Final Day at the AEC's by Sinead Halpin

What a day. I would not want to be in the shoes of the US selectors right now. Three months ago I was not feeling too confident about our American team, but now we have a large group of strong competitive combinations. Unfortunately for the selectors, everyone pretty much has chosen the last few weeks to shine making narrowing down the decision of the four team members, two individuals and two alternates tough. Fortunately for America as a whole, we are going to the WEGs with a strong well prepared team!

I was pleased with Tate today. I was a bit slow to react when I realized jumping into the triple that we were further away from the second oxer than I was anticipating. Tate came down a bit early and had the back rail. It unfortunately was a $1000 rail considering it dropped me to 7th, which was right outside the money. But education is priceless and I will react quicker the next time. Right after show jumping I trotted Tate up for Team Vets, Brendon Furlong and Kathy Cone, and he trotted with flying colors, pretty much securing our grant to Boekelo. I am so excited for the opportunity and am pumped to spend the next few weeks polishing up so we can hopefully show the selectors were wise in choosing us.

In other news, my best friend Rebecca Howard just got told she will be one of the six competing for Canada at WEG. I'm sure everyone remembers, but it doesn't feel too long ago that I was writing my blog from her hospital room after a rotational fall that left her with 16 broken bones and a collapsed lung. So a huge shout out to Rebec for coming back with a vengeance! Speaking of Rebec my favorite story from the weekend: So Rebecca Howard, Steph Rhodes-Boche (also on the Canadian team squad), Dana Cook (Rebec's groom) and I all stayed in a little rented motor home. I got a phone call friday night from Rebec asking me if I had locked the camper which I had not.. On purpose anyway, but anyone who knows me knows sometimes I can get a little distracted;) and I certainly wouldn't put it past myself to accidentally lock it. So Rebec not being one to sit back and be idle (obviously) decided to break in through a window. So with the help of a few girls Rebec got a leg up into the camper,crawled through the window only to find herself standing in someone else's camper!! Ha thankfully no one was in there so out the window she came again and moved 2 motor homes down and walked through our unlocked door!

~Sinead

Final Day of Competition By Kaylin Medlin

Today was so much fun! I was able to watch a few of the Advanced riders on cross country today, and I had stadium jumping this afternoon. It was very hot here in Georgia, and the weather has been very dry. That's really caused some issues with the footing on cross country, but it's also caused the dust to be really bad. I think I'll be cleaning tack for a month after this!

I ended up finishing in thirtieth out of sixty-five starters. I'm very happy with that finish. My only goal was to complete the competition, so finishing in the upper half is just icing on the cake. Our rail in stadium was my fault, not Harley's. I let him barrel down to the last fence in the combination and we dropped a rail. BUT, it's OK. I'm happy with how Harley did this week and I'm excited to have competed at my very first AEC.

I was walking my course while Rebecca was doing cross country, so I didn't get to see her go. She seemed very happy with her round and Rupie was in good spirits after they were finished. I watched some of the other riders do their course today, but didn't get a chance to see as much as I had hoped. I've definitely been kept busy with everything this week. I wish I could get the whole competition on video tape so I can watch everyone's rides.

All in all this has been a great experience for us. I wouldn't change a thing other than having time to watch some of the other riders go, and to have a chance to meet some of the juniors competing.

Tomorrow we pack up to head home. Harley has Monday off and I have to start school finally. My brother and I are homeschooled so we were able to wait to start school until after the AEC's.

On my way home tomorrow, I plan on writing a longer post. There's so much I want to remember and share but I haven't had time to really get my thoughts on paper. I hope you'll read that final post. I'll let you know how Rebecca finishes up too. Thanks for reading so far! I hope you'll log in to read my final post tomorrow. For now, I'm going to B-E-D!

