Fair Hill

I think I may have jinxed the competition at Fair Hill this weekend when I said 'Rain? What rain? These weather forecasts are ALWAYS wrong! They exaggerate SO much!'..... This I said on Saturday afternoon, so of course I woke up to pouring rain on Sunday! And as the day went on it got heavier and heavier. So to everyone who had to compete in the rain, I'm sorry and I accept full responsibility. It did however work out well for me tho with Liberty jumping a super clean round to finish second. This is the second event in a row that we've been runner up. And both times to a boy... Quite unchivalrous of them, they could have had the decency to have a rail! I don't think that's unreasonable, it's not like I wanted them to fall off. Any way I'm super happy with how this little horse is coming along. Cole was back on form this week and ended up 5th in a very big division. Again it was his dressage that kept him from the top position. Normally I understand that, I've made no secret that his flatwork is a work in progress, but this time he did a very consistent and accurate test. All the movements were performed clearly and well. He just lacked the expression on Tortilas. So I was a bit disappointed to see him scored so far down the list. But that's why we love this sport isn't it! And there's always another chance. Ron was great. He was quite feisty in the dressage but then jumped his way back into favour with a super xc round. So I was happy with them all. I have to say Chloe did a great job this weekend, while I was checking out who likes my status' on Facebook and checking my match.com messages, she was working away ensuring the horses were happy and ready on time looking beautiful. You know a person has worked hard when they're asleep driving home. And you haven't even driven out of the competition yet! So thanks Chloe. Next up is Loudoun HT.

Liberty showjumping.

Home sweet home!

Spring each year is hectic and just getting more so! Between Poplar, moving back to MD, Morven and Easter, there's a lot going on. The move back in itself is time consuming and a logistical nightmare. 10 horses with only 9 spots on the trailer? Sometimes there isn't always room for one more.... Thanks to Rege Dvorsky (Cole) and his granddaughter Addison for helping with the move back. Firstly to Poplar: I had Cole in the advanced. His dressage was quite good, just the trot half pass lacking expression and we missed on of the changes. The cross country looked tough enough but definatley doable. The warmup was in one of the beautiful sand rings at the wonderful facility and over only showjumps. It didn't click with Cole that he was going xc until we went to the start box AFTER we'd warmed up. He got quite 'up' at that point and left the start box like a bat out of hell! NOT his normal style! The combination that was causing most of the trouble for the class was a vertical, 4/5 strides left to a corner, 4/5 strides right to a skinny. Every other horse seemed to misread the corner and glance of it. There were even some elimantions there. Cole jumped thru that part like a little rubber ball. I was a bit surprised how well he read it and I lost my line to the skinny. So 20 penalties there and I decided to save his legs and walk home. Obviously I needed to be better organised. He'll next go to Plantation (easy run around the intermediate) the to Fair Hill (back in the advanced. I have to say the orgainsers at Poplar couldn't have been better at helping the riders and accomodating their requests. Particularly after a torrential storm flooded the stalls: Poplar made sure we had plenty of fresh shavings to mop up as best we could.
Morven was lot of fun as it always is. I had three horses there, all of whom finished on their dressage scores. The two VS McCuan horses both did very well coming home with a red ribbon each. Liberty and Ronnie are both VERY different horses in a lot of ways. The only way they are similar is they both enjoy bucking and the both are never give up thoroughbreds! Liberty is lining up for his first one star at Fair Hill so I took it easy on him. He still made the time without any trouble and was a blast around the course. Even thru the quarry which wasn't really set on a particular distance, unless you count two and a half strides a distance....
Back at home it's teaching and training for me and a full schedule thru Spring heading into summer. Plantation this weekend with Cole, Charmer (preparing for her debut with Beth) and Ron. Followed by Fair Hill CIC the Loudoun, MCTA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JrDoh3dAT8

