Ready to ride

COEUR d'ALENE - An 11-year-old Coeur d'Alene girl and her horse received their final qualifying score this weekend for the Northwest championships at the 16th annual Spokane Sport Horse Dressage Spectacular hosted by Spokane Sport Horse Farm.

Natasha Enegren and Sir Richard the Great, a 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, will compete at the Northwest Dressage Championships in Nampa, Sept. 22-25.

The duo trains under Elli Guy, at Winterbrush Stables in Rathdrum.

"Elli has been an amazing mentor and inspiration to Natasha throughout this process," according to a press release. "Elli has high hopes for Natasha and Sir Richard and expects great things to come from this capable team."

Natasha and her family moved to Coeur d'Alene from Arizona in May. While other riders had from August 2010 until the end of this month to receive qualifying scores, Natasha and Sir Richard began their qualifying quest one week after arriving in Idaho.

This weekend was their last chance to qualify. Sir Richard developed a sore leg on Saturday and Natasha had to scratch her class. After an emergency visit to the vet and a good night's rest, they competed on Sunday and qualified for the championships.