Cole and I in full flight.

It was a case of do as I say, not as I do this weekend at Loudoun Horse Trials. Fortunately my students are good listeners and Alex MacLeod went on to win her second Intermediate this year aboard Arrow. She was also second in the Training with her new horse, Jimmy. Kelsey Schmidbeaur had a gratifying weekend on Marrakesh. Kesh has been giving her all sorts of problems from being anything but submissive in the dressage to stop half way around the cross country and refusing to move in any direction except for up. Not only did she get him around but she won the dressage on a score of 27 and clear showjumping and cross country. Titanium went well for me coming 5th finishing on his dressage score. Unfortunately I made a mistake at one combination in the cross country on Cole which cost us 20 penalties. Completely rider error. I chose at that point it was better for his confidence to head home and leave it for another day.

Next we have Seneca followed by the AEC's in Georgia than Plantation CIC.

Our new mirrors!!

Whilst the past two weeks of competitions haven't been memorable (horses just learning their jobs and a couple of minor rider errors) there has certainly been a lot of action! Most excitingly Jerry has made it to California where he'll spend the next three weeks with Dom Schramm being started. He had a long flight and all thanks to IRT for their professionalism and care of the horses. Cole is also finding another gear in his dressage so I'm hopeful that he'll do us proud at Loudoun in a couple of weeks. Other big news is that Mario has shown considerable improvement to his leg and is now in medium work! He's also now allowed to have turnout which makes my life easier, I'm not his only outlet for exercise, which means now hopefully he can leave his airs above the ground for out in the field!

As you know I have two bases, Taylormade Stables and Sunset Hill Farm. Taylormade has the best surface I've seen in any barn in MD or America for that matter! Sunset Hill has great arenas and awesome facilities but we've been working very hard on the footing to make it the best in America. We have pretty well succeeded with the upper ring after much work from the guys. Another improvement to Sunset has been the addition of gigantic mirrors to the indoor arena courtesy of Mr Micheal Matson. This is a great relief for me as I LOVE looking at myself in the mirror! And of course it helps with checking on my horses progress, frame, position etc....

Sadly for me Alex Curtiss is off to the University of Pennsylvania studying to become a vet so I'm looking for a replacement. Please contact me for further information.

Newest Australian member to our team.

Rocco and I on the plane when we arrived 2 years ago (next to him is one of Boyd Martin's horses, they travelled together from Sydney-Melbourne-Aukland-LA-Newark.).

In Australia I have some horses that I have bred using some of the best Australian and European bloodlines. The focus is producing jumping and dressage horses. Jerry (by Regardez Moi out of the 3/4 sister to Centaur) is the first to make the trip to the U S of A! And what a trip it is.

22 hours Brisbane to Melbourne by road.

2 days in sunny Melbourne.

20 hours Melbourne to LA by air.

3 days quarantine.

3 weeks with Dom Schramm being.

44 hours to GA via Texas.

14 hours to MD!

He's currently unbroken and let a very idyllic existence in country Queensland where his friends have been cows and kangaroos! By the time he gets to me he'll have seen 3 countries (Australia, New Zealand and USA), travelled the length of Australia and the width of America! He's flying with IRT (the same company Rocco came with) who are accustomed to transporting million dollar t/b's all over the world and take excellent care of their cargo. Obviously I'm super excited and can't wait, I've already planned the rest of his year. It's sad for my mum who raised him but it's time for him to have a job.

On the competition front we have Waredaca, Loudoun then we head to the American Eventing Championships in Georgia.

The hot humid weather doesn't slow us down but it does mean some early starts. In the best interests of the horses (and people) we've been starting at 5.30 to avoid working the horses in the hottest part of the day. The exceptions are of course competitions. Maryland HT I and II went very well for us with Cowboy, Phoebe, Key, Cole and Kesh all putting in good performances. Cole's dressage is definitely on the improve, posting a 37, he's really trying hard and the work is paying off. Finally! Olney farm held their annual horse trials this past weekend, I had 4 rides, Pheobe (4th), Cowboy, Cindy (3rd) and Key (7th).

The other competition this weekend was the National Young Riders Championships held in Lexington, KY. Alex MacLeod riding Arrow was selected to ride for Area II and and put in a fine performance. She was selected to be the first rider, trail blazer, and report back to aid the rest of the team. Her and Arrow made short work of the cross country, finding it well within their abilities and training. The only thing she had to report back to her team mates was to be aware of the placement of the roping. She unfortunately found herself on the WRONG side at one point and lost some time finding her way back. In the show jumping she showed everyone how it's done by posting one of only two clear rounds in the competition. Well done Alex, we're all proud of you!