Full Gallop Farm.

Lois and Titanium had their first eventing starts of the year mid week at Full Gallop Farm. In fact it was Ty's first eventing start ever and he excelled finishing on his dressage score in 5th place! Lois came 7th and Rocco was 8th in the training. Brittany did great as well coming 3rd in the novice with Jess Jones' Forbidden Colours. Rocco's next start will be Pine Top prelim next weekend. This weekend we're off to Sporting Days with Boo and Mario in the prelim. Brittany is taking her own horse, Parker in the novice.

This is a super busy couple of weeks for us and we're run off our feet!

Eventing off to a great start.

Not sure what it is with me and the rain but almost EVERY competition I've done in the last year has involved rain... This weekend was no disappointment with sub freezing conditions for the dressage and show jumping. I had four horses Collection Pass, McCuan Mario, Rhythm and Blues and Canyonleigh Sirecho. Mario scored a very satisfying 29 in the dressage, Cole 34 and Rocco 35. All four show jumped clear in their own styles and techniques. Sunday was better weather, and by better weather I mean the sun came out.. There was however still ice in the water jump, not very inviting! All cross countried clear with Mario taking it very slow due to the wet conditions and the fact I wanted to school his brakes! Cole ended up 3rd, Mario 8th, Rocco 4th and Boo 10th.

Then it was a quick trip back to the barn to ride Ti and Lois who are competing on Wednesday then a dash (there may have been some speeding laws broken) to the airport so I could get back to Maryland to teach on Monday. A team can only be as effective as the team members. Brittany Meyer's organisational skills and motivational force make the day to day operations run exceptionally smoothly. This Wednesday Ti and Lois are competing at Full Gallop with me and Brittany is riding Forbidden Colours. Please check back for photos and possibly video in a couple of days. Enjoy the cold! Or heat if you're in Australia!

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.

Sunny South!

For me as soon as the snow starts to fall it's time to leave beautiful Maryland and head to the warmer climate of Aiken, South Carolina. So after Christmas in Australia with my family and a stay with my mum we packed up the horses, dogs and people and hit Interstate 95. After doing the trip twice in one week we are now happily settled with the horses enjoying the sun and sand, the dogs enjoying the change of scenery and the humans enjoying seeing the thermometer find it's way past the teens. Pine Ridge (where we're staying) is a fantastic facility with a big jumping arena, super dressage arena with full length mirrors, sandy trotting track and great hacking. This is also Kadi Eykamps winter base with her team. Mario (Patrick McCuan), Cole(Rege Dvorsky), Boo(Robin Doser) and Lois(Joe and Krista Hubschman) along with Rocco (Lisa Kurr) and Titanium (Chaney Taggart) are all starting their competition season here. Brittany Meyer is with me working for three months and has two horses, her own Parker and Jess Jones' cute paint Keifer.

My first competition is this Friday with the PSJ jumping series held at Highfields followed by a Mini-Prix on Sunday. I'll post some pictures in the next couple of days so keep checking back for more updates.

Showjumping in Raleigh

Rocco

Mario

Collection Pass

The year has finished as it begun, jumping in the rain!! Kaden and I made the 6 hour drive south on 95 to Raleigh for the RMI Benefit Show with Canyonliegh Sirecho, McCuan Maio and Collection Pass. This was my first show on Cole and I was exciteda and anxious to see how he'd perfom. Owned by Rege Dvorsky and Jeanne Leone, he's only been in my barn a couple of weeks. After an intersting warmup that involved tarpulins and crazy horses he jumped a super first round. I'm really impressed with his talent and 'can do' attitude and am excited to see where he's headed in the future. Rocco jumped consistently and was happy to be jumping in front of a crowd, such a show off! Mario was a bit of a star jumping four great rounds with rider error (my toe kicked a standard knocking it over) to be blamed for one less ribbon. The show was a great way to finish the year, I feel as tho I'm riding really well. For the next six weeks before I head to Aiken I'll be working hard to have the horses prepared for next season.

Well both the dressage and eventing seasons are coming to a close with the Greater American Insurance Agency (GAIG's) Championships the last of the dressage and Rubicon the last of the eventing. Tony did very well at the GAIG's finishing third which was awesome. He's come a long way in a short space of time and obviously I'm very proud him! Also this weekend was Waredaca One Day Event where I had several students competing including Kaden Weaver on Rocco. This was Kaden's first event in America and he got the call up after Lisa suffered an unfortunate injury. Competing one of my favourite students horse and in front of a crowd (solicited by me..!) of onlookers provided him with enough pressure to keep him on his toes and he finished on his dressage score coming third. Another student to finish the year on a great note was Meghan Avella riding Fantastic. After a tumultuous year she ended up with a well deserved second place.

This coming weekend I am teaching a jumping clinic and the following weekend is Rubicon which will signal the end of the recognised competitions. Over winter we'll compete in some local jumper shows to keep our eyes in, so to speak, and in January head south to Aiken, SC. Hope all is well with your horses and that your year has been as fun and successful as mine!

Lisa with Rocco, Kaden on Lucy, myself and Brittany on board Parker, aka Parkman.

After winning on the first day at the BLM's we finished the second day with a 2nd place at 2nd level. First day, 1st, second day 2nd. A theme happening there..... Think I'll only ever ride on the FIRST day again! Tony was good, trying hard as he always does, he was just a little tired. Kelsey Schmidbauer had a great weekend finishing 9th at Loch Moy. Glenda Player as did very well winning Champion at the Irish Sport Horse Breeder Championship in Lexington, Va.

This week has mostly involved teaching and catching up on cross country schooling. Yesterday we had a lovely day in the ,albeit cold, sunshine with Brittany on Kiefer and Parker, Kaden on Lucy and Lisa with Rocco. Today wasn't so pleasurable in the cold rain with myself on Lois, Glenda on Catnip, Alex on Wes and Kaden on Lucy(again). As was successful with no one falling off and all the horses improving.

This weekend we're off to the New Jersey Horse Trials in what looks to be wet conditions which suits me just fine. I love competing in the rain, that's what real eventing's all about! Next week I have the GAIG dressage finals to look forward to with Tony.