Huxley Greer Eventing

A Hot and Cold Start

2012-02-12T10:35:00.004-05:00

As the winter winds blow outside, I'm staring out of the window at my desk watching the horses peacefully graze; obviously not affected by the windchill. As for me, it's my day off, but I'm working on convincing myself to get out and get my riding duties done in the artic air: two flats and one hack. In case anyone out there thinks I'm being a wimp, the windchill last night was five degrees below zero; the temperature today is supposed to reach a balmy 35 degrees and unfortunately the wind is still whipping. I will admit that I shouldn't be complaining. This winter has been unusually warm and we've had absolutely no snow to speak of it...which is perfect.

Show season started early this year with a schooling horse trial for Vesuvian, a schooling dressage show for the Andalusians, and Sporting Days HT for Emmy and Ian last weekend. Ian's first outting which was also to be his last novice, was a sucess. He survived the fifty geese, ten turkeys, and other exotic animal friends to have a solid run, however, I managed to jump the wrong fence going into a combination.

The Andalusians owned by Micky Copeland, Amistad RL and Terciero RL, started the year off with solid performances at first and second level. It was very nice to get out with those guys so early in the year. Thank you to the Virginia Horse Center and Dressage With a View for hosting two winter dressage shows! The show was held in the East Complex, also known as "the little indoor." Both horses had shown in there last fall and had been extremely spooky. My goal was to keep their minds and focus when in the indoor. Thankfully, both horses showed their maturity as they both went in focused and ready to work! Amistad RL, or "Little Man," won both of his first level tests and Tercerio RL or "TC," was the only horse in his division, but scored solidly and is showing so much potential.

The following weekend, we left for Aiken for Sporting Days for Ian's first training and Emmy's first novice. Ian was out of character the entire time and scored a disappointing 49 in dressage. For the first time, he was extremely tense in dressage warm up and unfortunately it carried over into his test. The scoring in the division seemed kind of low, there were quite a few mid 40s, but the judge left helpful and encouraging comments on our test. Ian's bad day continued when he stopped twice at an oxer in stadium at which point we retired. It certainly wasn't the way I hoped our first training would go, but we're still moving forward. I think Ian had an "off" day and I'm working on making sure that I'm giving him the ride he needs; he was spooking at the boxes used as filler under the oxer, so it may be a case of greeness. I didn't feel like he was being naughty. He's usually very bold and enjoys jumping very much. Nothing went well for him that day, so it's back home to continue our homework. I've included a photo of the stop...it's not always smooth sailing, but the key is to learn from mistakes (something that I'm trying to remind myself) and keepin moving forward in an attempt to fix them.

Even though Ian had a bad day, Emmy was absolutely amazing around her first novice. She put in her best dressage test yet. She thought the judge's car was scary and even jumped into the air when the horn was blown signaling us to enter the arena! Although she started of silly, she really settled into work and scored a 33.5 placing her in 9th in a competitive open novice division. Show jumping went well, but at one point we lost focus and pulled two rails. I was so proud of her as we went around cross country. She was bold, forward, and seemed to enjoy the course immensely to be clear around her first novice.

Already my plans have changed in terms of our show schedule .Unfortunately, I scratched from Paradise this next weekend. I was on the fence, but I feel like this time can be better used by doing some homework before heading back out in March for Southern Pines.

A Busy Start to 2012

2012-01-11T22:42:00.003-05:00

So, it's finally here; 2012 has arrived! I'm just now starting to grasp the concept that March is really only a month and a half away. Winter is nearly over, and knock on wood, Virginia has had a beautifully mild winter. The ponies have been out for their first cross country school. It definitely felt as if we were having to knock the cobwebs off, but overall they were both fantastic and I'm so looking forward to this year. It's amazing how quickly the two of them are growing up. When I first started both of them, I felt like everything was going to take forever. At this point, things are moving along very quickly and I feel so lucky to have such wonderful and talented horses to ride! And hug on everyday, even if they do hate me for it.

While I was mucking stalls this morning (mucking time is excellent "thinking time") I started to think about how I could make my blog more interesting. I certainly hope it's not boring, but sometimes I do feel repitive. "The ponies are awesome! I'm so lucky to have them! They went to this event, and then they schooled, and they're so wonderful!" Get the picture? I think I end up saying basically the same things over and over for a few reasons: I'm always running out of time to blog, I feel like my everyday life isn't always exciting enough to write about, sometimes day to day life is a little too interesting to blog about, and sometimes I'm worried that if I write about everyday life I'm going to come off as a complete clutz! I mean, I have no explanation for the fact that in the past 24 hours, I've managed to get my boot sock stuck in my boot zipper resulting in me struggling for half an hour to free the zipper, the boot, and me; mysteriously slice my hand on some unknown object, somehow manage to turn my phone's ringer off three times, and get the truck so stuck in the mud that it had to be pulled out (right, I know, that's what happens when you get stuck, but I thought I was only "a little stuck.") Anyway, my point in starting this paragraph was to provide an introduction to what I'd like to start writing. Although I was being humerous with my above explanation, I would like to get more personal with my blog, afterall, it is my blog, what else is it for?

A typical week for me consists of maybe one day off with a lot of driving, riding, barn work, writing, and if I'm lucky, a little bit of teaching in between. On average, my days can go anywhere from 9-14 hours long. Obviously the 14 hour days are exhausting, but it's worth it. I have a fairly strict schedule that is supposed to help me stay organized and get everything done, but somehow I always end up running around like crazy. Mondays and Wednesdays are the same day. I try to get up no later than 6:30 (I would love to be a morning person, but unfortunately I'm far from it) which gives me a few minutes to wake up with a cup, well maybe more like one-fourth cup, of coffee. I then head out to the barn to feed and turnout my horses before heading down to the "big barn" to work for about five hours. I then drive to work the Andalusians and then return home to do my stalls, bring in my horses and ride. Depending on how smooth the day goes, I can expect to be back in the house between 7-8, if I'm lucky. I'll typically eat dinner and then pry myself off of the couch to the computer to start writing. As you can tell, I obviously don't write a blog entry every week, so what am I up to?

I discovered freelance writing through googling "extra ways to make money." I stumbled upon a site that allows me to write literally hundreds of articles of all subjects for money. I have to write an insane amount of articles to make the kind of money I need and it takes a lot of self discipline; it's not easy to come in after a long day and make myself stay focused, awake, and motivated to write about boat dock installation, car insurance, or other bland subjects (however, one time I wrote about a potential government cover up). No matter how bland the subjects, I'm glad I found the site because it's allowed me to be able to event both of my horses. As all eventers know, nothing about the sport is cheap: gas, farrier, vet, entry fees, lessons, feed, etc. At this point, I write every single day for as long as possible.

On Tuesdays, depending on how late I stayed up writing the night before, I'll try to get up between 7-8. I try to never get on the first horse later than 9, however, sometimes, or actually, often, I'm running late. The Andalusians get done first thing Tuesday morning. I then come home and hack Sybren, a Friesen gelding. Afterwards, depending on what time it is, I'll ride one of my horses or I'll head over to do Iliada, a Percheron/Andalusian cross mare I started under saddle last year. She's currently just getting worked to lose weight and slowly get back in shape. I'll then come home and ride one of my horses before heading back down to the "big barn" for two hours to feed dinner. After doing my stalls, I'll usually make it in the house between 6-7 and my evening routine of eating and writing will resume (I do sneak in some TV watching and Internet goofing off time so I don't go crazy). Thursdays and Fridays consist of waking up, getting on the first horse, one of mine or the Andalusians, by 9 and going from there. On any given day, I'll ride 4-7 horses. Any extra time I have between Thursday and Sunday I use to catch up on writing, cleaning, and other miscellaneous tasks that life requires.

When the season starts, things really get very crazy, but I can't imagine it any other way; for the most part, I get to ride all day and it's fantastic. I will admit that I have a terrible addiction to Mountain Dew and or anything with a lot of caffeine.

Speaking of the show season, it is literally upon us. Ian is headed to his first horse trial of the year this weekend. Emmy was originally supposed to go too, but after some thought, I decided to just take Ian. I have a tentative schedule planned through the spring. It's a rough draft and may end up changing.

January 14th - Schooling HT @ The Ark - Ian
January 29th- Dressage with a View - Andalusians
February 4th - Sporting Days HT - Emmy & Ian
February 12th- Dressage with a View - Andalusians
Febrary 17th-19th - Paradise Farm HT - Emmy & Ian
March 10th-11th - Southern Pines I - Emmy & Ian
March 23rd-25th - Southern Pines II - Emmy & Ian
April 7th-8th - CDCTA - Emmy & Ian

Until next time, happy riding and cross your fingers that the weather stays friendly!

Ears Pricked for 2012

2011-12-05T22:57:00.002-05:00

Although I love the holidays, I always find this time of year terribly slow and slightly depressing. I admit, it can be nice to have some quiet time after the hussle and bussle of show season, but it seems to last far too long and is hard to take after the first month. For me, the lack of activity allows me time to plan and reflect on the year (which I did a lot of in my previous post).

I have mixed feelings about making solid plans; I feel that they are absolutely a must have, but at the same time, I often find myself hesitant to put them down on paper. So many factors come into play when planning for the future and everything can change in a blink of an eye. Of course, that's why it's imperative to have more than one game plan!

My long term goals aren't something I usually talk about on my blog. I'm fairly reserved and although I have a solid plan for the future, I like the quote by Theodore Roosevelt, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." In the eventing world, I'm not sure what my "big stick" is. The horses, perhaps? My master plan? The truth is, I have many short term goals that will hopefully help me reach my long term goals. I think with horses, that's the only way you can plan and keep your sanity! 2011 was somewhat of a "slow" year for me. My horses were very green at the beginning of the year. Emmy (Por Ti Volare) didn't even start jumping until mid-March while Ian (Vesuvian) completed his first ever event in April in the beginner novice at CDCTA. The rest of the year was spent focusing on helping them off to an excellent start by giving them lots of confidence and exposure. I have to admit that if you would have asked me three years ago where I'd thought I'd be today, my answer would have been different than the reality. That being said, I think that having to essentially "start over" and bring these two horses along has been a blessing in disguise for me. So far, I feel that the experience has, and will continue, to improve my riding and instincts by leaps and bounds. It is with that mentality that I look forward to the next year and what it will bring. As far as long term goals go, I'm still as ambitious and determined as ever and still aim to one day represent my country in international competition. Between where I am now and achieving that goal, there are a lot of things to experience and achieve. Until those goals are met and those days arrives, I plan to enjoy the journey.

As of now, my plan is to make several trips south during January and February. Unfortunately, going to Aiken for any extended period of time isn't in the cards this year, but I still hope to get an early start to the season; I foresee a lot of driving time in my future. I was thrilled with how both horses ended this last season and I think a moveup for both of them is right around the corner. We'll be starting our year out with a schooling HT at The Ark in early January and will go from there.

My website is currently a mess and extremely out of date. Hopefully by the end of the month it will be revamped and updated. Happy Holidays to everyone; don't let the cold keep you from riding!

A Look Back at 2011: Luck, Learning, and The Big Lonely E

2011-12-01T23:12:00.004-05:00

While it's hard to believe that yet another year is coming to a close, the new year brings forth an abundance of goals, plans, and hopes. Now that show season is over, I've had a lot of time to reflect on my experiences over the past year; I've come to the conclusion that I have to be one of the luckiest people around.

Not to sound like a school girl obsessed with ponies, but I can't believe how fortunate I am to be able to spend each and every day around horses. Even luckier, I spend my days riding and working toward my short and long term goals. That's not to say that my days aren't long, hard, and labor intensive, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Often, all in the same day, I am given the gift of being able to ride my own horses and talented horses owned by their amazing owners. When in one day, I can sit on an upper level dressage horse, an up and coming dressage Andalusian, my horses, an Andalusian/Percheron cross just looking to gain fitness, and a completely green 3yr.old taking his first trot steps with a rider, I know that I'm one lucky individual.

When I think about the past year, the one thing that stands out to me is how much I've learned. I'd like to be able to say that I taught the horses I ride a lot, but in reality, they taught me and continue to do so on a daily basis. Of course, the last year had its ups and downs, but without them, I wouldn't have learned as much. While a few of the lows of the year were hard to take, others were slightly humorous and could only be taken as learning experiences and stories to tell in the future. As en eventer, I've always prayed that I won't be eliminated in the dressage arena. Up until September of this year, my prayers were answered. I can't say I was surprised, after all, I knew it would happen one day.

However, I didn't expect it to happen on the horse it did! Terceiro RL or “TC” was making his second level debut at the ERHAC show at the Virginia Horse Center. All dressage classes were held in “The Big Lonely”, an small, but rather large, indoor aptly named as it's isolated and far away from other arenas. For whatever reason, TC isn't a fan of The Big Lonely. The first part of our test was less than desirable and I found myself riding each movement the best that I could, but when you're spooking to the center of the ring every 15 seconds, there's not much hope. Just as I thought we started to get a grip on our fears, we picked up our collected canter at 'F' on our way to start our serpentine at 'A'. The next thing I know, we're outside of the arena. I looked over at the scowling judge and felt myself shrink at least 5 feet. I asked, “Do you want me to leave?”, and listened to my voice echo through the indoor, around the ears of the probably quite amused spectators. The judge, although scowling and I'm sure disapproving, allowed us the pleasure of finishing our test. From that day on, the arena became “The Big Lonely E” in my mind. While it's wonderful when things go well, tough experiences just provide another tool for the tool box. Thankfully, TC has not since excused himself from any dressage arenas and will probably move up the third level in late spring of 2012! Of course, I have many more embarrassing stories, such as the most recent one of almost falling off over a cross rail in the warm up at VHT, but those will have to wait!