~Kaylin

Cross-Country Day by SInead Halpin

I headed into the barn at 5:30am not because I was riding that early but because I wanted to walk my horse for a while without being concerned with getting in a traffic jam! I must say the first few hours of the day were so enjoyable. The barns were quiet the horses were asleep and it happened to be the perfect quiet needed before a full day off cross-country. My dog and I headed out to walk cross-country around 7:15 to be greeted by most of the American WEG squad doing a gallop in the early morning fog. I know it sounds cheesy but it was such an inspiring sight... Just these amazing horses and riders that have such huge aspirations set for the next few weeks having a secluded gallop before the 600 other competitors arrived. It was pretty cool. Walking the course this am the ground seemed much better so cheers to everyone who sat on a tractor! Some riders were caught with some unsettling rounds more due to heading out of the start box trying to ride slow and almost being a bit passive. At the advanced level it is still important even when planning to "go slow" that a good enough pace is maintained to jump the fences well. Advanced is called that for a reason, you have to be forward, decisive and ride with intent. Today a lot left the start box without at least two of those main ingredients. But I have not talked to one rider that had maybe did not perfect ride that said anything less than what I have just said. Fortunately, or unfortunately I am not sure.. Tate is not as scopy or confident as some of these top horses, he always requires a forward rhythm to feel good about his job.. So where I did not put my foot to the floor in between the fences I did have to set out on a good clip. The fences came up easily for Tate and bar adding up in the water he felt like he skipped around. I was surprised that he was so quick adding only 2 time penalties, but he maintained a forward gallop the whole time so all I can say is ..sweet ;) ... What is pretty amazing is that I'm pretty sure all riders and horses and riders stayed on grounds basically saying no trips to the hospital. I don't know if that because it is a championship event but good on US eventers!! Good day for the sport!! Show jumping looks interesting for tomorrow. Some of the striding is for lack of a technical term .. weird but will figure it out! On to tomorrow! PS. Tate is in 4th!!

Advanced Dressage Day By Sinead Halpin

Well this comes a bit late but I have just sat down.... Which seems silly because I am only riding one horse! But somehow that can take up a day. General impression of the day was the top horses all looked pretty good. Scoring (as I'm sure you know if you checked live scoring) was a bit all over the shop. Linda Zang seemed positive and scoring on the higher end and Loris Henry seemed to think we all were a bit sub-par. For those of you who don't know, at a championship competition you have two judges who sit at different places in the arena and both their scores combine to give you your final percentage. Normally these scores are within 2 or 3 points of each other but today we had differences of up to 11 percent! So a bit frustrating when one judge thinks your great and the other thinks not so much so. Anyway such is life! On to tomorrow!! The scores tomorrow again won't probably accurately show the best horse and rider pair, I am discussing just the advanced division, horses going for the WEGs and Boekelo will be doing the best thing they can to prepare there horses for "the next step". I have it on good authority that the Canadians will leave some jumps out that they feel are not necessary for their horses. This will eliminate them from this competition, but they are using the course as schooling for the WEGs. Americans are meant to run the whole course but will go slow in order to save their horses legs. For our top horses protecting them for future team competitions is a priority. That’s not to say that any horses welfare is not important, but the horses at the top have put their time in and are a bit older so if conditions are not as close to perfect as we can make them it’s important to decide if it’s worth saving them for another day. Coming back to my day I was thrilled with Tate. I really feel right now, honestly, he is a strong 3-star horse with the potential to be a great 4-star horse. Last week he proved by winning the Richland Park 2-star he was above that level, and today in a 4-star test he was the best he could be with the education he has and landed himself with a top third result. I was victim to one judge that thought he was great and one that did not (7 point difference), but when watching the video back I definitely saw plenty of room for improvement but a very lovely obedient horse. I was so damn happy to have him in that ring no matter what:)! As for tomorrow I'm a bit undecided in my plan… so stay tuned.

~Sinead

Cross-Country Day!! By Kaylin Medlin

This is a late entry from me, sorry for that. Just got back to the hotel from the competitor's party. It was a lot of fun and it was great seeing everyone there.

