbach and Collin 31 . They finished in third place and collected $3,250 in prize money for owner Shannon Jones.
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| click for Tambo Poderoso's (Argentina) home page |
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Holloway Scores A Third Win At HITS Arizona Finals - March 24, 2006 Issue
Brandie Holloway completed a hat trick at the HITS VI Arizona Desert Finals, March 8-12 in Tucson, Ariz. She guided Argentina, a 9-year-old stallion owned by the Hays Investment Corporation, to her third grand prix win in six weeks at the Arizona Winter Circuit.
Scott Starnes designed a course that was technical enough for the experienced riders but forgiving for the newcomers. "It's a forward, technical course without a lot of turns," he said. "The fences are quick to come up rather than big and wide. I've tried to make a fair course that lets the younger horses get around without scaring or hurting them. I still want it to be challenging."
He correctly anticipated that most of the faults would come at fence 11AB. The approach from fence 10 was a bending line, with an option to go inside fence 6. More than half the faults occurred on these two fences. "There is not the best approach and it is right up there size-wise," he said.
Argentina and four other horses successfully navigated the course. Unlikethe first round, the jump-off course twisted around one end of the arena. Holloway went first, taking all the inside turns and finishing with a tight rollback from fence 14 to fence 8.
"I didn't think that speed on the flat was the right way to go, even though I'm a person who will really gallop to the jumps," she said. "I decided to take very tight turns, and I didn't leave steps out anywhere."
They were clear with a time of 39.32 seconds; now they had to wait. Alex Granato was up next, on Monsoon, the first of his two jump-off rides. He took all the shortest paths and had a time of 38.46 seconds but with a rail down at the combination. Michelle Parker on her new ride, Nouska, had a clear round but a time of 39.76 seconds left her just out of first.
Holloway and Sharn Wordley dominated the grand prix events at the Arizona Winter Circuit. Between them, they accounted for all six victories.
Holloway grew up with cattle and Quarter Horses. She ran barrels, but even then, her focus was jumping. "I put boards over the hay bales and jumped them," she said. "I even jumped the big round bales bareback."
She credited Mike McCormick for her success in the grand prix ring. "I would never have won one grand prix without him. Once a month, I load up my horse trailer, and drive 500 miles to Mike's," she said. "I ride my horses; he gives me a bunch of his to ride. I can learn more from him in five minutes than anyone else in a year."
Argentina, an Argentinean Warmblood purchased in Ecuador, won the grand prix in weeks 3 and 6. But before Holloway could show him, she had to make him more rideable.
"We worked on galloping and turning and stopping," she said. "He's really scopey. When we added the rideability it made a big difference."
S&L So Be It and Holloway scored the only clear round in week 1. Holloway has had the 15.2-hand chestnut mare for more than two years. "She's a totally different ride," she said. "She's hot."
The Holloways' success didn't stop at the grand prix ring. Her daughter, Hunter, rode the pony hunter champion, Sleeping Beauty, during week 1. Chanel Z, second in the nation last year as a 5-year-old, showed at levels 6 and 7, winning several classes. They've bred her to Argentina and transferred two embryos.
"This way we are able to keep our good mares showing," she said. "Crossing those is better than crossing average mares to a great stallion."
Unbridled, imported from the Nether-lands, came to her first show and took the reserve title in the pre-green division with Holloway and was champion in the adult amateur, 36-49, with Sherri Kahn holding the reins.
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| click for Tambo Poderoso's (Argentina) home page |
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Brandie Holloway Ends HITS Arizona Circuit on a Winning Note with Argentina in $25,000 HITS Grand Prix
Tucson, AZ - March 13, 2006 - Brandie Holloway finished out the six-week HITS Arizona Winter Circuit in winning style by claiming Sunday's $25,000 HITS Grand Prix with her nine-year-old stallion Argentina. This was Holloway's third Grand Prix win of the circuit, and her second with the young stallion she imported from Ecuador last year.
Scott Starnes set the test for the field of twenty-six starters. Fence no. 10, a 4'9" oxer with a 5' spread leading into a double-combination was the line that saw the most rails down. "The oxer was very square and wide, and the combination was kind of spooky because it had green boxes at the bottom," said Holloway. "I jumped no. 10 and balanced right away to do an inside turn to the combination. It was a tight turn and he (Argentina) really only had time to think about jumping the jumps, and didn't really get a good look at what he was coming up to."