The year has also been filled with achieved goals. Both Vesuvian (Ian) and Por Ti Volare (Emmy) had a fantastic fall season and I'm extremely started for the start of 2012. My opportunities over the past year have made me realize that each and every horse I've worked with over the past year and has helped shape me into the rider I am today; I still have a long way to go, but I know that I'm one year closer to achieving my goals.

The Summer Swelter Continues...

2011-08-02T11:09:00.006-04:00

It's official: I'm a terrible blogger and should not even call myself a "blogger" since I can't even manage 1 post per month! However, the past couple of months have been extremely busy and have contained many ups and downs. I'm so terribly behind that I actually had to go back and read my last post to see where I left off! Vesuvian has now done 2 novices, one of which he completed and the other one "not so much". Things went fairly well at Rubicon; it was extremely hot and we went in the middle of the day. Dressage could have been a lot better, Vesuvian as completely fascinated with the bird houses beside the dressage arena. We ended up with a 38 and headed on to show jumping and cross country. Show jumping was decent, but unfortunately we had a stop at the first fence on cross country. I found it completely ridiculous, but the little guy is green and part of it was a bit of rider error for not providing a bit more support. To me those fences may be "just little novice fences", but to Vesuvian they offer a bit more of a challenge in the looks department. Other than that, he was brave and fairly bold. We had one more bobble on course resulting in a stop, but at the end of the day I was not unhappy with him. It was his first novice, his third "real" horse trial and he has a long way to go.

We then went to a small, local schooling combined test. However, it was very exciting as it was Emmy's first show! She completed her advanced green division with a double clear in show jumping and a respectable dressage test! Most of all, she was wonderfully behaved and seemed to have a blast!

Next up was Loch Moy. The morning before leaving we had an amazing dressage lesson with Jodie Kelly , leaving us in excellent shape for dressage the next day. Despite there being a loose horse cantering by the arena during our test, little Ian held it together well and we came out with a 35. I wasn't entirely pleased with our show jumping round. Ian was being rather green and was way more interested in the horses going cross country and surrounding events than our actual course. Furthermore, cross country started out well with little Ian feeling brave, bold, and forward, but we literally were stopped in our tracks by the first element of a half coffin. After two exasperating stops, we continued on, only to have another problem at a small table a few fences later. After conquering the table, we were then weirded out to the point of not being able to face another fence and walked home. Now, I'd like to take a minute to touch on the "walk home". Can anything be worse? Some people call it the walk of shame back to the barn, and that it is! In my case, I was fairly exasperated. I came home knowing that my horse was still green and somewhere along the way needed something for his confidence that hadn't been produced yet. There's not time for dwelling, so after a brief vacation (for me and the horses), it was back to work.

Right now we're doing a lot of cross country schooling and just looking ahead. Vesuvian's a nice little horse with a great brain and a lot of potential, but he definitely has to enjoy and want to go cross country. I was extremely lucky to find such a nice horse, but if for some reason it turns out that he's not so into cross country, it's my job as his rider and person to listen and give him options. In no way am I thinking that he doesn't want to, but having such a unproductive run at Loch Moy reminded me that it's not a given that he's going to love it or want to do it. I certainly hope so, but it's not for every horse.

The Andalusians have had a busy summer so far. They went to their first "real" recognized show at Dressage at Lexington. Both horses handled the atmosphere well and received decent scores, in fact, Tercerio or "TC", was 2nd in his First Level 2 class with a 64%. One of the most rewarding things about working with young horses is seeing and feeling them grow. These two little horses have so much potential and really will go far with the right people. Just this weekend "Little Man" (Amistad RL), completed his first First Level test, winning his class with a 67%. TC also made his debut at second and finished on a decent score. Next up for these guys will the the open part of the ERAHC show at the beginning of September.

Speaking of fall, my current fall season is up in the air. Emmy and Vesuvian will be doing a combined test this weekend and will probably do one more late August, followed by the schooling HT through VHT. After that, I'd like to get them out at one more HT in September followed by Loch Moy in October. I'm looking forward to the start of Emmy's career!

Otherwise, life is moving along extremely fast and I can't believe it's already August. There's going to be something very special coming to my blog soon and I can't wait to introduce my idea. I've made it a personal challenge to update the blog much, much more often and share the thoughts I have! No, that's not the new thing that I'm going to introduce.

Until next time, happy riding and enjoy summer while it lasts!

Welcome to Summer

2011-06-05T21:20:00.006-04:00

I just want to say how happy I am that it's finally warm all of the time! May was a busy month and it's looking like June will be that way too. I ended up dropping Vesuvian back to beginner novice at Virginia. We had a cross country school the same week of Virginia and he seemed a little more apprehensive than usual, so it seemed like a good idea to let him do one more BN to make sure he continued to gain confidence. The atmosphere at the horse center is always sort of intense and for the most part Ian handled it well. I was a bit dissapointed in his dressage. He started out well, but the atmosphere got to him a bit during the second half and he ended up on a 41. Show jumping was in the coliseum Saturday night and I wasn't sure what to expect from Ian. He's very willling and often handles new experiences better than I think he will. He warmed up fairly well in the covered arena and handled the in between place (right outside of the arena entrance) well, too, so I was feeling a bit more confident that he would handle his first coliseum experience well.At the in gate I could feel his heart racing and he was definitely realizing that the coliseum was really, really, big as he looked out there. For never being in anything like the coliseum before, he was a good boy! He was a bit quick and I would have liked to have kept a better rhthym throughout the course, but I was super impressed with how well he handled all of the new things and the atmosphere!

Cross country on Sunday was a blast. Ian was brave and honest, and confidently into the water in contrast to CDCTA where he hesitantly walked through it! Next up is Rubicon this coming weekend where he'll be doing his first novice.

The Andalusians, "TC" and "Little Man" have started out their season well. Although it's sad in some ways, and I know both I and his owner will miss him, Alessandro or "Alex" went to his new home in May. He went to a wonderful new person and is currently at Ashanti Farm is Gordonsville. His new owner got a fantastic little horse! The other two guys have been busy showing in the last couple of weeks! We took them to the schooling SWVADA show on the 28th, and just got home from the new show "Dressage With a View" held at the horse center. Both horses were a little green and had to take the sights in, but did very well. Little Man, the younger and greener of the two, behaved beautifully and scored a 61% on training test 2 and a 64% on training level test 3. Considering how distracted he was at times, those scores were great! TC seems to be really maturing and ended up with a 67% on first level test 2 and a 64% on first level test 3. At the end of the day, I was really happy with both of them. We also had a tire blowout on I-81 on the way to the horse center and the horses had to deal with trucks flying by them for about 45 minutes. However, they have such wonderful minds and were able to put the scary experience behind them and return to normal for the rest of the day.

The rest of June looks like it will be a lot of fun. As I already mentioned, Ian is going to Rubicon on the 10th. Emmy will be going to her first show on the 25th through BREA. Ian will tag along and do the novice combined test. Emmy's first show is very exciting and I'm anxious to see how she handles the experience. I'm so excited for her to start her career, I think she's going to be amazing. She's always so nice to work with and is the best snuggler in the barn; she even hugs back!

Octavian has been enjoying a bit of variety in his life. We've been working hard on perfecting our show jumping and may go to the House Mountain show at the end of the month to do a few jumper classes. I'm not sure if it's anything we will be seriously pursuing, but it will be nice to get out and just enjoy jumping a few courses with him.

More update soon. It's hard to believe that it's already June, time is flying! Enjoy the warm weather and as always happy riding! :)

Catching up...

2011-05-05T21:39:00.007-04:00

Unfortunately, I'm way behind on my blog entries! I never mean to to neglect the blog, but sadly it still happens. There's been so much going on between now and my last post that I'm afraid I'm going to end up writing a short novel to cover everything. So, where to start?

Octavian
Of course I'm going to start with Octavian. As usual, he's always number one! In brief, he was going beautifully and we headed to Southern Pines to run in the training. Our dressage test wasn't good, but that's not unusual for Octavian early in the season. He was just fairly tense and distracted through the test. Cross country was straight forward, and should have been a breeze for us. As we went around, I just felt like I was having to push Octavian around, which is highly unusual for him, I'm usually left with the job of slowing us down, Octavian doesn't usually lack enthusiasm. One of the only technical questions on the course, a simple two stride angle over two houses caused a problem for us. We came up the hill to them and Octavian stopped at the first one. In my last post, I know that I had talked a lot about changing my ride to make sure I wasn't interfering with our rhthym, but our approach to the first house was solid. Everything else went smoothly, but I still finished feeling like there was no spark.

Sunday morning arrived and for the first time, I felt like Octavian wasn't at all interested in jumping. I had trouble getting him forward and off of my leg warming up for show jumping, but our course was fine. However, nothing felt right to me about the weekend.

I've always said that I would listen to Octavian and when he tells me he's done, I'll accept it. Some readers may be thinking I betrayed that promise because I've been trying to work out problems for the past year and a half. However, when you have the sort of relationship with a horse that I have with Octavian, you understand being able to differentiate physical, mental, and pyschological issues in training. Because we moved up the levels together, Octavian and I had to overcome a lot of issues. If I listed all of them, I really would end up writing a short novel, but we really did have to grow together. Looking back, I think there are times when it seemed more reasonable to stop instead of moving forward, but I always believed in Octavian. My faith in him ended up being rewarded, and I was one of the luckiest riders in the world to have such a complex equine partner. Nothing was easy. We spent hours working on simple lateral work (specifically shoulder- in, there was a time when I thought we would never get it) and even last year, teaching Octavian haunches-in was more difficult than it is with a young horse. He truly is an independent thinker, and I can never tell Octavian to do anything; I have to ask. Therefore, when we started having issues, I wasn't immediately fatalistc. Because of his age, I thought the issues could be related to a physical issue.

After making sure that I was giving him the ride he wanted, making sure that he was in good shape physically, taking the time to start over, and seeing good results at a couple of events in the fall, I was optimistic that Octavian was "back". After Southern Pines, and after doing everything I could to give him the best chance of doing his best, I just felt like Octavian was saying "No, thank you".

To "retire" Octavian was easily one of the easiest and hardest decisions I've had to make. It's easy because he deserves it and has done so much for me, but at the same time, it's hard because he's my best friend and I love our partnership. I won't deny that I had selfish reasons for not wanting to retire Octavian, however, to clear up any misconceptions, it wasn't I was so hungry to move up and continue competing at the upper levels. In taking me to the places we went and teaching me along the way, Octavian gave me an extraordinary gift, but he also gave me his heart. When I repeatedly mention that he's my "best friend", it's because he really is. This isn't the end of the road for me, but in some ways, it's the end of the road for us as a team. That's the thing that I already miss the most. I love my young horses and the partnerships I have with them, but nothing can replace the feeling I had with Octavian.

When I was a lot younger I use to visualize our names on the big scoreboard at Rolex, I used to close my eyes and see us galloping toward the head of the lake. Obviously because of his age, those weren't the most realistic dreams, but when I was 14, I had so much faith in him that I never doubted the realism of my daydreams for an instant. That's the sort of partnership I had with Octavian. I have a leather bracelet with "Octavian" engraved on it. No matter what I'm doing, where I'm going, or what I'm wearing, I always have that bracelet on. It's not because it's a trend or because I think it's stylish, it's a reminder for me of the things that Octavian has taught me. He was also with me during a rought time of my life, and he has literally taught me to believe in my dreams, no matter what the circumstances. And yes, to be less emotional, I wear it because I simply love Octavian and love seeing Octavian on my wrist. The leather bracelet's a good alternative to a tattoo, right? By the way, our names did end up on that big scoreboard, and it was in the main arena at the Kentucky Horse Park for a our CCI* at NAJYRC in 2009.

Now that I'm finished being sentimental, Octavian's home will always be with me. He still loves jumping and does so with great glee in the show jumping arena. I thought about this last year, but I think in his "retirement" we may think about doing some jumper shows. I think it would be a good thing for me to work on show jumping and in reality, although it's taxing, the show jumping arena is nothing like galloping around intermediate.

Vesuvian

Ian has been doing fantastically. He did his first "real" beginner novice at CDCTA at the beginning of April and left me grinning! He won the dressage with a 32.4 and very bravely jumped around show jumping and cross country. He had a few green moments, but he grew up so much over that weekend and is such a wonderful little horse! The more he grows, the more excited I get. We're headed to Virginia Horse Trials where he'll do his first novice.

Everything Else
The Andalusians have started their spring season with a couple of local schooling shows. They are all very promising young horses with a lot of talent and wonderful personalities. Their sale videos will be up soon...whoever buys them will be very lucky!

Emmy is doing fantastically. She's started jumping and is really coming into her own. She definitely enjoys jumping and is brave and scopey. I can't wait to take her cross country!

We're hoping to give the website a facelift in the next month or so. I'm running out of steam, this really has been a long blog post. I think I better leave some content for my next one!

Happy riding everyone!

The Magic of Chiropractors, the Supernatural, and Patience.

2011-03-09T08:56:00.006-05:00

Wait, what? Chiropractors? The supernatural? Patience? What AM I talking about? This past month has gone by in a blur! It seems as if my life has been running me time wise, so I haven't gotten to do a lot of blog updating, meaning that this is going to be one long post.

