Professional Riders Organization

Martin Collins: Synthetic Surface Pioneer

2012-02-09T06:49:00.000-08:00

Approximately 30 years ago, synthetic surfacepioneer, Martin Collins decided to build his own arena at home in the UK, toservice his livery yard and privately owned show jumpers. From the available sand, sand andwoodchip, dirt or straight woodchip, he branched away and added some plasticsinto silica sand. What he got wasa surface which held up better in the winter, with the plastic granules givingsome resilience to the colder weather and a footing with better ‘cushion’ whichalleviated the ‘deadness’ of a straight sand surface.

This was just the beginning …..

Given Martin’s ever enquiring mind anddetermination to further perfect a surface to mimic good going turf, we saw theemergence of alternative components to add to sand.

MC Polytrack®, another Collins invention, wasintroduced some 25 years ago and there is no doubt that it was the‘trailblazer’ of the modern day synthetic surfaces. MC Polytrack® answered the prayers for a footing which wasmore sympathetic to the limbs of the horse, allowed them to work to the maximumof their ability with the least amount of stress and strain.

It was easier to maintain, did not requirewatering – a godsend to the busy yard where time is money – had greaterclimatic tolerance and was suitable for the whole equestrian industry, fromdressage through to thoroughbred racing.

All this was thanks to a manufacturing processwhich took a number of components and blended them by weight with the additionof a wax coating. Sounds easydoesn’t it and I suppose one can liken it to a grandmother’s favourite recipe;we can all try to make it, however it doesn’t mean it will taste the same!

Whilst Martin was ‘inventing’, the equestrianindustry in the UK was awakening to the dawn of a new era. The thoroughbred, who had been thestalwart and figured heavily in most equestrian disciplines, either in its purebred state or native pony cross breed, was slowly being overtaken by theintroduction of the Warm blood.

The popularity of the Warm blood has led tocompetition horses becoming much more expensive to purchase and maintain. Their work in whatever discipline hasbecome much more demanding, and the name of the game is to ensure the soundnessof these horses during their long competition lives.

In particular, the growing awareness ofmuscular and skeletal damage that can occur when horses and ponies are workedon inconsistent, unsympathetic or poorly maintained surfaces which is now morewidely reported in the media. Investing in a good surface will also assist in reducing veterinarybills.

A synthetic surface these days is nottherefore, merely required to offer somewhere to school when the grass gets toodry or wet. The parameters havechanged enormously and present day surfaces have to accommodate the changes inthe equestrian society . They also have to conform to environmental rulings, besafe, durable and consistent. Martin Collins products now offered in the USA; MC Ecotrack® and CLOPF® fiber answer these requirements.

OurCLOPF® fiber (a key ingredient in MC Ecotrack®) is manufactured at our ownfactory in Europe and shipped to the US . The fiber originates from the carpet industry but westress that it is pre-consumer and not post consumer(used material which could harbor toxins and materials that may rot once put onthe ground). The material then goes through a 3 pointmanufacturing process before it is baled and shipped. CLOPF® has anEU (European Standard) environmental stamp of approval and is deemed asecondary raw material, NOT as waste material.

The above is important to mention as we are allbecoming much more knowledgeable with the advancement of technology and thisapplies to a myriad of topics and information is readily available on theinternet.

At Martin Collins, we believe that education isthe key and should be the main focus to promote safe, durable, consistentsurfaces on which to train and compete horses. We are therefore proud of our partnership with TheProfessional Riders Organisation and look forward to a long workingrelationship with both PRO and its members.

Photo Credit: Phillip Dutton by Amy Dragoo

A Transition from Young Rider to Professional by Lauren Lambert

2012-02-07T04:24:00.000-08:00

August 2011, a turning point- I rang up my boss on the way to an event and told him it was time for me to make my way home and get back into eventing full force. I was done being a working student, it was time for me to go my own way.

The previous year, as I was grinding away at the show jumping in Derek and Gwen Braun's pristine arena in Lexington, getting Baba Creek ready for the Young Riders Championship, he asked me for a third time what I did in the winter. He finally got to the point and asked if I would be willing to take a riding/working student position with them in Wellington for the winter. They would be leaving the end of November. I told him I would think about it, and asked him to email details.

Well, Young Riders came, and going into show jumping in 1st and finishing in 6th pushed me over the edge-I replied to the email as soon as I was back to the barns and told Derek I would take the position. I did my time as a young rider, working for many great top professionals in eventing, and ten months in a show barn. Being in Wellington, I was quite isolated from the eventing world, (besides discovering Marcia Kulak at the opposite end of my street!), but it couldn't have come at a better time- the year I would transition from young rider to an adult. I was in a different world, having a the chance to polish my riding and improve my weakest links. Watching the best every day at WEF on all types of horse flesh, walking courses, riding all types of warmbloods everyday; learning how the best ride a show jumping track. Thinking back, Kent Farrington is probably the rider I learned the most from by simply observing the way he operates. He has a plan, he goes into that arena with such focus he nearly looks possessed, and he executes his plan to a T. I wouldn't trade my experiences working in a hunter/ jumper barn for anything, but quite frankly, it only made me love and appreciate eventing all the more. Eventers may be a bit rough around the edges, but it's so awe-inspiring to see the relationship event riders have with their horses, they are more than just a commodity to us, they are our partners and our comrades.

September 1st of 2011, I returned to my family farm in the beautiful Goshen, KY to begin planning a big winter in business with Mother Martha. It is finally time for me to step away from the working student roll, and begin to fill the shoes of 'professional rider'. We arrived in Ocala December 31st. I have five amazing horses to compete this winter, and staying true to my roots, all five are Kentucky bred Thoroughbreds which Mom, or I, have developed from scrappy race horses to eventing machines! There's Sally Abell's Honour Mission, who's tricky on the flat and one freak of a good jumper- this horse has all the talent and scope I could ask for in a Thoroughbred. Then there's Fine With Me, affectionately known as Frank, who belongs to my Aunt, Margie Darling. Margie rode Frank with Buck in a clinic last fall, and if Buck told me once, he told me a million times to be very nice to my Aunt Margie.... Love you Auntie!! I have a redhead named Lil' Birnie, whom Mom found in a field in Lexington over the summer. When I returned home in September and sat on the horse, I informed her we wouldn't be selling him any time soon, as he has some serious raw talent and is one good looking beast. Then there's the snarky little Opera Ghost, who came from my good friend and amazing horsewoman, Ann Banks, as a three year old. He is finally 6 and ready to play like a big boy. This little thing is so much fun! He won the Blue and a lovely exotic African bull's foot trophy at the inaugural Longwood Horse Trials (seriously great show!). And finally, the cross-country maniac, Baba Creek (Miles), had a minor injury last fall. He's down here getting back into the swing. This horse is such a ball of nerves he's really a nightmare to get going every year, but that's Miles. We've been together since I was 15, and a horse that takes a young rider around three CCI ***'s without a single xc penalty (and always very quick), all I can do is accept and love him for who he is. This horse owes me nothing, he has given me a taste of the big time, and has kept me safe through it all. I'll have him back in action this spring, and we'll see what he wants to do- it's quite likely he will just want to run and jump. Perhaps I'll be able to coax him into doing the other two ' things' respectfully.

So, I'm feeling pretty lucky to be down here in sunny Florida with horses I love, and involved with the people who love these horses. Walking back to the trailer after the first competition of the year, a friendly stranger informed me how happy I looked. I replied 'I am happy, I am in the sunshine riding and competing these amazing horses, and it's my job!'. Even when things get rough, it's the horses that keep us going, and the drive to be better riders and horsemen which keeps us coming back day after day.

I am excited and honored to be doing this blog through the Profressional Riders Organization, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more throughout the year!

Photo credit: Allie Conrad

Go East Young Women! by Whitney Weston

2012-02-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

When attending school in Philadelphia and working with Phillip and Boyd, I remember Phillip asking, "Is there eventing out there in Oregon?" Why yes, yes there is! But a very different sort, attitude, and culture than on the east coast. I am asked all the time which I prefer, east or west coast, and the answer is: "I love Eventing, no matter what coast I'm on", but it certainly is a different ball game played by the same rules 3,000 miles apart.

For a bit of history on myself:

I was born in Philadelphia. Then my family moved to Oregon, where I grew up on a farm, competing up and down the west coast. I returned east to attend Bryn Mawr College, and had the opportunity to be a working student and rider all over the east coast and even represent the USA on a catch ride team in Switzerland. With my new found knowledge of the business, I returned home and have been running a training, lesson, and competition facility at Westwood Stables in Oregon. I have spent the last five years bringing along prospects, teaching, clinicing, and generally running around Oregon, Washington, and Cali.

An opportunity came up to travel to Ocala to train with Buck Davidson. I haven't been able to focus soley on my own riding for a while, am planning to move to advance with my fabulous mare, Rock-On Rose, so no better time then the present! I sold my sale horses, found other homes for my students and working students, packed up and made the trek out east in early January.

So far this move has been magical (all besides the actual drive across the country). I am learning like never before and really able to focus on my craft with Buck on his beautiful 600 acre farm here in Ocala, FL. We just completed Rocking Horse Trials in Altoona FL this past weekend. I had a blast getting to know a new event, and had some interesting observations:

1. Hauling in vs. overnight stay

On the west coast, events are very spread out. I don't usually bat an eye at having to drive 6-12 hrs to get to an event. We get there several days early so the horses can rest, set up our stable area, and get a feel of the show grounds. This has a very methodical and routine feel to it, much like a marathon. All this compared to the "sprint" on the east coast, where there are several shows within a few hours of our stable. It is much more convenient and economical to haul in and out each day. The haul-in situation felt very hectic at first; driving in the dark for early rides, horses having to be loaded and unloaded several times throughout the day to access a specific horse, and quick tack changes. When I win the lottery I will be buying a straight load trailer, a "must-have" for easy pony access!

2. One discipline per day?

Back home, we all know that friday is dressage day, saturday is for cross-country, and sunday finishes with show jumping. Not so in Ocala! Having dressage, show jumping, and cross country on different horses in a single day forced me to adapt to this quicker paced schedule, which actually helped me relax and just....ride!

3. East coast vs. West coast people

What I am about to say will surprise all you west-coasters: I found the show environment out here to be very....relaxed! Despite the saturation of legends and Olympians, everyone seemed easy going and having a great time. I truly think that because less time, energy, and money was spent to actually arrive at the show, everyone had less pressure to perform. Each ride was "just another ride", and not a measure of worth for the week. After the first day, I was able to catch on to this attitude, and possibly had the most fun competing I have ever had!!

I am very excited to be moving all my horses up a level next month, with the goal of Jersey Fresh *** this spring. Thanks Pro for the opportunity to have me on as guest writer!

Check out my personal blog for daily shenanigans and like us on FB!

http://whitneywestonwestwoodstables.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Weston/144699698921475

Jump like you mean it!

Whitney Weston

Photos provided courtesy of Whitney Weston

How I Became A Professional Groom by Pamela Nunn

2012-01-31T12:13:00.000-08:00

From being a keen but not exceptionallytalented amateur rider all my adult life, I made the transition in 2000 from asuccessful career in sales to training and working with horses professionally.I trained in England, close to childhood home at the renowned Yorkshire RidingCentre, under the watchful eye of Olympian and Badminton winner ChristopherBartle and his team. A well structured working student programme and a widevariety of horses to ride enabled me to obtain my British Horse Society Groom’sCertificate and Preliminary Teaching Qualification. This experience gave me a taste for workingat professional stables and a particular interest in the care and management ofupper level Event horses.

Meeting up with Morag and Selena O’Hanlonin 2004, was the start of a match made in heaven. I started working for them asa working student. I was rapidly promoted to barn manager and competition groom.My first experience grooming for Selena was a hectic day at a horse trials, where we had four horses in two trailers parked miles apart with Selena havingto do all three phases with all the horses in one day.

Surviving that was like a light bulbmoment. Hurrah! I had found my newniche. I could use all my organisational skills to care for the horses andensure my rider had only to worry about riding.

Luckily for us all, at about the same timeas this great revelation, Colombo came into our lives.

Mr. and Mrs. Davies, whoowned the farm where we were based brought back a horse that was recoveringfrom surgery. He came to Hawkridge with the understanding he was to be rehabbedand then sold once he was fit and going again. He had competed at the higherlevels, but had developed issues with water and so it was felt that he wasn’tcut out for the upper levels. Colombo seemed to be a rather grumpy sortof horse who could be a bit awkward with people working with him. Selena started by hacking him all over the property and would walkhim through the water every time they went out. Eventually, they startedschooling and jumping. Gradually his attitude towards work changed, flyingchanges were no longer a source of anxiety and he would happily jump in and outof the water. As Selena was without an advanced horse at this time it was funfor her to work with Colombo and when she did take him out to compete he didwell. The Davies changed their mind about selling him and agreed that Selenawould compete him and see how far they could go.

Colombo showed us he had a long way to go.I had the thrill of grooming at Rolex for the first time. What a blast! I wasnow more than ever convinced that this was what I wanted to do. Unlike themajority of young working students who see the experience as a stepping stonein their own riding career, I was totally focussed on grooming as a way offulfilling my desire to be involved in top level eventing.

When Selena and Colombo were named to theCanadian Team with me to go as their groom our excitement knew no bounds.

Training camp and going to Beijing for the2008 Olympics were an amazing experience. I learnt so much about the care andpreparation for a major competition, especially the treatments and therapiesfor maintaining optimal fitness, as well as the travel including flying acrossthe world. Being part of the support team for a rider representing theircountry was a thrill. It was also interesting to realise just how much the hugesupport team of grooms, vets, farriers, physiotherapists, masseurs, stablemanager, and the coaches and national federation people all contribute behind the scenes to a rider'ssuccess. After years of packingfor the horses to go to Florida and other big competitions, I thought I had packingdown to a fine art, but I was sorely challenged trying to get all the tack,equipment and supplies into two trunks to be flown to Hong Kong.

Standing on the podium inside the big ringwearing my team uniform, watching Selena and Colombo do their best dressagetest ever, at their first Olympic Games brought tears of pride to my eyes. Cross country day was tough as they hassome mistakes, but they were able to complete all three phases which was agreat achievement. As a groom, I have seen serious accidents were riders havebeen hurt, or sad times where horses have died or been injured whilstcompeting, so my measure of success is simple, that both horse and rider finishthe day sound and well - placings are a bonus.

Pamela Nunn is a freelance groom, who worked for Selena O'Hanlon during both the 2008 Olympic Games and the 2010 World Equestrian Games. Pamela is BHS trained and certified, an experienced barn manager and is available as a freelance competition groom or for full time short term contracts to provide emergency barn staffing.

What I Learned From Mary King by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

2012-01-11T04:59:00.000-08:00

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is from Bristol, Tennessee. She is a novelist and training level adult rider who is lucky enough to train with the wonderful Cathy Wieschhoff and the CW Event Team. Photo courtesy of Katie Bradley.

Wow! After meeting Mary King, that was just about all I could say. Wow!

Otherthan my 13-year-old daughter, Katie, who rides Beginner Novice, I’m the onlyevent rider in Sullivan County, Tennessee. Along about the middle of January I usually start feelinglike the only event rider in the entire world. So when Cathy Wieschhoff posted on Facebook that she’dinvited Mary King to speak at the Area 8 annual meeting, I grabbed Katie andwent. (Katie was a littledoubtful. Sure, after Rolex lastyear and the WEGs the previous autumn, she knew about and admired MaryKing. But sitting in a conferenceroom for 10 hours listening to her? Really, Mom?)

Really. Several times throughout both days,Katie and I poked each other—pay attention here, she’s talking to YOU. You do that with your hands, Mom. That’s what I’m trying to tell youabout your leg position, Kate. Etc. We took notes, and onthe way home we discussed changes we were going to make in our riding, startingthe very next day.

Here’swhat I learned from Mary King:

1. Expect atleast as much from yourself as you do from your horse. Her training philosophy is ridiculouslysimple. Tell the horse exactlywhat you want it to do, then don’t accept anything less. If you ask it to walk, be sure it walksstraight, round (as round as it is capable of), and forward. Don’t accept less. Ever. What this requires is discipline—self-discipline.

2. Be honestwith yourself. Understand not onlyyour goals, but what is preventing you from achieving them. If your dressage is bad, why is it bad? The answer is not, “Because I’m badat dressage,” but it may be, “Because I consistently fail to keep my horse infront of my leg.” The secondanswer—the honest one—lets you move toward a solution. Videotaping can help you understandexactly what is going wrong.

3. Whenthings go wrong, find reasons, not excuses. Mary King has always watched video of her falls. She figures out where she screwed up (shesays that it is almost always the rider’s fault, not the horse’s) and plans howshe will ride similar fences differently in the future. Instead of saying, “Oh, now I’m afraidof Normandy banks,” she says, “I can’t wait until my next Normandy bank, so Ican get it right this time!”

4. Understandthat things will go wrong. Eventing is not a sport for pansies. Every one of us at some time will face a difficultsituation. Move on.

5. Decidewhat matters most to you, then make those things your priorities. This is something I’ve read before, butMary seems to live it: not takingstudents so she has more time for her family; having only 6 competition horsesso she can train them all herself.

6. Dreamhard; work harder. How many oftoday’s young riders dream of the Olympics? And how many would be willing to scrub toilets for two yearsin order to afford to keep two young horses, that they might someday be able tosell so that they could buy better horses, that might someday—might—be able togo advanced? Yep. If you really truly want to do something,don’t just sit on the couch and think about it.

A fair bitof learning, that. I got home lateSunday night; on Monday morning it was time to put it into practice. I had writing deadlines, a businessluncheon requiring dressy clothes, no clean dressy clothes, dirty laundry up tomy hips, no groceries, and a Christmas tree forlornly shedding needles in thecorner. The dogs were at thekennel and it was pouring rain.

What WouldMary King Do? Put a load of dressyclothes in the washer, get the dogs, wrestle the tree onto the porch. Notice that the rain is stopping. Make plans to write at the coffee shopafter the dressy luncheon, but before picking my daughter up from school; packlaptop accordingly. Dressy clothesinto dryer. Horse in from field. Dressage saddle; arena soggy butsafe.

Walk. Horse lifts head. Halt, re-establish contact. Walk. Horse lifts head. Halt, re-establish contact. Walk. Horse goes forward onbit. Halt. Horse lifts head. Re-establish contact, walk, halt.

Twentyminutes later, horse (an opinionated but established training-level eventer) throwsa hissy fit. Wait. Re-establish contact. Walk.

Twentyminutes later, horse is doing pretty damn good dressage. Because I accepted nothing less. Hmmm. Interesting.

Fortyminutes later, wearing clean dressy clothes, I head for my lunch. I spend the afternoon writinghard. When I pick my daughter upfrom school, she asks if I’ll videotape her riding. Sure, I say. Assoon as we pick up some groceries.

Thank you,Mary King.

Professional Management Tip # 4 - It's A Team Effort

2011-12-04T06:35:00.001-08:00

Are you seeking success or significance? Are you striving to help others or just yourself? Equine professionals are striving for both! Write down three ways you can help your team (sponsors, owners, barn manage, grooms, students, etc.)...and more importantly get their feedback. Then write down three more ways you are helped by helping others. We ride as individuals, but it is always a team effort. It's not all about you!

Imtiaz Anees represented India at the Olympic Games inSydney, Australia. He lives in Moreland, Georgia where runs Springtown Stables.Imtiaz is a member of PRO who has a special interest in what makes professionalsuccess achievable for individuals pursuing careers in diverse fields. Imtiazacts as a business mentor to young riders and he will be sharing hisprofessional management tips and advice for riders of all

levels on the PRO Blog.

Professional Management Tip #3: Time Managment

2011-11-14T07:27:00.001-08:00

Prioritize your time. Everyone is busy with school, homework, activities, work, family, kids etc. You can't always manage your time, but you can always manage yourself. Look at how you spend your time, does it match up with your current goals?

Pick three things to start doing that will help you get more focused, and more importantly and much harder to do, stop three things that you are currently doing that are not productful. Time management is very important in order to be successful in whatever you choose to do in life. As I said before make a plan for your day, week and month. Begin each list with the most important daily, weekly or monthly goal in the priority spot on the very top of the list.

Evaluate your time management. Don't get stuck in a rut, take the initiative to make positive changes that help you get the most out of your day, week, and year and help you achieve your goals.

A Look Back at Galway Downs International by James Alliston

2011-11-13T05:39:00.001-08:00

Galway Downs in Temecula was the site of the last big showof the season. This show was huge withnot only many entries from the east coast but also one competitor from theNetherlands too. All the CCI divisions had a ton of entries which was great tosee. In particular the 3*, in only its second year, has clearly become a greatsuccess with the east coast riders recognizing the great footing available atthis time of year, the top-class Ian Stark designed course and substantialprize money available.

The show was a great result for my horses. They went into itbang on form after Woodside so I was quietly confident but I also realizedthere were some top horses and riders on the start list so it was going to be ahard fought competition. The weather was far from ideal with a lot of rainthroughout but thankfully cross-country day was beautiful and the ground by thetime the 3*went in the afternoon was lovely.

The 3* course was substantial with questions all the wayround and some big ditch fences. Parker jumped great but was pretty strong andI was pretty tired at the end of the round. Needless to say he was comfortablyinside the time which gave me a nice gauge for how quick to go out on Jumbo’sJake. Jake cruised round and gave me a fabulous ride. As I approached the brushcorner four from home I realized there was no flag on it which concerned meslightly as it was pretty big anyway even with the flag. I needn’t have worriedthough as Jake pinged it and we went on to finish the round bang on the optimumand snatch the lead from my neighbor for the week Nate Chambers. I was on cloudnine after a great day of cross country for me with four CCI horses roundinside the time; the only downside being informed that if I had been wearingthe right gloves I would have won $2,000! I was a little upset with myself fornot cashing in on this great opportunity offered by SSG gloves, butcongratulations to Australian Kadi Eykamp for capitalizing on Sunday andpocketing $3,000 for the clear round nearest the optimum.

Show jumping day offered some thrillingclimaxes to the international classes. Lots of rain throughout the jumping madefor difficult conditions and, particularly in the 1* and 2*, clear rounds werehard to come by. My day started with an excitable Mojo in the 1*. He was prettylit up and after an early rail I was concerned we might put up a cricket scorein the pouring rain. However, he held it together to come home with just theone mistake and luck was on our side as those in front also had rails leavingMojo a delighted and surprised winner.

In the 2* Tivoli jumped a lovelyclear to pile on the pressure and very nearly came out the victor. Amber Levinepipped us by less than a point so many congratulations to them for a greatweekend. I’m very excited about Tivoli for next year, he has all the ability inthe world and the cross country round he gave me was effortless for him.

First up for me in the big one,the 3*, was Parker who jumped a great clear which boosted my confidence forJake to follow. Jake did not disappoint, jumping clear and culminating a greatweekend for myself and everyone at Graceland Equestrian Center with a win. I’mdelighted for the horse and owner India Mcevoy as the horse has had a fantasticyear and really deserves the recognition he got with this big win. Many thanksto Chuck and Peggy Moore for your ongoing support, Ken Nicholson for making thetrip down and particularly to India and Peggy for being fabulous grooms allweekend. I must be the only rider who has his owners grooming their horses atthe shows and am extremely lucky and grateful to have them.

Lastly, a big shout out to myparents John and Petey who made the trip across the Pond to support and help. Ithink they must be good luck charms and as always it was great entertainmenthaving them around.

Photo of Jumbo's Jake by Samantha Clark/ Eventing Nation

Last Flight to Galway Downs

2011-10-31T14:35:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy coordinating three separate flight to Galway on Tex Sutton's Air Horse One. There is something about horses flying that is just so incredibly cool, that each time we coordinate a flight it leaves me both a little bit breathless and in awe until all touch down safely and arrive at their new temporary stable or return home.

I have to thank Tex Sutton for being so incredibly accommodating and easy to work with. Their outstanding staff makes the logistics of these flights manageable. And to put matters in perspective PRO has coordinated flights for 58 horses in the last two years. Just think of the organization it takes to get 6-19 horses on a plane, with riders, grooms and assorted gear.

The information needed is something like this:

Vital Info:
Horse, coggins, health certificate, owner name, rider name, size, sex, vices, special needs

Packing List:
Feed (1-2 bag limit), blankets/sheets, 1 trunk, 2 duffle bags per horse with assorted tack and gear

Load In/ Load Out:
Directions to airport cargo for load in
Provide driver names to security staff
Provide list of horses on each rig to Tex Sutton
Arrange for Pick up of horses, people and gear upon arrival

Notices to human cargo:
Bring coats, hats, gloves etc. (plane is very cold)
Bring headphones (plane is very loud)

None of this is accomplished without a ridiculous amount of telephone calls, emails and text messages going back and forth. When three flights are going to the same location with one week and then leaving again, it's just enough to make you....smile!

So if the videos or photographs are not exactly the quality that you had in mind, don't shoot the messengers but instead thank the riders and grooms who have been kind enough to try and take them in all kinds of conditions so people can see what's going on behind the scenes for everyone.

