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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Show season starts with a super weekend!

What a great start to the year! On Friday and Sunday I took advantage of the 'AA' rated show jumping competition held in Aiken to test our horses to see where we stand at the beginning of the year. These show can be invaluable guides for the horses schooling, fitness and also for the rider to get back into the swing of things. I rode Cole, Titanium, Mario and Lois on Friday while Brittany Meyer rode Parker and Keifer. Despite the fact that this is the first show for these horses in a while they all jumped very well, particularly the babies Lois and Titanium. I was very proud of Brittany who had an outstanding performance winning a class on Parker. The mini prix was on Sunday and the weather deteriorated quite badly until we were competing in fairly sloppy conditions, in spite of the best efforts of the organisers to improve. Luckily for me Mario was as happy as a duck in water with the conditions and jumped two fantastic clear rounds! There were few clear rounds so even with a conservative jump off (we need to school those) we ended up third. So like I said, I great start to the year! We know the areas we need to improve and had some very positive rounds. I'm back in Maryland teaching early this week so Brittany is holding the fort and keeping everything running smoothly in SC. Please take the time to check out the video from Mario's Mini Prix.

5 comments:

Aslo White said...

Thanks for passing along these updates! We are all rooting for you back here at Sunset.

marg said...

Thought you said it was sun and sand in Aiken, Kate! Looks like winter and snow on the ground, or is that just slushy sand?
Cool round!

Linda Phillips said...

Sounds like your off to a good start. I couldnt get the video to play, is there a trick??? it played on the bar but nothing moved... Glad everything is going well for you.

Kate Chadderton said...

Thanks for the comments! Marg, it is sand and sunshine, we did have some rain tho so it was a bit wet! Linda, hi! and here's the youtube link, it may work better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHHpySzI1k0

amy said...

WOW!! that's my trainer!! way to go Kate and Mario, awesome horse, awesom-er rider :)