Let's start with the supernatural. The week after Full Gallop, I had a consult with an animal communicator . I always use the same person, and I've used her two other times. I'm always impressed (okay, and maybe a little creeped out) by how accurate she is. The majority of people are skeptical of an animal communicator, and they have every right to be, because some animal communcicators are frauds! However, I honestly believe that this one is legit. When I had the consult, Octavian said he felt "out", with his right hip being more forward than his left. As a result, he said that he was uncomfortable all around, in the flat and over fences. He also mentioned that his back left molar was bothering him. Our conversation otherwise consisted of him talking about he wanted me to be less rushed at events, and to slow down to take time to focus and "be there" for him. This is a big downfall of mine. I turn into a bit of a mess when I'm anxious, nervous, or stressed, and obviously it stresses Octavian out.

The week after the consult, I had Octavian adjusted by a chiropractor. Funnily enough, his right hip was more forward than his left. At the end of the session, he was much better and we had a schedule for easing him back to work. I have to admit, bringing him back slowly wasn't the easiest thing. I was so curious about how he would feel at the canter and over fences that I had to be very self disciplined. Of course, it's actually easy when I think that I'm doing it for Octavian, but at the same time, it was hard not to canter the first day back! When it was finally time to canter, I was impressed. He had been feeling a lot better even at the trot, naturally more over his back and a lot softer, but I was a little nervous about the canter. To my relief, it was 100% better! We still have a bit of tension to the right, but the right lead canter has always been worse, and its improving daily. I haven't always been the biggest believer in chiropractor work, or rather, I haven't had to use the chiropractor a whole lot, but I think that's going to change from now on. The results are amazing. I think Mouse was definitely out, and I'm suspecting he's unfortunately been out for a long time. That sort of thing is always hard; I start to wonder "how long?" and I hate the thought of him hurting. At the same time, I suppose it's not one of those things that is easy to diagnose. Yet, as his rider, I feel like I should have known.

We went up to Plain Dealing for a lesson with Molly on Thursday. We started out with a bit of show jumping warming up over two fences on a 20m circle (which has very, very hard for us), eventually adding in a third fence (even harder). I think I'm going to keep this exercise in mind for the future, it helped me keep my leg on. That sounds beginner-ish, however, right now I can sometimes have a tendency to want to "drop" the horse with my leg at the last minute. I'm aware of it, so it's improving, but it takes a lot of concentration. By having to use my leg all the way around the circle to keep him engaged, I found that it was easy to keep my leg on to the base. I wish I could pinpoint exactly why I want to slack off with my leg at the last minute, but I'm not entirely sure of the reason, but I know that I can fix it. After the circle, we did a small course with a triple, 4 stride line, and some other simple lines. Since we've "come back" after the adjustment, Mouse has been much rounder in his jump. We had a great course, we kept our rhthym and nailed the lines. He felt fantastic and I had no urge to drop him with my leg (the reason why things went so well).

Next, we headed out to cross country. We started off with some warm up fences, got in the water, nothing too exciting. We schooled the trakehner and headed to a one stride log combination. Going to the fence, Octavian felt crooked to me, and I started pushing, and we stopped at the first log. Molly was actually behind us, so couldn't see exactly what happened, but when I told her he felt crooked, she said he looked straight. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but I think that when he's crooked, it's more in his jaw (locking the right) and not in his body. She told me to get after him. The next time things were fine, but it was still weird to have a stop, as has been happening for the past year or so. After that, we were to go over a steeplechase fence and back to the trakehner. Of course my goal was to keep galloping over the steeplechase fence, but approaching it, I started pushing as I felt that I needed to be more aggressive since he had stopped at the log. We got a weird spot and ended up scrambling over it. After that, Molly stopped me and pointed out that when I was "aggressive", I was actually messing up our canter rhthym. Additionally, by trying to see every single spot, and by worrying about them, I was messing up the rhthym even more, resulting in us getting to the fence on an awkward stride, which had just happened at the steeplechase fence. She told me to think about keeping Octavian in a box when I was riding aggressively, and reminded me that he's an athletic guy who is good at finding his own spots, and that I don't need to be messing with him so much. And that by messing with him, and putting us on the awkward stride, it was affecting Octavian's confidence. Previously, before last year, I had always ridden Octavian without looking for the "perfect" spot. When we started out together, I had no idea of how to find the right spot, and we grew together with me letting him figure that out. When I say that, I don't mean I just sat there, but I wasn't looking for the spot all of the time, I would focus more on the rhthym and let the spot come to us. Looking back, I rode him that way up through the Fall of 2009, and we had a lot of great rounds working together that way. Anyway, after that discussion, we came back around the the steeplechase fence. I kept my leg on, thougth about the rhythym, let the spot come to us, and it was fantastic. For the rest of the ride, things only got better and we both gained a lot of confidence. Over the past year, I honestly feel that I've been searching for a horse that dissapeared at the end of 2009, and I feel like I've found him again. Octavian and I moved up the levels together and taught each other everything we know, and I think that I gained a lot from learning how to ride more accurately and find a spot, but I don't think that's the right ride for Octavian, and being a creature of habit, doing the things the way we've always done them is the way he feels most comfortable. He just keeps giving me opportunities to learn. I hate that we've been struggling for this long to "come back", but no matter what happens, he's taught me a huge amount.

We're headed to Southern Pines this weekeend to run the training. My goal is to make it a very positive run and continue working on what we came away with last Thursday. There are always a huge amount of questions to ask when you have an older horse who has had some problems. What makes me confident that Octavian is still up to the job is the way he feels when he sees a cross country course. I can literally feel him "puff up", his ears prick, and when he comes away afterwards, he literally prances home. He's back to putting his heart (okay, well, he's never loved his flatwork, so we'll say 80% of his heart) in his work, and I honestly feel that he was hurting. If he didn't want to do this anymore, he wouldn't be leaving the start box the way he does.

In other news, Emmy is on a short vacation as we're waiting on the vet to get her float back from repair to float teeth. I don't think Emmy's enjoying her vacation, but her teeth badly need to be floated and I think she's actually uncomfortable with a bit in her mouth. Vesuvian (Ian) has been fantastic lately, and I'm aiming to do his first "real" beginner novice at CDCTA in April.

Show season is going to be starting in full swing at the beginning of April. The Andalusians have their first outing on the 16th, where two of them should be going first level with the greenest at training level. It's going to be a busy, exciting year!

Lastly, I'd like to share a blog entry that I really enjoyed. Those are pretty cool concepts and I will certainly be thinking about them from now on.

Busy Days

2011-02-15T22:35:00.003-05:00

It's definitely that time of year, spring is almost here and with the gorgeous weather, everything is beginning to pick up.

I'd like to take some time to write about something that won't come up in my blog often - trail riding. My version of trail riding is a "hack" ranging from 5-15 minutes to be done on an "off" day or before and or after a ride. I've mentioned in previous posts the athletic mare I've started under saddle this winter (Iliada). Her future is a bit up in the air at the moment, but she has endless possibility. One of those is being an "extreme trail horse". I use to think that people who trail rode liked to walk along well worn paths.
In other words, I used to think it was sort of boring. Lately, I've fallen in with a completely different group, and when they say "trail ride", they have something entirely different in mind! I think I'm going to start taking all of my future young event horses out in this fashion, it's great! Not only did we go through about 5 waters, all sorts of terrain, wonderful fitness hills, terrifying cows, horse eating woods, rider mauling electric fences (with my horrible phobia of electric fencing I'm not entirely sure how I survived!), but there were endless things to see, do, and all of this went on for miles, providing many opportunities for learning experiences. From an eventing perspective, the whole situation is fantastic, fun, and a nice way to "kick back and relax"...maybe only for an eventer, but nevertheless. Iliada handles all of the above wonderfully and is really turning out to be quite a nice horse, she's started over small fences as well and seems to enjoy it immensely.

Thanks to "Critter", I will have video of Emmy to put up within the next few days. Emmy's really coming along nicely and the plan will be for her to do her first beginner novice sometime between now and the fall. With a great mind, impressive work ethic, and lovely movement, she's really going to be awesome! Vesuvian is still coming along nicely, as usual, and I will hopefully get some video up of him soon too. Octavian is back to work after a brief vacation following our Aiken trip and all is well. The plan will be to run a training at Southern Pines I and go from there.

I just feel that perhaps the tone of my last post was a little negative. One of the beautiful things about the sport, horses, etc, is that you never stop learning and things are always changing. There are no guarantees, and maybe when you think you've got it right, you realize you don't. It's easy to assume that your horse is wiser or less wise than what you think, and it's even easier to push to hard or not hard enough. I believe that my mistake in this particular instance was not stopping to think about my horse's mental state going into the first event of the year. We always run a training before starting the season and this year I decided that it wasn't nescessary. I've had Octavian, or as I affectionately call him in the barn, "Mouse", be very sticky and suck back when he's going cross country at the first event of the season, even at training. After fixing the problems we acquired through the spring of last year, we finished strong last fall, and with that in my mind, I entered at prelim vs. training. Considering that we are still overcoming confidence issues from last year, and noting his past, it was a mistake and one that I paid for. The saying "live and learn" is really all too true. With a clean bill of health from a well respected vet, the good jump schools I get at home, and the joy he still gets from his work on a daily basis, I don't think there's any reason to question whether or not we will move forward. Now, the rest of our season will go how it goes, whether it requires running more than one training to regain Mouse's confidence, or however many more prelims. We have nothing but time, an open mind, and a thirst for improvement.

If at first you don't succeed...

2011-02-10T12:24:00.002-05:00

I'm a very optimistic person, I don't like to give up, I'm constantly trying to fix things when they go wrong, I love my horses, I love what I do, but sometimes all of it is heartbreaking. We had a rough run at Full Gallop. Walking the course Tuesday afternoon I knew there were a couple of places that were going to require me to give Octavian an extremely accurate and strong ride, but overall the course seemed nice and I was confidently looking foward to running it the next day. I knew our dressage was going to be a "miss". I can always expect Octavian to be a tad bit worse in the arena than he is at home, so I didn't really have any expectations and was actually kind of dreading it. I made things so much worse by going off course in my test, twice. I'm always extremely mad at myself when I do something quite so idiotic, I mean, a dressage test isn't hard to remember, especially not one that I've already ridden through many times. Anyway, that gave us 6 points worth of errors, so our score was ugly. We felt pretty good warming up for stadium, but when going around our course he felt a little looky and extremely crooked (something which needs investigation), we had two rails and I nearly scratched after stadium because we didn't feel "on" or connected, but I figured I was being premature and that maybe he just needed a bit more warm up and would be fine for cross country. We made it to fence 4abc, the bank, and headed to the skinny at 5, only to have two run outs. He felt extremely sticky and was sucking back very badly. I continued after fence 5 to 8, the first water, where we had another stop as he was once again sucking back to no end. We came back around, made it in, but I retired afterwards.

The walk home is probably the worst feeling in the world, and recently I feel like it's happened too many times. It's hard not to feel discouraged right now, but afterall this is what happens with horses. You can never know anything for sure and you have to keep guessing and moving forward. Octavian is physically sound, and I think that prelim may have been too much for his first time out. I'd like to think that he wouldn't even blink at prelim, but after our confidence issues last year, that's probably not the case. From here I have to re-evaluate, do more homework, and go from there. We're going to run a training and then move back up and see how things are going. I'm struggling to stay positive, it's been a long road and I was hoping we were past some of those old issues, but all I can do is keep moving forward and try to give my horse what he needs to succeed. So all we can do is: try, try again.

And the packing begins...

2011-02-06T11:29:00.003-05:00

Octavian and I will be heading to Aiken, SC for Full Gallops's Farm HT on Tuesday morning. It's our first outting of the season and I'm very excited, it's been a long off season, winter, and while spring isn't here yet, at least we can start the season again!
Octavian just had a jump school this morning, our last before Full Gallop. He's feeling pretty good. At times we feel just a little "disconnected" going to a fence. I've had to learn how to fix that, and if I can't fix it, I've had to learn how to give him the best ride possible despite the feeling. I've always felt that it takes us a little while to get back into the "groove" coming out of winter. I've spent a lot of time on dressage, but not as much time on gymnastic jumping, or jumping in general. With Octavian it's sometimes hard to find a good balance. The dressage is deinitely his weakest phase, and because he's such an athletic jumper, it all feels easy to him. Usually, I think that my dressage work will fix my problems in the approach to a fence, and of course to a certain degree it will, however, I have to be careful to not neglect the jumping to the point of literally feeling "rusty" when we go back to it. Looking ahead to March, we've been schooling a lot of technical lines and have been jumping higher than usual to prepare for our moveup. There are so many different schools of thought on what height you should school at home, but only looking at Octavian, it helps to school a few inches higher to make him a bit sharper when he goes in the arena. For him it's always worked well.
I'm feeling fairly confident about our jumping after this morning and am hoping for a good, solid run at Full Gallop on Wednesday.

Our dressage has, like usual, been the most difficult for us. Right now the canter has a tendency to be "four beat-ish" and a little flat. Octavian has always gotten strong at the canter, and nothing has changed this year (yet!). So, we've had to work really hard on the canter and we're going to keep it up. Our trot work is much improved and that's hopefully where we can shine.
More later, it's a lovely day outside and horses are waiting to be worked!

"Dressing up" the blog...

2011-02-04T10:10:00.002-05:00

I'm currently in the process of trying to "dress up" the scenery on here. However, I'm having many difficulties and now the image at the top (where there's a huge blank space) won't show up and I think I'm going to have to call in reinforcements.