Professional Management Tips: Preparation

2011-10-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

Imtiaz Anees represented India at the Olympic Games inSydney, Australia. He lives in Moreland, Georgia where runs Springtown Stables.Imtiaz is a member of PRO who has a special interest in what makesprofessional success achievable for individuals pursuing careers in diversefields. Imtiaz acts as a business mentor to young riders and he will be sharinghis professional management tips and advice for riders of all levels on the PROBlog.

Preparation is one of your best allies. Successful people don't wing it. Take time to make a plan, write down a schedule for the week, month and year. Put down the shows you want to do, then cross country schools, lessons, gallops, jump and hack days. Don't forget days off. Of course it might change due to weather, school, work, lost shoe or lameness issues. But we can't plan enough.

The California Eventing Scene is Hot, Hot, Hot by James Alliston

2011-10-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been busy on the California eventing scene with the events at Twin Rivers and Woodside in quick succession. Twin Rivers in Paso Robles kicked off on Thursday with the west coast Young Event Horse Finals. I rode Wimbledon in the 4 year old class and was feeling suitably terrified and under prepared upon walking the course. However, Wimbledon rose to the challenge and ended up with a third not too far behind the winners, Tamra Smith and Fleeceworks Cinco. Much to my amusement Wimbledon went on to win the Novice Horse division by 0.1 ahead of the lovely five-year old champions Maxance McManamy and Astro. I must say Max took the defeat in good spirits though and I am sure she is consoled by her haul of prizes that included a saddle in the young horse championship. To see the incredible prizes and sponsorship of this class is fantastic and makes it a real incentive and target for the future.

Jumbo’s Jake and Parker had their first run since Rolex and both went very well for 2nd and 4th in the Advanced. I was leading going into the show-jumping but a rail down cost me the win by 0.3 penalties to Canadian Sandra Donnelly so it was an exciting climax. Embarrassingly, I thought maybe I had still sneaked it as my friends had been telling me all day that I had a rail in hand but they were misinformed! A few minutes prior to this Parker jumped a clear round despite my stirrup breaking halfway round the course. This was a first for me and I give great credit to Parker for nursing me home without penalty.

Next up was a welcome return to international competition at Woodside. This show was huge with a ton of entries from all over and Robert Kellerhouse and his team did a great job of making this a real special event and handling the deluge of rain on Thursday. With a shifting of the timetable so the upper levels did cross-country on Sunday I would have to say the ground was as good as I have ever seen it anywhere in California. Also, the show jumping on Saturday seemed to attract a large and enthusiastic crowd throughout the day and the cheers of a clear round could be heard across the showground which was really cool.

On a personal note this show could not have gone a lot better for my horses. Jake led from the start to win the three star and Parker put in a massive effort for third in the same class. Parker’s 52 in the dressage shattered his international personal best by 10 marks and much to my delight and India’s (owner of Jumbo’s Jake) bemusement a few people even mistook him for Jake while I was warming up! Many thanks for this result go to dressage maestro and cool dude Gerd Reuter for flying out to California and teaching everybody in September. Derek Di Grazia’s cross country course had been given a major facelift with a lot of changes and new fences at all levels and proved a real test but both my boys jumped great and I’d have to say the result must go down as a career highlight for me so far. Elsewhere, at the same show Tivoli took 3rd in the Intermediate, Peggy Moore’s O’Reilly Factor took 3rd in her Prelim debut and four-year old Lagos won the Novice on his eventing debut.

Now we have a few quiet weeks but next on the radar is Galway where Jake and Parker will contest the 3 star, Tivoli the 2 star and Mojo the one star. My parents are traveling over from England to watch which is always entertaining as California will soon find out.

Photo of India McEvoy's Jumbos Jake at Woodside

From West Grove and Beyond by Jackson Roberts

2011-09-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

Well this post is quite overdue so pace yourself because I have a lot to catch up on. The most notable event that has happened since my last blog post was the party of the century, Lillian Heard's going away celebration. This party was hosted by the WONDERFUL Cuyler and Katie Walker at their lovely Rolling Plains Farm. The night was highlighted by the surprise appearance of Ashley Adams. Myself and Steph smuggled Ashley in to the party via a plastic container on the back of a John Deere gator. I think Lil was very impressed with her present. The party ended up going on until about 2:30 a.m. by that time everyone had either been thrown in the pool or jumped in on their own terms, I was thrown in! One thing I did learn is that at 2:30 in the morning gas stations don't pump gas!! All in all it was awesome and it seems that Lil has already taken Ireland by storm!

Also since my last entry I competed at two events with Percy, Millbrook and Waredaca. At both events we competed in the training. I was extremely pleased with the way Percy went at Millbrook. He galloped around the cross country full of boldness, maybe too much at times. I wasn't quite sure how he would show jump after cross country as this was the first non one day event that we had done; however he jumped a superb round and we slid in to second place just behind the great Karen O'Connor in a very competitive field. The next weekend we were back out at Waradeca. I got a little neverous in the dressage ring and pushed him a little too much. I was very upset with myself and take full responsibility, my horse does not deserve to have that score on his record. I was able to put that poor performance behind me and jump an awesome clear show jumping round. I felt that at Millbrook he got a little too strong so I used a different bit that helped me elevate him to stay more uphill and soft. The new bit was awesome and he had a great trip around the cross country. This weekend we head to Senaca for our last training and then hopefully the big move up to prelim at Plantation Field in a few weeks time.

Speaking of Plantation Field, the event will be even bigger and better than before. This year Plantation will be unveiling there new state of the art arena with Tapeta footing and a new water jump sponsored by Dubarry boots. The footing this year should be great as I myself have aggregated the turf and we have been having lots of rain including a visit from Irene last night! Denis Glaccum and his team are preparing to truly put on a world class event. If you are interested in visiting Plantation in Unionville Pa, please check out their website at www.plantationfieldhorsetrials.com

Now for my last chapter I would like to step away from eventing and talk about Fox hunting. I have a had the great privilege to ride with Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Fox Hounds this summer. Katie Walker originally invited me to ride with her fabulous hunting trainer Dave Leinhauser. Dave is a wonderful horseman and I am trying to soak up as much of his knowledge as possible. Cheshire's season begins in July with hound exercise which is basically just hacking out with the hounds. The season now is just on the brink of cubbing, so the hounds are actually hunting the foxes a little bit and the pace of the hunt field has picked up and some jumping too! When I first started going out in July I had been riding some of Katie Walkers hunters, but she has since referred me to her friend Kate Martin. Over the past few weeks I have been riding Kate's wonderful young horse Hershey. Hershey is just a little baby at four years old but he is already showing off all his class by jumping some rather large three railers in front of the whole field. I have also been riding another young horse for the Martins who is coming along quite well in the flat work department. I feel so blessed to have this wonderful opportunity to ride in such beautiful country side on a great young horse with superb owners. I can't wait for the season to progress as the runs get longer, faster and more jumping to be had. I think I will be forever grateful to the wonderful Katie Walker for setting me up with the Martins and introducing me to the Cheshire hunt. There most definitely is no place more beautiful than the view from between a horse's ears looking over the hills of Unionville!

Kick on,
Jacko

Photo of Jackson jumping Kate Martin's Hershey

From the West Coast to Burghley and In Between by Natalia Gurmankin

2011-08-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

Introductions ☺

Hello All!!! My name is Natalia Gurmankin and I am 22 years old. I have spent the last 3 and a ½ years based in Temecula California working for and riding with Hawley Bennett. I have 3 awesome horses, Tequesteris better known as Tex, Hail and Legate a.k.a Legs. It’s kind of hard to figure out where to start a blog, but I guess I will begin it with a recap of my summer so far because so far it’s been pretty awesome. And also let me start it by saying a huge THANK YOU to the man that makes this dream possible and that is my dad Jay. Without his support I would not be where I am today. Thanks Dad!

On July 14th Hawley and I loaded up the crew and drove 24 hours to the amazing Rebecca Farm! Rebecca Farm never fails to blow it out of the water, leaving no detail unfinished. The courses were beautiful, the footing was perfect and the staff is unbelievable. The event started off with a real bang for me because my boyfriend of 4 years proposed the day after we got there! Tommy is a course builder helps to build most of the courses on the West Coast. We are planning to get married November 17th 2012 ☺. From there great things kept happening, I was doing my first Advanced with Tex and he was a total rock star and made easy work of the cross country and Legs was 3rd in the Training 3 day! To top it off Gin and Juice and Hawley won the 3*** which was so exciting. Needless to say it was a great week for all those involved in Hawley Bennett Eventing and a great trip with great friends. Of course with things going so well, inevitably one bad thing had to happen, so our truck decided it needed new fuel injectors in Utah. However, it was a super convenient “breakdown” if there is such a thing seeing as we had a place to overnight the ponies and luckily I am originally from Utah so my mom came down and took Hawley and I to dinner, and my future in laws Tom and Carol lent us a car to get around town while the truck was getting fixed. We finally got home safe and sound the next day and all of us got some much-needed rest! All in all it was a kick ass trip!

2 weeks later it was off to Woodside, between Hawley and I we were riding 9 horses but with the help of Tessa Beckett, Sarah Braun and Hayley Sullivan things ran super smooth and the horses were all fantastic. Tex was 3rd in the Advanced and Hail was 2nd in the prelim. And Legs jumped so big in Show Jumping I lost my balance and slid off. OOPS!!!!! That will teach me to duck to the left ☺ Ginny ran the combined test and is looking better than ever as we prepare to venture across the pond again for Burghley!!!

This last week Buck came out for a clinic, which are always super fun. The horses all went fantastic and I have lots of homework for the fall as we prepare for the fall 3 days at Woodside and Galway where I hope to be doing my first 3 star on Tex. Hail is aiming for the 2 star and Legs the 1 star. Those are the goals but we’ll see how things go, everyone knows how hard it is to make plans in this world ;)

But for now, I have been busy packing all of Gin and Juices things ☺ Hawley, Ginny, and I fly out Thursday. We will arrive in Amsterdam, and take a Lorry over to Maizey Manor Farm where we will hang with the other Canadians and then off to Burghley we go ☺ Packing is always interesting seeing as you try to fit your entire tackroom into 3 little trunks….IMPOSSIBLE! But I think we have pretty much everything we need and I can’t wait to get over there!!! Go Hawley and Ginny!

Until Next Time!!

Natalia

Keeping Up with James Alliston

2011-08-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since my last blog, but a lot has happened since then. Most recently, India McEvoy’s Jumbo’s Jake has made his return to the barn from his break post Rolex, and I am eager and excited to resume training with this delightful animal once again. Last weekend Woodside was a fun event, with Mojo taking second place in the preliminary class; with performances like this past weekend, it gives me hope for great things from this horse in the future. A special thanks to India McEvoy for her stellar training and her ability to work wonders with this talented but sometimes challenging horse. Best of luck to India as she continues riding and competing with Mojo this upcoming fall. Elsewhere at Woodside, the rest of the horses and students performed admirably, although I did take an unscheduled dismount from Tivoli when he pecked on landing in the water. He was going beautifully and I was more surprised than anyone, but luckily my Hit-Air vest kept me afloat. A special thanks to Shane for taking excellent care of Parker whist I was away at the show as well.

Also at Woodside at the competitor’s dinner it was brought to my attention the vast number of California based eventers representing the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico on the list of potential competitors for the Pan Am Games. Brian Sabo and Robert Kellerhouse presented the Pan –Am hopefuls with flowers in acknowledgement of the hardwork and dedication it takes to get to that level of success. I wish the very best of luck to all those making the trip east to the final trial at Richland Park, and I am sure they will represent their respective countries with pride.

The rest of the season will continue on with Twin Rivers in a few weeks, amongst those I will be riding, Jumbo’s Jake and Parker making their comeback post Rolex, as well as Wimbledon making his US Eventing debut in the Young Event Horse Finals, which should be an eye-opening experience for him. The show season will continue to build, culminating with the Galway Downs CCI*** in November.

Until next time,

James

The photo is of the newly arrived Jumbo’s Jake

Life is Good by Danny Warrington

2011-08-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

Ok so my horses are going well! My job is going very well, having just signed to a big facility in Fulshear, Texas. Yee-ha! I have changed my plans a bit for the fall; well maybe.... I think I am going to give Will Smith an easy fall season to gain his confidence and strength back. However if he tells me he is ready we may head for the ** in Georgia. But that is not what I am writing about this time, I am going to tell you about how I spend my free time .

Everyone has their thing. Some garden, some paint, or draw, some read books and others facebook or surf the net. I boat! And all the things water entails, water skiing, wakeboarding, then there is scuba diving and fishing. Now as for fishing some people think; a rod a bucket of worms a bobber in a pond, or……….some people think 500 pound marlin of the coast of Panama others might picture a quiet mountain stream with a fly rod in Montana or Wyoming. I think of a center console between 25-36 feet long with twin outboards burning about 25 gallons an hour out in the ocean chasing breaking fish! Or I think shallow water like the Bahamas or Belize sight casting to bonez! To those who don’t know , the short of it is, bonefish are a saltwater fish that basically you stalk/hunt , sneak up on, you cast only when you see them and they accelerate from 0-40 miles an hour!!! like leaving the start box, for a fish.

Then there is scuba diving! If you have never done this …………………why not! It is by far one of the best sightseeing experiences you can have. Once you have been underwater for 20 minutes to about an hour swimming with the fish, you will only then understand why I love it so much. If you go hiking to see a moose, elk or bear or something cool like that you spend all day and hope. When you dive you are with the fish, turtles, sharks, if your real lucky a whale or dolphin. Pretty cool!

I plan two trips a year; one is to Montauk, NY where we chase breaking fish. This trip we leave for the Sunday after fair hill for a few days. Montauk is the end of Long Island New York. I mean the end... as far as you can go. The marina is called Snug Harbor, if there are any Jaws fans out there this is the original harbor of Orca, that’s the boat in the movie. I want to share this with you……… In the bar/restaurant( where they have great sushi by the way ) is a picture of a man ….now get this……standing on a dead whale (no joke) in one hand he has a giant hook with a piece of the whale as bait (by giant it’s about the size of a saddle flap)big! So he is standing on a dead whale with a hook in his hand (are you ready) throwing it into the mouth of a great white shark!!!!! That’s right standing on a dead whale throwing a hook in to the mouth of a great white shark! If you are ever in Montauk you gotta see it. Just to mention it was in the 70’s so not too much animal rights then, but a cool picture none the less.

The other trip is where we (Keli &I) charter a boat in the Caribbean somewhere. This is what I do in my free time plan this trip! This year we are going to Abaco, Bahamas. I start to plan this trip about six months out to save on airfare, get the boat I want and basically keep my sanity. I find that as soon as I start to plan our trip I feel like the corona adds. I look on-line at destinations, boats, power or sail, then at the ones I can actually afford to charter. Then there is the guest list, who do we invite? Arranging where to meet, who’s bringing what (mostly what fishing gear). This year we have chartered a 47 foot power cat with two other couples as I said in the Bahamas. Bonefish capitol of the world, a scuba diving meca, good friends, the food is always great, and oh yeah the rum!

Now you know what I am thinking about when I am not riding!

Bittersweet Ending by Kate Berta

2011-08-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

Well as much as I would like to say my summer ended according to my plan, I am constantly reminded that in fact, it didn’t end according to my plan. Horses can be the most beautiful elegant animals on this plant. They have the power to capture your heart and steal your sole but they are still 1,200 pounds of pure muscle and power.

On July 14, I was washing one of Stephen’s horses off after I had a fantastic ride on him, I went to set the hose down and look to see if his tail needed washing. As soon as I was behind him something must have stung or scared him because he went flying forward and kicked out with both hind feet, nailing me in my left side with full force. Boomer, the horse, is the sweetest horse in Stephen’s barn, so for this to happen is completely out of character. Anyways, long story short I went to the ER room and found out I had a grade 3 spleen injury in not just one but two places. I was then required to stay in the ICU for 3 nights and a regular room for 2 nights. Thank God I did not have to have my spleen removed but it was required that I do no physical activity for 6 weeks.

So after I was out of the hospital we packed up my horses and myself and made the trip back to Lexington where we dropped
the horses off to stay in training and then migrated back to my hometown of Bowling Green where I rested and was allowed to do absolutely nothing. So its been 5 weeks into the 6 weeks and I have just about gone insane from not being on a horse. I am recovering just fine and have done exactly what the doctors have said, for the first time in my life. I will be able to go back into full riding August 24th and then will compete both of my horses at the training level at Ky classic. I am hoping to move Bailey back up to preliminary at Jumpstart and my goal is to run Bourbon in the Hagyard Team Challenge training three day. I wish I had a better story to tell but overall minus the spleen part, I had a absolute blast working for Stephen. He taught me so much in the 6 weeks I was there and I am looking forward to riding and working for him again. Hope to see everyone soon!

Photo of Kate, Bailey and Bourbon courtesy of Team Shamrock

Millbrook Horse Trials Update

2011-08-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

Boyd Martin and Neville Bardos and Buck Davidson and Ballynoecastle RM lead the PRO Tour Advanced divisions at the Millbrook Horse Trials

Two days of perfect weather at the Millbrook Horse Trials helped riders produce some spectacular dressage tests in the PRO Tour Advanced division. Boyd Martin and Neville Bardos, continue to show what a special horse he is by scoring a 27.80 in his first Advanced horse trial since his recovery from the tragic fire at True Prospect Farm. They hold the lead in the Advanced - A division over Densey Juvonen's Remington XXV also ridden by Boyd. Leslie Law with Troy Glaus' Rehy Lux continues to show that this horse is one to watch as they scored a 31.60 to sit in third place. Phillip Dutton and Ben owned by Team Rebecca sits in 4th on a 33.40 and Clark Montgemery and Loughen Glen is tied for fifth with Colleen Rutledge's Dillon.

In the Advanced - B division, Buck Davidson put in a beautiful test with Carl and Cassandra Segal's Ballynoecastle RM and Bruce Duchossois' Mighty Nice lived up to his moniker with Phillip Dutton giving him a lovely ride to score a 33.4. Joe Meyer showcased his nineteen-year-old New Zealand legend, Snip, scoring a 36.60 to sit in third place. Michael Pollard and DV8 and Kevin Keene and his own Fernhill Flutter are currently tied for fourth place in the division on a 37.20.

The cross country course looks beautiful and the ground nearly foot perfect. Saturday's Advanced course, designed by Tremaine Cooper, is sure to be a strong test for all riders in the Advanced division. Saturday's cross country will is bring out the crowds who continue to show strong support of the Millbrook Horse Trials, which benefits Dutchess Land Conservancy.

Life is Good by Jackson Roberts

2011-07-21T04:49:00.000-07:00

As this is my first blog entry for PRO, I will start with a proper introduction. My real name is Jackson Roberts, although I seem to be referred to by nicknames more often. These nicknames are as fallows but not limited to: Jacko, Jax, Action Jackson, The Tennessee Tornado, Baby Jackson, B Jacks and Young Blood. I would say that 80% of those names were created by good friend Boyd Martin.

As for my background I am 19 years-old from Nashville Tennessee, son of two non horsey parents. I caught the horse bug from my parents renting two ponies for my fourth birthday party, I think my parents would say that was the worst finical decision they ever made! I found eventing through pony club at age 11 and knew right away that is what I wanted to do. One thing led to another and I wound up as a working student for Phillip Dutton three days after my high school graduation. I have been with the True Prospect team now since May of 2010. Within the first year of being with Phillip, I feel that my riding has dramatically improved and brought me to my Intermediate debut at Morven earlier this year.

Currently I have wonderful new horse named Percy Warner who is owned by my parents, Fred and Leigh. Phillip and Julie Richards found Percy for me at the beginning of June of this year. He had mostly just show jumped prior to me getting him and he is at training level currently. We had a very educational run at Surefire in June where he was leading his training section prior to the cross country but we had a run out about 3/4 of the way around. He was quite green at all the flowers and decorations around the jumps, but I think we might have been a bit too lucky had we pulled off the win with just 12 days of our partnership together. Two weeks later we were back out again at the Maryland horse trials. This time around I rode much more forward around the cross country and we had a nice confidence building run. As a side note I would like to commend the event staff at both Surefire and Maryland for putting a lot of effort into the footing for the cross country, which I greatly appreciated as did Percy's legs! Next up for us is Millbrook in New York and then to Waradeca the next week.

As for my day to day life at home in Unionville, Pa every day is different. On a my most busy days I will get up at 3:30 AM and do the barn for Silva Martin and then start work at True Prospect at 7, then we normally finish around 5 and I will either ride some extra horses or go back to Silva and Boyd's farm to mow. This summer I feel like I some times work more for Boyd than Phillip, but both Silva and Boyd have been so kind since my arrival and let me work off my lessons with Silva. When I am not working, I'm generally with my best friend/partner in crime Steph Boyer. She has been so helpful to me as far as someone to talk to as she previously worked for True Prospect and as young professional event rider. In this business you can never have too many friends, but I think I will be hard pressed to find one as good as Steph.

I hope you know a little more about me now, and I should be blogging on a monthly basis for PRO. Until next time keep kicking on!

Jackson

Welcome to Virginia by Kate Berta

2011-07-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess I should start off with an introduction. My name is Kate Berta. I am currently 21 years old and a senior at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Ky, where I am a double major in Exercise Science and Psychology. I really have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my majors when I graduate, but my parents more than myself hope I figure that out really soon. I started riding when I was six years old and have not looked back. I wish I could tell everyone this really cool story about how I got involved horses, like my mom was a upper level rider and my dad trained horses, but that’s definitely not the case. My parents only really like horses because it’s a part of my life. I can’t tell you why I started riding, all I can say is it’s in my blood.

Anyways, moving on from myself, I currently compete two horses, Brandenburg’s Lucky Charm “Bailey” and Bourbon. Bailey is an 11 year old ISH gelding I bought in 2006 and have gone Intermediate on. Bailey and I have had some setbacks but now are on our way back up the levels. Bourbon is a 5 year old TB gelding who never raced and isn’t even tattooed. I bought Bourbon a year ago as a resale project and he has gone from greenie to training in a year. I am so proud of Bourbon and seeing the progress he has made is very satisfying as an owner and rider.

So now that you have had the spark notes introduction of my team and I, you are probably wondering why I got asked to write this blog. Well, I am currently a working student for Stephen Bradley in Boyce, VA and I’m here to tell you about my experience with Stephen. I arrived here at Long Branch Farm on May 24 and will be staying here till about Aug 4 when I have to venture back to KY to finish school. Our day usually goes like this:

6:30- Wake up.
7:00- Start morning chores (Bringing in horses, feed, muck stalls, hay, water, blow vac. All the normal fun stuff around the barn)
9:00ish- Stephen usually arrives and we tack up horses for Stephen and then once he gets done with his horses then we usually have our lessons and ride the horses we get to ride that day
3:00pm- PM feeding
6:30pm- Turnout

We usually stay pretty busy but since there are 4 working students, including myself, it goes by pretty fast. Stephen has already taught me so much. Because I am an upper level rider majority of my lessons and fine tuning my instincts and teaching me new exercises to improve the way that particular horse goes and how to be a softer rider in my aids. Stephen has also taught me a lot about how to pay attention to finer detail. I have been extremely lucky to be able to ride and learn from Stephen and recommend him to anyone.

Our next show that Stephen and the team will attend will be Maryland Horse Trials II, but until then I will keep everyone updated on our adventures here at Long Branch Farm and Team SS Bradley.

Lucinda Clinic: Why Not More Professionals? by Ashley Leith

2011-07-05T05:02:00.000-07:00

I just finished a two day cross country clinic at Fair Hill with Lucinda Green, and my biggest question of the week was why are there not more professionals taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity? I have ridden with Lucinda on and off since I was sixteen. These days I try to see her once a year. I will take a young horse or a client's young horse and participate in one of her Stateside clinics. If the timing works out perfectly, the clinic will be a week or two before a big show, because no matter how well I am riding, Lucinda's clinic is always a good wake up call. The exercises that she has her riders play over are skinny, awkward, sometimes spooky, and have no set striding. It is the perfect foil for the increased pressure of perfection in dressage, show jumping, and even cross country in our sport. Lucinda focuses on what she terms engine, line, and balance. These elements are the most basic building blocks in any correct riding. What Lucinda tries to do is foster these building blocks in the rider and then build on our horses' natural instinct to use their footwork and athleticism. Lucinda, rather than trying to create the perfect jump time and time again, tries to create awkward jumps so that riders and horses can learn instinct and survival skills. No one can be perfect every time.

Lucinda has a very loyal following for her clinics, the one I just participated in is usually full six months before the actual clinic date. Her training approach has been very influential in my own riding and her exercises are a breath of fresh air in this country. Gone are the days of learning to ride cross country by actually, well, riding across the country. Even in my own program I now go to Florida for the bulk of the winter and miss a good part of balancing on the slippery, muddy hills in the Northeast. I also miss fox hunting season, which is cross country riding raw. Lucinda has figured out a formula to specifically recreate cross country riding techniques in an arena. Even with quality dressage and show jumping riding more important now than ever before, good cross country riding is still the meat of the sport. Lucinda, one of the best cross country riders that the sport has ever seen, still has her finger on that pulse.

