Woodbine, next stop Aiken!

My favourite jeans are packed, Sunny's bed is packed and Digger's two favourite sticks are conveniently sitting on the backseat of the truck. So we are FINALLY ready to head south for the winter! Albeit a week late..... After such a mild winter I thought how could a few extra days hurt?! Save some money, earn some more money and sleep in my own bed a few more nights. A decision I seriously regretted the day after we were supposed to leave and it started SNOWING! So tomorrow we head off with two trailers, nine horses, six dogs (only 2 will stay) and five people. Everyone is excited, probably because we haven't had a show in about six weeks and we're all getting a bit of cabin fever. Just to give you a little insight into the life of a travelling competitive barn, this is how the morning will pan out:
Hour 1: Five people arrive at the barn and start wrapping nine horses. Same five people load nine horses onto two trailers. About three words are spoken the whole time.
Hour 2: First Red Bull and cool morning air start to take effect. Dogs sleep. Humans limit conversation to weather, 'how much further' and discussing the new Facebook.
Hour 3: Dogs sleep. No conversation since the MASSIVE Facebook argument. All humans asleep except drivers.
Hour 4: Stop for petrol. Dogs wake up, go for a run then back to sleep. Humans that were arguing switch trucks.
Hour 5: Start to see South Of The Border signs. Dogs sleep.
Hour 6: First 'are we there yet'. More South Of The Border signs.
Hour 7: Stop for more fuel and breakfast. Arguing parties make up agreeing that Facebook, in whatever form, is still pretty cool. Both of them update their statuses accordingly. Head count of horses to make sure we still have all of them.
Hour 8: South Of The Border theme park/rest area/restaurant/motel comes into view. We drive straight past. Dogs sleep.
Hour 9: Every topic expect, including Australia VS America, has been discussed. It's a tie.. Dogs sleep. 50th time someone asks 'are we there yet'.
Hour 10: Final fuel stop. Dogs wake up, then don't go back to sleep.
Hour 10 1/2: Arrive! Unload horses and settle them in for the night. About three words are spoken the whole time. Dogs run around in joy.
Hour 12: Dinner and quiet drink to ring in the NEW YEAR!

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year where ever you may be! I'm looking forward to a big one!

Update on the new Irish guys!

Ari with Tate Shaw.

Our two new Irish 3 year olds have had a busy couple of weeks, firstly travelling from Ireland to America. On one day they had their feet on the ground in three different countries, Ireland, England and America! They've now been with us for ten days and are coming along very well. Firstly we had to decide on names, Irish 1 and Irish 2 just didn't really sound personal enough.. The bigger one of the two has incredible charisma that would make him stand out in a herd of a hundred horses. He also has his own agenda and a lot of self confidence, he therefore became Ari Gold after one of my favourite TV characters. If you don't know who Ari Gold is, google 'Entourage, Ari Gold', you'll find out! The other one is super athletic and a fantastic mover that has EVENTER written all over him. Watching him trot around the field you can see every joint and muscle move and can imagine him jumping ANYTHING! And to ride he's already wanting to go on the bit better than a lot of 5 year olds! So he has become Lux Tremendous (Lux being his sire), Trevor for short. Both are green with Trevor being the more experienced of the two. Therefore Tate Shaw, local young jump jockey, has been helping out riding them. Both horses love him and he's doing a great job. Trevor will come to Wellington, FL, with me while Ari will stay in MD to get a few more rides with Tate before heading to Aiken, SC with me at the beginning of January.

Trevor's first time thru a gymnastic exercise. Tate Shaw in the saddle.

Trevor showing off his pretty face!