Anyway, that's why things look funny. This week has flown by and Full Gallop is literally right around the corner. I have to take my coats to be dry cleaned (I'm a habitual procrastinator when it comes to grocery shopping, laundry, and apparently taking things to be dry cleaned, go figure)and I was just noticing how filthy they are from last season which of course lead to me thinking back over our experiences in the past year or so. I then realized how excited I am for this season to start, and how I only have 4 days until it does! Coincidentally, the training sessions for the high performance and developing riders list are taking place the Tuesday and Wednesday I'm going to be in Aiken for Full Gallop. Of course I won't get to watch anything Wednesday, but if I have it my way, I'm going to leave super early Tuesday morning, get Octavian settled in, maybe walk courses, and hopefully I'll be able to watch some of the training sessions. I don't know how other people feel, but I love watching anyone and everyone get lessons. I feel like I can whatever is happening and learn from it in someway, no matter the level of the rider.

That's all for now, off to ride everyone on this cloudy, cold Friday. Happy riding...

2011-02-01T09:39:00.003-05:00

Well, 2010 is gone and 2011 is here. I'm really looking forward to what this year will bring. So far, the weather hasn't been great. But, it's January, so we can't expect too much. However, I didn't realize that Virginia was Alaska! I will say that we've been more fortunate this year in regards to snow (knock on wood). Each snow we've gotten has been small. That's a huge improvement over last year.

The biggest and most exciting news since my last update, is that thanks to Taylor's Store Dressage, and specifically Wendy Smith, I've been given the opportunity to move my three horses to a lovely facility with an absolutely gorgeous indoor. Actually, the whole farm is gorgeous, meticulously maintained, and when the website says "A haven for horse and rider", it doesn't lie. If I were a horse, I would want to live there. Having access to an indoor, and such a nice one, not to mention oodles of lovely fields to do trot and gallop sets in, is very exciting. It was hard to leave our home facility, but it's still just (literally) 2 minutes away.
The move has been a tremendous help in keeping things going and the horses have settled in nicely.

A few weeks ago Vesuvian, Octavian and I drove up to Plain Dealing Farm for lessons with Molly Bull. I have to admit that it was the first jumping lesson with Octavian since May. Things went very well, we came away with homework, but Octavian felt great and we even got to get out and do a bit of cross country schooling which was a blast for both of us. Our biggest issue is drifting right, something that we need to fix through our flatwork and will have to be kept in check for combinations this spring until it's fixed! Vesuvian came away with a lot homework, but he was much improved and should keep progressing nicely. Octavian has had a flexion test, which went wonderfully, he's the soundest 20 year old I think most people have seen!

I've got our spring schedule together and am beyond excited. Winter has lasted forever, and although we're still in February, the first event of the season makes me feel like spring is here...or at least right around the corner. Next week we're headed down to Full Gallop for the event on February 9th. After that, we'll be at Pine Top Advanced, Southern Pines I and Southern Pines II. The plan is to get out, see how things feel, and potentially make the move up at Southern Pines II if things are going well.

"The Andalusians" as I call the three Andalusians I work with, have been coming along very nicely. I hope to be posting pictures and videos of them soon. Also, Iliada, the young horse I started under saddle this winter, is really starting to grow up and has been started over fences and is learning to trail ride calmly alone and with another horse. She's a super cute horse and should be a wonderful horse for whatever discipline she chooses.

I'm going to start updating this thing consistently. There's a lot going on right now, it's going to be a very busy spring and there's a lot to write about. More soon!

Fighting Winter

2010-12-20T23:41:00.005-05:00

Brrrrr! Since my last blog post, it has been cold! Unfortunately Virginia has been working on its' Alaska act, and it's been doing a pretty good job. With highs in the low 20s, and windchills in the negatives for two days of the past two weeks, and then snowing twice during that time, it's been an uphill battle to consistently work horses. Unfortunately, not working the horses (all I work with, mine and others) drives me crazy. I love setting up a schedule and sticking to it. Improvising is okay, but when even that fails things are really tough. Staying optimistic and counting down the days to spring seems to help. This month has flown by, and I'm hoping that the next two do as well.

It's been a month full of homework. Vesuvian and Emmy are coming along well. Emmy has been working on the basics still. She's such a nice horse to work with and is extremely sweet. She's started going over poles and we're going to start with more cross rails soon. I already know that she loves to jump logs, which is very encouraging. Vesuvian is really growing up...I'm hoping to bribe someone out into the cold soon to get pictures and or video of everyone. Octavian went back to work on December 1st and has been coming back nicely.

The three Andalusians have been getting some good variety in their work. The breed has such a good mind, and the horses themselves are pretty great. I'm really looking forward to getting them out in the spring.

The young horse, Iliada, whom I've recently started under saddle, is another horse who is just so much fun to work with. She's very intellegient, and extremely quick to learn new things. She shows a lot of potential for the future for whatever she ends up doing.

My apologies for a bit of a boring blog post. I'm currently trying to stay up until 12:30 to catch a glimpse of the lunar eclipse (the last time it happened on this date was in 1638!). Although I'm a night person by nature, my schedule has changed my habits and now all I want to do is go to sleep as soon as possible! However, all of this cold and snowy weather is forcing me to slow down and has given me more free time, so I'm sure I will post again, I want to write about some of the specific things I feel that I've figured out this year...I've been so fortunate to have learned a ton with young, green, experienced, bratty, willing, and talented horses this year and I want to "record" some of it here. Until then, stay warm and happy riding. :)

2010

2010-11-22T21:46:00.005-05:00

I was just sitting at the computer trying to come up with one word that I could use to describe the way I feel about eventing. Well, not just eventing, the "horse thing" in general. All of it, from the good days to the bad days, the good shows to the bad shows, the good horses to the "bad" horses, the struggle to the triumph.

I don't think that there is one word can that describe all of that, however, one thing I do know is that I have learned a monumental amount over the past year. Things have gone horribly, and then things have gone well. Things have been in between. I've had to be patient, I've had to make swift decisions. I've had to make no decision at all. I've had to grow as an aspiring professional, I've had to put myself out there and follow my instincts. I've had to realize I was right. I've had to realize I was wrong. I've had to realize I had no idea whatsoever. I've had to learn that looking to the past is not relevant. I've had to learn that looking to the past is crucial. I've had to learn that not all advice is good and that some of the best advice is hidden. I lost my confidence, but found it again. I shed more tears then I'd like to admit, but the smiles, pats, kisses, hugs, and "Good boy/girl!"s outweigh them. Therefore, from now on, whenever I'm feeling exasperated, or want to remember something I've learned this year, I will simply reference "2010". Twenty-ten definitely has a hidden meaning for me!

I don't feel right following the above paragraph with just ordinary ramblings, but we had a wonderful end to our fall season at VHT. We ended up 4th after pulling two rails in stadium. However, Octavian felt absolutely "on"...it was a great weekend and a good one to end on and stay positive for 2011. Speaking of 2011:

I've finally updated the website! I still want to change some pictures in the slide show at the beginning, but I have to round up some help from an amazing web designer who (surprise) is constantly busy designing (guess?) websites. Hopefully she can help me soon. Anyway, as I've said (or meant to say), my goal for 2011, until I know how things might play out, and because I'm becoming a little paranoid, will remain unsaid, untyped, and unrevealed until things start to play out. However, our first event out, if things go well, should be the schooling HT at The Ark on January 8th (Octavian in the Prelim and Ian in the Beginner Novice) followed by an IP for Octavian at Poplar Place two weeks later. In the meantime, we are going to be busy with preparations, homework, lessoning, and praying widly that it doesn't snow. At all.

Winding down...

2010-10-12T21:59:00.006-04:00

Well, I am a happy blogger tonight! Once again it has been awhile since my last post, however, this will be a good one. We just returned from MDHT III (also known as "Loch Moy"). This is really something I wish I would have blogged about at least weekly, but I made a few minor changes to Octavian's fitness schedule that I thinked really helped. Other than this spring, we've always done "gallop" sets (more endurance than speed work), but I threw in 2, 1 minute (around 600mpm) gallops once a week. I also made a change in his feed. I hadn't been feeling like Octavian was "lazy" or "tired", but I wanted to try adding Red Cell to his feed to see what would happen. I couldn't feel a huge difference, but he did seem to have a bit more energy as far as our gallop sets.

We left for Loch Moy Saturday afternoon and because I sent in my entry exactly on the closing date, and because there were so many entries that the permanent stabling was full, we had to stable off site. We arrived at the barn around 8 and after Octavian was tucked in, headed to bed. I woke up around 5:30 on Sunday morning and after feeding and braiding, made the very short drive (2 miles!) to Loch Moy to walk my courses. I had already heard from a friend that prelim had a bank and a corner four strides later. In all honesty, with our previous issues with corners, I was anxious to walk my line. The course was a bigger and tougher prelim compared to some others. The first 3 fences were inviting and allowed a nice forward ride. After the third fence you headed into the woods, past the barns, and to the fourth, a log oxer, then to the first combination on course, a roll top, one stride, drop bank, one stride, drop bank. From there, you made a u-turn to a table heading into the woods, and then another u-turn into the first water, which was fairly inviting with a log, one stride water, a few more strides (3 ish), to an up bank, 1 stride to house out. Next, you ventured onto the famous ditch and brush, a fly fence at 11, and then the bank to corner combination at 12ab, and 13. I'm excellent at overthinking, overwalking, overanalyzing, and worrying for painfully long amounts of time about my line to corners. I decided to make a change. I walked the line twice, told myself to "just ride" and left it at that. Next, you had a wagon at 14, log oxer at 15, house/coop/barn thing at 16, and then another combination at 17ab, a log at the top of the hill, drop down a hill to another log at the bottom. 18 was a cordwood table, and 19-20ab was the second water. It was nicely set up so that you could angle the log at 19, to get a straight line to the big drop at 20a and head out over 20b. The last two fences were simple.

Maybe it was because I hadn't been out since Five Points, but to me the show jumping course looked maxed out. Lots of oxers, but very good lines. I really liked the course design, but it was obvious that both courses needed a very forward ride.

We ended up having to park right in front of cross country warm up and right by the start of cross country. Octavian held it together well, considering. He doesn't always stay tied to the trailer anyway, so I was a little worried that he would escape multiple times. Other than being very demanding, he was a good boy, but by the time we were headed out for dressage, he was ready to go cross country! I felt a little like I was sitting on a bomb warming up for dressage. We were not in the right "mode", I'm pretty sure Octavian was thinking "gallop, gallop, gallop now, please!" the whole time. Our test was acceptable, not great, but not atrocious. The judge wrote, "Attractive horse, but today would rather do things his way and not nescessarily yours"...after laughing at that, I realized that it's probably one of my favorite comments so far! We ended up with a 40, or because I am now halfway in the dressage world as well, a 60% by those standards.

Show jumping was good. We had lots of energy, and Octavian was jumping, well, huge, at everything! We pulled a rail at the second fence which seemed to be a result of a loss of concentration on both of our parts.

Our cross country round started out a bit sticky. Octavian was peeking at everything, but once we got through the first water, we settled into a stride. I managed to lose my stirrup going up the bank at 12a, so rode the rest of the combination without it. I have to admit that I was thinking, "oh no" when that happened, but Octavian was perfect at the corner, and I guess I got that line right afterall (with some help from my horse!) Everything was going very well until we came up to 17a. Octavian is a confirmed "peeker" and I gave him the benefit of a doubt and not a strong enough ride at the log. I thought he was peeking over the hill, while in fact we just sort of stopped instead. I considered it to be a ridiculous hiccup and rider error, because with a more agressive (better) ride, things would have been fine. The rest of the course was great. Octavian felt amazing, and I feel that he got bolder as we jumped around. By the end of the course we were both feeling very confident and I think we may have both been a little sad that the course was over.

We're headed to Virginia next and I am really excited about it. Unfortunately, that will be the last even for us until January. Octavian deserves a break, but I always hate it when the season comes to an end and winter arrives.

Vesuvian and Emmy are doing very well. I think that Ian is starting to like me a lot more as his person. That may sound silly, but he's been a little clingy and a lot more affectionate. He's quite the grumpy little guy most of the time, so I'm pretty flattered at the moment. I may have mentioned that Ian was just doing some jumping homework, which is coming along very nicely. If all goes well, he will do a BN at the Ark in December.

I feel that I need to explain my lack of updating. My schedule keeps me very busy, and when I'm not busy, I'm tired! In a good way, but still, tired. My days are packed with working at the barn and riding. I usually ride anywhere from 3-7 horses a day and work several mornings and a couple of afternoons on top of taking care of my own barn. I absolutely love the things I am doing...I've always craved the opportunity to be this busy (and with only horse stuff) and ride this many horses. On a humorous note, every single pair of riding pants I own now has holes in them. I'm currently awaiting the arrival of new pants, in the meantime I have one pair left that have a reasonably big hole on the inside of the knee that I am wearing until the new ones arrive! My boots are fading on the outside from sun exposure (not yet a year old)...and I think that's all of the damage I have to report. I just take it as proof that I am getting in a lot of hours in the saddle...so I'm really just amused. And on a personal note, my new resolution for the rest of the year (life?) is to drink far less Mountain Dews and Starbucks Vanilla Frappacinos. I'm afraid to share the numbers...but it's excessive and scary!

Earlier this month, Amistad RL (aka "Little Man") and Alessandro ("Alex") went to a SWVADA schooling show at Green Hill Park. Both horses had a good experience, especially L.M. as it was his first time off of the farm...ever! He was a little wound up in the beginning, but settled down nicely to win his Intro A class. He's pictured above warming up (and expressing a moment of focus despite his worries!).