Lucinda's clinics are not the only ones I've attended. Over the years I have done clinics with Jimmy Wofford, Stephen Bradley, Ann Krusinski, Joe Fargis, George Morris as well as other top riders in different disciplines, including Natural Horsemanship. With few exceptions, very rarely is there another professional in my group. One notable exception was the George Morris clinic at Morven Park two years ago. To the benefit of everyone riding, Leslie Law also rode in the clinic on a young horse.

I see clinics as useful for many reasons. First, they are a great way to stay fresh by practice training techniques that I don't use on a daily basis, and in some cases I learn a new approach to an old concept. Second, they are a great experience for a young horse. My training level and preliminary level horses are looking for mileage, mileage, mileage, and a clinic is a great way for them to be in a pressure situation without being in a pressure situation. They perform a little bit, then they get to stand quietly and relax. Every single young horse I've taken to a clinic has been more mature by the end of two days. Clinics are also a great place for riders, even very good riders, to practice under pressure. The first year that I rode in an Ann Krusinski clinic, I did not want to be the leader in the exercises. Two years later, I led almost the entire clinic in my group. My thought process had gone from "I want to watch someone else so that I make sure I do the exercise right" to "I want to see if I can do this exercise right without seeing it done first." Having professionals in a clinic group also benefits the other riders. We do learn through watching, and being the group leader sets a great example for those savvy enough to pay attention. These days, clinics also help my teaching repertoire. As an ICP certified instructor, I have become more interested in watching different instructors teach. Often in a clinic I will watch how a master horseman communicates different concepts or works a struggling rider through an exercise.

Again, then, I ask why there are not more professionals riding in clinics? If Leslie Law can take the time to participate, where is everyone else?

Common Threads: Life at Wood Lane Stables by Missy Miller

2011-07-01T05:30:00.000-07:00

I’ve decided to stop starting my blog posts with the usual intro of “Well, since my last post things have been the ultimate of high to lows”. Because, as also previously stated that is typical of life with horses. I’m not sure what to be expecting after this summer or for the remainder of it because lately I feel like even though I had the heartbreak of retiring my fantastic advanced mare, TSF Amazing Grace, things finally seem to be on a slow, uphill climb. Of course I have been trained to be wary of this but it is hard for me not to get excited about the possibilities being put in front of me, and for that, I have Gracie to thank and everyone else that has supported me.

Because of growing up in the eventing world, I can’t help but always find ways to keep myself busy, be them productive or not. So after I had Gracie settled into a new home and headed into a happy new chapter of her life with my other mare, I started sorting out exactly what they would be doing and working on something for me to do as well. Luckily for me both of my horses can be bred to hopefully produce exciting young prospects for me down the road, or as my mother will see it, new members of the ever growing Miller family. While I was starting to solely focus on my education I was at the same time becoming like a little girl longing for a pony all over again. Every time I saw ANY horse anywhere (including the carriage horses in downtown Savannah) I wondered if that could be my eventing superstar. Scopey jumper? Decent mover? Who cares, I’ll take what I can get. Seeing this, some friends suggested I get a job riding over the summer so I didn’t go even more insane. I jumped at the idea and sent e-mails, text messages, facebooks, twitters, morse code signals, etc to everyone in my contacts list. Then the suggestion came that I go overseas since I’d always wanted to and for once, I had no serious obligations keeping me in the good ole U.S of A. So the list grew and by some stroke of rare luck, I received a response from William Fox-Pitt, offering me the opportunity to come work at his yard. Yes, I did think it was a cruel prank at first, but I have been here for two weeks and Ashton Kutcher hasn’t jumped out of the bushes yet to tell me I’ve been punk’d.

One question I keep getting asked is what made me want to come work at William Fox-Pitt’s farm. And to be completely honest, it continues to floor me when I am asked. I mean, why wouldn’t I? Isn’t that what we do in this sport? Or any chosen profession for that matter? Go to work under someone we respect that has been successful so hopefully we can learn to emulate their habits and if all the stars align and we work hard and luck is on our side, we can also have similar success? So my answer is, why not? For the first time I can remember I had no horses needing my constant attention/annoyance and could take the jump across the pond like I had always wanted to. I have been beyond fortunate enough to work for many successful competitors and horsemen. Every time I have started somewhere new I make a habit of doing extensive stalker like research so I know who I’m working with, which for the most part makes me even more nervous about my first day. When you first arrive at a new farm it is much like anticipating your first day at a new school, a high mix of nerves and excitement. First days you feel lost as you try to figure out where things go, what your “schedule” is, who is who, and what to do when.

No matter how many successful barns I pass through, every single time I expect to uncover some well kept secret to the success of each professional. I watch them feed, are they putting golden Wheaties in for supplements? As I muck, I check to see if the stall mats are tempurpedic? As I watch them work with their horses, is their a secret handshake and exchange of bribery? Is the vet a magic witch doctor? Does the farrier put Nike Shox in the horse shoes? I haven’t found any of that… yet… But one thing I have found is routine, routine. Every barn has a schedule that is played out religiously day in and day out. Being here at Wood Lane Stables has proven to be no different. Everyone is always in a pleasant mood (maybe the British accents help to portray the cheer), and I think part of what makes it such a pleasant atmosphere is the lack of chaos and confusion that can sometimes accompany such busy competition barns. Before William left for Luhmuhlen with Mary King and Pippa Funnels horses hitching a ride you would have thought that they were leaving for a vacation weekend by their behavior. I wondered to myself how they could be so relaxed and nonchalant before leaving for a 4*??! Was this part of their madness that made them such fearless competitors? The more I become integrated into the routine I discover that when you have a good team working at home and a routine that has yet to fail, there really is no reason to stress. Yes, maybe it helps that all of them have done a 4* or two this year alone. After thinking about this for a while I realize some of the most successful barns I’ve been fortunate enough to work at all have this blanket of pleasant and calm over them. No barn has the same routine through out the day, but every single one has found one that works and sticks to it religiously.

Since I’ve been at Williams I keep discovering more and more that has brought back the pure joy of working with horses every day and reminding me “Why we do this”, which I had pondered heavily after boughts of bad karma. While I’m bringing in one of Williams current top competition horses and watch as Mr. Stunning eats away in his huge pasture, you forget about the show approaching and just feel thankful to work with such amazing animals on a daily basis. And that is something I don’t think anyone here ever forgets.

Is Luck the Sixth Leg? by Danny Warrington

2011-06-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

How hard this game can be... both physically and mentally as well as the emotional roller coaster ride the sport and horses cause. Some people are not as lucky as we that do this for a living. This may also be lucky for them! With only one or two horses your odds of mishap maybe lessened. But by no means do I mean other people don't have the same problems, some just get the good luck if only by the odds.

This is the come back story of my good horse Will Smith which is still in progress. When Will came to me a few years ago, let's just say it took a few months just to be able to get him to the arena on a daily basis. Then the dressage was some what in the 50's and the topper to that was a 2 for my riding......a 2....... come on I stayed on! I thought an 8 even a 9 for the effort! Yet we managed to get better. Then the start box became the issue. At Waradaca a couple years ago he lost it, completely lost it. The quote was from Phillip Dutton who said as I was leaping through the air " I don't think he is coming back. Can I go? ". Back to the drawing board. I decided that it was the one day format the horse didn't like, it was too fast for his brain. You are done all 3 phases sometimes in 2 hours depending on how the divisions are organized. So we started to do only shows over 2 and 3 days and that seemed to work until they held me at the start box area because the judges weren't in place yet. @+(#@- ! So he got me off, got loose, got caught, ran cross country great and had a big leg sunday morning. @+)#@-! An ultrasound, 2 weeks at the fair hill therapy center, another ultrasound, months of hand walking and grazing, months of trotting and only flat work.

355 days from the "suspicious leg" we are doing a little cross country school the other day. I am having the time of my life THE BIG HORSE is back!!!!!! We jump 5 training level fences in a row ( so easy for an intermediate horse) then a prelim corner!!! Take a little breather, talk about how great he's being and off to the water! The training house in, around the corner ( the smile on my face just getting bigger!). A prelim house one stride into the water and in super slow motion he goes all the way down (and down goes Warrington as well). As I get to my feet watching him shake the water from the tack trotting away. I look for a hole (because of course my horse wouldn't just fall)....no hole! What could it be??? The 'in' was perfect, the 'down' was great, what happened!!! I am very self critical..... but I think the horse just fell. Like sometimes you just trip or stumble.

I feel like I have done everything right by the horse, by his owners and now we need LUCK! Mr. Jimmy Wofford talks about the fifth leg...... maybe luck is the sixth. Good luck to everyone!

Photo by Katherine Rizzo

Luhmuhlen Wrap-Up by Kelley Merette

2011-06-21T15:53:00.000-07:00

Jet lag strikes again! I just boarded the train I’m taking from New York down to Wilmington, where Jennie will pick me up and take me back to True Prospect. Ping and I landed at JFK last night and he traveled very well and is safely to Newburg for the next couple days, as is standard US entry quarantine procedures. There were so many fun, interesting, and positive parts of our trip but it’s always nice to be back home, and I’m definitely ready to see my dog and sleep where no one is yelling in German! The weekend definitely didn’t finish as planned for Team Cambalda (as Nina dubbed our group) but I think that there are also a lot of positives to take away from this trip (not least that Ping seems to be getting a little better about air travel!).

First of all, props to Will and his two lovely horses for stellar performances this weekend, they did the US proud and both of those horses have yet to show us their full potential. What an exciting thing for him heading into 2012! I’m so proud of Jennie and Ping’s performance on Friday in the dressage, scoring so well in their first 4 star is really commendable, especially considering the electric atmosphere and the fact that part of the dressage arena blew over while she was circling the ring waiting for the bell – thank goodness it didn’t happen 30 seconds later when she was in the middle of her test! Friday night, we learned that European eventers put the Americans to shame when it comes to evening festivities – I never realized Clayton was such a good singer!

Jennie seemed to be in an excellent state of mind going into the cross country on Saturday – focused and confident that she and Ping were ready to tackle the course. Again, it was a cool, blustery day with periods of rain showers (the whole second part of our trip felt like English weather!) We were in good spirits from Will’s great ride with Missy (Andromaque) in the morning, so as Jennie’s start time approached I booted up Ping and checked his girth one more time and Jennie donned her helmet with Boyd’s helmet cover, a tribute to our family at home and the horses lost in the fire. Once Jennie was out of the start box, Lillian and I booked it over to the sunken road combination where we saw the second stop at the C element, then ran to the third water combination before heading back to the finish area where we heard of the third run-out. Let me make a point of this now, so there will not be an misunderstanding, conjecture, or speculation – Jennie rode like a champion, and gave Ping an extremely positive ride. He showed his youth and inexperience out on course, but the lessons to be taken from that ride have been well-learned. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the pair, they don’t make the same mistakes twice, and you can bet that the next time they come out, they will be twice as prepared and three times as tenacious. There should be no doubt that this pair is still destined for great success at the international level in the future.

From my perspective, obviously the most important thing is that the two of them return to the stable safe and sound, and that was thankfully true. Ping came home acting ready to go right back out there. It was also so eye-opening to be a part of the eventing scene outside of the USA. How strange to know hardly anyone at a competition, but so interesting to watch many of the top horse and rider combinations in the world. The level of rider skill and talent of the horses is incredible, and we definitely didn’t leave the event without making many new friends. Everyone we met, from riders, grooms, and event staff was so welcoming and gracious to us. I feel so fortunate to have been a part of this experience, and hope I will get to someday return to Luhmuhlen, as it is a fantastic venue and should definitely remain one of the best courses in the world.

First Official Day at Luhmuhlen by Kelley Merette

2011-06-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

Good Evening America!

We have successfully completed our first official day of the 2011 Luhmuhlen Horse Trial. Since I last updated all my readers (and well done, all of you who have chosen to read my blog instead of Nat's, EXCELLENT decision……just kidding, the "blog wars" are all in good fun, and as Tim Gardner, Cambalda's owner, stated tonight, they are both equally informative and well-done, in different ways) we have settled ourselves into our home at the show grounds and the horses are all very happy. We elected to stay at the barn we had been living at up the road until Tuesday morning instead of Monday, as it was quiet (even despite the reining competition), and the stalls were large and we had ample privacy. Anyways, Tuesday morning, I drove our car over to the show grounds with the lorry full of all of our equipment following me, and then Jennie, Tiana, Will, and Nat hacked the 4 horses over via some trails. Ping is an extremely workmanlike and consistent horse to ride, but hacking out is his one major dislike. Therefore, by the time the group made it to our new stabling venue, Ping was acting as if he was about to enter the start box for cross country, not returning from a "relaxing" stroll through the woods.

It took him a few hours to get settled, mentally and emotionally, but by the time we had ourselves organized and then Jennie had a lesson in the Main Arena with the Captain (one advantage of brand new footing, it needs to be broken in by being ridden on!) Ping had decided that he could get used to his view of the field from his back window, and his view of Missy (Andromaque) from his front window. It is important to note here for anyone concerned about the health of our animals in this foreign land, that 3 WHOLE bags of shaving were set up in the aisle to "quarantine" us from all the other competition horses……nope, don't worry, we have learned that this happens to be a completely foolproof way of preventing contamination between the American horses and everyone else. Thank goodness someone figured that out…..

Jennie and Cambalda's lessons with the Captain yesterday and today have gone extremely well. Ping has been very relaxed and yet focused, much the same as he looked before he put in such a good test at the Galway Downs (CA) CCI*** last November, so hopefully this is a good sign. Everyone has remained in good spirits (this trip will be remembered for those of us here as a big sing-off and dance-off, with Will's new obsession with Walt Disney's "Spectrum Song" and Nat's dance routine to "She Got a 'Donk" ranking most popular on the list -- stay tuned to Eventing Nation, videos of these performances are coming soon!) I found out this morning that European events have AMAZING breakfasts……coffee, tea, juice, pastries, meat, cheese, fruit, etc all complimentary to us. The competition is definitely starting to seem more imminent and exciting now, partially thanks to the arrivals of more of our contingent. Tim and Nina Gardner, the wonderful owners of Cambalda, arrived today after just spending the past weekend in Canada, where their William Penn put in a fantastic performance in the Bromont 3-star with our boss, Phillip Dutton, in the irons. Hopefully Ping will keep the successful streak going! Also, yesterday afternoon, our good friend Shannon Kingsley arrived, ready to jump in and help wherever needed, even if just to put Ping's tail bandage on some of the time so I'm not dodging the hind legs as often.

The jog didn't start until 5pm this afternoon, so there was plenty of time for the anticipation and excitement to build through the stables. I got him braided, beautified, and bridled in plenty of time to head down to the inspection, which was held right in front of the grandstand of the main arena (more than enough atmosphere!) Ping behaved himself very well even when things got a little electric and he and Jennie looked fantastic during their turn on the strip. A great start to the weekend, and hopefully a good sign for the next few days. Tomorrow will be the dressage for the CIC*** competition, which includes 2 of the 4 American horses, Will Faudree on Andromaque and Tiana Coudray on Ringwood Magister. It will be the final warm-up day for Jennie and Ping, as well as the arrival of the last member of our USA cheering squad, Lillian Heard. Cambalda will be doing his test Friday morning at 10:04 (4:04am EDT) so stay tuned! The photo is of me in our hotel room, wearing the new German glasses that Shannon picked up for me at the store today. These really helped me get my gameface on today, but I think I might have to draw little American flags to tape on the sides to complete the look. She also found Nat a lighter the size of an iPhone with a mini-flashlight on the bottom, so I think armed with our new gifts, there's nothing stopping us!

Bromont Wrap Up by Nikki Lendl

2011-06-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

The weekend was amazing! Kevin had the first double clear round of the two star and finished 6th! Phillip finished with multiple horses in the top ten and everyone was very happy with that. I have had the best time of my life being able to groom for Kevin and being able to help out Emma with Phillip's horses. It is not every day that people like myself get to do this and I am just so fortunate and grateful to Evie and Phillip for taking me on as a working student and asking me to come. My congratulations goes out to all of the riders that have come out to Bromont to compete. This was a really fantastic event in every way and the orgainzers do such a nice job at making everyone feel welcome.

Of course the weekend doesn’t just didn't end with the last show jump. I have to say something about the drive home! We made it to the border ok, but it took forever to fill out the paperwork and such. It seems a little ridiculous since they didn’t even check the horses or question us about why we were here! This time I drove back with the horses, Philliip his daughter Olivia. Olivia fell asleep after a short while, which left Phillip and myself feeling a little sleepy since our official keep awaker had gone to bed. I made it to about 2:15 am, when I started to see eight lanes in the road instead of only four! But I had to keep myself chugging along to help Phillip stay awake. So I kept on drinking soda and blasting music in our ears! We eventually made it back to True Prospect Farm at 4:30 am this morning. We unloaded the horses, got our clothes and the dogs into the car and drove to the house. It was 5:30 in the morning by the time we made it home and light outside. It's been 48 hours since I've slept and we have camp starting at 8;30 this morning at True Prospect Farm! I have enjoyed writing this blog so much and I hope to be able to write one again next year… possibley as a rider!

Final Day at Bromont by Lee Lee Jones

2011-06-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the final day of the Bromont CCI Three Day Event. I got to the barns fairly early this morning to braid and bathe Cadet. The jog was around 8:30 and everyone was going crazy in the barns getting ready. The jog went pretty well, it was my first jog ever. Cadet was a little fussy and kept throwing his head up in the air. After the jog I jumped on him and had a light jump school with Phillip. He felt pretty tired from the cross country yesterday but overall he was really good! Then I changed my tack pretty quickly and got ready for show jumping. I ended up having two rails in the show jumping but I was really happy with him. It turns out that there were only four clear rounds in the one star. But an interesting thing happened during my round, the back rail of the final oxer suddenly fell down without the jump judges realizing. So coming into the final line I noticed that the jump crew guy was standing in the middle of the oxer. I jumped A but then pulled out. I ended up having to wait for about a minute while the jump crew tried to get the rail up.

I spent most of my time during the two star helping in the warmup, but I was able to watch a few rounds. I saw Kevin Keane's beautiful round on Fernhill Flutter, who by the way ended on his dressage score! I also watched Phillip on Ben, Young Man, and Mighty Nice. Unfortunately I left before the three star got underway.

XC At Bromont by Lee Lee Jones

2011-06-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

Today was the cross country day at the Bromont CCI Three Day Event. My cross country ride didn't go quite as planned. Cadet and I had a "drive by" at 5b. Jump number four on the CCI 1* course was a hanging log on top of a hill and at the bottom of the hill were two narrow houses on a turn. I put Cadet nice and deep into #4 hoping I would be able to get him back nicely for 5 a&b but he sort of grabbed the bit and ran down the hill. Anyway I was able to get him back in time to get over 5a, but I wasn't able to make the turn to 5b. So we circled around and jumped it fine. The rest of the course went really well. We jumped just about everything right out of stride and he cooled out really quickly in the ten minute box. The rest of my day was spent icing and helping out with Phillip's horses. Overall today was a great day with only four falls on course. Tomorrow morning is the jog. Phillip has been making fun of me for putting too much work into my first jog outfit ever. I told him I couldn't help it. After all I have been waiting for this day since I was like six!

Photos: My horse Model Cadet and Clark Montgomery and Loughan Glen

Day Two at Bromont by Lee Lee Jones

2011-06-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

Today was the second day of dressage here at Bromont and leading the CCI 3* is Clark Montgomery, who had a beautiful test. Today Cadet and I had a pretty easy day since we were not competing. When I got to the barns I took him out for some grass and then at around eleven I walked my course with Phillip. He gave me a lot of helpful advice. Then at around one I watched him go on his new horse William Penn owned by Nina Gardner, who by the way has become my second mother, making sure that I eat this weekend. Thank you Nina! Then after Phillip's test I had a bit of a jump school. Phillip and I jogged for a couple of minutes and gave our horses a quick sprint to get there legs moving. After that we popped over a few jumps. Cadet was feeling pretty fresh! He doesn't like the bit that I use on the cross country very much so he kept chucking his head up into the air and trying to take off with me, but by the end of the jump he was behaving himself. Towards the end of the day I walked around my course for the last time. I went by myself this time so that I could really concentrate on my plans for tomorrow, I can't wait. I am also very excited that Jennie Brannigan gave me her cross country shirt for tomorrow! Thank you Jennie (: Hopefully tomorrow will go as well as it did yesterday!

Guten Tag from Luhmuhlen by Kelley Merette

2011-06-10T13:09:00.000-07:00

Just to make all you Entemann's eating Americans jealous, I'm sitting at the computer eating something called a schnitzelbomber from the local bakery, so if this blog ends abruptly, it's because I went into a sugar coma. Besides the stellar baked goods, we have also found some pretty amazing Chinese food (seems ironic, I know, but somehow that is better here as well), and have had our share of adventures with the local customs. Apparently it is NOT acceptable to check into a hotel at 10pm (not that we had much choice), and when Nat brought her 32-oz travel mug into the breakfast room in the morning to fill up, a very large man mildly reminiscent of Pavarotti (with a voice to match) starting yelling that that was not acceptable and that she would be charged extra for taking that much coffee. Clearly, he was the one in need of more caffeine.

Anyways, down to the nitty-gritty of the trip, which I'm sure very few of you actually care much about. We all arrived to the barn we will be at through Sunday in one piece, but we calculated out that the poor horses were on some sort of mobile equipment for 24 hours straight! After we kissed their noses goodbye at the JFK Vetport (in reality, Ping just gave me a really good nip on the forearm), we took ourselves to the human terminal and got a little duty-free shopping in before taking off. Ping does not enjoy airplane travel, and has to travel in a double sized stall so that he can brace his legs. He still tries to body-slam the walls during take-off and landing, but he was a pretty good boy overall. Once we landed in Amsterdam, we met the horses at their livestock cargo bay where we quickly found out that we were far from the top priority that day. Thousands of day-old chicks in cardboard boxes were being loaded up for export to the Phillippines, some strange looking pigeons were headed out on another truck, and probably the largest English bulldog I've ever seen (aptly named dog) was on a journey somewhere as well. Once we finally got the four horses loaded onto our lorry, we still had the final 7 hour leg of our trip in front of us. Undeterred by a flat tire on the equipment trailer and stand-still traffic on the Audubon near Hamburg, our fearless driver delivered us to the tiny town of Luhmuhlen after 8pm, our home for the next two weeks. Thankfully, all four horses are healthy, happy, and even acted a little fresh today during their hacks after a well-deserved day of rest yesterday.

We have filled our time so far with LOTS of hand-grazing, and for Ping this includes lots of rolling in the grass at the end of the lead rope (pony clubbers, don't try this at home!) as well as shopping at the conveniently located tack shops (one is literally 100 yards from our barn and another is 150). These "reitsport" shops are not comparable to any found in the US, at least that I've seen. They have the look and feel of a musty antique store, with every nook and cranny being stuffed with goods. Around every bend and down every hallway is another hidden wing of the store. However, there is nothing sub-par about the goods. When Jennie went in there for the first time this morning, she was actually speechless (for those of you who don't know her, this is a rarity). The Pikeur clothing and Sergio Grasso boots line the walls like bulk food in a Sam's Club. It is ridiculous. And after the ladies at the store realized we were in town for the competition, they handed Will and Jennie thin, hard-cover picture books…….from the 1982 World Championships that took place there. These books are fascinating and gave us a little glimpse into the past of some of the legends of our sport. And since Nat thinks she has the one up on me in the picture department of this blog war, I'm throwing in a curveball. Who can identify the two people in these pictures, taken during that competition:

Time to go feed Ping his dinner!

A First CCI* by Lee Lee Jones

2011-06-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

Hi my name is Lee Lee Jones and this weekend I am riding my horse, Model Cadet in the CCI1* at Bromont! Last night my Mom, my two sisters and I had a very interesting trip up. We some how ended up on some pretty sketchy back roads in Canada, but anyway we made it! We arrived fashionably late because I had to finish up my last exam in school back in PA. Today went really well! I did some light flat on him this morning and then we got ready to do our first one star ever. Cadet was pretty naughty in the warmup; he kept throwing his head up in the air, but Phillip helped me work through it. Once we got down into the main warmup arena he started going really well. Overall the test went really well. Our trot work was definitely better than our canter work. We scored a 53.7 and we are tied for 10th. I was really happy with him considering how big the division is. Later in the day I walked around the course for the first time. It looks pretty big, but I can't wait!!

Bromont Dressage Day 1 by Nikki Lendl

2011-06-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of dressage at Bromont and it went great! All the CCI1* and CCI2* horses competed. Kevin’s horse, Fernhill Flutter (Butterfly), was really good and Kevin was very pleased with the result of his test. Phillip had some excellent tests as well. Mighty Nice, whose barn name is Happy, scored a 49.5 putting them in third and Ben scored a 50.3 putting them in fourth in the CCI2*. While standing by the dressage rings waiting for Kevin to come out, I thought about how cool it was to be able to stand here as a groom and wait for my rider to come out. Kevin dismounted and patted Butterfly, clearly thrilled with his test. We walked back to the barn and I undid Butterfly’s braids - I was sorry to see my braids go because they were the nicest braids I have ever done! I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity to come to Bromont and be able to work for the people that I do. The work can be hard and the hours can be long, but at the end of the day you are doing what you love and nothing is better than that.