Today was cross-country for me. Cross-country is my favorite part of eventing. I sometimes really wish I could just do cross-country and nothing else! Harley was great on course. He spent the morning napping and munching on hay, so when it was time to tack up and head down, he was really ready to go.

Warm-up was great, but today something happened that's never happened to me before. The rider ahead of me had a fall on course, (she and her pony are both OK) so I was held in the start box for a few minutes. I was trying to just concentrate on what I needed to do for my ride, but I could see where she fell and I was a little distracted by that. When it was finally time to go, I put that out of my mind. Once I cleared the fence where she fell, I was no longer thinking about it. I was just concentrating on what was ahead for Harley and I. I made sure to set him up right for each fence and kept a steady pace across the course.

Some people have asked me what it's like to ride a cross-country test. I'm not really sure how to describe it. It's like flying on your horse, but even better than that. Your adrenaline is really going, the scenery is flying past you and all you can hear is breathing from you and your horse. For that five minutes of time, nothing else matters in the world. It's just total freedom to run with your horse like that! I think that's why all eventers really love cross country - they enjoy the freedom.

After cross-country, Harley and I walked back to the barn. Cold hosing, a bucket of water to drink and leg wrapping done, I ran down to watch Rebecca Howard ride Rupie in their test. I thought they looked great! Rupie was a little excited to be coming down centerline and they put in a great showing. I really hope they make the Canadian WEG team! Go Team Canada!!!! (I'm an honorary Canadian for those of you that don't know!!!)

Once Rebecca was done I had a little bit of down time. My family and I went to the Land Rover off road test course and test drove the Land Rovers. It was really cool to ride on that course. Sometimes all you could see was sky! I want to have my own Land Rover someday just so I can drive off road.

A little bit of shopping at some of the vendors and a quick snack, I ran back to the barn to check on Harley and to see if I could help my trainer Susan Beebee with anything. I missed her dressage test on Prowler because I was taking care of Harley. She seemed pleased with their test though. She and Wolf put in a good round of stadium jumping today as well.

The competitor party was a lot of fun. The food was good, but the lines were really long. There was a live band and an auction. We didn't stay too long after we ate, but that's OK. I'm really tired and just want to take a shower and go to bed. Stadium jumping for me tomorrow, but I don't know what time yet. I never look to see where I stand in placings. I think it's more important to set goals for each competition and try to meet those goals. If you do that, then it doesn't matter where you place because you've already won. My only goal for the AECs this year was to complete. So far, so good. I hope to continue having success tomorrow.

All in all this has been a very good experience for me. I'm really enjoying my time here and I'm learning a lot just by watching other people. It's interesting to see how other riders set up their stall fronts, take care of their horses, clean tack, etc. You can really learn a lot by just watching and asking questions. I haven't found an upper level rider who minds answering a question for a kid like me. That makes me happy knowing I can always ask someone who's been where I am now, and get a good answer.

I'm off to bed now. I can't wait to see some of the Advanced riders out on their cross country courses tomorrow. The fences look amazing!!! Someday, Harley and I will be running the Advanced course here. I hope to be able to report to you all then as well.

Goodnight and good luck to all the competitors tomorrow!

~ Kaylin

Dressage Day One by Sinead Halpin

This place is mad!!! Barns, horses, dogs, trailers, campers, tents, RVs, sponsor tents, vendors at every end of the property, mini bikes, golf carts, 4 wheelers and even a bar! Get the picture!! After wondering around the property for a few hours I think I finally have the lay of the land but this property is huge! Everything does seem to be going fairly smoothly. The one thing that maybe was not thought out well was schooling for the horses competing tomorrow, pretty much all fit upper-level horses, was in the middle of a cross country field with training horses galloping around. I saw quite a few that would have rather been in their jumping gear than hanging on in their dressage tack. There were high performance lessons going on all day, and with some competitors you can visibly see the pressure mounting and some are very much putting on a calm front. All in all, the bit of the top horses I saw looked good and they are certainly getting exposed to a big atmosphere here at the AECs. I walked around the advanced track and it looks quite nice. Actually, the lower level courses looked quite challenging where the advanced looks like it will hopefully be a good confident run for horses carrying on to FEI destinations. I saw David O'Connor out on the aerator, so again everyone doing their part to take care of the horses welfare. The advanced dressage tomorrow runs from 8am to 5pm with every top horse in the country taking their turn and it should be quite exciting. Tate takes center stage at 3:06 pm. He was happy to do a bit of work today, but after the long trip we just had an easy ride. I'm excited to be able to spend the morning watching as there is much to be learned! I will try and keep things updated through the day tomorrow and definitely catch up in the evening.