Although I entitled this post "winding down..." the rest of the month is actually fairly busy. "Alex" or Alessandro RL is headed to BLMs next Thursday where we are doing First Level test 1 and 2. The week after is Virginia. And then I suppose things will then be "winding down"...until then, stay warm, or wait, maybe I should say stay cool considering the lovely warm weather we still have (no sarcasm, it can stay this way forever!)? Happy riding. :)

2010-09-17T23:44:00.002-04:00

I can officially be declared the worst blogger ever! So many things have happened since my last post that I feel overwhelmed and feel that I need to write a mini novel in order to cover everything that has happened over the past month. I'm going to put things in chronological order:

1) Vesuvian, Octavian, and Equinox went to the VHT schooling day and starter HT in August. We had a fantastic day on Saturday which included all three schooling cross country. Equinox headed out first and had a good school. He was very impressive and really enjoyed himself. Vesuvian had a hard time handling all of the excitement. He had a few flashbacks from his racing days when horses kept cantering by him. I'm not one to change bits, but there I was in a happy mouth hoping that he wouldn't just flat out take off with me! Considering that, we had to spend a lot of time calming down. "Little Ian", as I always call him, is very brave and has the potential to be scopey, but quite frankly doesn't care about beginner novice sized fences and just needs to relax, and slow down. We finished knowing that we had a lot of homework!

There was a lot riding on Octavian's schooling. It was the first time he had been cross country since our Fair Hill. The schooling HT and Plain Dealing was only training, and was very short, so I didn't really feel like I could count it, although of course it helped with our confidence. As we schooled fence after fence, Octavian only felt stronger and although I didn't want to get too excited, I was feeling pretty great as we went on! We had a ton of fun and pretty much schooled all of the major questions. I saved the trakehner for last for a few reasons. One being that my stomach was in knots. As much as I hate to admit it, I kept having visions of our fall at Fair Hill in April and as I cantered up to the thing, I just put my leg on and remembered that I was looking through Octavian's ears and thought of everything we had done together and how much I love him. I know that sounds like a ridiculous thing to think about it as you're cantering toward a fence, but really, it helped. Before I knew it, we were over it and it was no big deal. It was a great moment.

Sunday was a rough day for Vesuvian. He wasn't "bad", but I think describing him as distracted is fair. Our dressage wasn't great, and we ended up with a 40. He was a bit too excited in show jumping. Cross country was good, but it was definitely confirmed that we have some homework to do before the next one!

Octavian was fantastic. I have no other way of putting it. I felt like our dressage test could have been better, however, we ended up with a 34...so no complaints! Show jumping was decent. Before we headed out of the start box, I had similiar thoughts as the ones I had as we galloped to the trakehner the day before. Octavian went around beautifully and as we went through the finish flags, I realized how lucky I was to have such a wonderful horse, one that was enjoying his job and felt fantastically!

2) On the same day that I we were leaving for Five Points at the Carolina Horse Park, Alessandro aka "Alex", one of the Andalusians went to the ERAHC dressage show at the horse center. He put in two solid tests at training level, scoring a 67% on both, winning one class and placing second in the other. I was thrilled and really enjoyed being in the dressage arena...much more than I usually do!

3) Five Points did not go as well as last year, but it was a good learning experience and we can now move forward knowing what we need to do. Our dressage on Friday was okay, it could have been a lot better for many reasons, the biggest one being that we weren't really "focused", more like very excited! We ended up with a 38. Cross country on Saturday had its good and bad moments. I was the culprit for the bad moments. First of all, the Area II prelim championships was at Five Points, making the cross country course very difficult. We had a line from a corner to an angled ramp at the 10th fence. I've always been able to miss my line at corners, and sure enough, I did it again! Unfortunately, I didn't have my head together even after the mistake, because I set us up for the corner, but not the ramp. Then I crossed my tracks so we racked up a hefty 60 penalties at that combination alone. Octavian felt great, however, I rode very badly and can, in confidence, blame it on me. Also, the water was a coop/house fence, one stride to a drop and through the water out over a roll top. Octavian needed support and encouragement coming to the water, but instead he got neither. As a rider, I always know when I've ridden a fence well and when I haven't. It's frustrating when you ride a fence well and still have a problem...then you can know your horse has an issue or was "naughty"...however, I was the only one "naughty" in this situation! We had a very gradual stop at the first part of the water giving us another 20. After that, we got it together and galloped around the rest of the course well. Show jumping on Sunday was uneventful.

I came home from Five Points not discouraged by our penalties. I know that I have a lot to fix in my riding and have to find my confidence again. When my confidence is low, it's not fair to ask Octavian to be that confident either. The course definitely helped us, and I just have to be able to give Octavian the ride he needs right now. Our goal is to fix these issues and head to Loch Moy in October to see where we are.

I can't actually post this picture in my blog entry, however this was at an oxer in show jumping at Five Points: http://www.photoreflect.com/store/Orderpage.aspx?pi=03HV00NG0X0039&po=39&pc=41

La Dolce Vita

2010-08-11T17:43:00.005-04:00

Like usual, I've been terrible about updating this thing! We've had a very busy rest of July and beginning of August. This is the first time I've been in the house before 8pm in about a month! I think I mentioned in a previous entry that I had started riding three Andalusians who are very, very cute dressage prospects! They have a wonderful owner who has their very best interest at heart and enjoys seeing them grow and improve. I'm probably going to be writing about these guys with every blog entry, so I'm going to introduce them. "Little Man" is the youngest of the group and is aiming to do his first training level test in the fall. "Alex" is the oldest and most experienced, and has competed at first level and schooled second, but had to have time off due to a minor surgery. Thankfully he's now back to work and his rebuilding strength and muscle. Finally, there's "TC", who is currently debuting at training level and schooling first. This has been my first experience working with Andalusians. I only have good things to say about them, they have great personalities, always want to please, are quick learners, and in addition to all of that, seem to have a natural uphill balance that helps them excel at dressage!

Equinox, the Hanoverian for sale, is coming along nicely and went to his first show this weekend where he scored a 34 (or 66%) on intro test "b". He was quite distracted in the arena and the scores on his test read something like "5, 8, 4, 8"...this horse has a lot of potential, he just needs the opportunity to grow into it! He was wonderful around his first stadium course and didn't look twice at anything. Vesuvian did his first novice CT. Once again, his dressage is always improving, it's just going to be a matter of putting it all together. He scored a 35, which was okay with me; he was a tad bit tense to the right (always his bad direction) and I think that messed with our scores a little. However, it was only his fourth time in the dressage arena and he was completely focused...he has a bright future! Our show jumping course showed a few loop holes. Yet, Vesuvian was honest and brave, but jumped around very green.

I entered Octavian in both the prelim and intermediate CTs. I was super excited about doing the intermediate CT. Lately he's been like a different horse nad I felt that we were well prepared. We had a dressage lesson on Friday in which we focused a lot on shifting more weight onto his haunches and bringing his poll up. Our biggest issue right now is that we want to get a bit too much on the forehand with a low poll. I have to focus very hard to think "up", because I too want to get a little to far forward and only exaggerate the problem! I felt that we were a little low and lacked "oomph" in our prelim test. On the bright side, Octavian was relaxed and supple. Our intermediate test was a lot better in the sense of more "oomph" and more "up". We are still green at the level, so of course we have a lot of work ahead of us! However, a year ago I don't think we were ready for the level and now I feel that everything we need is right there, it's just a matter of putting it together. We ended up getting a 33 (67%) on a prelim test and a 40 (60%) on the intermediate. I was thrilled with both of these scores. The prelim test showed immense improvement from even this spring, and because Octavian and I have a history of scoring the low 40s, even at prelim, I was not unhappy with the 40!

Show jumping was a blast. I have no other way of putting it. Other than the training level course at the PDF schooling show, this was the first "real" stadium course that we had jumped around since Morven at the end of March. In the prelim round, I messed us up going into the first fence of the triple, but instead of having an issue and stopping, we were able to keep moving forward and fix the mistake. The fences were then put up and off we went for our intermediate round. I honestly felt like it was even better than our prelim round. Octavian felt strong, bold, and confident, which is such a wonderful feeling to have again! I was very happy with him.

Now it's off to the VHT schooling HT at the end of this month. All three horses, Equinox, Vesuvian, & Octavian will be schooling cross country on Saturday. On Sunday, Vesuvian will be going around BN, and if everything feels right, Octavian will run prelim. After that, Octavian and I will be off to Five Points HT. If all goes well the weekend before, we'll run prelim, but if there are still glitches to work out, we will just enjoy ourselves at training. Depending on how Five Points turns out, we will be coming up with some sort of a game plan for the rest of the fall and next spring.

The website should be updated by the beginning of next week. I'm extremely fortunate to be riding a ton of horses during the day...anywhere from 7-8, and combined with other miscellaneous work, feeding, mucking, and trying to "discipline" my puppy (trying!), life is pretty much cheerful chaos. In addition to that, I'm going to be starting online classes soon (I can't exactly complain, at least they are online...), which is when the real chaos will ensue! Anyway, the website will have plenty of new pictures, content, and updates. Until then, happy eventing. :)

(PS: the next set of pictures posted in this blog will show a reformed jumping position on my part)

2010-07-13T22:44:00.004-04:00

We had a great weekend at Plain Dealing Farm's schooling show. Vesuvian did his first "real" Beginner Novice and Octavian went out for the first time since Fair Hill in April at training. I was a bit nervous because not only was it my first time showing two horses (which I was ridiculously excited about, by the way), but due to unforseen circumstances, I was headed out alone with two horses! The morning started out with two very filthy horses and a lot of scrubbing. The drive down was uneventful (other than watching someone nearly back into trailer at Sheetz...if I can back that thing into the gas pump, someone in a car should be able to avoid backing into a large, white trailer???). We arrived at Plain Dealing on time for once and I unloaded both horses and apprehensively tied them to the trailer while I headed out to walk both cross country courses (I mentioned it was my first time showing two horses, but I also meant memorizing two sets of courses as well!) praying that I didn't hear "loose horse!"...to see possibly both of them touring the place! But, they were good boys and quietly ate their hay.

Vesuvian's dressage test was fairly good. It was at least a big improvement. He handled the atmosphere fantastically, and after some initial complaining, seemed to forget about the fact that he had to leave Octavian. As we rode through the test, I felt it getting better and better and was really pleased. There were of course issues, we bucked through our right lead canter transition (I think he was just trying to show off his athleticism), and his downward transitions still need work. Overall, I was pleased. Our stadium course went really well. It was the first time that I felt Vesuvian have some "grown up" moments. I think he's starting to catch on. We pulled a rail, but it was of course a rider error, I could've given him a much better ride. But, again, I was so happy with the big picture! Now, I was very excited to take Vesuvian around his first cross country course (he had only schooled prior to this), but I was also curious to see how things would go. He had a blast! He felt great to all of the fences, he was both brave and scopey and was always looking for the next fence (I will keep saying it, but I am REALLY excited about this "little" horse!). However, he was not so happy to see the water and needed a bit of persuasion to get in. It was his only real "green" moment, and he did get in and relax, so I was not displeased. We ended up with a 34 in dressage. It was only his third test ever, so I was really thrilled, and I felt like the experience helped him grow up a bit!

Octavian had a good day, too. Our dressage test was relaxed (which was my main goal for it), it had been a long time since we had been in the arena. Our stadium round was great, he felt enthusiastic and strong (very strong, actually, I felt myself half-halting widly!). We hadn't even schooled cross country since Fair Hill, so I wanted to use this show as a schooling day and just wanted us to both enjoy the experience. We hadn't jumped a trakehner since our fall at Fair Hill, either, and prior to this weekend, I had a small mental block. I woulnd't exactly call it fear, but I can relate it to getting shocked by an electric fence and then making sure that you are as far away from the fence as possible next time. Anyway, our course went well, it got better as we went along, he felt a little rusty in the beginning, but it had been awhile. We did have a run out at the trakehner, and in my head I was thinking, "Great. Here we go, are we going to get over this thing?"...but, on the second attempt we cantered over it just like we should have! I felt immense relief, and although it felt silly, I gave Octavian huge pats afterwards. It's our first small step back in the right direction and it feels great to have gotten it over with! Octavian actually ended up with a 37. Anytime we break the 40s, regardless of the level, I'm pleased.

I'm suspecting that Vesuvian's first recognized BN will be at Difficult Run in August. We need to get the water issue figured out first. Right now the plan is for Octavian to tag along and do a few more trainings and we'll see how those go.

I've been spending a lot of long days at the barn over the past few weeks, and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's the first time in my life that I've been able to spend all day at my own barn, and it's great. The young horses - or I should say the two Hanoverians (one of which belongs to a friend and is with me for a little while) have been very rewarding. Emmy had her first ride under saddle today. It had been since April, so I was wondering what she would remember, but of course she hadn't forgotten anything. Thankfully her hock is looking good! The other Hanoverian, Equinox, is a joy to work with and is a very quick learner. I've also started riding three Andalusians who are all dressage "ponies". I'm really enjoying it and look forward to continuing to work with them.

2010-06-27T10:32:00.000-04:00

This past month has brought a lot of changes! Let's start with Vesuvian. We did the advanced green combined test at Millington through VHT and Penny and Brian Ross. It was his first show, ever. The judge's tent was terrifying! I was pleased with the experience as a whole, his dressage test was sort of ADHD, but for his first time in the arena, he did well. We had a lot of fun in show jumping, and pace track (they have it set up so you canter around the field) was very enjoyable. Yesterday, we did another combined test, this time at beginner novice. He was fairly looky in the dressage arena, and it was a very green test, he was eager to please, but we have some work to do before our next one! I was thrilled with our stadium course. The green horse lookiness carried over to show jumping, but Ian was wonderful! We're definitely off to a good start. We also schooled a few cross country fences, and Ian never fails to surprise me with his care free enjoyment when going cross country. I'm really excited about this horse.