Four other horses joined Brandie Holloway and Argentina in the jump-off, and Holloway had the unenviable position of going first. "I didn't have anyone helping me, so when I walked the jump-off course I tried to think what would my trainer from childhood, Mike McCormick, tell me to do right now. I didn’t think that speed on the flat was the right way to go, even though I’m a person who will really gallop to the jumps. I decided to take very tight turns and I didn't leave steps out anywhere."
Brandie Holloway's strategy gave her a clear round in a very fast time of 39.32 seconds.
The pressure was on, and the rails tumbled for the next two riders. Alex Granato and Monsoon had Holloway's time beat with 38.46 seconds, but a rail at the double-combination dashed his chances. Sharn Wordley and Mr. Flanagan, three-time Grand Prix winners during the circuit, also pulled a rail at the double-combination.
Michelle Parker rode fast and clear with Nouska, but her time of 39.76 seconds just wasn't fast enough to catch Holloway.
Alex Granato finished out the competition with his second mount Mad Season. Two rails down in a time of 41.74 seconds left him in fifth place.
Even though Brandie Holloway wouldn't wish it too often, she does admit that every once in a great while going first can be in your favor. "I guess this time it worked to my advantage, because when I went in there was no pressure on me. I just did the best I could and went clean. When Alex and everybody else took their turn they knew I was fast and the pressure caused the mistakes, like leaving out a stride going to the combination. I think that risk is what made the rails come down."
Brandie Holloway enjoyed a very successful circuit at HITS Arizona. There is no doubt that when she returns next year with Argentina a year older and a year wiser, she will be the one to watch. Holloway is thrilled with her new horse and says, "there is something about certain horses, they are just winners, and I believe he is one of them."
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First Pony For Future Star
While her mother and trainer, Brandie Holloway, was busy galloping to victory in the grand prix on S&L So Be It, Hunter Holloway was doing some winning of her own on her first pony, guiding her mare Sleeping Beauty to the Sundance Welcome's pony hunter championship.
Holloway, 8, is a second-grader at Jay Shidler Elementary School in her hometown of Topeka, Kan.
Her biggest challenge in showing "Muffin," a 13-year-old Connemara-Thorough-bred, was getting her reluctant father's permission to miss two weeks of school. Holloway cleverly gained her teacher's approval before approaching her father, who eventually gave in to her persistent pleas.
Muffin sported a red braid in the middle of her black mane for good luck. Hunter said that one of her favorite things about the pony, a sixth birthday present, is that "I hardly ever fall off her. She takes care of me."
Brandie said that Hunter, who has been showing in the large pony division for nearly a year, doesn't give a second thought to the size of the fences she faces. "She's absolutely fearless," Brandie said proudly. The determined younger Holloway has already expressed her intention to someday follow her mother's footsteps into the jumper ring.
At home, she helps out in the barn and rides every day, often hacking her mother's grand prix horses.
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| Sleeping Beauty and Hunter Holloway |
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The Perfect Ride
Hunter Holloway got her large pony Sleeping Beauty for her sixth birthday. "She's a great pony," said Holloway, now 7, of the black mare. "I already told my mom I'm not going to sell her."
Holloway, who lives in Topeka, Kansas, is a newcomer to the A-rated ponies. Her mother and trainer, Brandie Holloway, said she was afraid to jump oxers as recently as last summer. Now nothing fazes the young rider. "St. Louis last month was her first horse show doing the children's ponies," said mom. "This was her first time doing the large ponies."
Hunter wears her hair in two long braids tied up in red ribbons. "Red ribbons go better than blue with my pony because she's black," she said firmly.
There were plenty of blue ribbons as well for Holloway. She was the champion in the large ponies and won the classic.
"She takes great care of Hunter, and Hunter takes great care of her," said Brandie. "Hunter takes her job very seriously, and she's riding really well."
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| Burberry click here for sales page |
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In Her Blood
Hunter Holloway is just 9 years old, and at the beginning of her show career. Holloway, who rides with her mother Brandie, showed in the junior hunters for the first time, and the result was a championship with her wonderful roan hunter Burberry, as well as the win in the Fast Lane Farm Junior/Amateur-Owner Hunter Classic.
“He’s a saint,” said Holloway of the 8-year-old, Dutch gelding, Burberry. “I love him to death.”
“I started with a horse named Annie,” said the Kansas youngster. “She was a Paint, and every time she leaned over to get something to eat, I fell off over her neck.”
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