Bromont Adventures by Nikki Lendl

2011-06-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

Bromont… WOW! Whenever I thought about going to Bromont I never believed that I would be lucky enough to actually go and watch, let alone be able to groom for someone who is competing here.

About a week and a half ago I came to True Prospect Farm in West Grove, Pennsylvania to help Evie and Phillip Dutton and their amazing crew. When Evie asked me if I would like to come to Bromont to groom for Dr. Kevin Keane and help Emma out with the rest of the horses, I don’t think that I could have said yes any faster - I was so excited to go! I have always heard amazing things about Bromont from friends and my sister who have competed here and I have always wanted to go. Although this past week has been tough for everyone at True Prospect Farm we are all very excited to come to Bromont and be able to do what we all do best.

The trip up started out normal, but as with any trip there are a few unplanned adventures along the way. Right before we pulled out of the farm at 4:30am on Tuesday morning, I realized that I had forgotten my passport at the house. I expected to get a real dressing down from Phillip, but he kept his cool and asked Emma to take me to get my passport. We set off, but when I jumped out of the RV to run up the driveway I landed in a water filled ditch and face-planted into the ground! Trying to make it seem graceful was hard since my shirt got wet. We finally got on the road with a ten-hour drive ahead of us. Our caravan headed to Bromont consisted of Emma and myself in the RV. Phillip driving the big rig, Amy Ruth Borun driving another trailer of horses and Dr. Keane bringing up the rear with a rig filled with straw for bedding, hay, feed and tack.

At the Canadian border Emma and I got into a bit of trouble. The immigration officer was a little suspicious about me traveling to Canada without a parent. She asked me if I had a note from either one of my parents saying that I had permission to go “camping” in Bromont with Emma. No note meant that we had to go inside to verify that I was not being kidnapped. At that point I just though to myself, “Well great! My one shot to go and groom at Bromont and there it goes right out the window!” Of course, my mom was on the way up to Bromont too and phone service is pretty shaky in the mountains. When they couldn’t reach my parents the immigration officer decided that since I wasn’t kicking and screaming, Emma probably wasn’t kidnapping me so we were ok to go! The highlight of the day was seeing the big Bromont sign on the top of the hill and the amazing cross-country course right there in front of me.

Today was the first horse inspection. We have spent the whole day preparing our horses for the jog up and it really did it pay off. All of our horses passed the jog and none were held! I started to get a little emotional; as I was just so happy that everyone could go on and compete. I never realized how hard it is to get three horses ready to jog up back to back. Everyone makes it seem to graceful and easy. To be truthful it is pretty hard coordinating the hand offs and pick ups and making sure that each horse gets there final prep all at the same time. It definitely can be a bit crazy when presenting multiple horses. There is a very large field of competitors at Bromont and everyone is looking forward to the start of dressage tomorrow.

Nikki Lendl

First Blog by Kelley Merette

2011-06-07T10:46:00.000-07:00

Kelley in the barns at the Kentucky Horse Park.

I'm sitting here in the quarantine barn at JFK waiting to get on a flight with Cambalda ("Ping") bound for Germany, and thinking about how much life has changed in the past week. It almost seems impossible that only a week has passed since the fire, in many ways it feels like an eternity. However, finally beginning this trip has already had a positive effect on me. A change in scenery, spending time with my friends Nat, Tiana, and Will, and the upcoming two weeks in Europe with Ping and Jennie has renewed my energy. As long as I can avoid being contaminated with e.coli this trip is going to be fantastic!

I will be blogging about our adventures in Germany but I do want to send out a quick thank you to our eventing family in the US and abroad. I have realized in this past week how amazingly unique our sport is, because very few industries can call themselves a community, and even fewer can call themselves a family. However, that is exactly what the eventing world has proven itself to be this week. I am so grateful to be a part of our sport, and please know that the support from each and every person, no matter what it consisted of, was what got us through these days. You all are amazing.

On a brighter note, Ping is looking cool as a cucumber, he has his gameface on, he is maybe slightly rounder than a 4* bound horse should be but he is happy as a clam, which is all I care about....... I hope we can stay on task because Nat and I have already begun the blogging wars, and the warnings about the veggies in Germany don't leave many dietary options besides beer. Oh well, sacrifices must be made......

This will have to be the end of must first blog as we will be loading the horses in about half an hour onto the trailer to take us to the plane, and it might take me that long to get Ping's shipping halter onto his head.

Kelley

A Look Back at Rolex by James Alliston

2011-05-23T16:37:00.000-07:00

The big news over the last month was our trip to Kentucky. We arrived in Kentucky on Friday night the week before the event and stayed at Tanya Davis’s beautiful farm in Midway. From here it was a short commute to the Horse Park on Tuesday when the stables were open. It was my first time at the Horse Park and was amazed at the incredible facilities they have there. All the arenas have beautiful footing that I’m sure cost a fortune and it was really cool to ride in the main arena with the big grandstand.

I was delighted with Parker and Jumbo’s Jake in their four star debuts. Parker’s dressage was less than spectacular and I ended up second last. The cross-country proved influential though and I was elated with his fast clear that lifted us up the standings. He was very brave and galloped on very strongly right to the end giving me a dream ride. In the show-jumping he started his round very nicely but had a couple of uncharacteristic cheap rails at the end to end up 14th. He is just nine years old so I hope we can tidy up the dressage and he can be a great four star horse for years to come.

Jumbo’s Jake started with a beautiful dressage that left him in 5th place. This was pretty cool as I was riding on Friday afternoon with a packed crowd so it was nice to do well. On the cross-country Jake was galloping and jumping really well but got a little weary by the end. Unfortunately we had a stop at the rails jumping back into the water the last time which I was a little gutted about as he went so well otherwise. I hope next time if I have him a little fitter it will be a different story but overall I was delighted with him and felt like he really tried his heart out, even when tired at the end. Jake bounced back the next day and finished his weekend with a lovely clear show-jumping and 17th place.

Overall, it was a great week with a lot of family and friends making the trip to help out and cheer. This made for a really fun time and hopefully we can keep coming back in future years. A big thank-you to Jumbo’s Jake’s owner India McEvoy for letting me ride such a splendid animal and also Chuck and Peggy Moore, owners of Graceland Equestrian center, for their ongoing generosity and support.

Next on the calendar back in California is Woodside in a week or so. This is a great local event for us so we will be taking a lot of horses and students and should be a lot of fun.

Life Lessons by Missy Miller

2011-05-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

Well the happenings since my last post before the Fork Horse Trials have yet again proven to be the ultimate of highs and lows. Seems to be a constant theme with the horses, can’t believe it’s taken me this long to figure that significant piece of information out. Better late than never? I guess I can start with the best of the happenings, which also works perfectly as that is how it goes chronologically. Like I had said, Gracie and I headed to North Carolina to attempt a CIC3* at the Fork Horse Trials. Truly an amazing event in every way possible. We had dressage on Thursday which I was hoping would work in our favor as the more days in a row you do dressage on Gracie the more she realizes how much she despises flicking her toes in a rectangular arena and the more she starts to strongly object. Unfortunately though, even after one day of light practice of the movements, once she got in the ring she was making it very clear to me that her preference of places to be was definitely not there. Disappointing? Of course, especially since our previous test in front of those scary judges booths had gone so well, I had built up a little bit of hope that all was not lost in the case of my dressage skills. Thanks again for the “humbling experience” Gracie. Oh well, on to the fun part…

I’d be lying if I said when walking the course I became immobilized with fear from time to time. Maybe I even sent Leslie a frantic text saying something along the lines of “This is big, scary and impossible, I think I should just go hide by a novice jump and cry”. But hey, maybe I didn’t. Leslie was unable to be there this weekend for me as he was prepping for a show in Florida the following weekend (I hear he did o.k there) which definitely made me even more nervous, but I cannot thank Clark and Jessica Montgomery enough for taking on the task of helping me through this weekend. Both of them were so nice and helpful, I couldn’t have hoped for better. After walking the course enough to make it seem slightly less intimidating and slightly more do-able, my legs were sick of moving and then it came time for Grace and I to tackle one of the toughest courses we had seen in our career together. As we did our typical prance over to the start box I wasn’t sure if I would even be possible of remembering to breathe. Gracie and I finally got the countdown and scooted out the box, I know this is cliché and I have said this before of Gracie’s cross country rounds but I seriously could not have imagined a better ride out of her. Everything I was nervous about she tackled like it was nothing, ears pricked the whole time I feel safe saying both of us really came off the course having had so much fun and feeling 10ft tall. I really wonder how I became so lucky to get to ride this mare around and have her try so hard for me, although I’m not sure if I always feel like she’s trying as much as she’s just having fun.

Jogs presented themselves with much stress and unease. As perfect as Gracie is in my eyes, a vet would argue my case of perfection with very fair facts. After jogging her for Christiana Ober we noticed that her bothersome ankle was giving her a bit of trouble, nothing we hadn’t expected. This called for hours more of icing and an early morning ride before the jog. We passed after getting held once, and were onto stadium. The stadium course walked well and when I walked it with Clark we walked it where all of the turns were to the left besides one. Then while I was warming up I was told it was wheeled the other way so to break it up. I made the decision to change my plan at the last minute and thought it wouldn’t be too much of a deal. I can’t say that is what caused one of our two rails, but I also can’t say it would have happened if I had just stuck to my plan. Oh well, live and learn. Nothing could trump my feeling of ecstasy after finishing my first CIC3* on a mare I had worked so hard with and that meant so much to me. We were finally qualified for the Bromont CCI3*, Gracie had yet again gone beyond anyone’s expectations.

After The Fork we made the plan to give her two weeks off so she could be fresh and ready for Bromont. I was able to focus on school, while Grace enjoyed rolling in her field and requiring baths almost every other day. As I started her back in work I was dismayed to find her ankle was still bothering her and making her sore to ride. I was scheduled to go to Florida for lessons the following weekend and to get her shod. I decided to bring her down, have Leslie look at her and go from there. Leslie definitely agreed with me that it was her ankles and I decided to leave her that week so Christiana could look at her and assess what was going on. Leaving Gracie anywhere is never easy for me, especially when I knew something was bothering her. She’s a tough little mare and for her to still be sore something was definitely up. I tried to stay optimistic while waiting for the call from the vet but during those two days of waiting I feel like years flew by around me. When the call finally came it was Leslie on the phone and unfortunately all of my fears where brought to reality. It seemed Gracie had done quite the number to herself at The Fork and had a 50% legion on her suspensory branch. After talking with the Laws and Christiana it was decided that in the best interest of Gracie, due to her already troublesome ankles and age it would only be fair to retire her after this kind of injury.

Since the news countless tears have been shed and my emotions have been on a rollercoaster since I have no idea what to do from here. Just last month we decided to retire my other mare as well after an MRI revealed very little cartilage left in her ankles, diminishing her chances of staying sound and comfortable at the upper levels. As heart breaking as the first retirement was, Gracie’s was even more so as my emotional attachment to her and what I have been through with her for us to accomplish what we had has been one my greatest learning experiences. Of course, I know how lucky I am that both of them can spend the rest of their lives in a field, becoming fat and happy and maybe one day fat, happy mommas? I’ve had the alternative happen and that’s something I would never wish on anyone so as heartbreaking as it is to go from having my dreams seem attainable on such a special mare to retiring two very special horses I know that I’m blessed to be able to walk out in the field, feed them carrots and have them knock me down while rubbing on me.

The lessons I learned on Gracie are something even a great coach couldn’t have taught me. Maybe it’s me and my stubbornness that makes it so I can only learn how to do the right thing by trying everything wrong first, but Grace would make the wrong options very obvious by her reactions towards them and sometimes I swear she would mock me like I was foolish for even thinking of some things. Of all my equestrian accomplishments Grace was the horse that really made my dreams attainable and I cannot thank her enough. I’m not sure how I deserved to gallop around the Kentucky Horse Park, stand on the podium at the NAYRC, and compete a season at advanced on such a remarkable horse but I did and for that I am eternally grateful. I apologize for the sap but I don’t even know how to put into words what a special horse I’ve been lucky enough to have such a special partnership with. It was never easy, never did I know what to expect and I also felt like I never knew what I was doing but it was all incredibly rewarding. Realizing that, I know the answer to the frequently asked question of “Why do we do this?” after hearing bad news or after a bad ride, I also realize that that’s what makes the eventing community so special and some of the best people I know. And even though I am currently with out a horse, I also know that I won’t be able to keep myself away from all the incredible friends and amazing horses that surround the eventing world.

Optimum Time, Horses and Teams by Danny Warrington

2011-05-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

Riders:

What a wet Fair Hill it was!!! The advanced looks like a disaster on paper, but I have to say all and all a very safe weekend. For the most part I thought everyone used their heads, but there are always a few that surprise me. The ground on Saturday was very soft. There were times it was raining and still people went for time. I think it is one thing if you make time in bad footing, I believe it’s another to “go for time”.

Some horses actually prefer soft ground and love to gallop across it, as well as a very experienced horse might find it easy to make the time regardless of the footing. Me, I decided to give my prelim horse a quiet ride let him have his second prelim start be easy, just jump the jumps, and come home safe! When looking over the results I saw a lot of riders had the same idea. The funny thing is most of those riders were riders I respect and most are people you know of. The scary part to me is some (and I say some, not all horses that made time were wrong to do so) of the horses that made time, well, let’s say maybe did so because the optimal time was ______ and that is that.

It seems to me that some people still don’t get the optimal time. Ok here goes…………… it’s optimal! That means if everything is going right you should make time; what it does not mean is, throw caution to the wind. You and your horse’s safety and soundness should not be an afterthought. If you want to know why I am on about this it is because someone asked me what the optimum time was that weekend and to be sure that should have been the last thing on their mind.

Horses:

Horses they never cease to amaze me. My poor horses….. bless um’, got on a truck in Texas to ship 27 hours to Maryland, and three days later I put them back on a truck (only for a 15min ship) to go for a hack at Fair Hill DNR. They go on! They get right on. I just watched in true wonder as each of them loaded. They had no idea if they were going 15 mins, or 27 hours and did not seem to care.

I also finally broke down and got a shipping pony. I am glad I did. We have a few horses in our string that, well…… don’t stand too well on the van when left alone. I have tried to ignore it, give them hay, used the Tom Dorrance method of pitchin’ pebbles… everything but hobbles. Spike is my savior. He is a 27 year old blind in one eye pony who loves to eat hay on the truck. I gave in or grew up I am not sure which but I am happier, my van is happier, and most important the horses are much happier.

The sport

I remained quiet over the chef d’ equipe discussions. Not that I didn’t have an opinion or care, to me the whole thing was just out of my hands. I think this about the Dutton / O’Connor race. It is the Democrats and Republicans. You can decide who is who. I think with David as the coach did so well with a young team of Canadians because they have team spirit. No doubt he did an amazing job! I think he will run into a bit of trouble here in the U.S. where we have a three party system; we have team O’Conner, team Dutton, as well as team Buck! I love them all but………… truth be told it is a three party system. I do know this, David will have a much tougher time running this team then he did Team Canada, there is no doubt that this country has the talent to win medals, let’s hope that the U.S can combine the best of all its teams and united we can develop one team that has one goal! To take THE BEST HORSES AND RIDERS TO THE GAMES. Let’s become the United States Eventing Team!! Not the divided states. Good luck David!

Photo by Katherine Rizzo

Dressage Day 1 By Kaylin Medlin

2011-04-29T18:44:00.000-07:00

The day started off calm but a bit chilly. Thankfully no more crazy weather like we had yesterday!

From what I hear, everyone had a great dressage test. I didn't get to watch much dressage today, because even though Susan doesn't go till tomorrow, there's still lots of work to be done. I'm still so excited and thankful that Susan asked me to come and groom for her. It is such a great learning experience for me and lots of fun too.

This afternoon I was able to walk the cross country course with Susan. These jumps look gigantic compared to my training height fences, but look like they're a lot of fun. All the rain has made the course messy in some places. The coffin was a bit flooded and a few places had puddles. Other than that, the course looks amazing!

Tomorrow Susan does her dressage test at 11:39. I can't wait to sit in the groom box and watch her test. Tomorrow morning will be very busy for us to get everything ready and to get Prowler cleaned up and ready to go put in an amazing test.

It's late, so for now I will sign off and I look forward to filling you all in tomorrow about my very first time grooming for a dressage test at Rolex.

First Horse Inspection at Rolex by Kaylin Medlin

2011-04-28T04:57:00.000-07:00

I've been here since Monday night with my trainer Susan Beebee who is competing in her first Rolex. We arrived around 11:30pm from Southern Pines, NC and I don't think I've stopped working since we arrived.

Yesterday was an easy day because there wasn't much going on. I had time to figure out where some things were on the grounds and to get into a good flow with the horses. The weather has been a little touchy since we arrived, but the worst of it was today. We were evacuated for about an hour for a tornado warning. Everyone - horses, dogs and people - had to go to the Alltech Arena to wait out the storm. The horses had been a little anxious this morning before we were told to evacuate. Guess they could sense the change in the weather. It was a crazy scene inside the arena with all of those horses standing around. Thankfully most of the horses were good, (there were a few who managed to run around loose).

Once the tornado warning expired, we had to hurry back to the barns to get ready for jog. Yesterday they had changed the time to 10am to try and avoid bad weather we were supposed to get this afternoon. Well, because of the bad weather this morning, the jog got pushed back to 11am.

Thankfully Prowler was already braided, so all I had to do was finish cleaning him up and get him up to the jog lane. Susan got dressed while I got Prowler ready. While I took Prowler up to wait his turn, the sun came out and the skies cleared. Prowler was passed and Susan has the "all clear" to compete.

It's a little strange being the youngest groom at Rolex, but at the same time it's really exciting. Susan is stabled next to Boyd Martin so we get to see he and his wife Silva. There are lots of people always around and I always get nervous when I speak to someone for the first time. These are the same people I've been looking up to for the last few years and never thought I'd get to meet them, let alone pitch in and help them or have them call me by name!

Tomorrow is dressage day one. Susan doesn't go till Friday, but we will have another full day ahead of us. I'm in the barn by 7am and out (sometimes) by 6pm. Grooms are the hardest working people behind the scenes. It is something that I hope I will never take for granted when I have a groom. For those that do have grooms, I hope you share with them how much you appreciate their hard work. It's hard work being a groom, but definitely something everyone should do.

I'm very excited to be here. It's a fantastic learning experience and one I will never forget. Someday I'll be back to compete here myself. I can't wait!!!! Hopefully the rain is gone by tomorrow. I think it's safe to say we are all sick of this crazy weather!

A First Foal, Rolex and Competition Round Up by James Alliston

2011-04-21T06:20:00.000-07:00

I write this in the midst of packing for my cross country trip to Rolex. I leave tomorrow with Jumbo’s Jake and Parker on what will be a grueling 39 hour haul to Kentucky. This will undoubtedly be tough on the horses and it pains me to watch the weight drop off Parker, who always seems to step off the trailer looking like a greyhound after these long drives. Other than the drive, I am very excited to be going and am relieved that the final run at Galway Downs went well. Both horses jumped very well and were competitive which is what I was hoping for heading into the big one. It will be a nice occasion for me as my Mum, Dad and brother are flying over from England to watch as well as many friends and students from California.

Meanwhile, last weekend we showed again at Ram Tap in Fresno. The weather was glorious for this event and everybody turned in great performances that made me proud. Peggy and Chuck Moore’s Luke Skywalker is a horse that we have high hopes for and he justified our faith with a win in the Preliminary. Tivoli also made a welcome return to eventing with a pleasing performance in the same class. He is a horse who has an incredible jump but a somewhat fragile mind and was ridden to great success in England with Oliver Townend. He is one of my personal favorites in the barn and I hope that in time he will relax a little more and be really cool.

Our first foal at Graceland Equestrian Center was born a few weeks ago. His name is Lincoln and he is by our lovely stallion Libero Star out of Pik Abou. He is a big boy with long legs and lots of chrome and is enjoying the celebrity status that he has achieved since his arrival with plenty of doting visitors every day.

So tomorrow I will embark on my road to rolex. My main concern at the minute is getting my gps to work and getting the horses to Kentucky safe and sound but I am sure with all that time alone in the truck the anticipation and excitement will build.

Lows & Highs of a First Season at Advanced by Missy Miller

2011-04-06T04:28:00.000-07:00

The last two shows since my previous blog were the definition of low to high. Grace and I traveled to Tallahassee, Florida with the amazing help of my dad and his driving so I didn’t have to miss any classes the week before finals and I was still able to be at Red Hills on time to show. The dressage went well but Grace was sticking her tongue out most the time, which definitely offended one judge more than the other. Oh well, it was my first attempt at a 3* and I kept telling myself like any first time experience, push through it, get it done and then improve upon it every time thereafter. For those of you who don’t know, the last time I competed at the fabulous Red Hills Horse trials my partner at the time, Leprechauns Rowdy Boy, tragically passed away half way through the course at the first water. So already adding more onto the stress of my first CIC3* I had many emotions tied into this weekend whether or not I wanted to admit it. Grace has been amazing all season and there was nothing more I felt me or my trainer, Leslie, could have done to further prepare us for this. As we started out on course it was amazing and rode very well. But as it can happen at this level my horse and I stopped syncing after the first water and didn’t make it much farther. As upset as I was, while walking her back to the barn I realized how lucky I was to even be doing that. At least now I know that she is healthy and able to come out another day and try again. It’s our first season at advanced, mistakes are bound to happen and not everything goes accordingly which is why everyone makes back up plans. It was nice to have gotten through the same water jump that changed my life three years earlier. As always, Red Hills was run beautifully and is still one of my favorite events to be a part of because the whole city really gets involved and supports it. Not many events can achieve that for an entire four day weekend and I look forward to this event every year.

After our first 3* attempt we decided to enter the Poplar Place Horse Trials to make sure none of the misunderstandings at Red Hills between Gracie and I were long lasting and have a positive run before attempting the CIC3* at the Fork Horse trials. I entered the weekend hoping Gracie wasn’t holding any grudges against me for not giving her my full commitment at our last show and planned on focusing on a steady, confidence-boosting weekend. I was really happy with how she handled herself (even keeping her tongue out of sight) in the dressage and despite me having a blonde moment, we scored one of our best dressage scores at this level! Cross-country was very intimidating when we walked it, I was especially worried about two narrow cannon jumps set on a hard angle at two strides. Grace came out of the box ready to attack the course and having me holding her back as I didn’t want her to run herself too hard and by the 4th jump I felt her settle into a rhythm and she handled the course like a pro, no grudges held. Again, I realize that Grace is nothing short of a tenacious little mare in ANY situation, be it out on course, not wanting to stand in ice, or being convinced that all vets are out to get her. Nonetheless, I feel very fortunate to have her even when she is trying to give me a close up of her hind shoes. Part of me thinks she does the opposite of whatever I think/say about her just to prove me wrong and make me look bad, thus making her look good. Which again she proved to do in stadium, jumping around like a pro until what Leslie so kindly referred to as my “village idiot move” at the last jump. Can I still claim that it was a young rider mistake or does that give a bad name to other young riders that can hold it together for an entire show jumping course of 12 jumps? Well, I’m aged out anyways, it was just one of my duller moments. Good girl Grace. Now we will head to the Fork next weekend for another one of my favorite events of the year to again attempt the CIC3*. I’m almost scared to admit it, more or less put it in writing but yet again I am feeling cautiously optimistic after how well Poplar went. But I’m also reminding myself that anything can happen and trying not to put too much pressure on myself, Grace, or the weekend itself.

Tragic events like what happened this weekend to Michael Pollard’s and Jane Rusconi’s lovely mare, Dekorum and Arden Wildasin’s, Mandar really make you realize that no matter what, if your horse is back in their stall at the end of the day we are lucky to be surrounded by these animals. I wish there was something more I could say to all of them but I can’t think of anything besides sending my condolences to all involved. My thoughts are with you at this awful time.
For everyone else, go hug your horses.

For the Love of This Sport by Danny Warrington

2011-03-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

I am finding it very hard to write this week. As most of the eventing community knows we lost a great friend and supporter of the sport last Friday. Phil Sawin.

I was lucky enough to spend some time with Phil on his family's farm in Bellville, TX over the past few years when I would come down to teach clinics. His wife has scheduled weekly lessons for me since my arrival here in Texas this December. Phil was in the process of building his dream home and the sport of eventing in Texas. I guess the reason I am writing all of this is to express my love for the sport and the grass roots people who also love the game. What I have found mostly here in Texas is a camaraderie of friends who share the excitement of eventing. There are dreams of making teams and winning medals from the youngsters but mostly its people having fun. Phil and his wife Ruth provide a great deal of fun for Texas eventers at their farm, Pine Hill. No training sessions, no push to qualify for Fair Hill or Rolex, no ulterior motives- only a love for horses and the sport.

