May Fair Hill

This weekend I had six horses at Fair Hill's end of Spring event. Having been here only five weeks ago, I was expecting basically the same courses. I couldn't have been more wrong! Each level was well and truly at the toughest end of the spectrum and beautifully dressed up. EG the novice had to jump a cabin landing with one stride into water then a bank out! I had horses at each level so I got to see each first hand. Cole jumped very well around the cross country to end up 4th. Liberty did an uncharacteristically poor dressage but then jumped two super double clears. He's feeling very good and I'm looking forward to Bromont with him, he'll be very competitive. The three novice horses were good: Smokey scored a 28 in the dressage. Lightning showjumped like a star and Fudge finished on a 30. The scores haven't been posted so I can't see where he ended up.... Unfortunately Ron and I had a tumble in the water after he overreached on landing. Both of us are fine, just quite annoyed as he was jumping really well up to that point. I have posted a video of Liberty cross country below.
Thank you to the organisers of the event for running it so smoothly and thank you to my owners who keep me in the game!

Lessons

Lessons are a vital part of any riders life. This applies to everyone regardless of level, from beginners to Olympic riders. This is a truth I've been aware of since my first trainer had me on the lunge line  at 5 years of age on my first pony, Bluey. Since then I've had many lessons varying in consistency and quality. Initially the goal was to keep me from falling off my pony. That achieved, we moved onto rising trot. At this point my ultimate goal was to be able to canter and perhaps compete in the Grand National just like in National Velvet. So I started cantering. Bluey then understood my Grand National goals and took it into her owns hands/hooves to teach me the gallop we would need if I were to win whilst competing against the 17hh monster thoroughbreds on my little 12.2hh Welsh Pony mare. She did this by bolting from the bottom of the paddock back to the house. I thought this was wonderful, the adults did not. SO annoying. Back on the lunge we went, for what seemed like ETERNITY. It was probably only a few weeks or a few days, but when you're five that amount of time is actually quite long in relation to the amount of time you've been alive!  I think it was at this point I started to see lessons as a necessary evil, something that must be done in order to improve but not to be enjoyed. Now, 20 something years later, I'm just starting to see differently.
Even through Pony Club I saw my lessons as the evil one must do in order to prove you have enough control of your pony to be allowed to jump or do games. It didn't help that my second pony, Princess, was very inappropriately named. She-Devil or Killer would have been more suitable names. The pony club trainers viewed us as a lost cause and often treated us as such, basically if I didn't fall off I was allowed to go and jump with the other kids. I was even allowed on the odd occasion to go thru the 'jump lane'! This involved taking away our stirrups and reins, lining our ponies up in chute, smacking them on the bottom and yelling 'heels down', 'eyes up' while we galloped uncontrollably thru a line of jumps. This is actually one of my favourite memories! A little while later I graduated to a bigger, faster horse called Apollo. With him I developed a love for going even faster, now adding in cows (we loved campdrafting) and xc jumps. All of my training at this point had been thru the pony club. By now my parents saw I wasn't going to stop riding so they got me some lessons privately. Money was in VERY short supply in my house so I'm eternally grateful to them for doing this. I like to think they did it to give me some education, however I think they actually did it as a form of health insurance. Particularly after I built a xc course in the paddock and timed myself to see how fast I could do it. Then devoted several weeks to beating each 'record' I set.
By now I had given up on my Grand National aspirations, who was I kidding that I would be able to do that? Plus the movie International Velvet had just made it to TV and I'd decided on a different career path, international eventer! I renamed Apollo, he became Pie (anyone who's seen the movie will understand) and we practiced our winning xc round over and over and over again. At some point I realised dressage was a part of eventing, I also realised I wasn't very good at xc and realised the showjump rails weren't going to keep themselves up. So I got a job (I was 13 now, perfectly legal in Australia) and started investing in more lessons.
This brings me back to the point of the story: I've had many lessons from many trainers. Some great eg: Heath Ryan (inspiration, builder of careers), Rozzie Ryan (dressage extraordinaire and most patient woman in the world), Vicki Roycroft (just the one but boy did it stick!), Wayne Roycroft (I've never felt so small and big at the same time), Prue Barrett (just the one but genius), Craig Barrett (genius also), Martina Hannover-Sternberg (o to ride like her), Boyd Martin (whom I worked for, learnt a lot about riding and a LOT about life!), Phillip Dutton (still working with as often as money allows), Marilyn Meredith-Little (taught me how to jump BIG jumps). There are other trainers who I learnt good and bad things from but the thing that I had never acheived in a lesson was enjoyment or pleasure. Not once was I happy with a lesson, not once have I looked forward to one, not once did I look back on one thinking it was successful. I saw them as a time where I was being judged and told what I was bad at. I know that's the point of a lesson but I saw that as failing. And each time I went to a lesson I would be failing at something. Just recently something weird happened. I was on my way to a lesson with Phillip (it's a two hour drive, great thinking time) and found myself looking forward to it. So I went with it and told myself how much fun it would be. Lo and behold I've never learnt so much in one go! And afterwards more of the lesson sank in. On the way home I made a mental note to myself to remember that. Then at my next lesson I went in with the same view. I think I've now started to enjoy learning and am not ashamed that I don't have ALL the answers. One small step for me, one giant leap for learning!

MCTA Advanced

MCTA is on of my favourite events: great organisers, super course and close to my barn! I had 6 horses competing from novice thru to advanced. Smokey was super coming second. Ron jumped beautifully finish third. Cole was 6th in the advanced. I took it easy on both Liberty and Charmer. Liberty as he's already had a super season, they can't run for time at every event. And Charmer as it's her first time at this level since Millbrook last year. She felt as tho she would have happily jumped the intermediate!

I was VERY happy with the way Cole jumped around. One of only three clears in the showjumping, he really showed the benefit of the jumper shows and lessons. On the cross country he again jumped really well. The scoreboard will show two runouts at the second last combination on course. But I really don't feel as tho that was an accurate picture of how he actually jumped. He read the tough double corners very well. He jumped thru the water extremely well (you'll see in the video below, a little unnecessary encouragement from me), the bounce upbank super. The coffin felt like a schooling exercise. The only problem occured at the fence line, back into the main field, which was then two strides to a brush skinny. The placement of the skinny meant jumping the fenceline at an acute angle. In my efforts to jump the skinny well I think I under rode the fenceline in and had a very cheap runout. The same thing happened on the second approach. I then realised I was too focussed on the skinny and just rode the first fence. He then jumped super. That's the hard thing with riding at this level, it only takes one small mistake. He finished feeling a lot more grown up and full of confidence. And I finished slightly kicking myself but also really happy that he definitely feels as tho he belongs at advanced, he loves his job. I'm the first person to be tough on myself and I'm terrified of failure, but I couldn't help but be happy with him! I've had rides (on other horses) where I really thought I would end up with a visit to the hospital but managed to get around clear and claim ribbons. Then there are rides like Cole's today where the scoreboard doesn't look as good but it was a really beneficial round that rode really well. So I'm kicking myself a little bit but am not going to lose any sleep over it. In every horses career there are ups and downs, sometimes the downs actually turn out to be ups!

Thank you to my owners who entrust me with their wonderful horses. To Chloe for making sure the horses are prepared. Heather for running the barn. And my students who provide me with an income to keep pursuing my dreams.

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.