Instead of planning and packing for my annual trip back to my home land for Christmas under the sun and blazing hot temperatures, I'm planning and packing for my annual southern migration to the warmer (albeit not blazing hot) temperatures of Florida and South Carolina. This year I'm foregoing my trip home and instead investing that money on more dressage and showjumping training. My regular readers will know that back in May/June I drastically cut back on my teaching in order to focus more on my own training. By going to Wellington before Aiken I get in 10 days of focused, intensive training. This is something I do for myself but also greatly benefits group of students. I always do better when I'm in an intensive environment surrounded by other top level riders. So Cole, Liberty, Ari, Trevor, Ron and I will hit 95 south just as soon as I've eaten my Christmas dinner!
This is my second favourite time of the year: it's a time to reflect on the good, the bad and the unexpected from the year past and plan for the upcoming one. My favourite part is starting the new competition year! I plan on writing another blog to analyse this past year, so I won't go into that here. But I would really like to use this one to thank my supporters and team publicly. Each person, whether they take one lesson a month or own a few of my horses, plays a huge part in keeping this ship afloat!
Amy Gaynor: my manager. Thank you for being the organiser and glue that holds everything together. I'm excited for what you and Cindy will be able to do this spring.
Heather Pettit: our barn manager. Thank you for taking such great care of the horses and being so attentive and observant.
Kaden Weaver: Working student. Thank you for keeping everything running efficiently and getting on all the horses that buck!
Deborah Shuman: Thank you for keeping the financial wheels turning!
Hannah Firth: Working student. Thank you for keeping Kaden under control and laughing at my very funny jokes.
John Loosaririan: Working student. Thank you for your kindness to the horses.
Paula Bollinger: Sunset Hill manager. Thank you for keeping the McCuan horses organised and keeping the farm so well run.
Taylormade Stables: My teaching barn. Thank you to Robert and Kathy for taking care of and supporting our endeavours.
Sunset Hill Farms: My base for my horses: Thank you to the McCuan Family for providing such a lovely facility to train out of.
Rege Dvorksy and Jeanne Leone: owners of my best friend Cole!
Carla MacLeod: Lola's owner.
Pat and Jill McCuan: owners of the McCuan horses, most notably Mario and Liberty.
Amy and Alan Taggart: owners of Ti, Cowboy and Cindara.
Beth Sokohl: owner of Charmer (temporary ride) and at the top end of my favourite student list!
Thanks to my students and other supporters that make my job such a pleasurable one, and that help me get closer to my goals.
Thanks to the organisers and volunteers that enable me to compete week in, week out and provide the base of an industry I earn a living from.
Most of all tho, thank you very very much to the horses that give so willingly and generously each and every day. I may be the trainer, but you are the ultimate teachers and team mates.

I normally avoid clipping horses at all costs. For me it's in my top 3 most hated jobs, unpacking the trailer after winter being number one. Although I'm very competent (having clipped a lot of horses as a working student) I usually say that I don't know how to, that in Australia our horses don't grow winter coats and we don't even have clippers. This is a lie but again, in my top 3 hated jobs! Unfortunately for me tho one of my best horses is a little bit special in some ways (as all the good ones are!). He has tonnes of ability and along with that comes tonnes of attitude. He has an amazing extended trot, he bucks. He has a super jump, he bucks. He can score a 26 in the dressage without even trying, he also bucks! The attitude also comes out in the barn, most notably this summer by doing his level best to kill both himself and his handler. Both of them ended up in hospital! The horse required surgery and a long break. The handler with a concussion and almost severed finger! And what terrible, cruel, unusual punishment was she attempting on him at the time of the accident?! That's right, clipping him!!! So now heading into winter almost all of my horses have been clipped except this one. His coat has now grown to embarrassing lengths and the job of clipping has become unavoidable. So, given his last display, it's up to me to clip him myself. Put my body on the line. I have to say this horse and I have a very good relationship, he's one of my best friends (weird, yes). So to begin I enlisted the help of Uncle Sedative, just to take the edge off. And by edge I mean put the horse very much into a dreamlike state that he wouldn't even notice if we had another earthquake! I also had the kind and helpful assistance of Rachel Best to stand at his head and warn me if he so much as opened his eyes! Her assistance was involuntary, I just said can you hold this horse for 5 minutes.... So with extra sedative and Rachel in place, I set to work REALLY fast. It was going really well until I got to his stomach and I noticed a swish of his tail. I looked at his head and he seemed fine, his nose was fairly close to the ground. I went back to work thinking I'd imagined his tail swishing. I then got to his back legs and the tail swished again! This time the Rachel Alarm System went off alerting me to the fact that his head was way up in the air and he was very much awake! So a little more sedative and we were back on track. This time I got half way up his neck before the tail started swishing again. I tried to push on but visions of severed fingers and horse hospitals held me back a bit! So I gave him a pat (to tell him I love his fighting spirit) and put him away for the evening. Now I have a 2/3rds clipped horse and round two in the clipping ring facing me tomorrow..... Lucky he can jump!

Ronnie and I taking in the sights of Autumn.

Autumn for me is a two week period to catch up on everything that I have been putting off all year (eg my record keeping..) and to plan for winter. As winter approaches my barn grows from 20 horses in MD to 20 horses in MD AND 15 plus horses in SC. To SC I not only take the horses but obviously a couple of people (this year John and Chloe) plus a few dogs and a whole barn full of winter needs for horse and rider. And this year with my focus shifting from teaching back to my personal riding goals and sales, there are ever more horses to pack for! There's also the last couple of horses to sell that aren't moving south, Titanium and Raleigh this year. Add to this the preparations for the Irish horses and we keeping pretty busy!