As the news came to us at Meadow Creek this past Friday my heart went out to Ruth and their daughter, Ellie. I was coaching last minute dressage tips for Saturdays test when I heard.... I swallowed a deep breath and told the mother of the student next to me. It was so hard to keep working but I knew that's what Phil would have wanted, he had worked so hard to bring eventing to Texas, that I had to keep a smile (as well as everyone else).

I feel that way today, only maybe I see the best side of the eventing community. The show must go on (Pine Hill's USEA event on April 9th) everyone will enjoy Phil's hard work. How so many people have stepped up to help Ruth and Ellie. From volunteers at the show, to food for the family, the pony club dc, the parents of students. It really is amazing.

So the next time you suit up to ride cross country, take a deep breath, and remember why we all love this sport, and the love that so many others give to our sport. 5-4-3-2-1.... have a great ride!!

Photo of Phil Swain courtesy of Jim Stoner

The West Coast Season Begins by James Alliston

2011-03-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

It has been an action packed month since my last blog. The season started for me in mid-February at Ram Tap Horse Trials in Fresno. This was a really fun season opener and everyone performed really well despite the wet conditions. Peggy Moore’s lovely young horse Boston jumped particularly well and made a winning debut at the Prelim level which I was delighted with. I was also a proud owner at this event with partner India McEvoy skillfully piloting my own Mojo to a successful first Preliminary.

Next up was Twin Rivers two weeks later which is Califoirnia’s first Advanced event of the year. It attracted a classy field and was blessed with near perfect conditions. India McEvoy’s divine Jumbo’s Jake went very well for 2nd place whilst Parker jumped a great double clear for 9th to make up for a very forgettable dressage display. Before the next event Parker and I will do some homework in the dressage arena we have set up with a less exuberant performance in the first phase in mind. A special mention to my star student of the weekend Peggy Moore for conquering her dressage demons with a personal best score in the Senior Novice division.

Right now is one of the busiest times of the year at my base, Graceland Equestrian Center. We have foals on the way by our lovely stallion Libero Star which is causing great excitement but also means some late nights on foal watch. Breeding may be an expensive and time-consuming operation but the thrill and pleasure of producing horses from the very beginning is always something that has appealed to me - and the babies are very cute too.

Away from horses my main activity is tennis and my local team, the Bay Trees Warriors, play our first match in a few weeks. I love to be able to go and whack a few balls on the courts after work; I think it is great for mind and body. Elsewhere, India and I got a little dog. His name is Archie and he splits his time between Graceland with me (which he prefers) and UC Davis with India.

Next on the agenda is Galway Downs in Temecula at the end of March. This is a beautiful event and one of the jewels of the California calendar. Hosting all the levels from novice to CIC3* it is something we are all looking forward to and well worth the lengthy drive for us.

Photo of Mojo provided by James Alliston

A New Addition and PRO DerbyCross by Ashley Leith

2011-03-09T10:47:00.001-08:00

I woke up this morning before feeding time so that I could sit down and write about the Derby Cross experience on Saturday in Wellington. When I got into my office and looked out the window I saw one of our horses looking very agitated. Yesterday we moved the brood mares to one of our front fields so that we could keep a closer eye on them as they neared their due dates of the third week in March. As soon as I saw Darcy in the next field going up and down the fence line, I thought, "I bet we have a baby!" Sure enough, when I put my shoes on and went outside, my Hanoverian mare Glitzen had just given birth. Glitzen was still on the ground, and the new shiny wet colt was standing by her head. She was licking him dry. I called Brian out and gradually as the whole farm awoke, everyone got to admire the beauty of a new baby on the farm. He looks to be a bay, although his legs have white hairs on them. He also has a little white star, just like his mother. Even though this is my first venture into breeding, Glitzen is a seasoned broodmare and she obviously knows what she is doing. She is very proud of her little one and also very protective of him. After giving them some space while we did barn chores, we went out to make sure he had figured out how to suckle. We had a batch of thirteen adorable baby chicks here three weeks ago, the spring flowers are blooming, and now we have our first healthy foal on the ground. This is certainly a moment to stop and enjoy!

PRO Derby Cross on Saturday night was well done and entertaining. The arena at the Palm Beach Equestrian Center is much more enclosed than most arenas that we event riders are used to. It is surrounded on four sides by seating and VIP tents. This allows for a very spectator friendly program. Before the start of the competition, hosts Leslie Law and Boyd Martin blasted into the ring on two borrowed mounts in order to demonstrate some of the techniques of the sport of three day eventing. While course designer David O'Connor narrated, Leslie and Boyd showed how to jump a corner jump and how to jump a drop to a wedge jump.

The competition then got off to a quick start. One of the most memorable early rounds was Will Faudree. He was riding Errigal Lion and he rode at an amazing pace. His ambition in that arena reminded me of how he got thrust into the upper echelon of event riders to begin with. Almost a decade ago at his first CCI*** at Fair Hill with his parter Antigua, Will rocked it around the cross country course, finishing inside the time and ending the day near the top of the leader board. His drive once again stood him in good stead on Saturday night. With a clean round and a clean jump over the eventers joker fence, a five foot high orange Hermes vertical, Will was later awarded the Eventer MVP for the evening. After the ten second deduction for clearing the joker fence, his final time of 1:06 was the fastest.

The competition ran in a team format. There were five teams with five riders each. The teams all had three event riders, one show jumping rider, and one polo player. The event riders all jumped first over a course that combined cross country questions with show jumping obstacles. The two most influential fences were fence four, which was an angled hedge in-and-out, and fence eleven, which was a square oxer and the second to last jump. Trouble came at the angled hedges because they came up quickly and caused a type of optical illusion due to their positioning. Fence eleven was influential because after speeding over a number of cross country type jumps where the horses could really gallop, the square oxer on show jumping cups required them to really come back and bascule around the jump.

After the first round of fifteen event riders, team FarmVet/Cavalor with Will Faudree, Bruce Davidson, and Buck Davidson as captain, was sitting in the lead. Team Canada, with Rebecca Howard, Jessica Phoenix, and Kyle Carter as captain, was placed second. A quick break was taken to reset some of the jumps. Then the team sents in their polo player and show jumper riders together. They each jumped designated courses one at a time and then jumped their designated joker jumps. The polo players, who jumped between 3' and 3'6" were a mixed bag over their triple bar oxer joker jump. Interestingly, though, not one of them cleared the final jump on their course, a 3'6" open bar vertical. That proved to be a real bogie! The jumper riders had higher show jumps and many of the same cross country type obstacles that the event riders had, including a drop bank to a skinny. I thought their horses, who don't often jump drops, handled that combination amazingly well. Their joker jump was a preliminary level corner. Every show jump rider jumped it clean. I have to say I thought it may have been too easy a joker jump for them!

At the end of the day, the scoreboard changed a little bit. Team FarmVet/Cavalor went last, in reverse order of standing, but they had an ace in their pocket with Aaron Vale. Aaron really delivered under pressure. He did have a rail down, but he jumped the joker clean to finish on a time of 1:11, which was the second fastest of the jumper riders. Team Canada did not fare so well, however. They fell from second place to last place due to a refusal by their polo player's horse at the up bank. With double joker points, Team Triple Crown with Marcia Kulak, Will Coleman, and Allison Springer as captain slid into second.

The evening finished off with a puissance class. The winning height of 7'3" at the puissance wall really dwarfed the cross country jumps still placed around the ring. The point of having Derby Cross in Wellington was to try to introduce eventing to a new audience. Apparently we have already been invited back, which is wonderful. What I took away from the evening, though, after watching event riders, jumper riders, polo players, and then puissance riders, was how diverse our sports are yet how each sport contains something to admire. Horses really are a versatile and wonderful creature!

Photo of Jonathon Millar Courtesy of Molly Sorge - Chronicle of the Horse

Moving up to Advanced from a Young Rider's Perspective by Missy Miller

2011-03-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

The 2010 season ended for me and my horses on a bittersweet note. My quirky little trakehner mare, TSF Amazing Grace, earned individual silver and team gold at NAYRC, and successfully moved up to Advanced and I was in the top 20 on both my horses in the open intermediate at the AEC’s. After what I was convinced was an unrealistically wonderful year my other mare, Pembridge Swingtime, suffered a minor injury, preventing us from our goals of a fall CCI2*. She had been doing very well with my trainer, Leslie Law, while I was focusing on Grace and our NAYRC goals. Luckily, thanks to amazing vets and help Swinger is already on the mend as Gracie and I are pursuing our first season at advanced together.

For anyone that has ever met my mare Gracie, it can be agreed that she fully believes the TSF in front of her name should be replaced with HRH. I always say semi-jokingly that her ‘spunk’ is what makes her such a great event horse and even though we all curse the quickness of her hind legs on the ground I bless them while jumping. She has gone above and beyond anyones expectations the past few years, just ask Leslie about the first time he laid eyes on her. I don’t believe his first thoughts were “Here’s an advanced horse in the making.” As she was trotting around, head high, back hollow, snorting like a fire breathing dragon, with me desperately trying anything to put her in some form of a frame. Looking at how far she has come it makes her patience testing tendencies on the ground a little more bearable, for me at least. I won’t try to speak for vets, farriers and others on her black list.

2011 will not only be our first advanced season (hopefully) but also I am officially a full time student. For the past two years I have been taking classes in Ocala at Central Florida, making it easy to manage horses and school together. As of January I transferred to Savannah College of Art and Design to pursue a degree in fashion marketing and art history. So I am also bidding adieu to sleep and what little spare time the horse world allows to begin with. Lucky for me though, SCAD does not have classes on Fridays as those are set aside for studio days to work on projects, or in my case horse show days. If anyone knows of a company that puts school books on audio you would be my personal hero. This season my trailer at competitions will be doubling as a traveling art studio and havocked study space. Maybe the USET could use the help of a fashion major in help with selecting jog outfits at team competitions? Sans cowboy hats? ;)

Currently Leslie and I have planned my season on a “if all goes well” mantra up to the Red Hills CIC3*. Seeing as Gracie has already succeeded far more than initially expected the rest is just icing on the cake. After our first few shows this year Gracie continues to improve with each outing. We are already very friendly with the kind people at the AG station between Georgia and Florida. Next for us will be Red Hills, seeing as Pine top went better than expected. I was ecstatic with how she handled the one day and am feeling cautiously optimistic at the moment. Of course that will turn into violent butterflies as the event gets closer and the reality of it starts to set in. And of course to add onto the nerves my finals for classes are conveniently the week after Red Hills. Goodbye sanity.

PRO DerbyCross Interview with Allison Springer by Ashley Leith

2011-02-27T17:45:00.000-08:00

PRO DerbyCross is a sport designed to showcase in a fun and spectator friendly format the bravery of three day eventing’s cross country phase as well as the speed and accuracy of show jumping. In DerbyCross competition, teams of five riders compete against each other. Each team is comprised of three event riders, one show jumping rider, and one polo player. Riders individually jump designated courses against the clock, with the course being altered slightly for riders of each discipline. This year DerbyCross has partnered with the Professional Riders Organization. On March 5th, DerbyCross will make its debut in Wellington, FL. Five teams will vie against each other at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.

This weekend I took a few moments to speak with Derb Cross Team Triple Crown captain Allison Springer. Allison is a member of the 2011 USEF High Performance List and has her sights set on the London 2012 Olympics on her mount Arthur. Allison is also on the USEA Board of Governors and is the Vice President of PRO.

Tell me about your experience with DerbyCross.
DerbyCross began in 2006. I have ridden in three DerbyCross competitions so far. The ones that I have done were at Great Meadow Polo Club in The Plains, Virginia. The thing about DerbyCross is that it takes the best elements of eventing and it puts it into a fun and educational format that really showcases the sport. Currently, three day eventing is difficult to follow if you don’t already understand the sport. With DerbyCross we can really create a buzz about eventing for an audience that may not have known about us at all.

In the competitions that I did at Great Meadow, I spent some time mingling with the crowd afterwards. They were really positive about DerbyCross. They loved that it had riders from different disciplines and they thought that the team aspect made it really fun. People told me that they came to the event to enjoy a day in the country, but as the competition progressed they became invested in the teams and wanted to root for one team or another to win. They were excited about cheering their favorite team on.

Eventing is such a special sport, but unlike in Europe and the U. K. the sport is not widely known here. The aim of DerbyCross is to tie in different disciplines with spectators so that we can personalize our sport for them. We want people to say, “I love that horse!” or “I love that rider!” Then they may come to see what a real event is all about.

How Does DerbyCross compare to other attempts to bring eventing to a larger audience, such as Express Eventing in the U. K. and Indoor Eventing in Canada?

When Sinead [Halpin], Rebecca [Howard], and Dana [Voorhees] created Derby Cross, they really did it right. They got just the right mix of what is exciting in our sport and they created something very special. In my opinion it’s great to not have the dressage because the jumping draws people in right away. Unless you know the players, what is exciting to watch in eventing is the thrill of cross country and show jumping. Also, the team and interdisciplinary aspect of DerbyCross makes it more fun to watch. With DerbyCross we are reaching out to more folks and bringing them in. It is a great thing for our sport.

Wellington does not have a big permanent eventing community in the winter. Why is PRO hosting a DerbyCross competition there on that weekend, even though it is also in conflict with Rocking Horse Horse Trials?

Our hope with DerbyCross is to take it to different parts of the country so that we can reach out to some new audiences. Wellington is our first try at this. As for the dates, we had to pick dates in February and March that worked for the event riders who were going to participate. For the upper level riders, we agreed that if we missed an intermediate level competition, we could find another one to go to. Where we couldn’t compromise was with advanced or FEI level competitions, because that calendar is much tighter. I sat down and found three weekends that would work between the Area II and Area III eventing calendars. From there we let Wellington decide when they wanted us, so it ultimately wound up being there choice. They chose to have us on Nations Cup weekend, which is a huge honor. Nations Cup weekend is the most prestigious weekend of the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington.

PRO has a proven track record over the past few years of hosting fun, audience friendly events at some major shows. For example riders did the bareback puissance at Plantation Field International, Pony Club games at the Millbrook Horse Trial and Shetland pony races at the Dansko Fair Hill International CCI**/***. How do these events and DerbyCross fit with PRO’s goals?

PRO has been trying to help support a culture of destination events through the PRO Tour Series. One of the goals of the series is to create a family and audience friendly atmosphere where people can come and enjoy the sport of eventing while having other fun and interesting activities at the same venue. PRO’s extra events just give the audience something different to enjoy while watching the competition, and it creates an introduction to some of this country’s top event riders. They have this type of stuff in England and it’s a lot of fun. PRO has also gotten color commentators for their special events, and it really adds to the atmosphere. Next weekend at DerbyCross we have Leslie Law and Boyd Martin hosting and commentating and John Kyle is flying over from the UK to do the announcing. They will really help the crowd to understand what is going on and they will be able to talk about the different elements of our sport. We have such camradarie in eventing and it’s such a fantastic sport. With DerbyCross we are trying to boil it down to the essence for eventing enthusiasts and new audiences as well. I think this is a good thing for everyone in eventing!

Sharing A Bit of Knowledge and My Opinions by Danny Warrington

2011-02-24T06:22:00.000-08:00

This is my first blog ever, so I will now join the rest of the world with instant communication. My goal is to give incite as to how I think about horses, riders and the sport. I was asked to write about three paragraphs, my plan is to share my opinion about each one. Please feel free to contact me with questions or comments at dannywarrington@comcast.net.

RIDERS

Let’s start with what I have come to realize about the reins. I have paid close attention to how much riders struggle with the bridge, half bridge, changing the two, switching the whip hand, sliding the reins and using the neck strap. In my early years of being an apprentice jockey, I would spend hours on a straw bale with a bridle fixed in front of me, practicing my finish ride (pretending I was Angle Cordero). This was before the equicizer (www.franklovatojr.com). I would ride the bale switching sticks changing crosses till there was straw everywhere. When I finally got to start breezing racehorses, it was much easier to change holds, switch whip hands with out looking down at 30+ miles per hour. Point being, I don’t ever look down to find my reins, make a bridge, grab my chicken strap (which by the way is like American Express to me “I don’t leave home with out it”). So over the past few weeks, I have really started to emphasize exercises to my students to try to get them more comfortable with the “simple” process of a bridge, half bridge, slipping the reins, grabbing the neck strap and changing whip hands without looking down.

HORSES

As I travel around the country more and more, one big thing that stands out to me is the younger and older inexperienced riders mounted on off the track thoroughbreds. No one in this sport loves race horses more then me. I would also challenge that most first time horse owners don’t fully understand the complexity of the young race horse or off the track thoroughbred. I see young teenagers on these types of horses, if this is their first horse the odds are, the rider is over faced. I think somehow we must educate (honestly educate) people who are first time owners what they are buying or adopting. These horses for the most part have one or two speeds….. And stop and reverse are not it! Go and go faster is more likely. The racing game has changed, the two year old dollar is what is most profitable. The fastest yearling at the sale brings the most money, the early races are easier, and if they can win a graded stake as a 2 year old breeding potential is multiplied. The start of most race horses is brief and fast at best. The one thing that I say to parents all the time is….. Would you put you child in a car with out brakes?

THE SPORT OF EVENTING

First let me start by saying that I’m an advocate for education, better riding, and safer thinking. I must say out loud that I am not a fan of the dressage helmet rule. I know that I am out numbered by a lot and also by being on the safety committee I should applaud this new measure to add more safety to our sport. However, I do believe that there is a class element, dressage is to be an elegant picture, and really, on the danger scale, this is a pretty low risk sport. In my personal experiences with some, not so quiet horses, I have worn a helmet with a strap, sometimes I have worn an approved helmet in warm up then switched before going into the ring. Well, I guess that’s just me using personal responsibility again and I bet somewhere someone is in the “think tank” dreaming up an integrated airvest shadbelly!

Photo Courtesy of Katherine Rizzo

An Englishman on the West Coast by James Alliston

2011-02-14T14:18:00.000-08:00

My name is James Alliston, originally form England, I have now been based at the beautiful Graceland Equestrian Center in Castro Valley, California, since the summer of 2009. Prior to this I worked for a number of years on the east coast for eventing legend Bruce Davidson Sr.

I hope that 2011 will be an exciting year for me. My best horses are my own Parker and Jumbo's Jake, owned by India McEvoy. Parker is a tall thoroughbred who is a fantastic, brave jumper and was the first horse I bought in America. We have been working very hard on his dressage in the close season and I am hoping all the progress he has made translates to the competition ring this year. Jumbo's Jake was a new ride for me in 2010 and is a lovely horse to ride in all phases having been beautifully trained by his owner and former rider India. He had a great year last year with a couple of advanced wins and a 3rd place at the Galway Downs CCI3* in November and has beeen a pleasure to ride everyday. I don't like to make plans too big to avoid disappointment but if all goes well this spring I would like to have a crack at Rolex with them in April, but we will see.

My typical work day is busy with riding and teaching students. I enjoy the variety of the job and I make my living through a combination of teaching students, training other people's horses and horse sales. I am fortunate enough to have a lovely group of students and clients who make the day much more interesting than just slogging away by yourself. I take great pleasure in going to the shows and helping them to be successful and have an enjoyable experience. All the events in California tend to be spread over three days which means it is possible to coach as well as ride a number of horses myself which is nice. The cross country course is almost always a tilled track rather than grass which is a big change from the east coast or England. One thing I like about this is most of the time you don't need studs and I definitely don't miss cleaning the holes and taking studs in and out. The season kicks off this weekend at Ram Tap in Fresno so everyone is getting geared up for their 2011 debuts.

A big change for this winter is that we now have a huge roofed arena to keep us dry in the wet season. This has been a huge help in enabling us to keep practicing and training when most other barns in the area are under water. A big thank you to Chuck and Peggy Moore, owners of Graceland Equestrian Center, for making this happen and continually improving the already outstanding facility. I am fortunate to have access to two enormous arenas, a gallops and a cross country course which is a real luxury. The photo is of Parker having an early morning ride in the new roofed arena.

PERSPECTIVE: The Road to Kentucky by Ashley Leith

2011-02-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

In 2009 I was almost able to fulfill a lifelong dream of riding at Rolex Kentucky CCI****. I qualified with my mount ESB Irish Doctrine who is owned by my wonderful patron Elkins Wetherill. We had also qualified for Rolex in 2008, but I had only gotten the ride on Doc a few months before and I felt we still had issues to iron out. In 2009, after careful preparation all spring, we arrived at the Kentucky Horse Park fit and ready to compete. As fate would have it, 2009 would not be our year. Doc is a notoriously quirky and spooky horse. Trot up day on Wednesday was chilly and blustery. Moments before our number was called to present to the ground jury, my groom trotted Doc for me up and back on the tarmac in our pre-inspection holding area. Doc spooked sideways. I didn’t think much of it, with the crowd and the wind I would have been surprised if he had kept all four feet on the ground. I proceeded up the ramp and presented for the jog. I was sent to the hold, where to my horror I realized that my horse was three-legged lame and getting worse with each step. Further diagnosis revealed that he had torn a ligament in his stifle. It seems that his spook on the asphalt ended our chances to ride on that hallowed course. Doc came sound and spent a season the following year competing at the preliminary level, which defied all diagnoses, but his upper level career was ended.

Two years later, I am once again qualified for Rolex. This time I am riding Jet, a bright red chestnut off the track thoroughbred. Jet has been with me since he began his eventing career. In 2004 my now-husband, performance horse farrier Brian Leith, moved to Ocala, FL. Being new to the area, he decided to pick up a barn of racehorses along with the sport horses he was shoeing. Jet was bred in New York State and raced there in the summers, but came to Florida in the winters to train. Brian shod him as a three, four, and five year old in Ocala. Jet, a.k.a. Jamie’s Jet by A.P. Jet out of Full of Bull, had a moderately successful racing career. In late 2006, however, he was loosing his speed and his owners decided to retire him. Brian, who knew he was a sensible horse, picked him up just before Christmas and sent him to a friend to decompress. In 2007 Brian and I started dating while I was in Ocala for the winter. In April I was back in Pennsylvania. It seemed, though, that Brian thought our relationship was going well. He called me and told me he was sending me a horse. He said that the horse had a good mind and he figured I could do something with him.

Within a year and a half, Jet completed his first CCI* with me at the Florida Horse Park. We did a second CCI* in the spring of 2009 at the Florida Horse Park and then moved up to the intermediate and two-star level. From the beginning Jet was a cross country machine, often posting at the top of his division in that discipline. He has a naturally balanced stride, so I hardly have to touch him on course. The collection and expression necessary in dressage and the suppleness and bascule necessary in show jumping have come more slowly to Jet. Nonetheless, for the past four years Jet has clocked along for me. He has been unbelievably consistent in his record and has never missed a beat in his soundness. In May of 2010, Jet was 6th in his first CIC*** at Jersey Fresh and then 14th at Bromont CCI*** in Canada in June. At the end of October we finished our final four star qualification with an 18th place finish at Fair Hill International CCI*** in Elkton, MD. Rolex was once again in my crosshairs.

In December, however, when I brought Jet back into work after his rest time last fall, something didn’t feel quite right. I tried every trick I knew to assess the problem, and I also called in the professionals, including multiple veterinarians, acupuncturists, chiropractors, and massage therapists. We tried one thing after another, but nothing made him sound. In January we took him to The University of Florida for a bone scan. The test did not show any area of concern, so we were still left with no answers. We began blocking, and with the aid of ultrasound found a small inflammation in a suspensory ligament. I brought him home and aggressively treated the area with injections and shockwave therapy. Jet also began exercising in the aqua-tread machine at nearby Kesmarc. Within two weeks, the ligament issue resolved, but his lameness worsened.

It is now approximately ten weeks to Rolex. I have brought new opinions on board and this morning we started a new treatment that seems to have made a positive improvement as of this afternoon. If Rolex is going to be a reality for us this year, I have two weeks left to get Jet sound. I will need every minute of the remaining eight weeks to train, boost his fitness, and do preparation outings. Every day I think about the irony of the situation. I may once again be all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Six or seven years ago I rode around the cross country course at Kentucky CCI**** on a golf cart with Peter Green and some friends. A veteran U. S. Equestrian Team member and four star competitor, Peter was riding that year. At the time I had just barely competed my first three star. Getting to the four star level seemed like a very big deal. I asked Peter at what point in his career did getting to a four star become not such a big deal. He smiled a knowing smile and replied, “It is always an honor to get here.” Those words resonate more with me every year.