-Sinead

First Ride By Kaylin Medlin

Finally! I get to ride today. It's dressage day for me. I'm very excited and nervous at the same time. Waiting just makes me more anxious and ready to just get my ride done. I'm the only one in our group just riding dressage today. Just listening to everyone else talk about cross country makes me want to go and JUMP the course myself.

I've been pretty busy most of the day. Harley decided he really wanted to be dirty this morning, so I had to give him a quick bath as soon as he was done eating. I can't let him be seen with poop stains all over his body! I've also been pitching in and helping my trainer Susan Beebee get all of her stuff done for her two rides today on Wolf. Their dressage test looked great. I didn't get to see Rebecca ride any of her tests today, but she's in good spirits and said she had good rides.

Waiting till the end of the day to ride dressage has been no fun. I was actually kind of happy to start braiding because I knew that meant I was within an hour of getting on and heading down for my warm-up. Harley was very frisky in his stall. He hates to have his mane braided!

Heading down to warm-up I kept thinking about the things I needed to accomplish in warm-up so that he was set up well for the actual test. I was nervous in warm-up and it was kind of messing up my ride a little, but after the first twenty minutes I was just fine.

My dressage test was fantastic!! I'm quite pleased with our ride. I feel like I was really able to get him put together and I know we put in a great showing. It was definitely a little weird for me riding for two judges, but I just put that out of my mind as soon as I came down centerline.

Everyone is having a great time. Everyone I've spoken to likes Chattahoochee Hills and says they'll come back again. This is a great place for the AEC's to be held for two more years. I love it here!!

Tomorrow is cross country day for me. I'm looking forward to it because that's mine and Harley's favorite. The rides I saw today on cross country looked great. I can't wait to see some of the advanced rides on Saturday.

For now, I'm headed back to the hotel for dinner and a shower. I think I'll go to bed early tonight!

~ Kaylin

Photo courtesy of the USEA

Travel Day by Kaylin Medlin

Yesterday was a pretty hectic packing day. I didn't leave the barn till 9:00 last night and didn't finish everything at home till 11:30. We ended up leaving the house later than we wanted, which meant leaving the barn a little later than planned.

Harley knew something exciting was happening so like usual when he's excited, he refused to take his Ulcer Guard. After a few minutes of convincing he finally let me give it to him and then put on his shipping boots. He hates those too!

Before getting on the trailer for the long trip, I let him hand graze for a few minutes. I knew once he got on the trailer he would wish he was playing and grazing instead of being cooped up. His idea of a 5 hour, 286 mile, long bumpy car ride is not high on his list of favorite things to do.

Once we arrived at Chattahoochee I got butterflies in my stomach. Coming down the driveway I could see a very large assortment of trucks, trailers and RV's. As far as I could see, trailers. I am guessing the majority of people had already arrived. I took a picture from the hill with my cell phone.

I'm nervous but excited. Prepared and thoughtful. I'm keeping a level head and I'm pampering my horse. Afterall, without my horse partner I wouldn't be here.

Looking forward to the week!

-Kaylin

AEC's OR Bust by Sinead Halpin

So we are on the road!! GPS says we will be arriving at midnight. I hear there have been line-ups at the AEC's venue for up to an hour with trucks and trailers! At midnight, hopefully, there will be less of a crowd. Doug and Holly Payne, Zeppo (my dog), Bacon (Doug’s dog) are all nice and cozy in the truck and with Doug being the driver the most important thing to get our trip started was FOOD! So a slight detour to get bacon, egg and cheese bagels to add to our stash of food that Randy Clover made (Cindy and Randy own Rocket, a lovely horse I have competed a bit this year) we will most likely be a fair bit heavier when we arrive in GA.