I've decided to get Octavian ready to do a couple of training level events this summer/fall. I have to try and listen to what my horse is telling me. Over the last month, I've felt a tremendous change in mood, way of going, and overall enthusiasm in Octavian. I haven't been expecting anything, instead, I've just been going with the flow. Since he always vets with flying colors, I know that it won't hurt to get him back out, do a couple of trainings and see how he feels. We made a lot of sudden changes this spring, including out fitness routine, feed, our jump schools, bits, saddles, we nearly made changes to everything. Knowing Octavian, I have to wonder if it was too much at once - and as a good friend put it - maybe he's not up to making such drastic changes at this point. He does what he does safely and well. He doesn't owe me anything, and I have no alternative motives for doing anything, other than to just continue learning and enjoying our time together. Have I mentioned that Octavian really is my best friend? I'm not being corny. I feel this tremendous guilt when he stares at me getting Vesuvian ready to head to a show, I feel like he's asking me why he's not going as well! With that in mind, I have plans to continue just going with the flow and seeing where it takes us!

Emmy's injury is still healing well and she should be back under saddle very soon. It's been a long process, but we were very lucky that everything has healed so well with no long term effects.

Last, but not least, I'm thrilled to mention that we are going to be having a guest for the next three months. Julie Georges' Hanoverian gelding, Equinox, is going to be in training. I'm very excited to start working with Equinox who is arriving this Friday. I will post updates.

Well, it's off to ride in sweltering heat! I was fairly discouraged the other night when at 8pm, it was still 95 degrees. At least the bugs won't be as bad at this time, since it seems that there's no real change in temperature. Happy riding.

A different world

2010-05-20T09:47:00.001-04:00

Well, there's a reason I haven't written anything since March 31st. I've been dreading this blog post. Octavian is always the number one individual in all of my posts, meaning that he's been my main focus in my riding career and life for a very long time. Our Fair Hill adventure was our last together...at least at an event. I've spent the last month or so trying to come to terms with this fact, which is not easy, but at the same time, Octavian has done a lot for me, and I wouldn't be where I am today without his help. Everything I've been able to achieve has been a direct result of Octavian. At 19 years old, he has never acted his age and has been a willing and wonderful partner through everything we've done (errr, alright, there WERE a couple of dressage tests...).

At Fair Hill it was evident that something was off with Octavian. We came to the fifth fence on cross country, a trakehner and everything seemed just right. However, upon taking off, Octavian hesitated causing his hind end to slip into the ditch, which resulted in him nearly flipping over backwards. We were extremely lucky with where I fell and the fact that Octavian was careful enough not to flip backwards, but instead to the side, avoiding me completely and not hurting himself minus a couple of scratches. It was my first "real" fall, and it was a bit unsettling. Mainly because it was bizarre behavior for Octavian. After the somewhat disastrous spring season we were having, it seemed like the best decision to go ahead and back off. I can say that it was a tough decision, and one that I occasionally catch myself trying to second guess (especially as he is show jumping fantastically), but in reality I know it's the right decision. It's hard to let go of our goals, but we can make new ones and have had a lot of goals accomplished with one another.

Speaking of good show jumping rounds, I think that Octavian and I are going to try a few jumper shows this summer and see how it goes. He's a fantastic show jumper and I think that he may have a small career in that discipline. I think that it would greatly benefit my riding for the future...always need good show jumping rounds! I don't want to jump the gun, but I think that we can do very well, but will just have to see what happens.

In the meantime, Vesuvian is coming along very well. He's a brave and scopey jumper and has developed a great work ethic. We are going to his first outting on June 5th at Millington. We're doing "baby green", but I am really looking forward to it! I think that we will do his first beginner novice at Loch Moy in July after a few more schooling shows.

In other news, I'm now back at home with another learning experience under my belt. Due to the public nature of the internet, I don't feel comfortable with a lot of detail, but in the big scheme of things, everything happens for a reason and can provide a valuable learning experience if you allow, even bad situations that are nescessary to remove yourself from.

I'm going to try and bribe my sister for pictures! But for now, I included one of Atticus, our new 12 week old Alaskan Malamute cross puppy.

Always learning, keep moving foward!

2010-03-31T06:42:00.000-04:00

We had a great show jumping lesson yesterday. Honestly, I wasn't sure how things were going to go, and was actually a bit quesy tacking up, which is something that never happens to me when getting ready to jump...especially not Octavian. After this weekend, I was just ready to fix the issue, but I didn't know what exactly that would invovle in regards to time, effort, etc.

We started off with just jumping a vertical with poles placed 21' on each side. I had to work on placing him at the first pole, then go to the fence, then place him at the second pole. Now, while doing this, I had to be very careful not to drop my shoulders for the long spot. This time, I caught myself doing it. It's the equivalent of throwing him away in the last 1 1/2 - 2 strides of the fence. Not to be harsh, but I need to learn how to ride again! The other thing I had to work really hard on was landing "poised" in order to place him over the second pole well. Emily then put that exercise in combination with an oxer three strides away, so it was over first pole, vertical, second pole, and then oxer. Before I go on, let me say how excited I am to blog about this because I feel like I learned a ton yesterday! So, on the way to the oxer, we worked on letting him open up more. We then turned around, came back to the vertical, where I had to short on shortening his stride and keeping it short all the way to the base of the fence...without dropping my shoulders. We talked about how that is essentially his "coffin canter". We then headed over to an oxer (with another pole 21' away) and worked on opening his stride up again. Now, this is where I found it extremely hard not to drop my shoulders. Infact, the urge was so strong that it took a lot of concentration (physically I had to think of throwing my body backwards, not that it actually moved, but that's what it felt like). As it turns out, I'm pretty uncomfortable with getting the short spot, but need to work on that.

I feel much more confident realizing that the issue is something that can be fixed with self discipline and repitition. Octavian still loves what he's doing and feels great. We did another flexion test on Monday and everything looked great. Our plan is to continue working on improving everything (dressage is getting better...) and head off to Fair Hill in three weeks, for what might be, if all goes well, our last prelim. However, I'm patient and if our performance at Fair Hill is not up to par, then we'll continue working on all of this until it is. I'm anxious and excited to move up, but most importantly I'm thoroughly enjoying learning all of these new things and feeling the changes in my horse.

A re-ride would be nice

2010-03-29T06:42:00.000-04:00

After returning from a hard day at Morven, I thought that updating my blog would not only be a good thing to do (didn’t I say something about updating it weekly?), but also a helpful tool to help me sort out my thoughts.

First of all, two weeks ago, we went training at Southern Pines. I was thrilled with how cross country went. Dressage was a bit too exciting, but we needed to get back in the arena and revive our focus. Sunday morning Octavian was off, which was strange, a red flag definitely went up. However, there was no heat or swelling and outwardly, everything appeared to be normal. Still, we scratched and headed home. Once we were home, Octavian got off the trailer perfectly sound. When we got back to Brickland, we did a flexion test, etc, and everything looked good. It was very strange indeed. I’m bothered that we never found what the problem was, but I’m also relieved that it left as quickly as it arrived.

We arrived at Morven Friday afternoon and had a fantastic school. Octavian was focused and ready to work – despite being a bit excited. It was freezing Saturday morning, but both Octavian and I were anxious to get going. Our dressage test was much better than some others, and I was extremely pleased with how well Octavian focused and listening to me, there was definite improvement. Our score was okay, but I was just mainly pleased with the new found rideability. Or, I shouldn’t actually say “new found” since we’ve been working on it all of the time lately.

Show jumping warm up was a bit iffy. We started off well, but then we had a couple of uncharacteristic stops at an oxer. I’m usually comfortable warming up on my own, but in this case, I was super relieved that Emily was in the warm up as I was thrown off by the stop. She reassured me that it was just a matter of miscommunication on the approach. We’ve put Octavian in an elevator and have worked (in combination with our flatwork) on getting him to listen to my half-halts. Which he’s now doing, and as a result, I have a lot more control. As it turns out, I have to learn how to give a different ride. Our stadium course was clear and Octavian felt enthusiastic and listened super well.

When we were in cross country warm-up, things were going pretty well, until we had another 2 stops at the warm up vertical. At this point, I’m feeling apprehensive. I can feel that my ride to the fence is causing the problem, but can’t pinpoint exactly what I’m doing that’s causing it. Our last fence before going out of the box was awkward. The first 4 fences on course went fairly well, they were all big and gallopy types. We came to the coffin at 5 and Octavian was great, although we did end up trotting out over the log. Everything went smoothly until we got to fence 10, somewhat of a skinny, but straightforward, table. Looking back, I needed to take a minute, and maybe even circle, to regain Octavian’s focus, because we completely missed the line. After that, we headed toward the water, I was super happy with our ride there. Next, we had to go to the one stride cabin combination after going across a bridge. Octavian balked at the bridge a bit, and had a super awkward jump to the first, which nearly unseated me, and we missed the second one. At that point in the course, I had decided to play it by feel, and keep going mainly to school, but I was starting to question what was wrong. We headed up to the corner, which we had to go up a hill, turn right, and had about 5 strides to. I was thrilled with the way that Octavian jumped in, and I managed to find my line and ride confidently to it. The final problem happened at the trakehner. We ran into our “miscommunication” again, causing Octavian’s front end to drop into the ditch. Afterwards, I decided to call it a day. Things obviously weren’t right between us, and I didn’t want to risk anything. Coming off of the course, it was hard not to be upset – I wasn’t sure if our problems were stemming from the fact that Octavian wasn’t the same as he used to be – mentally. Emily met us coming off course and when I mentioned that I wasn’t sure if it was an issue of whether or not he wanted to do it, she dismissed it quickly and explained that she had seen everything, and felt that I was still riding for the longspot, when Octavian was now seeing the short, which was causing the miscommunication and resulting in Octavian trying to put in the short stride, but getting a bit stuck. It definitely made me feel better that she could pinpoint the problem and felt confident that it can be fixed. She mentioned that it may have been what happened last fall, and the more I think about it, the more that makes sense.

So, our next goal is to fix this issue and hopefully come out of it a ton better. Obviously our move up will be put on hold, and I’m waiting to decide where to go next based on how things go with us fixing this issue. It’s hard for me, because I tend to get a tad bit emotional when something like this happens. I never see the professionals come off course nearly in tears – I wish I could handle it better. At the same time, I know that taking a step back to make things better will help us a lot in the long run. Octavian’s show jumping round was great, and the new jump that he is developing is very nice.

So, here’s to staying positive and making some positive changes in our style.

Almost the weekend

2010-03-10T07:14:00.000-05:00

With Southern Pines I only a few days away, I can barely contain my excitement! This winter has been way too long. The sale at World Equestrian Brands was crazy and very, very fun. The deals were great! I got a Soft Touch girth for $10, a Masta sheet for $1, 4 sets of polos for $4...etc! Most importantly, with the help of Critter, we broke down and got a new dressage saddle. It's an Equipe Emporio and it feels great. It really changes my dressage ride, my old saddle was an older Courbette and while it did the job, it was an old style so didn't help my position much.

We've been doing a lot of preparing for this weekend since Sunday. We had a show jumping lesson. We worked a lot on having Octavian listen (which he finds hard at times once excited) and wait for me instead of taking over. Sitting to the fences feels nice to show jumps. Monday we had a dressage lesson, and worked a lot on making sure Octavian engaged in the corners and worked on doing canter - trot - counter-canter - trot - canter transitions. Octavian's very strong and wants to pull me through and ignoring my sometimes frantic half-halts, but it's coming along. He's always been extremely strong, so I really just have to get him listening extremely well.
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I can't believe that I get to start packing the trailer today! Winter has been too long and it's been since the second weekend in September (Middleburg) since we've been anywhere. Today we're having another show jump lesson before heading off tomorrow. I have a lot of packing and cleaning to do!

...is it Spring yet?

2010-03-03T22:08:00.000-05:00

After another cold and dreary day, I'm even more excited for Spring...if it ever arrives. Thankfully, our first event of the season is Southern Pines I, which is almost less than two weeks away! We haven't gotten in a ton of jumping, however, Octavian and I never do a ton of jumping; mainly just to work on things that we need to. We jumped about a week and a half ago in a lesson with Emily. Of course we came away with a ton to work on, but overall he felt pretty good. Now that the snow is finally almost completely gone, we can go to working on a set schedule vs. the "Oh, great, it's snowing, scratch that" weeks we've had for the last month. Anyway, we're just running a training at SP I to get back into the swing of things. After Southern Pines, we're planning to do a prelim at Morven, and if things are going well, plan on moving up at Fair Hill. From there, I think our rough draft would have to be something like Virginia, Surefire, Maryland...etc.

This has been a two day post. Yesterday the sun was out and it was nice. I took a picture of how green the fields are starting to look...greener, at least. At least all signs of spring are present.

A lot of us are headed to the World Equestrian Brands warehouse this morning because they are having a HUGE sale. Apparently Mattes pads are going for $40! Saddle pads are $1 if you buy 10. Woah! They also have a lot of saddles that are marked down by a large amount (think $1000-$2000). Although we've been putting it off, our current dressage saddle is about ready to retire, so the plan is to sit in a lot of dressage saddles today!

On an entirely different note, I was thinking of how hard it is to start a ride and remember to think that the end result is what really matters. I have a tendency to get on and want perfection (or at least decency!) from the very beginning and tend to get a little frustrated if it's not there. I was thinking back to the week before Young Riders. When working with David O'Brien, we always had to get the "kinks" out at the beginning of the ride, and toward the middle, things started to get good. Which I would say gave us 20 minutes of truly good work - but then again, keeping the horse's muscles in mind, you have to work progressively. With Octavian, we always start out with something to be desired, but at least toward the end of the ride, with consistency and patience, everything can grealty improve. However, I find that I have to go around thinking "end result, end result, end result" to avoid feeling down about the ride in the beginning. I've been thinking about this issue a lot lately. It also makes me think about the warm up for dressage and how important it is to have a plan!

