Cindy and Amy in the rain...

Continuing my personal training is very important to me as it helps me become a better rider and trainer. Last week I took Cole and Lois to Boyd Martin for some jump training, this weekend I rode both of them with dressage trainer Brendan Curtis. Both horses are completely different rides and it was great to work on their strengths and weaknesses. Lois was great, she's very rewarding as she learns quickly. We worked on getting her softer laterally and developing under saddle the great paces she naturally has. Cole is a different story. We worked very hard on showing off the paces he has by encouraging him to use his back legs a LOT more than is natural for him. He's still figuring out if he likes the whole dressage thing, cross country is much more his style! I think he's growing to enjoy it tho, he doesn't try to spin around anymore so I figure that's progress! Amy Gaynor competed with Cindy in their first event (unrec) and went super with a clear cross country and just one rail in the sj. Now the pressure's on me with her at Waredaca on the weekend!

Fair Hill

Last weeks eventing was at Fair Hill in northern MD. I rode Cole (Rege Dvorsky and Jeanne Leonne), Cowboy (Amy Taggart) and Pheobe (Jane Gilbert)with all three posting confident, happy clear rounds. Phoebe and Cowboy both ended up on 3rd each in their respective divisions with both of them having a rail each. I do have to draw attention to their dressage scores with both of them acheiving a personal best, Cowboy on a 27! And Phoebe on a 29! I'm enjoying both of these horses progress as they move thru the levels. The highlight of my day tho was Cole having his first start back since injury his foot. While he was healing he was unable to leave the prepared surface of our ring (although he still was able to work) with the exception of just one cross country session (limited). Therefore it was a HUGE relief to me that find that he still remembers how to jump! He jumped a super clear show jumping round, one of few, and jumped beautifully around the cross country. The most exciting thing tho was that his foot held up and he was SO happy to be back. Next for us is Waredaca next weekend. This weekend I am holding a mini clinic for my students to practice their jumping rounds.

Lois Lane Photo by Pixel Perfect Photography



MacKenzie and Inky

I have been a little slow on my posts recently due to a Laptop malfunction. The malfunction was caused by one of two things, either it was my downloading of songs with viruses (but I really really NEEDED the new Lady Gaga song NOW!), or my ADD and complete lack of patience (leading to too many windows open too often) confusing my poor computer leading ultimately to a mental breakdown (by both myself and the computer). I'm very good at riding, teaching and planning programs for people and horses, not so good with technological stuff so this took a little while to resolve. In the meantime we've continued to be very busy with myself and my students having varying degrees of success. Lois is now training level which she stepped up to nicely at MCTA, but she needs a lot of work to consolidate how she feels about it. Abby Gibbon did a great job by winning the Training at MCTA. Cowboy (Amy Taggart) won a 6th place at Plantation, Alex MacLeod rode a lovely double clear on West Side Story. I had a successful ride on Jane Gilbert's mare, Queen of Pheba. This was my first competition on Phoebe and she also stepped up a level. She was super in the dressage, great cross country. Unfortunately we had a little issue in the show jumping that is now resolved. This weekend I'm very excited to have Collection Pass (Rege Dvorsky and Jeanne Leonne) back in action at Fair Hill. I also have Cowboy and Phoebe going.

As I mentioned in my last update I'm very focused on my students at the moment and am very excited particularly with the progress of Amy Gaynor's horse Cindy. Amy has worked very hard with her competing her at local show's to help the horse get used to competing in a low pressure environment. Now we're getting closer and closer to her first actual event which is looking super exciting! The other thing that's been very exciting is the selection of MacKenzie Taylor on the World Games squad for mounted games!!! Mack is not one of my students, she is the daughter who of Robert and Kathy who own (one of) my fantastic base Taylormade. Mack has been so focused and practiced extremely hard in order to make the squad (it's for under 17's and she's 14) so it's pleasing and inspirational to see how it's paid off. The other cool thing about this is that her pony, Inky, is a rescue and had been left basically to fend for herself and couple of years ago as a horse no one wanted. Now she's on the American games squad to compete at the World Games! Doesn't get much better than that!