While the advanced and three-star riders don’t get started until today, Rebecca Farm was still buzzing on day one of The Event Thursday.

The dressage arenas were busy accommodating novice and training-level competitors, while the cross-country course also hosted novice riders.

Several horses refused their first attempts at some of the cross-country course’s most daunting obstacles, but 18 of the 28 riders in the junior open novice A division completed clean rides.

Carmen Holmes-Smith, 15, of Chase, British Columbia, watched three of the four horses ahead of her refuse obstacles, but she managed to finish without any obstacle faults atop her horse, Digby, in 5 minutes and 18 seconds.

“When people ahead of you are having trouble it makes you wonder,” Holmes-Smith said. “Especially if you haven’t noticed anything that people should be having trouble with.

“Some of the water lines were a bit tricky, but it was a good question.”

Through two events, Holmes-Smith has a score of 32.5, putting her 10th in the division with show jumping scheduled for Saturday.

“I thought it was really fun, a nice gallopy course,” she said. “It’s probably the best event I go to. The facility is just amazing.”

Holmes-Smith, who has been eventing since she was 7 years old and has competed in The Event at Rebecca Farm five times, is a veteran compared to Alyssa Hammel, 15, of Kalispell, who completed her first novice ride on Thursday. Hammel said she’s been attending the event as a spectator since it started in 2002, but this was her first time as a competitor.

“It gave me nerves and stuff, but after you’re doing it that adrenaline is fun to have,” she said. “It’s fun. It’s a different feeling. It’s better than being a spectator.”

Hammel completed a clean ride in 4:55 and said her biggest challenge was getting her horse, Change of Pace, to slow down so she didn’t finish too far under the optimum time.

“Down the hill we gained a little bit of speed and so we were trying to slow down, because you have to go slower to reach the time,” Hammel said.

“We made it through the water and we went up to the hill and he started wanting to go again, because he’s an intermediate horse and he is used to going faster.”

Hammel’s 12-year-old sisters, Lindsey and Ashley, were impressed. “Good for her first time,” Lindsey said.

Hammel is currently eighth in the junior open novice A standings. Lydia Sumner is first with a score of 24.5. McKenna Tremblay is second, 25.5, and Tashi Brundige is third, 27.5.

Suzy Elliott leads the senior open novice A division with a score of 31. Catie Cejka is second, 34, and Susanne Felleson is third, 37.5.

More novices and training-level riders will hit the cross-country course today while the more advanced divisions will get started with dressage.