The Pau Experience: A Groom's View by Nobie Cannon

2010-11-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

Saturday:
I’ll start by apologizing for the tardiness of my blog, the last two days of competition got quite busy with the two horses going. Joe had good cross country times for both his horses, Don went in the morning and Cam went later on in the afternoon. After morning chores I set out all the necessary warm up/vet box gear (i.e. buckets, sponges, scrapers, coolers, halter/leadline, extra studs and tack, and the like) and made sure both the boys got their morning walks and magnetic blanket time (not to toot my own horn, but I’ve become quite an expert at the foreign magnetic blanket during my time here at Pau). Joe came back from walking his course again with a little change in stud plans, so we readjusted those and I tacked Don up, complete with his space cowboy cross country boots, and Joe came out in his red and white ready to go. My boss had a good reason to be quite “cross” with me, as I had put on the wrong jumping saddle (oops) but in typical Joe fashion he just calmly helped me switch and hopped on Don to tackle the course. While they warmed up I set out our space in the vetbox to ensure an organized cooling down situation. Luckily, the course finished in the main arena where a huge megatron showed most of the cross country, so I was able to see some of Don’s ride. Joe and Don both did a really great job and came back clear with Don looking ready to go again. After Don was settled I moved on to preparing Camie.

Same routine to get him ready, but I added the fern stencil for good luck. My ever calm, laid back boss waltzed in, did a quick mental run through of the course and hopped on Camie like he was going schooling. I prepared our little assembly line of buckets in the vet box again and was able to see Joe leave the start and jump the first fence before he disappeared onto the course. The Pau videographers obviously had a serious French bias and showed some French girl’s entire abysmal ride without showing one of Joe’s jumps. Almost hyperventilating at this point wondering how the two were going, I picked up a few bits and pieces of the French announcer saying something about Joe and Camie making the course look easy. Way to go boys! Joe galloped over the finish smiling so I knew that must have been a good sign, we grabbed Camie and cooled him down and he was released and back to the barn before we knew it.

The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent reorganizing equipment, icing, wrapping, braiding for jogs, and watching legs. Joe stayed at the barn with me until barns closed icing and checking the horses; considering most of the riders chucked their horses at their grooms and went off to party, it was really nice to work for someone with such concern for his horses.
At 11 pm we gave the horses their final checks and good luck pats before what was sure to be a very early, very busy morning.

Sunday:
Sunday morning came with a little disappointment, as Camie was a bit sore after the tough course the day before and Joe made the decision to withdraw, which he thought would be in Camie’s best interest. Don trotted at 7:45 am so I got him together rather early and after explaining to my boss that flashing judges is not proper etiquette here in France, I sent the two off to their jogs.

Show jumping was upon us before we knew it, so Joe hopped on and I followed him and Don down to the warmup to help set fences. Let me just say, if you thought an American warm up ring was a bit of a mess, just wait until you see a foreign one. A cacophony of foreign trainers’ shouting as well as a herd of cross country ponies circling around the warmup made for quite the stressful experience. To add to this, I basically had to yank rails out of several of the French trainers’ hands, as they obviously thought their silly French horses were superior. Narrowly escaping the warm up arena without starting World War III, we made our way to the main arena. The tense atmosphere in the arena didn’t do Don any favors and he tagged a few, but he and Joe still ended up in the top 20. After getting Don settled, we started the always annoying job of packing everything up and getting the ponies ready for travel. The fun was all over too soon!

Although we’ve had quite a bit of fun picking on each other all week, all joking aside Joe has been a pleasure to work with. His laid back attitude and obvious skill and experience do wonders for the horses and make for a great atmosphere around the barn. It really was an honor to get an inside look at such a great horseman’s routine and to get to know his sweet horses. Thanks for the patience and sense of humor, Joe, I really learned alot (including a whole new Kiwi vocabulary) and hope I was some help! Also a big thanks to my trainer at home, Ruthie, for setting this up for me! I owe you both!

Hope you guys enjoyed the blog and happy trails!

Nobie

Pau Weekend Wrap Up by Joe Meyer

2010-11-09T06:23:00.000-08:00

Cams dressage text was scheduled for around noon Friday. I gave him his first ride at 9 am and he was feeling pretty good in his head, but still struggling in his lateral work. I know this anyway so I just needed to remind myself not to over do it and push him beyond what he is capable of right now. I put him away for an hour and a half to relax and for me to grab a coffee and look at the videos of last weeks dressage lessons to remind myself I was going in the right direction. I also rang my dressage trainer Richard for a little pep talk. Feeling much better I got changed and headed back out happy again to find that Nobie had indeed tacked up the right horse. We had our final short warm up and Cam went in and put in a smooth, nice test without any big mistakes and one slightly annoying late change on his best lead, which was my fault anyway for not positioning him correctly. We were 18th to go and as I looked at the scoreboard on the way out of the ring we had moved into first place with a score of 56. I knew there were lots of other good horses to come later in the afternoon, but I have to say it was great to get some congratulations from some of my friends - especially since it was right before the lunch break so my first place postition lasted for more than an hour! Overall he went about as good as he can go at this stage of his training and what is to come from him on the future will be amazing.

With the horses put away we headed off to the cantine for lunch for another meal of something avec frites. After Cam's good dressage test we decided we better wheel the CIC** course and with this done we sat down to watch my good friend Andrew Nicholson's dressage test on Mr. Cruise Control. 4 pm was course walking time with Andrew, this is something I have always done at big 3 star and 4 star events. I feel really lucky to have a guy like him to go around the course with, as no matter how experienced you are I glean something new and different off of him every time. It's not just because I am a New Zealander that he takes the time to walk it with me he is always happy to help people and there were several of us from all over on the walk with him giving some good ideas. After going through the tack for the next day we called it a night and had an early evening.

Saturday - What a day!!! fairly early morning with an 8:30 am start for the 2 star. I got up in time to walk most of it before it started as I always like to have a quick walk around my courses the morning before I ride them. Right before I got on I heard that someone had taken the long option at the last skinny combination that I was worried about with Don and still made it inside the tight time so I knew it could be done. Don started really well and found some nice, galloping forward distances to the first part of the course which I knew would help Don build his confidence. The first real test of bank drop, 3 strides to angled brush followed by 3 strides to another angled brush, Don popped through really well and focused and with a big pat from me we galloped on to the water. The water complex is brush ditch and wall with a curving line of 8 strides to a drop down to 2 strides to an angled skinny brush in the water. We knew this would be a test for Don. The 2 strides walked short, but as yet we had not seen a horse do it in 2 and many horses were having problems there getting a 2 and a half. Don remedied this by dropping to trot and popping nicely over the skinny. At 4 minutes through the course I was 8 seconds slow, but there was a good long gallop and I really opened him up and stuck to my plan of taking the long route at the last combination and came in just under the optimimum time of 5:36. Don cooled out great, was released quickly and we were really happy as he had never gone so fast before in his life but it seemed easy for him.

With a good ride on Don done I went off for a final walk by myself around the 4 star course and make my final plans. I got on Cam 45 minutes before my start time of 2:42. Cam warmed up great and felt good. We had a slight delay due to a hold for fence repair on course but that was no problem. It was great to have a giant screen TV in the warm up so the riders could watch how the course was riding. We started out nicely with the first question coming early at the angled brush turn to corner at 3/4. Cam had a slightly awkward jump over the angled brush as it was early on course and he was not in a rhythm yet. This caused me to lose my line to the corner and we had a brief moment of panic, but he stayed focused on the job and with a little kick from me we were over. As I galloped away I had a mental note that this has happened and that I had better take a little more time at the next few fences and combinations to make sure Cam understands the questions. The next mound, Trakehner to skinny and Cam does it really well and was very focused. First water combination came early with a huge house that has to be jumped slowly with a deep stride (which we got) with a curve to straightforward log in, and now it gets tricky with a sharp 90 degree turn which walks 4 strides. Cam went around in 5 strides so I gave him a kick on the last one up the bank and another push on top of the bank to the one stride to the angled brush. I never thought 5 strides was an option there and I had seen one person do it in 5 and have problems, but that's what I got so had to make the best of it. So we galloped off to a few nicer fences including the big brush oxer from the photo album. Everything rode beautifully. We got to the skinny chevrons on the mounds and this was the combination I was the most indecisive about as I really did not know which would be the best route for Cam. In the end I decided to take the straight route of left chevron on an angle to the other left chevron in 4 strides. Cam got it done no problem. I ended up having to take the long route at the second water after I had a not great ride over the first part, but we did that quickly and had a nice long gallop stretch after that. We got to the 3rd water and Cam had a big jump in over the boat and landed strongly on an increasing stride so I was headed at the bank out on a long, flat stride in the wrong place to take the fast route so I popped the option quickly which only took a few seconds of time. Cam was completely confident and came to the last combination on course strongly and showed some of his inexperience by jumping hugely over the A and B elements so I once again had to take the long option at C. With just a few fences to go he was a little tired but galloping strongly and came as I came into the last fence in the arena I was pleasantly surprised that we were only a little over 30 seconds over time. I saw myself on the big screen and realized somewhere along the way I had lost my hat cover which was quite embarrassing (the egghead look). I was just so amazingly pleased with Cam at the time but it didn't dawn on me until later when I saw far more experienced horses struggling a bit with the course that I realized just how well Cam had done at his first 4 star. I was just so proud of him especially since he was a homebred and I have known Cam all his life. Unfortunately, Cam had over reaches on both front feet and we knew that even though they were minor he was likely to get quite sore on them. We spent the night icing and treating him as best we could but we soon realized that it was not going to be in Cam's best interest to try and showjump him the next day on such sore feet. It was certainly heartbreaking having to withdraw him as he had done so well and was lying in 7th going into showjumping, but Cam is a special horse that has a big future and I was determined to keep sight of that and not push him when he was not quite right.

Sunday started early with a 7:45 am jog for Don who looked great and fresh and ready to showjump. Unfortunately he was a bit too fresh and came into showjumping warmup a bit looky. The shetland ponies galloping around the xc in the shetland grand prix did not help his mental state at the time! He went into showjumping like a deer in headlights and showed his inexperience by becoming overwhelmed by the atmosphere and being a bit unfocused on the actual height of the fences. Jumping down the line directly towards the big screen proved to be his undoing and he pulled some rails. I had to remind myself that I had said in the beginning that whatever happened would be a good experience for him and although he dropped from 5th to 16th he is a better horse now from having had this experience. This sort of atmosphere was what he is lacking in his education at this point and something that just cannot be recreated at home or at one day events. So we loaded up for the long trip home a little disappointed in the results, but happy to have 2 good horses that overall tried their best. It is now Tuesday morning and between the rough ferry crossing and the heavy rains and traffic we still have not managed to make it home but are finally getting close. I hope everyone has enjoyed my insights into the highs and lows of my Pau experience and if anyone has any questions please post them here and I will be happy to answer them.

See you had Badminton in the spring!

Joe

Cambalda is the Bomb in SoCal by Jennie Brannigan

2010-11-08T16:35:00.000-08:00

Well as I sit here on Hawley Bennett's couch a lot is rolling on through my mind about how the last few days has gone here at Galway Downs in Temecula, CA. Ping jumped his heart out for me the past two days and I cannot say enough brilliant and amazing things about this horse.

My xc round I felt Iike was fairly smooth and of course there was a few things I would have sharpened up on if I could go back over and redo it again but on a whole I feel as though it was a fairly solid round. Ping came back well on Saturday and I was able to take a few short cuts on the track which made it a bit easier to make time around Ian Stark's track which I thought was very well presented. After giving him fluids and giving him a good check on his soundness we tucked him in for the night. We did have a little problem getting Ping to settle when some late night farrier work was going on. Poor Ping had himself so wound up in the stall throughout the weekend that he was pretty exhausted by the end of it all! He did come out and jog well the next morning, which was a relief. Unfortunatly my good friend Tamie Smith had to withdraw her horse, Corner Street, from the competition who was sitting second barely behind me.... I can say honestly that it was very sad and my heart goes out to her.

Next came these golf cart races, which to be honest was probably one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life! Some highlights of this include Nick Cwick hitting Ian Stark with an orange cone in the head, Casey McKissock getting run down by Hawley Bennett, and Gina Miles and I getting in a serious water fight in Galway's new water jump.

Next game - Ping's show jumping and to be honest I was very nervous when Allie Slusher, whose a friend of mine, jumped a clear round. Ping was pretty darn tired, but jumped his heart out exspecially when I got in seriously wrong to a large oxer on the track. He jumped like crazy after that and was pretty bound and determined to jump a clear round. What a great horse is all I really have to say.... I'm still in shock that he won. Getting to put Cooper's cooler on him was one of the most emotional moments of my life. I think Hawley Bennett and I were extremely emotional when we got interviewed.

One year ago I was in one of the biggest lows in my life and it's crazy to think how much things have changed. Thank you to everyone at PRO, Galway Downs, and everyone who has helped me get this far. A big thank you to the Gardners and my family for really supporting me this weekend. Phillip and Evie Dutton, Kelley Merrette, Emma Ford, Lillian Heard, Nick Cwick and every sponsor and owner I have. I can say, without question, I have two homes now and have the best people in my life. I wish I could name everyone.... Doctor Bogenrief thank you for believing in me when all the chips were down.... Thank you for being there for Kozmo, Cooper, and now Ping.... And of course thank you and joy for owning Walkabout. Words cannot do justice to what you've given me and taught me.

Well I guess 2010 is over.....
What an end!

Jennie

Photo by Kat Netzler www.chronofthehorse.com

Galway Weekend Wrap Up by Alexandra Slusher

2010-11-08T16:18:00.000-08:00

What a day!! Starting off the morning with a double clean two star xc ride with Juicy Couture was a huge confidence boost. She was absolutely fantastic and it was our best xc to date. Following that was an amazing three star ride on Last Call. I was only two seconds slow and for Fergie and I that means we were really movin!! She really stepped up to the plate today! I couldn't be more thrilled with my day and to top it off my student won her very first preliminary.

After a long afternoon of cleaning up, icing and walking I am pleased to say that both Ellie and Fergie looked great when we trotted them this evening. It was a long hard day but the best xc I have ever ridden. The courses rode very tough but I am pleased to say I am in the lead in the two star and third in the three star. There was many other fabulous rides but Jennie Brannigan and Cambalda really stuck in my brain as a beautiful round. James Alliston also stuck out and having not one but two amazing clear xc rounds in the three star. I think the West Coast proved a point today that we can do it too!! I'm off to bed now because it will be a very early morning starting with the jogs as 8:30.

So I just got in the truck for the long nine hour drive home. As I reflect on yesterday I still can't believe what a success it truly was to be second in the first CCI three-star on the West Coast and first in the two-star. The day couldn't have been better for me. Starting with a smooth morning beginning at 5 AM preparing for he final horse inspection. After both horses were passed I had a chance to watch some sj and really start to get nervous.

Luckily PRO put on the hilarious golf cart races to break the tension right before I got on Juicy Couture. The races were fun and scary at the same time. Having blind folded drivers doing obstacle course wih a co-pilot giving directions got out of hand very quickly!! Every one got very competitive so there was serious sabotage going on. Casey McKissock got hit with the golf cart, but laughed it off and a few flower pots got smashed.

Quickly, after I jumped off the golf cart I jumped on my horse and began my warm up. Hawley and I kept it short and sweet knowing Ellie is a good jumper. Ellie tried her heart out for me and was shaping up to be a perfect round. Knowing I had two rails in hand I did exactly what I shouldn't have done and got too relaxed at the last fence and had the last rail down. I kicked myself in the butt for that!

After I received the blue ribbon I turned my focus to my three star mount. Fergie warmed up beautifully and went in for a double clean round! Jennie proceeded to also go in a have a beautiful double clean round. Jennie and I didn't stop smiling for he rest of the night. After an emotional press conference it was off to dinner at La Cocina for some margaritas and Mexican food!! After some drinking and the hot tub at Hawleys house I was off to bed for some much needed sleep. I can confidently say that was the most fun and best show I have ever had. Going home today with two sound horses for a much deserved break after a very successful close to the season is everything I could ask for.

Thank you to my husband for being my best supporter, my parents for supporting me and my dreams from the start, Hawley Bennett Awad for being the best coach and friend I could ask for and Maralee, Paul and Faves for for being there unequivocally for me and a special thank you to Bre Hall for being a great groom for me! I will check back in next spring!! Have a great winter!!

Allie

Dressage Day 2 by Nobie Cannon

2010-11-07T05:15:00.000-08:00

Day two of dressage here at Pau. I finished morning chores as quickly as possible to get Cam ready for his 11:50 test. Joe (on time today thank goodness) took Cam out for an early morning ride while I finished up stalls and tack. Unfortunately, Camie came back a little grumpy and was a bit of a pain to get together for his test. But the show must go on so we got Cam all groomed and ready to go, complete with the super chic New Zealand “Silver Fern” stencil on his rump. I must say, Camie looked quite dazzling going around the arena and Joe did a really nice job getting him through the test. Way to go guys.

After lunch, I took Don for a long hack, as he didn’t have any competition rides today. Why yes, I have ridden at Pau :) The hacking track goes around the perimeter of part of the cross country course so I could see some of the jumps we walked yesterday. They still look really frightening. I took the rest of the afternoon to lay out all the tack and equipment the boys will need for cross country tomorrow. I admit I did have to get a tutorial on how to put on the space cowboy cross country boots that Cam and Don will be sporting tomorrow.

Finished night chores and came back to the lorry to get stud instructions from Joe, put ice boots in the freezer, and make a list of things to remember tomorrow morning. Don goes first at 10:30 tomorrow morning; I gave him a little pep talk/bedtime story at late checks tonight, let’s hope he remembers for tomorrow. Now we’re all back at the lorry while our very own Kiwi Emeril cooks for us again to his super fantastic New Zealand music. The fern was cool, the tunes, not so much.

Wish us luck tomorrow, we’ll be sporting our red and white “jumpers” so cheer Joe and the boys on from afar if you’re watching the live coverage!

Nobie

Dressage Day at Galway by Jennie Brannigan

2010-11-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

Well today was quite the day at Galway Downs with dressage and show jumping in full swing. I started off my day hacking Ping out and watching Livingston show jump with his new rider doing her first preliminary. I would be pretty pumped if I was her! After my warm up hack I jumped on the Ian Stark course walk which was wonderful and very informative. He also gave me some new insight to some of the xc efforts and how to ride them. Next I sat and watched about 7 episodes of Entourage in an attempt to chill out and be mellow for my dressage, which must have worked because Ping got a 46 with the help of my good friend and coach for the weekend, Nick Cwick, helping me in the warm up! I'm thrilled with Pinger and look forward to tomorrow. My teammate on my Calcutta team Allie Slusher was awesome in the three star and is sitting fourth as well. It looks like Nina Gardner has made a good investment, in our Calcutta team, at least in the dressage phase of this competition! I ended the day with a course walk with former coach, Hawley Bennett Awad, who knows my horse and myself quite well so a big thanks to her for that. Well tomorrow is a big day - I'm going to get some sleep!

Jennie

A Busy Galway Weekend by Allie Slusher

2010-11-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

The weekend has begun and things are off to a great start with every horse passing the first trot up. My two mares are feeling great and were very fresh at the jog! I also rode a prelim horse that was fantastic in his dressage test. My student Breann Hall is in second place at her first prelim riding the famous Livingstone owned by Hawley Bennett-Awad. This evening we went to the annual Calcutta where we bid on three star teams. Jennie Brannigan, Imtiaz Anees and I are on a team together so I'm feeling really confident that our team will win! Today I would say was great start to finish! The weather has been ideal except for some Santa Ana winds. The show is running exceptionally smoothly. Robert Kellerhouse has put on another great show. This may be his most exciting show yet with it being the first CCI*** on the West Coast. I am so glad the East Coasters are here to see what we are all about over on this side of the country. The courses looks beautiful, and I know how hard everyone has worked to pull everything together. A huge thank you to everyone working this show!!! I feel like Hawley Bennett, my coach, has prepared me well and I am very excited for the rest of the weekend!

Dressage day was a success! My two star horse, Juicy Couture, is sitting first at the end of the first day! She was fantastic in her first two star test. Last Call is sitting fourth in the three star and for the first time broke into the forties! There were some other fantastic rides in the three star including Allison Springer on Arthur, Tamie Smith on her catch ride Corner Street and Jennie Brannigan on Cambalda. Since Jennie is on my Calcutta team, I am thrilled she is sitting in second place!!!! My prelim horse was great in the show jumping and my student Bre is in first riding Livingston!!

Hawley and I walked the xc tracks this afternoon. They look fantastic!! Ian Stark and Robert Kellerhouse have put on a truly fantastic show. The quality of the courses are every bit as great as anything I have seen on the East Coast. Today was another great day at Galway Downs! Tomorrow will be an early morning!! Talk to you all tomorrow!!

Allie

Dressage and a XC Preview by Joe Meyer

2010-11-05T05:54:00.000-07:00

Competition day is upon us at Pau with Don doing his CIC** dressage test at 11:30. I took him for his first ride at 9 am. This pre warm-up ride took longet than I expected as he never really got to the place I wanted and Don was starting to feel the atmposphere of the other horses and big arenas. His walk pirouettes, which lately have been a bit hit or miss, were exactly that this morning - well actually verging a bit more on the miss than hit!. The experienced bird on my shoulder chirped at me to say - Joe it is time to just ride this horse long and low and try to make him happy and put him away before you have done too much. So I took him back to the stables and presented him to Nobie nice and hot and sweaty with not much time left to be braided before the test.

Went back to the lorry to have a coffee and polish my boots and a quick look over the test. Back down to the stables half an hour before my ride time to get on and I was relieved to find that Nobie had tacked up the right horse for the competition at hand. So with things looking up we headed to the warm up. A downsize in spurs and leaving the whip at the barn to make sure I didn't wind Don up seemed the right plan of action. A couple of pointers from Andrew Nicholson on the way to the ring and a final polish from Nobie before heading in to do my test. Don went in and excelled himself with a really smooth and regular test and there were smiles all around for his strong performance. Don scored a 49.4 and was 4th after 42 at the lunch break and finished the day in 8th place in a field of over 60. His owner Ann Black said he was actually in the lead because the French riders don't count!

Feeling a little bit of a high after my good performance on Don I went for a ride on Cam who is still improving all the time but struggling a bit still with his lateral work. He had a physio session this morning which seemed to help him a bit.

Time for course wallking. My longtime Spanish friend Sebas set out with Nobie as our 'wheel girl'. This course is technical, not massively tall (please see photo of fence where humans cannot be seen on the backside at all in album) with a few real live wide spreads - and maybe a couple of big drops too. There is a difficult corner early at fence 4, a narrow soon after followed by the first water which consists of a huge table to a nice big drop into water with a sharp turn to the right up a bank with one stride to angled brush. For Cam's first four star this is going to be a real test it is technical and narrow at places. Cam is very, very brave and I just need to make sure I aim him between the flags and not get too carried away with his massive, bottomless gallop. There are some quite forward distances on the course which we all know should suit him, but this is a comment I will reserve for after I finish. Looks like Nobie wheeled it a bit tight which suits me and Sebas just fine and meant we didn't have to send her out again to wheel it to more suit our liking.

After a refreshing cup of tea I ran around Don's 2 star course that is half the distance of the four star and only 18 fences with some combinations. It has one very narrow skinny near the end. This is nothing Don can't handle, but to be in the money here it will be a sprint. Arena reconnaisance at 5 pm for Cam. Cam seemed to go alseep walking around the arena so lets hope tomorrow he is just as relaxed.

Great day here at Pau! Will let you know how Cam's test goes tomorrow.

Joe

Intrepid's Dressage Day at Pau by Nobie Cannon

2010-11-05T05:45:00.000-07:00

Another busy day here at Pau for Joe and I. Joe decided last night to ride Intrepid (Don) a bit before his 11:30 test, so we agreed that an 8:30 ride would be perfect to get him going and would still give me plenty of time to have him glamorous for his dressage ride. Eight thirty comes and goes, as does 8:45, and finally at around 9 Joe saunters into the barn, tea in hand, ready to ride. So off he goes to ride, comes back about forty minutes before he needs to be on again, and hands me the horse like neither of us have a care in the world. Meanwhile, I’m spinning like a top trying to figure out how to break land speed records to get this horse braided and halfway clean in a seriously short amount of time. Miraculously, we managed to pull Don together and he put in a lovely test for Joe. Joe attributes his nice ride to the Starbuck’s coffee he had this morning, I think it was most definitely Don’s supplements that did it.

After Don’s test, I took a quick lunch break at the competitor/groom’s cafeteria tent while Joe rode Cam. Note to American horse show organizers: delicious free food keeps riders and their grooms VERY happy which always makes for a better show.
This afternoon I wheeled the four star course while enjoying Joe’s commentary about the fences. In particular, I remember a gigantic brush fence that is literally as tall as Joe and his comment “Well, you’ve just kind of got to get them to it.” Nothing to it, obviously. Meanwhile I’m grinding my teeth and trying to figure out how to get my hands on some anti-anxiety meds and I don’t even have to ride it!

The rest of the evening was spent getting the horses comfortable and situated and getting everything set out for tomorrow morning. Let’s hope we can keep things running on time tomorrow, so as to avoid any grooming catastrophes. Keeping my fingers crossed that Camie will put in a good test for Joe tomorrow!

