Allison Van Sickle Competes in Jumping Competition in Calgary
Equestrian News Release

Santa Rosa Valley equestrian, Allison Van Sickle, returned recently from a two week International Show Jumping competition at Spruce Meadows, Calgary, Alberta, Canada where she rode on two different American teams in a “Prix de Nations” event.

Allison, 14, competed during the Spring over four different contests to win berths on two of the four West Coast Active Riders (WCAR) teams sent to Canada for the June tourney. The WCAR is an organization of equestrians who work to encourage and develop show jumping talent on the West Coast from beginner to Olympic level. Each Prix de Nations team consisted of the top four finishers after the grueling qualifying rounds with one team at each of the four competing heights; meter 1.10, meter 1.20, meter 1.30 and meter 1.40.

In past years no WCAR team had finished better than sixth place. In June both of Allison’s teams ended up as Reserve Champions at both the meter 1.10 and meter 1.20 heights.

Individually, both of Allison’s horses also qualified for the “Final Four” competition held on the last day of the show. This event invites the top four horse/rider combinations over the first three days of the show to return for final competition on Sunday. In a unique format, the “Final Four” event required each rider to jump the final course on all four of the “Final Four” horses.

The four horses are held in an enclosure at the end of the grass jumping field. After riding the course on his or her own mount, each rider in turn then has 120 seconds and two practice jumps to become familiar with a new mount and then jump the course again, repeating the process until each rider has ridden each horse.

At her first show in this format, Allison finished second overall out of a starting field of over 58 riders at the meter 1.10 level. At the meter 1.20 event Allison finished third, sharing the championship stand with two adult amateurs from Canada, out of a starting pool of almost 40 riders.

Allison trains with Jeni Brown of Shadowbrook Stables in Moorpark who accompanied her to Canada for the tournament.