Charlotte Reeve crossed an item off her bucket list on Saturday night: qualify for the CET Nationals in Toronto.

“It’s been my goal for probably seven years,” said an elated Reeve. “So it was means a lot to be able to finally go.”

The 18-year-old rider, trained by Langley’s Andrea Strain, jumped to the top of the Equine Essentials CET Medal Regionals with her mount of three years, Corona OS. Reeve, alongside Katrina Klimach, Sloane Betker and Bryn Harvey, is now one of four BC riders to have qualified for Nationals where they’ll compete against the top four riders from the Prairie (AB, SK, MB), Ontario and Atlantic (QC, PEI, NB, NS, NF) regions.

Held over two days, the Canadian Equestrian Team namesake class sees qualified competitors compete in a Flat/Gymnastics phase on Friday, followed by a 1.10m to 1.15m Jumping phase on Saturday. The equitation competition is scored by how judges perceive the athlete as a show jumping rider with scoring weighted evenly between the two phases.

The top six riders then return for mandatory additional testing.

Reeve was called back in third position for the Work Off and climbed her way into first, besting leader Klimach on Fanta.

“I thought it was a really good [first round] course. It was a bit tricky with some of the blind corners, but overall it rode out quite nicely,” said Reeve of the Peter Holmes-designed track.

The Regional Final is designed to test not only how well riders can execute the test but also their strategy for how to ride it. All competitors are required to train their own horses over the two days of competition and must walk the Jumping and Work Off courses without their trainers. Still Strain’s words were in Reeve’s ear as she made her plan: “stay positive and make sure you’re on your count. Don’t get distracted—just stay focused and on task.”

That’s precisely what she did.

“I thought I had to be efficient [in the Work Off] because no one was under the time allowed. I needed to make sure that I kept my good canter everywhere around the turn,” she explained, noting that she didn’t let the other riders impact her ride.

“I get pretty locked into my plan and it doesn’t really switch up very much.”

Saturday’s win caps a spectacular two weeks for Reeve who has positively dominated the equitation ring at tbird, winning all three 1.10m equitation finals. Her streak started with the Thunderbird Good Hands & Seat 1.10m Medal Final at last week’s Harvest Celebration. At this week’s BCHJA Fall Finale, she added the Regional Finals for the Jump Canada Medal and the CET Medal to her resume as well.

“It’s pretty unbelievable. I’m still in shock!”