Hi. Cole here again! Apparently Kate has lost her creative inspiration and now I'm the one in charge of keeping everyone up to date with the goings on around here. Let's start with me! Whilst I would consider myself a smart, nay, clever horse, I'm still trying to get a grasp on the English language. For example 'gallop day' doesn't always mean gallop. There is actually quite of lot of cantering involved. Nowhere near as exciting as galloping. Here we see the English language being misused. Going for a 'quiet hack out with Liberty': again English language misrepresented. There is NOTHING 'quiet' about a hack out with Liberty. All it takes is one squirrel running up a tree or one Llama charging towards the fence by the road and he jumps on top of me like a koala scaling a eucalyptus! And then there's the 'mini' prix. Mario told me a lot about the Grand Prix's he would do with Kate. Most of his stories involved Kate shaking like a leaf in a cyclone in fear at the size of the jumps. And how he would sail over them with the ease of Bionic Man leaping over Empire State in spite of what she was doing on his back. He would also explain how the jumps were above his head and wider than our stalls. So you can easily see how I would be mislead into thinking that a MINI prix would be a very small version of what he was talking about.Perhaps the jumps would be like the dog ones you see at Plantation, ie thin rails, about the height of a human waist. Easily jumpable! So when Kate told me we were doing a Mini Prix at Highfields I was pretty excited. I mean, I DID win the last time I was there! How hard could it be? Let me answer that question in plain simple English: REALLY REALLY REALLY hard! Apparently the only time 'mini' means small is in reference to mini Snickers bars! These jumps were HUGE! Not sure what Kate was trying to accomplish but I don't think I'll ever complain about eventing show jumping again! If I must say, I did rally to the effort and had just the first down, which I think was Kat's fault anyhow. So this brings me to this coming weekend.
Liberty's is the only one with an iPhone in the barn so I asked him to check my ride times for this weekend. He told me I was entered in the advanced! The pre Mini Prix me wouldn't have thought anything of it, just another word for intermediate (perhaps for the horses with an advanced intelligence). But now I'm getting quite apprehensive. Particularly when Liberty said I'm the only one from our barn going to the event! Always a bad sign! So I asked my room mate Arrow what he thought. He's 22 and seen EVERYTHING there is. He went into a LONG explanation about the technicalities of speed, heights, lengths, dimensions of the cross country course. He talked about advanced's. 3 stars, 4 stars, Bruce Davidson this, Bruce Davidson that. He talked about how it felt galloping into the Head of the Lake at Rolex. How the crowd clapped and cheered for him. All this sounded fun and interesting UNTIL he backtracked to the dressage. At the advanced level I'm expected to do flying changes! On command! How do I do that?! I still trot through my changes when I'm galloping out in the field during the day! So now I'm standing here in my stall hoping like anything Arrow is wrong and that Advanced actually means Novice with an IQ test at the end. But given how many changes I've had to practice recently, and the fact Kate lies to me on a regular basis, I don't like my chances! Wish me luck!

Collection Pass, aka Cole, has been bugging me for quite some time to let him update my blog. He's VERY persistent and persuasive so, just this once, I'm letting him do one. I may regret it! Also please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors, he's a horse and struggles with the touch typing..

Hi! Cole here! Kate said I can start adding my own updates to her blog on a regular basis! For my first one I'll give you a rundown of my last week or so starting with last weekend at Pine Top. Kate told me that she requested an afternoon ride time for my dressage so that I could have a sleep in a rest well in preparation for my test. She's so nice! Personally I'm not sure of the point of dressage, I OBVIOUSLY know how to turn and go and slow down and speed up judging by my cross country. And my judging by my showjumping I'm OBVIOUSLY good at collection and I'm obedient. Kate tells me these are the things they look for in a dressage test, why can't we skip the sandpit ring work and head straight to the jumping? The judges can see all they need there! Anyhow, truth be told, I'm a little claustrophobic and those little white fences around the ring freak me out a bit. Why are they so small? Why are they white? And what are the letters for? And why o why does the judge have to sit right next to the ring and rate my every movement?! I CAN HEAR YOU Mr Judge! I can hear you say that I need more suppleness, that I need more reach in my mediums, that my halt wasn't quite square. I know it's your job to rate us. But to be quite honest, it hurts my feelings to hear you talk like that. I WANT to be more supple (I've started yoga), I WANT to reach more in my mediums and I'm not sure what a 'square' halt means. I stopped didn't I! How about a little 'way to go Cole, you stayed in the ring!' or 'good try ol boy, I'm giving you a 10 for effort!'. Perhaps THAT would encourage me a bit more! ANYWAY back to Pine Top. After my sleep in we headed to the event. Kate had said there was a chance of rain in the afternoon, how wrong she was! On our way there it started POURING with rain! And then Liberty texted me to tell me there had been a tornado warning issued! Needless to say I started to get VERY excited that the dressage may be cancelled and we could head straight to the cross country. Alas this was not the case. But I didn't want to let go of my dream that easily. As we headed down the centreline toward 'I' for our first halt, I thought I saw a tornado off in the distance! So I put my head up to check it out (I could've been a hero and sounded the alert that saved everyone!), as I put my head up I sensed Kate's displeasure (she's so annoying sometimes). Let's just say that if a real tornado had lifted up a house and blown it in between 'I' and the judge, I believe it would've greatly helped our score. Anyhow, I think I did really well and my mum (in the brief 3 months I knew her) told me that's all that matters! The cross country and showjumping was a piece of cake and I'm pretty sure I was the best one out there. Which is why I think we have started our lessons with Phillip again, to showcase my talents. I'm pretty sure I'm the best jumper he's ever seen. And I'm pretty sure I'm there to teach him. I know I'm definitely teaching Kate. So in our lesson yesterday I tested both of their skills and threw in a couple of missteps and a little hiccup to keep them on the top of their game. I added a link to one of the exercises.