We're all up pretty early this morning to be able to getting the morning routine/chores done so that we can head to the World Equestrian Brands warehouse, so it's off to feed...!

Better late than never?

2010-03-02T06:44:00.000-05:00

I'm making it a weekly "job" to update this! Promise.

Now that the snow here in Virginia is melting, things are looking up. I didn't give many details in my previous post, but I'm now working as barn manager for Emily Beshear at Brickland Eventing. I've been here for a month now, and despite the fact that all of the snow came the day after I arrived, I have to say that this is a great place! The arenas are almost finally clear - it's been a long wait, but thankfully we were able to trailer to an indoor when things were completely hopeless. I feel that's it's been the longest winter ever, and am relieved that it has to be over soon.

Octavian has been a bit wound up, probably due to the fact that we've been so confined for the past month due to the snow. We went on plenty of hacks, but had to do a lot of walking because the snow was so deep. I think mentally it's been an adjustment for both of us to get back into real work..but it feels nice!

Our plan is to go training at Southern Pines I, do a prelim at Morven, and depending on how things are feeling, have our move up at Fair Hill in April.

Packed and ready to go...

2010-02-02T09:20:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was looking at a couple of working student positions. This morning Octavian, Booger Bell [cat :)] and I are headed to Somerset, VA to be working students (or, I should say I am) for Emily Beshear at Brickland Eventing. I'm very excited about the position and have been packing for days. Emmy will hopefully be coming up after about a month...

I'm now off to continue loading the truck and trailer and get ready for my three hour drive with a very distraught Booger Bell!

An Overdue Entry...

2010-01-22T13:01:00.000-05:00

Apparently I'm a terrible blogger! I can never seem to update a blog...even weekly. I'm going to have to work on that. I haven't written an entry since July 30th. After young riders Octavian had a short vacation and we headed to Five Points HT in September. We had a great event, he felt almost perfect in all phases. I was especially pleased with our dressage, we scored a 34.6 which was major improvement! We ended up with about 11 time penalties or so on cross country, but had a clear show jumping round ending up in 5th place. I was thrilled after the event, Octavian was completely tuned in. Two weeks later we headed off to the Middleburg HT. Unfortunately, things did not go quite as well. Our dressage test was 10 points worse then our last test at Five Points, and Octavian and I didn't feel as together was we previously were. I made a bad error in show jumping which caused us to have a stop through the the triple. That Saturday it rained and rained, but thankfully the footing wasn't too bad and everyone was still able to run cross country. Our first five fences were fantastic, Octavian was nicely forward and I felt that we were going to have a good round. We came to the first major question on the course, which was a log sort of fence, and then a left hand turn down a drop, and then a few strides on landing to a skinny barn. The drop looked a bit intimidating. It really wasn't that big, but it had brush on top, and Octavian never likes to brush, so I figured that we would get the full effect! He was perfect through that combination, and we headed onto the next fence, another brush (didn't touch that brush either), and then headed onto the next combination, which I honestly don't recall the whole thing, but the first fence was small log on a slight incline. Coming to the log, I felt Octavian back off slightly and started to give him a stronger ride. However, he stopped and slid into the log. It was a strange sensation, almost like he wanted to jump, but just kept changing his mind at the very last minute. Octavian is always honest, and is not a dirty stopper. Whenever we've acquired 20 penalties in the past, it has always been my fault. So, this sort of occurence was out of character. Unfortunately, he stopped twice more and of course we had to walk home.

The walk and drive home were very hard. We were entered in the intermediate at Loch Moy just two weeks later, and it was clear that there was no way that we were going to able to do that. The following week, we trailered to Plain Dealing Farm where the vet checked everything out. Octavian was perfectly sound and Dr. Keith Brady said that he looked good to move up. After Octavian's examination, we decided to go ahead and have a lesson and a short cross country school to see if our problem at Middleburg had just been a fluke, due to bad footing, etc. Octavian felt great in show jumping, and fantastic for the first two fences that we schooled, but unfortunately started stopping once again.

It was another hard drive home, and I of course had to wonder if Octavian was trying to tell me that he was ready to retire. The whole thing was just so confusing as he had been so wonderful just three weeks before. The only thing to do was to go on vacation and let Octavian be a horse for the next 6 weeks or so. Upon the recommendation of a friend, I decided to get in touch with an animal communicator. I had heard amazing stories about what other's horses had said, and was eager to give it a try, what could it hurt? Patty Summers of PS Animal Consulting did a great job of helping me communicate with Ocavian. I had a list of questions ready. Below is the "conversation" that we had with Octavian.

1) What does Octavian call me?
"His Lady" or "My Lady"

2) What is Octavian's favorite thing to do?
It depends on his mood, but he enjoys being groomed, especially with the curry comb, and likes working when we are in sync; when we're in the "zone". He also enjoys grazing.

3)What is Octavian's favorite treat?
Apple wafers, "brown cookie looking things", sweeter treats, and apples.

4)What Happened at our last event? In our last lesson?
We weren't together, he felt frazzled and felt that we couldn't get it together. He felt like he did not have good direction, and shut down in a fearful sort of way. Nothing was clear enough, the atmosphere overall was very chaotic. There was fussy and uncomfortable energy in the barn, he also felt a slight pinching/muscular pain and combined with the chaos it was too much.

5) Does his eye ever bother him?
(I take it the answer is no, he is pretty much blind in his left eye, but promptly told us that well, his right eyelid was often itchy! I also asked him how much he could see out of his left eye)
His right one itches in lower lid, he has sun sensitivty in his left eye. He's considered "legally blind" in his left eye, but can see blobs/blurs.

6)Does he want to keep showing? Does he want to move up? If so, what can I do to make him the happiest?
He's willing to keep showing if we are there for each other. We need to take OUR time. He sometimes feels rushed/pushed. He wants plenty of time to settle in somewhere and relax. The environment in the barn is very important.

7) What happens in the dressage arena (in relation to the fact that we often end up tense):
He doesn't feel prepared, he wants me to run through it with him and make sure that I visualize it around him. Octavian has a lot of self confidence and a pizazz/showman like personality, but doesn't always feel confident enough to express it, he needs me to believe in him.

8)Are you ready to go back to work?
He wants to start off slow with flexibility exercises, and is happy to start light work Friday or early next week.

9)What is your favorite cross country fence?
Uprights, arrowheads, and brush. (I'm glad he likes uprights!)

10) What happens at corners? (I often make a mistake and we sometimes have run outs)
He feels uncomfortable because he's not entirely sure that I know what I'm doing, we need more self confidence going into them.

10) Octavians overall personality that Patty described for me before we got started:
"Reserved, not pushy. Not a slob, if he was a person he would dress well and be fashionable. He knows that he is 'hot stuff', but does sometimes need help with his self confidence."

When talking about environment, and what I could help him with at shows and in general, Octavian emphasized that I needed to make sure that I centered myself. It's understandable that some people may find this sort of thing to be "ridiculous" or a scam, but no information was given about Octavian before the session, and a lot of this information was very correct and detailed, and sounded just like Octavian. Since the session, we've become much closer (if that's possible) and I feel like I now have a better understanding of what Octavian may be thinking and what he needs from me mentally/emotionally. It's been a fun, educational, and beneficial experience.

When Octavian came back from vacation, he felt pretty good. We did some jump schools here at home, and at first I felt very hesitant, I was afraid that he really had had enough. However, everything went well, and he felt thrilled to be jumping again! Last week we went back to Plain Dealing for a lesson and cross country school with Molly. I was definitely a little nervous, but made sure that I put it out of my mind so that I could give Octavian the best ride possible (and yes, I did center myself!). Everything went super well, we had a fantastic time cross country, and in some ways, Octavian felt even better then he had in the fall. I was so happy and relieved! It was a nice feeling to know that once again my horse still loved his job and really did want to continue. I stored the feelings and pictures from schooling cross country in my mind for days, and really couldn't stop replaying everything and I probably drove everyone crazy talking about it!

In other happenings, after completing my first semester of college, I've decided that I at least want to take one semester off to solely focus on riding. I'm currently looking at a couple of working student positions, and should know whether or not I'm going to one by Monday. I feel very anxious, I would really love to have the position, I'm having a terrible time with knowing that I have to wait until Monday to know whether or not I will be going, but I guess that's part of the fun! If I do get the position, Octavian, Emmy and I will be going. Although it's a tough decision to make, Vesuvian will have to stay behind. I'm currently looking at leasing him. Both he and Emmy are doing very well and I'm happy with their progress!

I will make an effort to update this at least once a week from now on. That way, I may not have to write so much!

Home Again, but an exciting Fall season ahead!

2009-07-30T11:51:00.000-04:00

Young Riders was an amazing experience that I would do a million more times! It was full of learning experiences and forming new friendships as well as being exposed to a new level of competition and competition procedures. A week before the competition we headed down to Southern Pines, North Carolina where we trained at David and Lauren O'Brien's farm for one week. During the week, we had a schedule of flatting, galloping, and jumping. The Tuesday after arriving, we headed out for our first gallop at the Carolina Horse Park. It was a blast, Octavian was pulling on me the entire time asking to go faster. As mentioned in my last entry, we had a jump school and helped Dr. Abby Dondandville in a biomechanical study. The next day, Laura Roberts and I went with David and Lauren for a cross country schooling to get our horse's feet wet and school a few questions. On Sunday all of the horses had a day off and we all did a lot of packing, bathing, clipping, etc.

At 6am Monday morning we headed for Kentucky. It was my first time driving the horse trailer alone for an extended period of time, but everything went well, even when we had to drive through thunderstorms. My sister met me in Wytheville and we continued on. Upon arriving at the Kentucky Horse Park, everything was a bit chaotic. Everyone was shipping in and there were trucks and trailers everywhere! We had to park quite a bit away from the barn. A few hours later, everyone was unpacked and there was much less chaos.

Tuesday morning we took the horses out for their first hack. We hacked around the main arena with the big grandstand and introduced all of the horses to the ramp that leads from the warm up arena to the main arena. Later that afternoon, we all had flat lessons in front of the grandstand. I felt a little nervous about riding my dressage test in an arena with such a big atmosphere and was really glad to be schooling in it beforehand.

Wednesday turned out to be a wet day. It's funny because it seems that everytime it rains in Kentucky it is always freezing! We all had wet flat lessons in the morning and then turned our attention toward the afternoon jogs. We could not have done it without our three fantastic grooms and friends, however. 1 hour before the jog was scheduled to begin, there was an announcement stating that it had been postponed. We all did a bit of groaning, because although it was pouring, we were all ready to go and get the first jog done! About 5 minutes later, there was a correction stating that no, the jog was not postponed. Not sure what that was about, but it seemed that they decided, "Oh, wait, nevermind, their eventers, they don't care!". So we were off for our first jog. It was cold, wet, and muddy, but everyone passed and looked fantastic!

The weather on Thursday was much improved and we all had flat lessons again. The CCI** dressage was scheduled for Thursday night in the grandstand under the lights, and Area II had drawn the second slot, meaning that one of our riders (Alex Martone and Copperfield) would be the second rider in the arena. All of the CCI** riders had great rides and all of the horses handled the atmosphere of the big arena well. The judges, however, were being extremely harsh. At around 11 we headed back to the hotel to try and sleep before dressage the next morning.

On Friday, the first CCI* rider out for our team was Molly Curtiss, followed by Colleen McKitrick, me, and Laura Roberts. Molly gave our team a great start and rode a wonderful test! As I watched I was already feeling pretty nervous about my ride. The real dressage rides were taking place in the grandstand as well, and the big electronic board was split between the two disciplines. While it was really cool to instantly see everyone's scores, it really did add to the atmosphere, and combined with everything else, my stomach was definitely turning! While back at the barn I heard that Colleen also rode a great test. With some help from our amazing grooms (check out Octavian's braids in all of the photos, I didn't do that, thank you Retsy!), I headed off to warm up. I will admit that it felt pretty nice to be wearing my top hat and tails!

Thankfully, once I was on and warming up, I didn't feel nearly as nervous as I thought I might. Octavian warmed up well, and before I knew it, they had moved us from the warm up arena to the small warm up area everyone used before going in the arena. I will admit that once entering that area, it hit me that I was actually about to ride my test. The beginning of our test was okay, I felt like Octavian was trying to listen. However, once we started the canter work, things seem to go downhill a bit. Octavian does have a tendency to get anxious/worried in the dressage arena, and combined with my nerves, it's sometimes hard for us to get it together. I will admit that having that big scoreboard with your scores being shown is hard not to look at. We had a few bobbles, but overall I felt like even though he got anxious and a little hot, Octavian tried to behave himself. I wish that I would have been more aware of what was happening with some of our canter work, but you always think of things you wish you would have fixed. Within about 2 minutes of exiting the arena, my score was announced, and I have to admit I wasn't exactly pleased. I had been warned about this, and while I believed it, I didn't realize how real the pressure would be, but the pressure of riding for a team can really get to you. Everyone told me I had done a good job, ridden the test well, etc, but I couldn't help feeling that my score of 72 was not necessarily a good one for the team. Fortunately, scores can be dropped with a 4 man team. Octavian will never be an easy horse in the dressage arena, but I do hope that we can continue to work on our anxiety issues and have tests that ride as well as our warm up!

