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16 SIDELINES MAY 2011 FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE E V E N T I N G

Marilyn Little-Meredith Lives What She Learned

By Lauren R. Giannini

That old saying “children live what they learn” certainly applies to Marilyn Little-Meredith. Now 29, she grew up in Maryland’s horse country just northwest of Washington, DC and followed in her horsemen-parents’ footsteps. In the late 70s Lynn and Ray began to import horses from Europe, introducing the idea of a sporthorse type as they formed syndicates for breeding and developing Grand Prix horses. Lynn showed jumpers, competing on the US Equestrian Team, which enhanced their value in terms of the family business of selling quality horses.

Both Marilyn and her sister Ashlyn were encouraged to try other sports, but horses won out in the long haul. Bringing along a prospect that might be bought just as you were getting somewhere was character-building and educational. Marilyn loves to compete, and she has taken the whole notion of cross-training to new levels. After securing the continued support of Udonna’s owners, Marilyn set her sights on achieving the upper levels of three-day eventing.

“My husband Ben and I were watching the World Equestrian Games on FEI TV – I’ve seen eventing, spent years at Rolex and I know what it is, but for the frst time while watching the cross-country I realized that I would love to do that and I think I have a horse who would love to do that too,” recalls Marilyn. “So I looked at it in a very different way.”

A week and a half later, Marilyn was riding her jumper Udonna in the open training division at the Maryland Horse Trials. In 2010 they did three more open training divisions, fnishing every time on their dressage score. When they moved up to preliminary in January, they again fnished on their dressage score and won their fourth time out at Rocking Horse Winter II in Florida.

“I’ve taught a lot of eventers, helping them with their show jumping, so I’m aware of the kind of horse it takes,” states Marilyn. “Obviously, they have to be brave to a fault, huge heart, a lot of stamina, big step, run like a Thoroughbred. Udonna has all of that, but she also moves beautifully and

she’s highly programmable. As a horse to train, she’s a machine – you get out exactly what you put in which is a beautiful thing with a horse when you’re cross-training or adding another feature into their training, for them to be able to pick up and accept the training and retain what you try to teach them. She has that all day long.” The biggest hurdle, Marilyn admits, has been the dressage. They have the mileage in show jumping. The game plan involved exposing Udonna to the various questions found on the cross-country and working on the dressage.

Marilyn and Udonna moved up to Intermediate Horse at Pine Top Spring Advanced Horse Trials (GA) where they fnished ninth on their dressage score. On March 10 their last outing, before this issue went to press harvested, third place: 15 started, nine fnished and they added only time penalties to their dressage score in the Open Intermediate at Red Hills in Florida.

Marilyn’s background in show jumping, her understanding of

Marilyn and Udonna ran their frst Intermediate horse trial at Pine Top in February, dropping into the water: they placed ninth with no jumping faults. In 2010 Marilyn and Blue Curacao won the $175,000 Derby and the 5-star Grand Prix in Calgary to harvest the North American Championship Photo by Mark Lerner

Marilyn and her cat “The Dope” rode everywhere together

on Smokey Continued on page 18