I kinda feel like making a sign and putting it in the window that says AEC's, or bust! I'm not sure if it’s because it’s a WEG year, or such a huge display of eventing die-hards at one new fabulous venue, but I have a really excited feeling in my stomach. This is gonna be a "Big Event" on so may levels. As a professional rider, sometimes we get so busy running up and down the countryside eventing every weekend we forget that feeling we maybe had when we went to our first three-day, or when you couldn't sleep because you were excited/nervous about the event the next day. I am kinda getting that feeling now. I'm excited about competing my horse, but I also feel like eventing as a whole is coming together to do some amazing things. The Professional Riders Organization is making huge strides in helping our sport to progress, not only by bringing in money and sponsors, which brings in new people that in turn allows our sport to grow at every level. But PRO is also working on a lot of new ideas. PRO is making a point to have the upper level riders give back by giving free course walks, organizing clinics, and lecture demos that all will really help educate outside spectators and participants in our discipline that might not have access to top professionals. We are having several meetings at AEC’s to continue our progress in these areas. We also want to reach out to some new amateurs and young riders to bring in fresh ideas.

This is also a final selection trial for the US and Canada for WEG, which only adds to the excitement! Just think about the fact that some kids in the BN and Novice divisions will hopefully be inspired by watching the greats this weekend. Those same kids in the future could be here filling the shoes of their idols. Gina Miles got inspired to ride by watching eventing when the Olympic Games was held in Los Angeles! This weekend is also when the selectors will choose which developing riders will get grants to compete in Holland at the Boekelo CCI *** in October. My goal this weekend is to get one of those grants. So all in all a very exciting weekend! Stay tuned !!

P.S. Holly was just snoring in the back with the dogs, but she has just popped up to look at baby (her horse Madeline) in the camera just in time to see her stealing all Tate’s hay!!!

-Sinead

My Road To The AEC's by Kaylin Medlin

Kaylin Medlin, PRO Competing Member
Age 13
Charlotte, NC
Horse: Watch-Me-Now (aka) Harley - 8 year old Morgan/TB cross
Competing in Beginner Novice Junior at the AEC's


Packing day. It's finally here! I have been counting down the days since I found out I qualified and would be competing at the AEC's this year. My excitement has been building and building and I cannot wait to finally arrive at Chattahoochee Hills tomorrow. I wonder how the farm has progressed since I was there in May for the Area III Championships?

My trunk is packed and I'm getting ready to head to the barn to finish packing what I need from there. My tack will be been cleaned and polished and my gray horse Harley will be given a bath and specific instructions not to use ANY poop for pillows tonight. It's a good thing we made a trip to the tack shop today, I'm nearly out of whitening shampoo!

I've been reading all the information coming out about this being the biggest horse trial ever. I think that is amazing! I'm looking forward to being in the middle of all the excitement and to seeing some of my favorite riders there. I wonder how the U.S. and Canadian hopefuls will do? I've never been to a mandatory outing before, so the chance to see it in person is...wow! Indescribable.

Some of my favorite riders I'll be watching this weekend are: Rebecca Howard on Riddle Master, Susan Beebee on Wolf and Prowler, and Will Faudree on Pawlow. Rebecca and Will are short listed for Canada and the U.S. for WEG. I hope they both make it, but Rebecca, I'll be wearing my Canadian t-shirt just for you!

I will keep everyone posted throughout the week from the AEC's. For now, I'm off to triple check my packing list and to ride my pony before we head out at 7am tomorrow. Our drive isn't too bad, just about 5 hours from Charlotte, NC. I can't wait to see everyone and I can't wait to participate in my first, (and hopefully many, MANY more to come) American Eventing Championship!

Kaylin Medlin