The popular $20,000 Horseware Indoor Eventing Challenge rocked the house on Saturday night as competitors tackled a mix of delicate show jumping fences and challenging cross-country obstacles set by course designer Mark Phillips. Lauren Kieffer of Middleburg, VA, made her Royal Horse Show a winning one, riding Glendening Avis, a 13-year-old buckskin Canadian Sport Horse mare owned by Callie Evans, to victory.

โ€œIโ€™m thrilled. The mare is just incredible; she tries her guts out,โ€ said Kieffer, who was riding a borrowed mount that she rode for the first time on Friday. โ€œItโ€™s very rare that you hop on something and sync together so quickly. It was so much fun to do this on her, and I felt so in sync with her.

โ€œBrandon and Kendal certainly put the pressure on; I was hoping for a little bit more breathing room!โ€ joked Kieffer following her indoor eventing debut. โ€œThe format is fun; itโ€™s energetic. If it gets one person to leave here and go Google โ€˜eventingโ€™ and get into it, then it did its purpose.โ€

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