Let’s hear it for the girls. Women dominated Saturday night at Toronto’s 96^th Royal Agricultural Winter Fair Horse Show. November 2, 2018 was the night of both the second round of the Indoor Eventing Championships and The Canadian Show Jumping Finals.

First, the Horseware Indoor Eventing Challenge 2018: 10 top US and Canadian riders participated in the second round of a fast-paced loud music enhanced the combination of show jumping rails and cross-country fences that saw a fewer dangerous platform banks than previous years. No horse wipe outs this time, which was fine by me.

Second, Saturday was my annual pilgrimage to The Royal in Toronto with Ride with the Wind Stables. (Check out our previous year’s adventure). In case you don’t know, The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair is a 10-day event every November that brings the country to the city – it’s one of the only urban agricultural fall fairs in North America. Sheep, goats, pigs and cattle file into Exhibition Place along Toronto’s waterfront.

But mostly, it’s about the horses.

Well, at least for me. And many, many other groups of mostly horse-loving girls scattered throughout the audience talking saddles, gear, ponies and pastures – and continuing the conversations on the GO trains home.

But, back to the horse show…

The winner of the Horseware Indoor Eventing Challenge is World Equestrian Games USA Eventing Team member Lauren Kieffer riding Glendening Avis- a beautiful buckskin Canadian Sport Horse mare. In second place is Brandon McMechan on the cleverly named Oscar’s Wild and taking home the $3000 third place prize is previous winner and Royal veteran Kendal Lehari on Totally Frank.

For a detailed play-by-play of the night’s eventing, checkout out Eventing Nation publication.

Stay tuned for www.horsetrotting.net’s coverage of the night’s highlight: Canadian Show Jumping Champion Finals. Up next.