Nobie

SoCal is the Bomb by Jennie Brannigan

2010-11-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone from sunny SoCal as the competition really started today with the jog for the CCI*** all the horses were truly in good form as all the horses passed the first hurdle in a long weekend. The weather has been fairly unreal except for a fair bit of Santa Ana wind.

It's been pretty neat to be back home for the first ever CCI *** on the West Coast and I would lying say I'm not loving being back home. Nina Gardner flew in last night and she is very excited about the weekend. We ended the evening with the Calcutta party in which the three star riders were grouped in teams and auctioned off to the highest bidder. Allie Slusher, Imtiaz Anees and I were all on the same team and it was pretty awesome because we had a lot of people betting on us! Ultimately Nina Gardner won our team in battle between Galway Downs' brand new owners and her! Well Kelley Merrette, Nick Cwick and I are all getting sleepy here at Hawley Bennett's house. She is putting up a whole lot of people this weekend so a big thank you to her for that! I'll check in tomorrow!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

A Kiwi Groom's Tale by Nobie Cannon

2010-11-04T05:42:00.000-07:00

It’s jog (“trot up” according to the New Zealanders) day here at Pau! Despite some complications in the beginning, Joe and I are getting along quite well and most of the time I can even understand what he’s telling me to do.

After breakfast and morning chores, Joe took both of his horses out for some work while I sorted out supplies necessary to make Cam presentable for the inspection. Lacking some braiding supplies, we roared off in one of the Hot Wheels-sized cars they drive here in Europe in search of the nearest supermarket. We grabbed a needle, some thread, and a baguette (when in France...) and headed back to the show grounds to get Cam ready.

After some heavy scrubbing, polishing, brushing etc. and the loss of a few pints of my blood (ridiculously sharp braiding needle) Cam was ready to roll and had a nice, sound jog. Joe gave the two another workout and I’ve spent the rest of the evening cleaning tack, reorganizing, and finishing night chores. Don goes tomorrow late morning, let’s hope I can figure out which horse is which and have him ready to go by then :)

Nobie

Onto the Jog at Pau by Joe Meyer

2010-11-04T05:31:00.000-07:00

Got up to another nice morning her at Pau and decided to give both the horses a flat school before the briefing. Don is still feeling a little hot and excited but hopefully by tomorrow he will have settled down but for me whatever happens with him this week will be a good learning experience for him as it is big atmosphere here. Cam is starting to feel good, but from experience with him if I try and do all the all of the hard movements early in the week it can make him a little bit tight. As much as I want to ride him more I know that by Friday things should be fine.

There are many more people here now and the lorry park is very full. It is starting to feel much more like a real competition. The briefing at noon was uneventful. The jog here at Pau isn't until 4:30 which gave me a little time between rides for a quick walk around the back loop of the 4 star cross country course. The fences all look jumpable - which is a good sign as sometimes on the first course walk some fences look impossible.

The jog was uneventful for Cam who jogged up quite nicely aside from the sideways spook at the flowers on the way down. I am not quite sure why the photo looks like I am flashing the ground jury as I wasn't - I'm saving that move for the Sunday morning jog if need be.

Tomorrow will be busier day. Don does his dressage test at 11:29 am and I will walk both courses as well as getting in some stronger work on Cam. Should be a busy day with lots of good news to report I hope.
Joe

Settling in at Pau by Joe Meyer

2010-11-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

I went out this morning to find the weather was not quite as warm as I had hoped, but I was close to a t-shirt so not complaining too much. The horses seem to be pretty settled in to their stables. The stables here at Pau are nice permanent stables with very large areas for tack, which makes everything pretty easy especially when it rains which sometimes it can do here - with a vengeance.

I went through some of the tack, feed and bits and pieces with Nobie this morning and she is starting to understand some of the subtle differences of the feeding regime in the UK as opposed to the US. We tacked up the horses and took them for a nice long walk around the gallop track and onto parts of the cross country course that you are allowed to hack on and had a sneak peak at some of the jumps. Apologies for some of these pictures of Nobie and I, but we had to persuade a very large, dodgy looking security man to take the photos. I don't think he even spoke French let alone English, but once the camera was pointed the right way he managed to take this very bad photo that you can see in the album. We do think it is of us.

The rest of the day was spent sorting out the last bits of the lorry and going through lists of items that Nobie may need. I rode Don again in the afternoon as he was quite fresh in the morning - in a nervous, young horse sort of way. Cam felt good this morning so he was just allowed to have a session of my simple and user friendly magnetic blanket! With the horses put away for the night I called over to Andrew Nicholson for a visit and catch up. He, as normal, was a bit tired after driving all night on his own so left him to go to bed and headed to a well reviewed small Brasserie in downtown Pau which turned out to be a real find (see photo of amazing dinner)... we are loving Pau so far.

Tomorrow the competitor briefing is at 12 and the jog is at 4:30 and hopefully the course might be open for a quick walk in between (we are on French time down here).
Joe

First Day at Work at Pau by Nobie Cannon

2010-11-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

Hi I’m Nobie. I’m an American rider based in Florida going to the University of Florida in Gainesville. I have been a working student for PRO rider Ruthie Harbison for several years now, but recently traded in my riding boots and baseball caps for stilettos and berets to study in Paris for the semester.

When the opportunity came about to groom for Joe Meyer at Pau for the week, I jumped at the chance and it being my fall break from school made it a convenient mini vacation. So after a long journey, we arrived at Pau on Monday evening around 7. After getting the horses settled in for the night, Joe was nice enough to cook for us! This was a welcome treat compared to the usual fare of midnight McDonald’s at the shows back home. Got to bed early, excited for the opportunity to be here at Pau as an insider.

Bright and early this morning, I set out for morning chores. After dumping approximately 100 pounds of supplements into each of Joe’s horse’s feed, I came to the conclusion that this man may quite possibly have more supplements than the entire Smartpak catalog stocks. I took the two horses for a nice long walk, all the while trying to find any distinguishing characteristics between the two identical horses-same color, same height, same age, same breeding. Oh boy.

When Joe came out, we took the two for a hack around the grounds and he worked in the dressage arena for a bit with Cam and then Don. Cam was treated to the magnetic blanket after his workout, and as a sidenote, I would like to point out that European magnetic blankets might possibly be even more complicated than American ones due to poorly translated instructions. The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning tack and feverishly trying to find some sort of brass polish to take care of the years of dirt and rust that had accumulated on every inch of metal that Joe owns. Either my former boss Ruthie is relatively obsessive about her brass or Joe is just really laid back. Or perhaps a little of both :) With that taken care of, I got the boys fed and settled into their pajamas for the evening and came back to the lorry to brush up on my less than stellar Kiwi English skills.

Note to PRO, please send a translator to Pau at your earliest convenience. What does “getting stuck in” mean?! A bientot!

Last Minute Preparations and The Trip to Pau by Joe Meyer

2010-11-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

Horses
Sanskrit (Cam)- 11yr old NZ homebred by Silent Hunter. He has completed Blenheim CCI*** and Luhmuhlen CIC***, Aachen CIC*** and was 2nd in British Open Championships at Gatcombe this year. Cam is competing in his first CCI****
Intrepid (Don) -9yr old NZ homebred by Steal the Show. He was 11th at Hartpury CCI** in August and is fairly new ride to me having only returned to my yard in June. He has been gaining continued confidence all season and 'Don' will be competing in the CIC** at Pau.

Saturday morning brought me to Kate Lukas' for final gallops at LMEQ - a place I use often. It has a great 7 furlong uphill gallop and xc schooloing area. Don can be a little bit looking at water so need to get his feet wet while Cam is very confident so just went on gallops. Both horses did 3 times up the gallops as they were about to get on truck the next day and I always cut off a little bit of last gallop before they ship long distance.

Sunday morning was spent running around doing last minute jobs and packing truck while organizing yard for girls while I am away for the week at Pau. All was smooth so jumped in truck and headed off to my dressage trainer Richard Barret for a little bit of last minute tune up for Cams 4 star test and a little bit of last minute wind up for me from Richard (which Richard is very good at doing i.e. hands down, shoulders back and stop nodding your head!!!) Got back in truck and headed to Portsmouth to take the ferry to Le Havre. There are 3 different routes to France that we can use and they are Dover/Calais, Portsmouth/Le Havre and Portsmouth/Caen. When I am the only driver, as in this occasion, I would normally take the overnight boat which is an 8 hour sail from Portsmouth to either location in France. Its slightly more expensive, but cuts out a lot of driving time and you get to have a nice sleep in the boat in the cabin. Arrived at Portsmouth had some dinner (to avoid the marginal food on the ferry) and glass of wine in the lorry (in England we drive lorries, which are large trucks with living quarters and the horses all in one) while waiting on the docks.. We boarded the ferry and headed to the sleeping cabin.

Monday brought sunshine on arrival to France after a great sleep and smooth crossing. Had a great wonderful complimentary cappucino to help start the drive and we disembarked after giving the horses some water and breakfast. Managed to skip through customs and passport control (just luck!) and its been smooth driving ever since. A diesel and late breakfast (consisting of freshbaked chocolate croissants, ham and cheese baguettes and a plate of cheese and meats) stop earned me an extra 10 Euros for selling a half bottle of crusty looking licorish vodka that had been lying around in the back of the lorry for a couple years to some desperate Polish truck drivers who were stuck in the parking lot due to being unable to drive today, which was a bank holiday It was the sort of bottle that you would only offer to someone you didn't like, but they were very pleased for it (see photo of happy Polish truckers).

Horses have been traveling and drinking really well and we survived the Bordeaux ring road (which has been my nemesis for being in the wrong lane and receiving some serious fines in the past) we are now in the final 100 miles of journey to Pau. Arrival time should be 7 pm France time. Fingers crossed for continued easy journey through this last windy bit!

Until tomorrow,
Joe

Chatt Hills Halloween Style by Rebecca Howard

2010-10-31T17:24:00.000-07:00

People, dogs and of course children reminded us all that is was the last day of October and we should be dressed up eating candy. The prize givers were also in costume... but host Carl Bouckaert was not!

All our horses were very good and Dana, Susan and I kept the positions that we had going into the SJ ring.The courses again were the stamp of Mark Donovan, and were really good tracks. I have to say also that the footing in the arenas was really good. The first time I rode here was this May and the footing was still new, this week end it felt even better then at the AEC's.

It is strange to be driving home from the last event of the year for The Fork crowd. Quite a year it has been, and this was a nice one to end on. The negative is now dealing with the backed up traffic on I-85.... Agggggh think it is going to be a long drive home.

Chatt Hills by Rebecca Howard

2010-10-31T06:50:00.000-07:00

It is a much less busy Chatt Hills then that of 2 months ago for the AECs. It was amazing how many horses this place absorbed for that weekend, although there is a good turnout this weekend, we have a great luxury of space… and parking! The farm looks like it recovered well from the trampling of people and horses in September, and with the help of recent rain the ground for today’s XC was quite good. You can still see the gallop path that was put up the hill for the US WEG horses to gallop on while here for their training camp.

For us at the Fork this weekend was supposed to be about Dana…. the Dana Cooke is my right hand girl and the one that kept everything ticking along at the Fork while I was on the road so much this summer and fall. Dana and Indy were to do her first 2* this week end. I am here to coach a few, ride one and was looking forward to being Dana’s groom for a change! Her past intermediates have gone very very well and we were really excited for her to get this notch in her belt. Unfortunately instead she got to learn the frustrating lesson with horses… her pony got hurt the week before… and we had to scratch her the day before leaving. The few days prior to departure we were still optimistic that we could get it sorted, but unfortunately no. Indy should not be benched for long at all, but the timing of course sucked.

I did not get to watch any of the 2* go this morning… was too busy riding my training horse a few long times (he is learning that even though it is cold out, you have to do dressage!) So to those of you that were in the warm up arena with me and had to quickly dart out of my way… I apologize. Archie was just trying to get warm…real cute I know. Susan Beebee and her fancy Wolf horse were… fancy… and are in 3rd in the Prelim, Dana is in 2nd on her novice horse and Archie and I are in 5th, all The Fork ponies were very good xc.

Hope to watch the 1 and 2 star horses tomorrow… imagine John Holling will have a sleepless night as he only has a 14 point lead in the one star!

Fair Hill From a YR's Perspective by Arden Wildasin

2010-10-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday: The jog day with nerves going through the air.

The horse that I got qualified is Mandar who is competing in the CCI**. Today was the jog. I see other competitors riding their horse in the morning so they get used to the setting over here at beautiful Fair Hill. I head back to the barn where they have begun checking if you have a blue wrist band on. I am able to go straight through! In the barns, horses have started to getting their final bath and some have started to get braided. A lot of jokes are being passed around with lots of laughter at the end. I take Mandar aka “Gus” for a long stroll before heading over to the jog. We all seem fine.
We are at the jog and and nerves are defiantly in the air with some horses getting held and not passing, while others are being accepted on their first go. I’m on deck ready to go, Mandar looks and seems fine. I go to the longest jog strip. I jog up it and then back down. Everyone is silent - I get held. It was nerveracking for all of us. The vet said that he was sore, but we worked out of it on third jog before representing him. He passed with flying colors... On with dressage for tomorrow!

There was a hoedown Friday night. It got a little wild towards the end of the party with Nat Chambers dancing on the table and helping Jimmy Wofford who was auctioning off the teams for this weekend.

Thursday: First day of dressage:

Fair Hill without rain, I don’t think so. This morning it was cold and the sun was trying to break through the clouds, but when the fifth horse entered the ring of the two star the rain started, lightly at first then harder and harder. At first people thought it would not rain, but by 10am the rain gods were against us. It has been raining for the whole day. The only thing I hope for is that it will somewhat lighten up...that is all I ask. It did lighten up at the end of the day. Gus and I did not have our best dressage, but we gave it our best effort.

Friday: Second day of dressage

I was able to watch some dressage rides. There were some spectacular tests put down by the CCI 3*’s that were breathtaking to watch. I went around the cross-country course again, looking at new lines to ride and each time I finish I am amazed how beautiful the course is. You walk it and it is over three miles long. Today was windy but no rain!

Saturday: Cross-country

I woke up early one last time to walk to course with Phillip Dutton. I went back to the barn and it was quiet, people were working away on their horses while I was getting nervous about going out on course. So far everything was riding great, no big problems. Thanks to Jan who helped me warm up before going out on course. Phillip gave me some last reminders and Gus and I were ready. Out of the start box we went! I was out on the course for nine minutes. The longest course I have been around. I crossed the finish flags and I was so happy. Getting around with a double clear was amazing. The ten minute box went by fast. Colby, Gus, and I were back at the barn icing away in no time. We were able to take a break for Gus to chill out and for Colby and I to watch some of the 3 star riders go around. At night people were jogging horses to see what else needed to be done before putting them to sleep.

Sunday: Stadium

Sunday rolled around quickly, riders and grooms were at the barns by 5am doing the last minute icing. The jog was at 9am and I passed without needing to go the hold box! A lot of horses were being held, but passed at when the were represented. The stadium course was BIG, long and technical. I was in 14th place going into the stadium. Gus was jumping high. He did not want to touch anything! We finished the course and I was in Heaven, I could not believe that I made it to Fair Hill and even completed it on my dressage score! That was unreal. I ended up being 11th just outside of the ribbons, but I was the National Young Rider Champion.

Well Gus I know is now deserving a long break out in the field in warm Aiken, South Carolina!

~Arden

Boekelo Wrap Up by Doug Payne

2010-10-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

What a trip...
I don't think I sent in a proper SJ report. So in front of a packed house, estimates around 10k people on all sides of the stadium, we had the final phase of the 3 day, or Military as its know in Holland.

Running Order is generally quite a good show jumper. I was unsure of how well this particular round would go just due to the countless unknowns...the people, flags, banners, grandstands, bars/restaurants etc... The course was not overly technical. I was the second on course. So there wouldn't be much time to assess the typical problems which would have been clear after watching a few horses go, ie tricky combination, bogey fences or time. We figured the time would be tight, and this was the case. After walking there were a few areas of concern for me. A few of the jumps were situated in a way in which you were directly jumping into the stands. This was the case with the 2nd, the approach to 5, 8 and the final triple combination which if you drifted left you'd land within 15' of the outside wall separating the grandstands and the stadium. We made a plan to angle a few of these to take the people out of the question as much as possible, we also planned on an inside line to the triple allowing us to jump a bit left to right allowing the horse to see an out at the end. I can't tell you how happy I was that I've had the opportunity to jump so much over the past year. Anne's advice was ringing in my ear the entire time. And to my surprise I really was hardly nervous. The course looked small, I guess Courage's Grand Prix being the last course I walked puts things in perspective :). Not so say that's always the case, its all what your riding, and Skinny can jump with the best of them.

I hopped on for warmup, I've never been so excited a sunday before about a horse. Most horses would come out a little stiff and tired after 12mins of xc the day before. Not Running Order, I've always thought he'd make it big, this was confirmation. He jumped great in warmup. I went into the ring knowing the first horse had 1 or 2 rails and a few time. He jumped great throughout the course. We did have 1 down at a fence that ended up coming down all day. In hindsight I could have helped him off the ground a bit more. Such is life, we made the time without a problem. As I said before, upon finishing I knew there was a lot of room for improvement, but I was very proud of my pony!

Aside from the individual competition, we were one of 19 teams competing in the Grolsch Nations Cup competition. On the strong preformance of Sinead, Will and Tiana we finished 2nd. Which meant RO was back for the awards.

What a mad house. Between carriages of fresians and fjords, tons of authentically dressed people, notice the PC description ;), bands tractors etc...RO's eyes were popping out of his poor little head. We actually saw some woman a few ft away get run over by a tractor.

We won beautiful coolers, which I was excited about until I got a leg up...not sure how many of you have tried to ride with a cooler between you and the saddle, but without a doubt this ceremony was the closest I came to falling off during the weekend. My dad managed to assimilate into the masses of press as they entered to cover the awards ceremony, so pics should be coming soon. The victory gallop was exciting to say the least, but it was a great ending for the weekend.

Without question, I would rather have had a much different result. However, I know I speak for everyone that went along, it has been an immensely valuable experience. I certainly have never ridden in such an environment. Everything from the team experience, to the shear numbers of spectators to the stadium atmosphere for the horses, flying, packing the list goes on. I'm a frustrated, but much better rider and horseman for the experience.

As for Running Order, I really couldn't be more proud of him. The glitch we had on XC was not due to anything but inexperience, on his and my part. The only way of getting it is doing it. As much as I hate to admit that! The exciting thing was that he just continued to get better and more confident throughout the competition. He has come so far in such a short period of time. As an 8 year old he was one of the youngest in the competition, not only that but the fact that 2.5 years ago he hadn't been to a beginner novice! He is a much better horse coming out of the event than what I had going in.

I also want to thank all of the people who have made that all possible. First off, Patti, his owner. Without her support we're dead in the water. The Springsteen's have been exceptional throughout RO's short career. Then Mark Phillips, my Mom, Irma Hotz, Anne Kursinski, David O'Connor and I'm sure I'm forgetting many others. As for this trip we also can't forget Sara Ike and Mike Huber.

I also wanted to thank Larry and Amelia Ross for making the trip from Italy to watch over the weekend. They own Tali with me, and with a little luck he'll be competing at Boekelo in a few years!

This is an exciting journey, its going to have ups and downs, and I see it as long as your learning and getting better the future is looking bright. This trip cranked up the intensity of that light exponentially.

We have an off weekend coming up, we'll be heading off the Far Hills Races...then off to Va horse trials the following weekend for the rest of the horses at the barn. Running Order will be enjoying some much deserved time off in a field!

~Doug

Fair Hill Day 4 By Diana Burnett

2010-10-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

Best day!

Woke up in a freezing cold trailer, as we ran out of propane in the night. Thank god for having a dog to keep me warm!
Had a final course walk at 7am to get some of the morning nerves out of the way and confirm my plan. The ground felt great. It is still pretty windy here, so Shaggy was still feeling quite fresh when I got on him! He warmed up beautifully giving the jumps lots of room and landing galloping away. He certainly felt ready! When we crossed the road to the start box he knew it was time and put his game face on. This horse moved up many ranks in my books today! He felt incredible out there the whole time and finished with gas in the tank. He handled all the questions like a seasoned pro! He recovered quickly in the box under the excellent supervision of Sandra, Christiana and Randy. They are amazing and much appreciated!

There were problems in different areas all over the course today. There was not one particular jump that cause a lot of problems.
All our thoughts are with Sharon and Jennifer right now who both had falls today, but are reported to be doing well.
Would also like to add that the US riders overseas did a great job xc today!

Shags is looking great tonight, thanks to sandras great care throughout the day and I'm sure is looking forward to snice rest tonight!

XC at Boekelo by Doug Payne

2010-10-16T04:03:00.000-07:00

Running Order was pretty damn good, but unfortunately not perfect. He jumped the first 8 perfectly. 9 was the first water. The A element was on a left bend into it around a bunch of trees. In hindsight I should have squared the turn off a bit more, he didn't read it well. I ended up have 2 stops at it. I should have taken more time on my second attempt. The third was sticky, but finished up well. We continued on in the straight route and jumped elements b through e very well.

In most cases I'd be very upset, but just got better and better through the course. I can't tell you how excited I am about our future. He finished up still only 45 seconds late. Amazing being that I just let him cruise on after fence 9. The time was well within his grasp. As Mark said at the finish, "this is a very good horse for the future." I couldn't agree more. Just has some to learn.

I've heard time and time again that experience is what you need after you need it. I've got it for next year!
Will had a great run finishing under time....

Friday's Blog Update by Doug Payne

2010-10-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

Today started off with a little later wake up call, we were on by 8 for
a long walk. Running Order enjoyed his hack...the facility continues to
grow. It's really unbelievable, every time I walk to the course (5 times
now) there are more tents and activity, everywhere! I can't wait until
tomorrow...more specifically when xc is finished. I'm 4th out, so
luckily I don't have to wait around long. The ground is quite moist,
bordering on wet. We had sporadic rain today and it is again forecast
for tonight into tomorrow. Running Order is great in the rain, so I'm
hoping for as much as possible.

Tiana and Sinead went today, Tiana had a very good test putting her in
6th on a 46 and Sinead had a 55 putting her around 30th. In the Grolsch
Nations Cup we're sitting in third!

I'll send a quick note after tomorrow morning, I ride at 9:16...it'll be
quite early eastern.

Back again soon,

Doug

Fair Hill Day 3 - Friday by Diana Burnett

2010-10-15T19:19:00.000-07:00

Started it off with a nice lay in! Not much to report on today, it was a pretty slow day for us! Picked up my dressage test. You know its not that good of a test when the judges final comment is 'patient rider'.

Spent the morning watching dressage. Some of the horses got a little frisky when the wind started to pick up and the dressage rings started blowing down.

We had a course walk with David. The ground feels better since the rain. We had a little jump in the afternoon. Shaggy was feeling quite good with all the wind, tried to buck me off in the stabling as I was tightening my girth! He felt supper to jump and I'm really looking forward to getting out on the course tomorrow. He is a fairly green horse, but I believe he's up to the job at hand.
Quiet night tonight, getting up for a morning course walk.

Good luck to everyone tomorrow, as well as our riders overseas!

~Diana

Fair Hill Day 2 - Thursday by Diana Burnett

2010-10-15T02:32:00.000-07:00

I think two dressage tests got finished before the rain started! This is a good thing, as the ground could really use it.
Shags and I went out for an early morning ride. Just a light flat in the jump saddle to move around and stretch out. He was very good and enjoyed some grazing on the way back to the stable. I went and watched a couple tests. Saw Clark Montgomery put in a lovely, inspiring test.

Had my warm up with Captin Canada. He was feeling pretty good. His test, however did not reflect that! His trot and canter work was quite good. We were successful at blowing all of our walk work, in which there was a lot, therefore putting on a much higher score than I thought we would be able to produce this weekend. Such humbling creatures horses can be!

Now onto the xc. The course looks great. The jumps are beautifully built and decorated. Kudos to Derik DiGrazia and his crew. The 2 star course looks very challenging. It asks many question right from fence 4. Although fence 3 might also pose a problem with the decorative cows placed on either side, they certainly scared my dog! There are 4 water complexes and many corners. It will definitely be a chalenge for my Shaggy, but I think we are up for it. As for right now I'm excited to get out there on Saturday! From what I've heard the 3 star course is a little soft, but that is just the word around the barn. Highlight of today is the lobster and steak we just finished in the town of North East!

~ Diana

Dressage Day 1 at Boekelo by Doug Payne

2010-10-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

So dressage was today for Running Order. The day started early, we
were in the lobby at quarter to 7 for a first ride at 7 then back on by
8:30. RO was excellent, and not affected by the atmosphere at all. I
think this was due to last nights familiarization at 6 where he stood
staring at the two jumbo-trons for quite some time. He was very good in
the test. I did make a very stupid error, halting early at the first
halt, but really was very pleased with his test. The score, however, not
so much. My mom and Sandy Phillips both FEI judges were in shock with
how low it was scored.