Back on the home front Lola told me that Trevor told her that Ari overhead Kate telling Chloe that we are heading home to MD a little earlier this year. Apparently the ground in MD isn't frozen and everyone misses me. I also thought I overheard a rumour that Liberty, Ron and I are going to Florida next week. If it's true then this is great news! I really need a holiday! And I love FL in the winter! Thanks for reading, I've got to go now. Kate's on her phone and distracted so if I hit the 'publish post' button now, she won't get a chance to proofread it! BTW, I now have a Facebook page (so passe I know, but apparently if you don't have one these days you're a nobody!). Search 'Collection Pass' or just go to Kate's and search the pages she likes, it'll come up.

Pine Top

I had three horses this weekend at Pine Top and they all jumped great! After entering Cole (Rege Dvorsky and Jeanne Leone) in the advanced (his first) I moved him back down to intermediate after he missed his run at the Pine Top held two weeks ago. He's such a great cross country horse and this weekend was no different! He's really feeling his experience now and is super fun cross country. Basically I just tell him which direction to go in and he does the rest! He moved up 10 places to finish in the top ten. Liberty (McCuan) was also great xc. This horse is such an athlete and will take on anything I point him at! He's starting to feel very comfortable, even a little cocky. I don't mind as long as that means he keeps jumping the way he does! Raleigh jumped a super jump, really confident and bold until the coffin. Unfortuantley I just tipped off him. He was VERY surprised to see me on the ground and a little apologetic too! It wasn't his fault I told him, I just needed to put more SaddleTite on!
This weekend I'll be back in MD teaching, then heading to FL next week for some training.

Chloe with her two favourite charges, Cole and Liberty!

Another busy week here in Aiken with apparently the entire eventing population of America in town to buy horses! No complaints here, it certainly keeps us out of trouble! All of the horses are going well, in particular Cole and Liberty. Both are such different horses: Cole is such an honest and hard worker that gives 110% each day and really draws support and confidence from his rider, and Liberty is so athletic up for any challenge IF he respects his rider. Unfortunately his idea of testing that respect involves a series of well thought out, complicated routines encompassing all his skills including (but not limited to) spooking (forwards, sideways and backwards), bucking and turning around really fast. He has a surprisingly large variation in the combination of these skills. He also perform them at random times, although I would have to say the spooking occurs most often when the Llamas next door are standing at the fence and staring at us. The good news is that all I have to do to get his respect is not fall off! And I pat him on the neck for good measure! His dressage is going very well, his cross country is great and his showjumping is definitely improving. Cole's jumping impresses me so much, he really learns well and doesn't forget his lessons. He's easily becoming one of my favourite horses ever

I'm very lucky to be supported by a wonderful group of owners with the MacLeod, Taggart and McCuan families along with Rege Dvorsky and Jeanne Leone. My students and boarders also give the income and inspiration to chase my dreams, so thank you! Coming up I have Pine Top Advanced and Southern Pines II, with a trip to FL for training and a trip to MD to teach a clinic all mixed in!

Ice Road Truckers Pine Top style!

That is SOLID ice that the tractor is driving thru!!

Today at Pine Top was more like an episode of Ice Road Truckers! ALL THREE water jumps were frozen over! The organisers did an awesome job of breaking it up with tractors, trucks and any available vehicle! By the time we went cross country there was only the odd fragment floating around the edge.

This ten day period in February is always a busy one, with 4 shows. It's also the most popular for travellers searching for horses to buy and students to visit! All my horses have now done at least one event, most of them two. And the good news is they've all won ribbons! Both Full Gallops were true to level and tough as normal. I love these events and always seem to have a good go of it there. So far this year I've jumped approx 230 showjumps in a competition arena with just 3 rails! All the horses are jumping very well, particularly Cole and Liberty.

Raleigh at Full Gallop. Photo courtesty hoofpix.com.

For anyone interested, my schedule for the last 10 days:

Last Wednesday: Full Gallop, 5 horses plus 3 students

Saturday: Sporting Days, coaching students

Wednesday: Full Gallop, 5 horses

Friday: Pine Top Intermediate

Saturday: Pine Top 4 horses

Sunday: Pine Top 4 horses.

Now I'm sitting in an airport waiting for a connecting flight back to MD to teach for the next two days. Good luck to whomever has the first lesson tomorrow!