| Excerpt from the September 29, 2004 Issue of The Chronicle of the Horse article entitled "Sexson Has Plenty To Celebrate With Twin Rivers Win" By Beth Rasin ...Tiffany Silverman, who finished second in the intermediate and claimed the Area VI Intermediate Championship, hasn’t had a long history with her horse either. She imported Never On Sunday from Australia last year, but her husband, veterinarian Mark Silverman, had to talk her into the purchase. “This horse surprised me,” she said. “I thought he’d come along later. He’s a little sportscar, and I usually like the bigger, flashier types. But my husband saw a future in him.” Since “Felix” was slightly aggressive to the fences when they purchased him from Shane Rose, he spent a few more months in Australia, with a jumper trainer, before Silverman brought him home. Silverman, of Valley Center, Calif., started competing the 16-hand Thoroughbred in February. “We’re learning each other’s buttons, but, for the most part, he’s point and shoot,” she said. “It’s fun to just pat him on the landing side and keep going. He usually makes good decisions.” The Twin Rivers venue, new this year, was a welcome addition to the calendar for Silverman. “It was exciting to go somewhere new,” she said. “The choice of events is limited in California, and the footing here was spectacular from the start box to the finish flags. The jumps are solid and inviting and beautifully decorated. Every jump had a different feel and required a different type of riding.” Starting with a series of skinnies on a hill at fence 3, Silverman thought the course demanded a lot of accuracy. “It was really exciting to ride something like that,” she said. “You had to jump a big jump, then come back and be accurate.” Silverman started off in fifth place after dressage, thanks to help at home from Jürgen Hoffmann in Encinitas, Calif. “He’s helped me take a sensitive horse and drive him into my hands,” said Sexson. “Now I can really ride him in the test.” She also trains with Sarah Baldwin in show jumping, and eventer Jil Walton “puts it all together for me,” she said. A clear show jumping round moved the pair from third to second overall. “He’s been a one-rail horse, so it was a thrill to jump clean,” she said. “It was his type of course—just keep coming forward. As his fitness level is up, getting ready for Galway Downs, he wasn’t feeling the effects of Saturday [cross-country].” Silverman, 32, likes “quirky” names, although she isn’t sure how Never On Sunday got his moniker. “It’s a nice twist of fate that he did do it on a Sunday—he left all the rails up,” she said with a laugh. She hopes to compete Felix at the advanced level next year, and over the winter, she plans to settle into her new farm, which she bought two weeks before the event. “Packing for the event, I didn’t know where half my stuff was,” said Silverman, a County Saddlery representative and master saddle fitter. |
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