I did have the pleasure of following Michael
Jung, the current world champion, which didn't help the situation. I do
have to keep all of this in perspective, he's only 8 and did his first
one star 18 months ago. We finished the first day of dressage in the
middle of the pack with a 61. Give him a year or two and it'll be a
different story. His progress has been astounding over the past few
years, especially what has been accomplished in the past week. Give him
time...he'll be there!

Tomorrow will be quite relaxing...just taking RO for a walk a time or
two. I'll walk the course again tomorrow for a 4th time. It did look a
bit smaller the 2nd and 3rd times today. It's certainly not going to be a dressage show...

Fair Hill by Casey McKissock

2010-10-14T05:04:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I'm sitting in my friend's truck watching her feed her jack russell a gas station hot dog, must be at another event! This isn't just any event, it's Fair Hill International and I'm very excited (and nervous, of course) to be here.

I'm riding Special Blend, my own 10 year old TB gelding. You'll recognize us if you're near that dreaded tunnel. He's the one on his hind legs and I'm the one holding him pretending nothing is happening and apologizing to the innocent bystanders.

Joking aside, we had a nice ride yesterday morning before the briefing. We don't do dressage until Friday morning so I will most likely jump or do some trotting today. We try not to drill him too much before the actual test. A fit, red headed, opinionated gelding can only put up with so much ringwork. We'll save it for Friday, hopefully!

Last night was the Calcutta. The food was delicious and the auction was very entertaining. My table may not have had the deepest pockets, but we definitely had the best cheering section. Thanks to the organizers and sponsors, I hope it made a lot of money for a great cause.

Good luck to all of my fellow friends and competitors, and thanks to all of the volunteers and organizers for putting on the event. See you all out there!

Casey.

The Boekelo Trot Up by Doug Payne

2010-10-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

The jogs today went very well. We started the day off with a dressage lesson in the am with Mark. Running Order just keeps getting better and better. I don't know if we can pull it off tomorrow, but I'm certain in a few years this will not be an issue.
The team all went to the briefing where everyone is formally introduced etc. Then off to the jogs. There are a number of pics from it below. My dad took a bunch, we'll get better quality ones up tomorrow. Had to take a pic of my computer screen, no internet access in the room other than my blackberry.

We got very lucky that the nations (we jogged in order of country draw) were able to hang out in the main stadium. Jogs were uneventful, so its official...were in the game!

Dressage tomorrow at 9:06. The plan is to stretch etc at 7 then back on at 8:30, and win! Well that might be ambitious, but it should be good. Hoping to be under 50.

Off to bed...

Doug

Fair Hill International Day 1 By Diana Burnett

2010-10-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend I am riding Shigatzi in the 2 star. He is a homebreed, 7 year old Canadian thoroughbred. We had to scratch Wild T'mater due to an abcsess that came up a week ago. Ahhh horses! Today started off with a morning ride and the 10am rider meeting where we got our good luck ponies. That accompanied by my lucky number 13 should bode well for a good weekend! The jog was at 1pm. The jog strip was very long and the ground jury held quite a few in the 2 star. Sandra had Shaggy looking beautiful!

After the jog we were able to familiarize our horses with the main arena. Shigatzi started to feel a bit fresh when we approached the xc jumps in the middle of the ring. After getting over that we had a lovely ride. Half of the 2 star does dressage tomorrow and the rest as well as the 3 star go on Friday.

Now we are off to the first Calcutta party here, where teams of riders are going to be auctioned off to help raise money for the event. Should be a fun night with Jimmy as the mc. I heard there's going to be losts of yummy food too! Looking forward to walking the course tomorrow and going to be dreaming of elegant, precise dressage movements!

Until tomorrow - Diana

Sinead's Boekelo Update

2010-10-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

"There can only be one winner of Boekelo, but everyone else is going to have a bloody good time!" has been the quote repeated throughout the stables and common area's at Boekelo CCI ***. I feel like this is the right event with the right group of people/horses and most definitely the right time to be here in Holland. At Bad Boekelo (our hotel) the four of us (Will, Doug,Tiana and I) have very quickly become like family members due to the fact that we are all staying in a 2 bedroom apartment together. Unfortunately when living with two boys being like a "family" means politeness is out the window. Tiana and I have found ourselves speechless and a little grossed out on more than one occasion, but mostly there has been a lot of laughing!

We had our trot up and briefing today which both went well and then we took off to look at the course. I knew that I liked the idea of going on this trip for the experience of travel etc. but when I walked this track I realized that my horse nor I have competed with atmosphere like this. I am feeling like this experience will help in future competitions where hopefully we will be competing in an official team championship. The knowledge on how our horses and how individually we will handle this type of "high profile" event will be invaluable . I'm not kidding you when I'm saying that literal bars( for drinking alcohol) are built into the jumps! There are supposed to be around 40,000 spectators and the galloping lanes at times are only about 5 ft in width. The track is 10min 45 sec and is mostly flat terrain in and out of woods, stadiums, trade fairs, restaurants, lounge areas and occasionally an old fashioned field!

Dressage starts tomorrow and because of the unofficial team competition here we got to decide our order of go. Doug will be starting us off around 9 in the morning. Doug's horse is green and will benefit from less of a crowd also Doug handles being the the first of the the day pressure very well. Will and his mare will go next tomorrow around 1:45 Tiana will go Friday at 11:30 and I will finish off with Tate around 4:00pm. We will go in the same order on cross country day. We are all feeling excited and eager to compete. The horses all traveled well and now it is just a matter of preparing properly to get the best horse we can in the ring. All I want to do is ride 5 times a day and practice every move in the test and then jump 1000 jumps but instead I am trying to keep myself occupied by sitting back and watching the likes of Mary King, William Fox-Pitt, Bettina Hoy, Clayton Fredricks and on and on and on... There are 104 starters and every nation from Australia to Sweden representing so its enough to keep me from annoying Tate and keep my eyes peeled to see who is going to be walking past my stall next. The organizing committee is working on live feed from Boekelo so stay tuned I will email it to john before cross country day. To everyone at Fair Hill good luck! We will be working hard and enjoying this experience here for sure!

xxSinead
Blog Credit: http://eventingnation.com/home/2010/10/sineads-wednesday-boekelo-report.html

Update From Boekelo by Doug Payne

2010-10-13T04:07:00.000-07:00

Nothing all that important or exciting happened today. We all had lessons with Mark Phillips, except for Will who continued his work with Sandy Phillips. We then took them all for walks...all good...
We did find out were the 7th nation to go and I'm going to be first in the order which means I'll be going about 7th to go on thursday. Jogs tomorrow and the xc course walk at 8:30!

Reports on it to come soon...

Doug

Hacking Out at Boekelo by Doug Payne

2010-10-12T07:52:00.000-07:00

NJ would normally be the location, but today we're straight from Holland. This is the access road behind the trade fair and stadium for dressage and xc fences 3-5. We've had a peak at a few, but were not allowed to walk the xc until Wed.
The weather here has been beautiful. Certainly cold enough in the am (mid 40s) but then mid 60s without a cloud in sight in the afternoon.

Today was spent in search of SIM cards and chargers for everyone's phones.

The horses had leasurly walk this am through what looked exactly like the enchanted forest or maybe the Smirfs backyard. They then went out this afternoon for some long and low/ light work. In barn inspections were also completed. Packets will be ready tomorrow as will most of the competitors.

Until then...

D

We Are Here by Sinead Halpin

2010-10-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry about not posting for the last day, but it has taken me a little bit to make sure that I have a the right charger for my computer, my american phone, my new dutch phone, to find internet access and to find who's car I left what phone, computer, charger and converters in!

So with that out of the way.. The horses and all of us are doing GREAT! Will, Doug, Sara, Chrissy and I arrived into Amsterdam yesterday morning and after losing my wallet (fortunately I had my passport and credit card) and headed over to the horse hotel to meet Tiana and wait for the horses to arrive. Five hours later the horses and Nat arrived. The horses looked great when they arrived. We unloaded them and walked them around while Tiana loaded her gear and then we put the ponies on the lorry and headed to Boekelo, which was another two hours down the road. We arrived to more than five people to help us unload, offer tea, coffee and cookies and after the horses got settled a few rounds of beer at the bar on the grounds!

We have all decided this is our new favorite event and it has not even started! We went for a hack this am and all the horses were a bit fresh, but we all are a bit fresh and excited!! The other competitors should arrive tomorrow and things should get crackin so ill let ya know the schedule when I know it!

xxSinead

Settling In at Boekelo by Doug Payne

2010-10-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

Since the last update, we flew over the atlantic landing in Amsterdam. Customs etc went smoothly. We did however have a few delays before leaving the airport.

First of which involved Chrissy. After the baggage carousel stopped she was missing her bag. Or so she thought, so we had to walk around, find someone who could speak english and help us file a missing bag claim. After finding this person, he was very helpful. Seems the blue bag Chrissy was looking for during the last 40mins was actually green, and conveniently sitting waiting for her in the baggage claim.

So on we went to grab some coffee...Sinead was next, unfortunately with less stellar results. Seems she left her wallet on the plane, or it fell out somewhere in transit. So we stopped at the lost and found and reported her claim.

So off we go in the rental cars to the horse hotel, where we'd meet up with Tiana and Fin. We arrived at around 11am, and had to kill 4 hrs until our horses and Nat arrived. This time was occupied by about every childhood game you've ever played. Anything from rock paper scissors to Will hiding in the bushes.

Our horses finally arrived, we took them on a short walk then back on the truck for the 2 hr drive on to Boekelo. I was impressed how well all of the horses looked after the journey. We got lost once in the process, but arrived to what might be the best event I've ever seen. At least in hospitality. We had a bunch of help unloading everything, and by the time we took them all for a walk tea, coffee and cookies were handed out! Then more organizing and off to the bar on site. They are expecting 40,000 people this weekend, and with 3 acres of tents I'm sure there will be tons to do. Incidentally the tent stabling is basically a temporary structure with 108 stalls under 1 roof with 6m aisles.

After a few drinks with the organizers we headed off to dinner, and now bed.

Tomorrow we'll take them for a hack, serious work waiting until Tuesday.

Until then...

-D

WEG Wrap Up by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

2010-10-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,

I’m finally back in The Plains, VA getting settled into normal life after what has been a very exciting competition for Canada!

We are all just one big bundle of emotions. First of all, there is the sense of relief that the Team is now qualified for London with plenty of time to spare. Secondly, there is the huge amount of pride and excitement that we all have in our horses and their performances over three of the biggest days of our lives. Third, we really feel like we have something to look forward to, now! I feel like this is really the debut year for the new and revamped Canadian program. David has been with the Canadians since 2006, and his from the ground up restructuring of the way things work has brought us all to this point of a Silver medal at the World Championships. The exciting thing about it is that this isn’t it. There are many up and coming young horses and developing riders for future championships, and none of the pairs that participated in this games were maxed out with their results. There is wayyyyy more up our sleeves, we just have to keep it all coming together!!

I’d really like to say on behalf of the team a huge thank you to all of our sponsors and supporters. The CET was lucky enough to be outfitted with breeches by FITS, gloves by SSG, protective wear by Phoenix and Point Two, as well as helmets by GPA. The horses enjoyed Omega Alpha supplements, a Niagara Equissage system (which we had for a very generous 4 weeks) and Horseware Ireland sheets and blankets. We also have to give another huge thanks to Mrs. Mars for providing us with a great facility for training camp. Then of course there’s Randy, and Dr. Ober, Deb Furnas and Graeme Thom for all that they do, and also to the owners of our horses. I own Ollie with my mother, and I know that it is a huge expense to compete and maintain a horse at this level, so thanks for giving us the opportunity to do this.

As a rider who is new to the international game, I have to say how incredibly lucky I feel to have had the opportunity to be a part of this. Not only was it a huge personal success for myself and my competitive goals, but to contribute to something that meant so much to my team was an experience that I hope to repeat in the future.

Thanks a lot for reading!

Stephanie

Sunday and Monday at the WEG's by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

2010-09-27T18:13:00.000-07:00

Sunday, we noticed a real change in the temperature here in Kentucky. It was really the first cold morning we have experienced so far this fall, and I think some of the horses were absolutely loving it!

Team Canada had our little team jogup in the morning to make sure that everyone looks the way they should, and it seemed kind of strange to be pulling coolers off horses before they do their trot up. Wasn't it just 100 degrees last week??? I have to say, it was pretty refreshing after our hot last 3 weeks on the road. All the Canadian horses are doing great, and we're feeling good headed in to the competition.

After the jog up, Canada had a dressage ring booked for 2 hours so we each got to head down and have a quick school with David in a 20x60. It was a little ways from the barn, so the hack down was nice for the horses, and then there was plenty of room in the middle of all the arenas to warmup before our 20 minute time slot with Coach. In the afternoon, we had an opportunity to ride them again in one of the arenas that is more in the middle of the action. This was a nice thing to do with the horses because it was a lot busier than our more remote arena in the morning, but it still wasn't so busy that it was a distraction. Sort of trying to ease them into having tons of people on the outside of the arenas. Ollie feels good!!

Monday, we started off with another team jog, but this time we got to use the official jog strip. This was a good thing to do because we get the chance to have the horses see the decorated jog strip, as well as make sure that everything looks great on the actual surface they will be using on Wednesday morning. Some of the European horses were doing jogs and canters around the steeplechase track right beyond the jog strip, and Ollie thought that looked like a great idea. He was very well behaved, but I had a hard time keeping up with him when it came to be his time to jog!!

After our jog, I joined the fun on the steeplechase track, but at a walk. Ollie hasn't had a really good hack out in a while, so this was a great opportunity. It was cold and rainy, so we put the rain sheet on over top of my legs and over his butt and off we went!! Rebecca and I walked around for 45 minutes or so before our loop brought us back to the stables. I think Ollie and Rupert were beyond pleased that they escaped morning dressage. They were even more excited in the afternoon when we went down to our jump school!! A dressage free day.... it was pretty awesome.

Jo Ann Wilson worked on the horses again today and yesterday, and I'm so excited that she is here with us. We have a pretty sound bunch here with us this week, but Jo Ann is going to help us all to look and feel our best through the whole competition!! Very lucky....

Tomorrow is the competitor briefing, the course walk, the official schooling time in the main stadium, AND the dressage ride for Moorlands Totilas. My grandparents on my dads side are Dutch, so I"m thinking about sportin some orange when I go down to try and soak up some of the absolutely indescribable awesomeness that is Edward Gal and Totilas. My expectations of that performance are a little high :)

Thanks for reading, keep in touch

Stephanie

Opening Day at WEG Day by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

2010-09-26T04:34:00.000-07:00

So, welcome to our first real day at the WEG!!! We arrived at the barn this morning at about 8am, and got on pretty much right away for what was supposed to be a quick little ride. We ended up being on our horses for nearly two hours. First of all, we hacked down to the rings in the infield, just to check it out. The footing was really soggy from all the rain we had last night, so it was a good thing we didn't spend 15 minutes going down there with the intent to do a lot of work!! We had to be stewarded across the road and all the way down to the rings, which was kind of nice because we had NO idea where we were going. This was after we had attempted to go hack around the steeplechase course. This didn't work very well because some of the other eventers from different countries were doing gallops this morning.... you can imagine how that turned out. But all was well in the end, we got to our arenas for our schooling times and spent the last 15 minutes or so of our ride doing some flatwork in the final warmup rings we'll be using on Thursday and Friday. Very useful! I'm sure we're not going to be allowed back down there until Wednesday.

This evening was spent at the Opening Ceremonies for the games, which was indescribably cool. I really enjoyed the whole thing. The arena felt incredible filled with all of those people, and to be there with the riders from the other disciplines was great. Its really exciting to just be milling around waiting for the thing to start and seeing all the people I grew up idolizing. You look one way and there's Mary King and William Fox Pitt, and then you look another way and you see Anky, then all of a sudden Mark Todd walks right past you and asks how you're doing. It was a little overwhelming, to be honest. But very very VERY cool.

Tomorrow we will be riding in the infield dressage arenas for a short morning school, and then in the Walnut Ring below the grandstands (also known as the Prince Phillip Games ring for all the Rolex Kentucky attendees) for another school later in the afternoon.

For now, hello comfy bed at the Marriot :) Goodnight!!

Stephanie

World Equestrian Games-Canada Style Day 1 by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

2010-09-25T04:18:00.000-07:00

Today, we left Ocala for our 12 hour trek to Lexington, KY for a little horse show they are having up here. No big deal. !!!!!
The drive up was super, my mom drove the last 8 hours while I on and off napped in the passenger seat. As pretzeled up as I was (I get the whole feet-on-dashboard-knees-above-head attempt at curling up comfortably going on) I actually felt pretty well rested when we arrived at the KHP at 3.

The system for getting horses off the trailer, ID checked, and all the stuff unloaded was actually pretty well done. All our horses were settled into their nicely organized barn within a couple of hours. This is largely thanks to Graeme and Deb for all their work they did in the couple of days before we arrived getting the stalls set up and getting the lay of the land for us.

It kind of seems like the whole transportation thing from the hotel to the park is going to be a little wild, but I think we'll get it sorted out over the next day or 2 and just fall into a system with it. I'm so glad the grooms are just a quick bike ride away from the horses, so its not like I'm going to be worried about Ollie at all!! Our hotel is super, I am so looking forward to crawling into this very comfy looking bed. (It will be a HUGE improvement on the truck seat)

Tomorrow we are going to meet at the barn at 8, plan to get the horses out for a wander and bit of a play two separate times tomorrow, just kind of taking a tour, and then tomorrow evening is the Opening Ceremonies for the whole games. Looking forward to it!! Will be armed with my camera...

Thanks for reading

Stephanie

Thursday At The Soon To Be Over CET Camp by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

2010-09-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

Today was the all important last gallop day for the Canadian horses. Almost everyone had a different strategy for their horse today. Ollie, being half warmblood, did one circuit of the regular gallop at a regular pace, and then did two sets of sprints up the main hill. This was a great last workout for him, and he feels awesome. Dr. Ann Baskett was here for final selection vetting this afternoon, and I don’t think there were any unexpected results from that. Ollie looked super, and was eating and drinking and napping just the way he should be on the day before travel.

I have packed up and cleaned up my little loaner house here at Meredyth South, and send out many many thanks again to Jackie Mars for letting us spend the last 10 days here.

Tomorrow we hit the road at 3 am on the way to Kentucky!!

Thanks everyone for all your interest and support

Stephanie

Tuesday & Wednesday at Camp CET by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

2010-09-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, we had the wonderful opportunity of going down the road to Sharn Wordley and Craig Martin’s farm to do a showjumping school. The footing in their ring (done by Sharn and Craig’s arena company Wordley Martin Equestrian) was amazing, the horses really pinged off of it, and it gave them a great amount of support and cushion. Lucky us!! They have a larger arena than the one here at Jackie Mars’s farm, so we were able to set up some stuff to give us a feel of course riding again. Big thanks to them for having us invade their place for the morning. Also, they are the guys behind PointTwo airvests here in the USA, so we got our team Canada airvests yesterday as well!! They are verrrry pretty.

Today was our last real dressage school before we hit the road. I am pleased to say that Ollie feels great. The level of detail that we are working on within the test is really exciting…. 5 months ago I couldn’t even imagine getting that deep into it. His quality of movement is so much better, but its really up to me to know exactly where and how to get every mark that I can out of that test. So hopefully I can get it all together and nail that test next week!! 8 days!!

The trunks are loaded, except for the stuff we have to use in our gallop tomorrow, and we are having our last Training Camp group dinner tonight at David’s for some final “team bonding” moments before life gets crazy.

Looking forward to it!!

Stephanie

Monday at Camp USA with Buck Davidson

2010-09-21T04:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry missed a few days...not so good with my blog. Everyone is in good spirits here in Atlanta at Team USA Camp. Reggie is going great with help from Oded in the dressage. I am really focusing on my preperation in the days leading up to my dressage test. I know I go second in the team, which will be Thursday afternoon. I think i will jump him on Wednesday after the jog, ride him in the morning Thursday in the double bridle, then get on for the test with a snaffle about 45 minutes before i go. I have a lot of confidence in my plan and i hope Reggie agrees.

Kathleen Blauth is back helping me after taking time out to have a baby. it is great to have her with me, she worked for me for 5 years. She loves Reggie and puts up with me. We have a great relationship and I feel comfortable knowing i have a great person/groom taking care of my horse.

Andrea has been awesome. She is healing up well. I am lucky to have such a great girlfriend that supports me so much. I am a pain in the neck during these big events, but she is unbelievable and seems to never get fustrated with me. Aaron Vale is coming Wednesday to give me some last second pointers for the show jumping. He is one of my best friends, and a great help to me for the final day.

Just a few more days to stress, then the games begin, everyone is ready! It is very hot and dry here in Atlanta. Kentucky will seem cool no matter what, we can't wait. A big thanks to Carl Bouckaert and his staff for allowing us to use his beautiful facility. They have taken great care of the horses and riders. Sorry it is late and I have a 7:00am dressage lesson with Oded tomorrow. So good night. i will have more tomorrow.

Buck

Monday at Camp CET by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

2010-09-21T04:01:00.000-07:00

Today was a bit more of a relaxed day for Ollie and I at camp. After our 7am jog, I had a very nice long walk hack and long and low warm up before my 8:15 lesson started. The lesson was a little quieter, in mostly a deeper frame and just working on installing some of the tools that I’m going to need for my test in 10 days. David mostly just let me carry on and play for the first little while, and then started to help me out with some accuracy stuff within my movements.

After the lesson, I went into town to have the CET crest and flags sewn on to my Shadbelly!! Very exciting… after running some errands we ended back up in the barn packing up our wonderful red trunks! At first, I was a little put off hearing that we had one trunk to put everything into, but after opening up this wonderful trunk and seeing how much stuff really did fit into it… wow!! They are very cool looking, and really functional. I’m so excited to have them. That might be a little thing, but its part of the “team” experience, and its cool to me!!

We had a group dinner at Jen and Kyle Carter’s farm tonight, which provided even more team bonding!! We are going to be one seriously bonded group of people by the time we leave for Kentucky!!

Stay tuned…

Stephanie

Plantation Field International CIC3* Wrap Up by Ashley Kehoe

2010-09-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

What an awesome weekend! Plantation really made this a fun event! Plantation Field is really turning into a top class event. I hear Plantation Field did an awesome job keeping the sponsors and owners tent well stocked, even my mother enjoyed a few bloody mary’s before watching me jump! (cracks me up, she gets more nervous watching than I do riding!) And PRO had riders working with the announcer, Ed Holloway, to give this event a real big time feel. One great thing about this venue is that you can see almost all the cross country fences from the top of the hill. On Saturday, The cross country courses looked beautiful, but there were alot of technical eliminations. The hard thing about having different courses for the national and CIC divisions meant there were a few riders that walked the wrong fences! It was a good reminder to make sure I never make that mistake!

Saturday started with prelim cross country, and I had some good practice on my horse, Magic Man. Unfortunately we didn’t get any more rain Friday night, so the ground was still quite hard. Most everyone came in with 10 or more time penalties on the 3* course. For me, I know my horse has a nitrous button, I’m just saving it for the CCI*** at Fair Hill in a few weeks. We had a super cross country round, Eric really listened to me the whole time. I took all the direct routes, and my ride went exactly as planned...except that long spot I saw at the ditch and wall(there’s always something to do better!) Later that evening, after lots of icing and equissageing (vibrating back pad to loosen up muscles) My mom and I stopped by the cocktail party on the way back to the hotel. A HUGE thanks to the Walker family for having such a nice party, and all they do to make the event possible. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay very long, I still haven’t found a way to make my homework do itself…so it was off to the hotel to do some work and get some sleep!

Today was fantastic. Mark Donovan designed a great stadium course on grass footing. Eric passed the jog, and in warm up felt like he was ready for cross country round 2! We had a clear round, which is a career best for us! The scores were all so close our clean round luckily moved us up to 2nd place! I was so excited; we won enough prize money to cover all the entry fees and expenses for the weekend! I’ll be busy with dressage bootcamp the next few weeks. I hope everyone comes out to Fair Hill, it’s the next stop on the PRO Tour Series, and Eric and I are going to give it all we’ve got!

~Ashley

Plantation Field International HT: Day Three by Lee Lee Jones

2010-09-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of Plantation Field International Horse Trials. Since I was finished competing, I came out to the event just to watch. In the CCI one star Nina Ligon and Chai Thai had one rail, but they held the lead and won. For the CCI two star, Lizzie Snow and Pop Star got very lucky with a clean round keeping them in the lead.

After the two star finished, there was a parade of the hounds followed by a shetland pony race, which I got a picture of. After the pony race there was the bare back jumping although Doug Payne turned it into a stripping contest as he was given the option by the announcer to discard his shirt as a way to get back into the competition!. In my opinion, Lillian Heard was the official winner. The picture below is of her jumping her friends horse over the brick wall, which got up to about 5'3. After all the fun the three star show jumping began. Jennie Brannigan who rides with Phillip Dutton had a beautiful round on Cambalda as shown in the picture below. They jumped double and won the division by almost 18 points! Overall this was a great weekend and a lot of fun. I can't wait till next year!

~Lee Lee