Lexington, Ky.—Sept. 1

Coming to the USEA American Eventing Championships was never in the plans for Annie Renzetti’s Jocelyn. Nor was competing in a recognized event for that matter, but thanks to happenstance that’s exactly what the Clydesdale cross ended up doing this year.

Renzetii, an equine veterinarian who works on the racing commission in Delaware, brought Jocelyn along to train with Sally Cousins in Aiken, South Carolina, this past winter solely to make life easier on her husband. But when her herd arrived, one of her geldings, who was entered at the Stable View Aiken Opener Horse Trials (South Carolina), wasn’t in the right frame of mind to compete, so she decided to enter “Joce.”

“I thought, well, this is kind of silly and stupid, but let me take Joce in the starter,” Renzetti said. “There’s 17 in there; we don’t have a snowball’s chance, but it’ll be stupid fun and people will laugh, and I will laugh, and it will be great.”

While Renzetti thought it’d be a good laugh, Joce, who is a regular at Plantation Field’s Halloween unrecognized event—dressed in full costume—put her best hoof forward.

“My God, Joce showed up, and she’s not phased by atmosphere or flags or anything. She shows up and does her job, and she was fifth after dressage and double clear and ended up second. And I kind of went, ‘What just happened?’ ”

It wasn’t without some drama though—the rider ahead of them on cross-country fell off, and the horse turned back towards them.

“I kept looking at the fence judges to be like, should I stop or what are we doing?” Renzetti said. “And nobody said stop or pull up or do anything, and Joce saw him and was like, huh, this is a loose horse, go figure. And so we just kept going, and actually he fell in about 10 strides behind us and didn’t jump the jumps, but followed us around for about half the course. And I’m like, well, if we cross the finish line, and he’s still there I guess I’ll catch him, but he eventually peeled off and went back to his trailer.”

With their second-place ribbon, Joce earned a qualifying score for the AEC so the plan to compete her at the championship was born. In their three events, they never placed lower than third.

“She goes with a beautiful frame,” Renzetti said. “When you ask her [for a] transition, she’s deadly accurate. She bends. I mean she moves like a freight train, but as far as like being accurate and trained and in a frame and obedient, she does all those things.

“Then jumping, this mare makes supreme efforts; she is just adorable and she doesn’t know how to stop,” she added. “She’s never stopped at anything. She’s going to go.”

Initially Renzetti planned to bring three horses to the AEC, but when both had some soundness issues, Joce was the last one left. While some questioned the plan to drive to Kentucky with a 20-year-old Clydesdale cross, Renzetti wasn’t deterred.

“I’ve gone pretty serious training with one mare [but] going starter with Joce is just fun. Joce is one of those mares, you can’t help but smile when you’re riding because she’s having fun. And she loves the spotlight; it’s hysterical. Like at Stable View, she walked in that dressage ring like ‘I am the most important horse on this property,’ and I was like, of course you are!”

Renzetti purchased Joce about 10 years ago from Virginia Sport Horses. She’d been lusting after the mare for a year and a half but didn’t need to get another horse. However when the woman who owned the place announced she was having an internet reduction sale, Renzetti asked if she might be willing to sell Jocelyn. She made a lowball offer that was accepted and brought Joce home.

“She’s one of those really awesome horses that is just exactly what you see is what you get,“ Renzetti said. “She’ll do anything you ask. I could put any person on the street on her and go on a trail ride. She’s just awesome. She’s fox hunted. She’s evented. She’s done the jumpers. She’s ponied race horses, like whatever you want to do.”

Coming into the week, Renzetti said a ribbon would be the ultimate goal, however she knew they wouldn’t be at the top after dressage and would likely have to climb up over the jumping phases. They scored a 29.0 in dressage and thanks to a double-clear performance cross-country moved up one spot to 11^th in the open starter division.