Successful jumping weekend

Shannon LeClair 

Times Reporter

 

Strathmore resident and horse show jumper Tamie Phillips recently competed in the Rocky Mountain Grand Prix on Aug. 27. She may not have taken home the $50,000 prize, but was still happy to see her name in both second and third place with her two horses. 

“It was really fun, both of my horses did really well. My old partner Lucas was the one that was second just by three tenths of a second, so that was pretty good,” said Phillips. 

“For both of the horses to do that well, and be that consistent was fantastic, it’s a really nice way to end the summer. It was extremely exciting because I went first in the jump off with my horse, and there were 11 other competitors to follow. It was the second to last competitor that just ended up sneaking in under my time, so it was very exciting, it was a great class.”

Eric Martin and his horse Kumano from Oakbank, Manitoba were the ones who took home first place. This year Phillips was named the Western Canadian Champion of the Jump Canada Talent Squad Series.  At the Rocky Mountain Classic there was a talent squad who was scouting the team, and they chose Phillips to win the Western Division of the squad this year. 

“It really recognizes sort of the success that I’ve had basically over the entire season, so I’ve been really consistent and that consistency has paid off and won the western division of the talent squad so that was great,” said Phillips. 

“What that does is, it means that we become, or whomever wins it becomes a carded athlete for sport Canada.”

These days Phillips is mostly focusing on competition and said she might put her name in to see if she can go to Buenos Aires to take part in the Nations Cup competition. She may also head to Las Vegas and California for the fall and compete in some of the world cup qualifiers. She said her competitive future is a little bit up in the air at the moment but there are suddenly a lot of opportunities out there. For now, though, Phillips said she will likely take some time for herself and her horses after having such an intense season, and regroup in the fall.