This week I also upgraded my trusty old 4 horse trailer for a 6 horse one which should reduce the trips up and down highway 95 from 4 each way to 3 thereby saving about $2000 in diesel. So there is that to be washed and prepared for the winter also. Last but not least there's my wardrobe to consider. I need to make sure I have fleece lined breeches in the lastest colours!

Jeanne, myself and Lillian. Not a great shot, but the only one we took on the whole trip!
Cole's year ended well with VA Horse Trials with a top ten finish in the intemediate. I was super happy with his showjumping: of the 35 horses who started, 2 showjumped clear and 4 had one rail down each. Our hard work and experience in the showjumping (it pays to go to a couple of indoor shows) paid off with just one rail down. 10 horses alone had 5 or more rails! So Cole now gets a short break then back into to get ready for winter. He just has a couple more boxes to check (changes!) before his first advanced mid Feb. Lightning had a great test with a 29! Not bad for his second event! Unfortunately he wasn't so keen on the cross country, he just didn't understand why he had to gallop AWAY from the safety of the trailers and the other horses! Ronnie did a combined test, I thought it would be better to wait until there wasn't snow on the ground to do his first training!
Then on to Ireland for a spot of horse shopping. It was my first time there and I'm well and truly impressed with the quality of horses! Jeanne Leone (Cole's co owner, with Rege Dvorsky) came to keep me company and make sure I didn't get carried away with eating sausage rolls! I did eat 6 within the first hour but I digress... We saw some super horses, didn't crash the hire car (I was thankful to be driving on the correct side of the road again, I'm much faster!) and got to see the famous Coolmore stud in the flesh. And now the wait begins as we prepare for the new arrivals at the beginning of December! We were also able to catch up with Lillian Heard (while trialing the wonderful Fernhill horses) and see how she's settled into Irish life. Apparently quite well judging by her new found driving skills and new lilt in her accent! From Potomac to Kilkenny via West Grove, she's gathering some awesome experiences and skills. Back on the home front I want to share this message (Rege's personal blog!) from Cole's owner, Rege. Cole is one of my best horses and I was well assured he was in good hands! I'm also glad to see that the eventing terminology is entering Rege's vocabulary! Hope you enjoy as much as I did:

Rege's Blog
Well, Cole is missing his rider,Kate, while she is in Ireland looking for his replacement.Today was my first ride on Cole, being Kate has left. I immediately noticed Cole hard on the bit with little flexion on his left side.On the flats, he needed some coaxing on the counter-canter and I found it tough to get him on the proper lead.I was hoping to have my helmet cam for this historic ride, but I left it in Jeanne's Jeep and did not have the keys to open the door.Oh, to be back in Pittsburgh.Back to the ride. Cole did well over a sequence of skinny's and corner jumps. But I was surprised to be launched in the air as he bucked me off before the liverpool !!!All this said, I believe I can make him the horse he can be. I will put him on a series of neutracueticals until Kate returns.Conclusion: Cole is like an old woman with a Virginia ham under her arm crying that she has no bread!!!He has the heart, but needs the Chadderton back in his life.The grass is always greener on the other side, NOT....he's allready here.

VA Horse Trials Day 1

You know it's going to be a rough day when then first item on the agenda is a riders meeting to determine wheter or not to move the cross country forward a day because of the impending snow! My vote obviously was a very definate YES! Let's not cross country in the snow please! Cole's dressage was a 39, not the best, not the worst. The cross country was challenging enough, not so much with the jumping efforts, but with the time. I wasn't able to get going in the first part of the course, however the second half rode a lot better and faster. I was happy that Cole jumped confidently into the water. After a 3am start and a non stop morning/afternoon (literally) I thought it would be beneficial for the younger guys to go in the showjumping competition in the Coluseum. This contest is (from what I could understand) based on Take Your Own Line rules with style points thrown in. So in preparation I put on my best (only) Kingsland jacket and headed to the Coleseum! Let me just point out that this structure is a little bit disappointingly named, there AREN'T any lions or gladiators. Ron and Lightning didn't actually get that memo, (I think Ronnie thought he saw a lion, lightning definitely thought he was a gladiator) so it was good to get them in there jumping around before they actually have to compete. Tomorrow is dressage for Ron, Lightning and sj for Lightning, xc for Ron. Cole has the day off before he has to sj on Sunday. . I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow to clear skies and 70 degrees. Judging by the falling snow outside the windows of my Days Inn hotel I don't like my chances....