A couple of hours later I was back at the main arena and eager to watch Laura Roberts' test. The rider right before her scored a 45.7, which to date, was the best score yet. Laura's test was amazing and I think that as we all watched, watching her scores flash up, we knew it was going to be good. It was good, another 45.7 which tied Laura for first and put Area II in 2nd after dressage! We were all very excited.

Walking our cross country course was very special. As I was walking it, I kept thinking of all of the amazing horses and riders who had galloped across the exact same ground. This especially hit home when you glanced over to see a few of the Rolex fences still up! Our course was moderately difficult for a CCI*, our first water was the 5th fence on course, we headed in, took 2 strides in the water, and then had a sharp right turn to a skinny on the way out. One of the most technical fences on course was number ten and eleven, a bounce. A long route of taking both fences individually was also offered. The course was gorgeous and it flowed really well. Our last water, which just happened to be right by the start box and vet box, had us going through a one stride to a drop in the water, through the water, up a hill, and over another skinny. There were several respectable "fly" fences, and we had a nice brush combination right before the last water. I was really excited when I was walking the course, but had decided to take the long route at the bounce just to be safe. Octavian and I (or, I should say I) are still working on our confidence for bounce fences.

Saturday morning came quickly and everyone was up very early. We were hearing lots of good news at the barn while the CCI** riders went, everyone went double clear, putting the team in a good position going into show jumping the next day. The rest of the morning went by in a blur of nerves, but still, good news was getting reported back to the barns, and by the time I went, all of the CCI* team had gone clear. Our warm up went pretty well, Octavian felt enthusiastic and ready to go. I was trying to handle my nerves as well as I could, which I feel that I've figured how to do pretty well for cross country. Before I knew it, we were in the start box and away. The first four fences, which included a big table in front of our first water and the silver maple cabin combinations, rode really well for us. By the time we got to the cabins, I felt that Octavian was nicely in front of my leg. He got a little looky coming into the first water and we were a bit sticky going in. Here's where I made my big mistake, which I will be kicking myself forever for, we hadn't landed quite as far out from the fence in the water as I had thought, but I still turned immediately after landing, which put us on a terrible line to the skinny which resulted in us missing the line and running past it. It was entirely my fault, Octavian probably didn't even realized he had run out. It was most certainly a learning experience, and in the big scheme of things, we can only learn from our mistakes and look foward into the future.

The rest of the course rode super well for us and was a blast. Octavian was having a lot of fun, and coming down the hill and around to the last water, I still felt like I had plenty of horse and was having to do a lot of half-halting to slow us and down and prepare. Upon crossing the finish line, I felt pretty happy with my round, Octavian was fantastic, I was the one who made the mistake at the first water. I want to say another thank you to our wonderful grooms; Britta, Tiffany, and Retsy, and for everyone else who helped in the vet box. The rest of our team went clear cross country, which put Area II in first going into stadium!

After cross country we went to our first press conference in the FEI tent. It was a really amazing experience, I have to admit that I was a little nervous. We were asked questions about our horses, how our rides went, and what we thought of the course. After I got over my nerves, it was actually a lot of fun!

I will admit that I was feeling a bit down Saturday evening. I always hate having a stop on cross country, and I especially didn't want to have one at Young Riders. However, it really is a learning experience, and the funny thing about horses is that they are so humbling and you just have to take what comes at you and work with it. And it was hard to stay depressed for long when the rest of the team was doing so well, not to mention the fact that we were in first going into stadium!

I was first to go for the whole CCI* on Sunday afternoon as we went in reverse order of go. The course seemed moderate, we had some nice combinations and it was looking like a solid course. Octavian felt really nice in warm up, David O'Brien had us really work on getting to the base of the fence to get a rounder jump. I felt like our warm up went well and again, before I knew it, we were headed up to the arena. Upon entering, I immediately felt Octavian's ears perk, but unfortunately he never really brought his attention back to the job. I think that he was mentally a little tired. He kept peeking around throughout the course and I needed to do a better job of getting him in front of my leg and listening. We had four rails, and once again, I was a little disappointed, but you never know what will happen and just have to continue riding the best that you can.

My boots were weighed after my round, and honestly, I kept thinking of Phillip Dutton getting eleminated because of his boots. Mine are just regular Woof open front and fetlock boots, but I was still a little nervous. Of course my boots weren't too heavy, but I was relieved! I was able to watch everyone else ride, especially since I went first. Molly and Savannah and a gorgeous round, and one of the very few clear rounds! Louise Johns and Red also had a really nice round and only pulled one rail. Allison Smith and Heffe also did a really nice job, and so did Colleen McKitrick and Connor. The course was taking its toll on everyone, it seemed, there were a lot of rails down across the board. Finally, it was time for Laura to go and I think we were all holding our breath. She and Blazer did an awesome job, only pulling one rail which lead to victory for them individually and for our team! We were all fantastically excited!

The next part was amazing. We were given our coolers and rushed back into the arena for the mounted awards ceremony. It was a very special experience, even if during the victory gallop I was a little worried about sliding right off because the cooler was so slippery! After the mounted awards ceremony, we headed back over to the FEI tent for another press conference. Our public speaker of the team, Molly, did a fantastic job of thanking everyone involved with the Area II team. It was such an exciting time!

Later on we had our closing ceremonies, and I can't describe how exciting it is to be standing on the gold medal podium with your flowers and medals. I also got a bit of a surprise. We were all sitting down just as the awards ceremony started, and I heard my name called. I had been nominated by our Chef D'equipes, Gwen Dean and Audrey Wiggins, for the Andrew de Szinay Sportsmanship award. Thank you to both of them! It was so unexpected, but I headed out into the big (read: scary) arena to get my trophy from David O'Connor. I was really happy to have my picture taken with him, too! The closing ceremonies were so exciting for everyone involved in Young Riders.

I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped us get to Young Riders. Family, friends, sponsors, donors, all of the Area II crew, our coaches David and Lauren O'Brien, our Chef D'Equipes, Gwen Dean and Audrey Wiggins, our terrific grooms, Britta Holum, Tiffany Foster, and Retsy Holliday, to all of the parents who helped out over the week, to all of my family and friends, and to the Kentucky Horse Park staff and volunteers, to everyone involved, and to all of Area II for supporting the Young Riders team!

...From YR Camp

2009-07-17T18:34:00.000-04:00

I don't have much time to blog, however, YR camp is going very well. Both the one star and two star teams are doing very well and everyone's horses have stayed sound (knock on wood). We've had lots of lessons and have been working very hard.

Today we went out shopping for our jog outfits for the first inspection and ended up with really cute matching dresses. People probably thought we were crazy as we ran around the store carrying the exact same dress and looking at clothes wondering if they would stretch. I also went sprinting across the shoe section of Belk, but I don't think anyone saw.

The whole team participated in a biomechanical study put on by Dr. Abby Dondandville. We jumped both an oxer and vertical at various speeds (working canter, collected canter, forward canter). The purpose of the study was to examine the projectory of the horse's jump. Afterwards, we did course work. Today was our last jump school before heading off to NAJYRC.

We're shipping out Monday morning and are galloping tomorrow and the horses have a day off on Sunday.

I will post from Kentucky when we are there!

What a busy summer...

2009-06-24T09:36:00.000-04:00

This is turning out to be a very busy and exciting summer! Unfortunately the decision about the Young Rider team has been pushed back to this weekend, so we are still waiting. Octavian and I have been working on homework and trying to work around the heat. Today we do our first 2 x 30 trot set and I am reminded of all of the fun times we had doing these trot sets last fall before Morven! There is something so exciting about doing a long trot set in hopes of preparing for a CCI.

In the meantime, poor Vesuvian has come up with a fairly bad case of scratches that I've been doctoring for the past few days. I went out to the barn one evening to find his right hind and right front blown up. This has put him out of commisssion for a couple of days, but he should be back to work as soon as the swelling goes down.

We are expecting Emmy (Hanoverian mare generously donated by Shirley Phipps) to be arrive sometime between Friday and Tuesday. We are all very excited about her arrival and pictures will be taken!

A Big Week Ahead

2009-06-15T10:21:00.000-04:00

Now that school is out, I think that the blog will be updated much more frequently! We've just returned from the second Young Rider Training Clinic at River Lawn Farm in Charlottesville. We had a fantastic weekend. We drove up Saturday for our dressage lesson with David O'Brien. I knew that I had been tedious about working on the exercises and techniques we had learned in our lesson in May, and I was really looking foward to another lesson. Once again, we did a lot of exercises that worked on getting Octavian to move bigger and be rounder. By the end, he was definitely moving bigger and felt great. I was feeling a bit unbalanced at the sitting trot, I think I was surprised by the big movement! One of my many homework tasks is to sit the trot without stirrups. I can sincerely say that this is the best that Octavian has ever felt and on top of it, I think that he's been a ton happier with his dressage work, he's been incredibly willing.

Later that day, the vet evaluations took place. I have to admit that I was nervous. I knew that Octavian was sound, but it was the same sort of anxious feeling I got before our jog at Morven in the fall - sort of a "what if" irrational fear. However, everything went very well, it was primarily a flexion test, but there was some poking and prodding. The vet, Dr. Susan Johns, said that Octavian was the soundest 18 year old she had ever seen and would have guessed that he was 6 instead. Part of it may have been that Octavian was extremely wound up beforehand and kept dragging me around, not to mention rearing in fear of the water truck!

Sunday morning we had a show jumping lesson, and once again, Octavian felt great. All of the mistakes were made by me, I am still working on breaking the habit of dropping my shoulders before the fence. We worked on lines, rhythm, and getting deeper spots.

Sometime during the next week, we should know whether or not we made the team. I am super anxious, but if we did not make the team, it has been an incredible learning experience - the clinics have been fantastic and it's been really nice to meet other young riders. I will post an update as soon as I know something! Did I mention that when I'm in the house I'm checking my e-mail about every half hour to see if there is any news?

I cannot forget to mention Vesuvian. Vesuvian has been an absolute pleasure to work with. We are still working on very basic things such as rhythm, bending, balance, straightness, trotting to the right (which is coming along nicely), but Vesuvian tries so hard and it is very rewarding for me as a rider. I think if we are lucky, he will be able to have a few outtings this fall at beginner novice. He's also looking much better. This month I put him on "FatCat", a supplement from SmartPak that should help him gain weight, as well as a daily dewormer and a coat supplement. I think that he is looking much better and pictures should be coming soon.

Until next time - which should be in a few days, happy riding to everyone!

2009-06-06T09:13:00.001-04:00

Unfortunately my goal of updating at least once a week fell through due to a lack of time. Which means that I have quite a bit of catching up to do.

I believe I left off with our first Young Rider training clinic approaching, which has now been a few weeks ago. We headed to River Lawn Farm for the 16th and 17th of May to work with the young rider coaches: David and Lauren O'Brien. I was a bit nervous about our dressage lesson, but it went extremely well. We worked with David O'Brien. We learned a few new concepts and over the last few weeks they have had a big impact. Due to rain on Sunday, we did gymnastics in the indoor. I felt that our jumping lesson went well also, we worked on adjusting Octavian's stride and stopping my shoulders from dropping before take off. At the end we did a corner to a verticle on an angled line. I felt like a learned a ton from the weekend!

Our plans changed again and we were able to head to Virginia, but not the CCI*, just the horse trial. I was really excited to find out that our dressage test would be in the Wiley Arena which is the arena in front of the big grand stand. Also right in front of all of those barns, the road, the cafe, beside the covered arena, etc. I enjoyed riding in the Wiley Arena, but there were so many distractions! Our warm up went super well and I felt our work the previous weekend kicking in. Octavian was midly distracted throughout the tests, but he tried to concentrate and didn't pull any tricks as he sometimes does. I felt that or half circles back to the track for counter-canter were rushed, and our downward transitions from counter-canter could have been more balanced, but I felt that our trot work was much better! I felt that there was improvement in the test, but I didn't think it would put us in the 30s due to some of our canter work. We ended up with a 40 which put us in 11th out of 22 after dressage.

Cross country that afternoon was a blast. We did not make it out of the start box on time, however. We were unable to trot around the box and there was limited room to keep moving. At '5' I took Octavian into the box and we almost left at '2', but thankfully didn't! Yet, when it was time to go, we went the wrong direction! I think Octavian was super charged up and just got a bit anxious. After about 5-10 seconds of wiggling around (anywhere but foward!) we made it out of the box. I felt that Octavian was a little sticky to the first few fences, but by the bounce bank at 5 I felt like we were back to normal. We took all of the straight routes and Octavian felt very enthusiastic, we really had no problems. We did end up with 14 time penalties, most of which we acquired from wasting time at the start. Happens!

I felt that I could have ridden stadium better, and my only excuse is that I was struggling with my helmet because it kept sliding back. Nevertheless, I should have given Octavian a better ride. We had two rails and a 2 time penalties, all of which was my fault. Which is pretty obvious since we usually show jump well! I think we ended up in 12th for the weekend, but we had a good outting.

Since then we've been doing our homework and looking forward to the next YR training clinic next weekend. Some of the YR canidates will be at Bromont doing the one star, and I'm hoping that maybe sometime after next weekend a decision will be made about who is going to be on the team.

On another note, we have our first sponsor: Black Dog Salvage Thank you so much!

More updates will (really) follow in the near future!

Jumping into Spring

2009-04-30T21:53:00.001-04:00

Firstly, I would like to apologize for the lack of updating. Especially because a ton has happened since my last entry.

Southern Pines went very well for us. However, dressage was a little rough. We warmed up fairly well, but had a tense test. Octavian was fabulous in stadium and jumped around double clear. Finally, we had a blast cross country and ended up with 15 time penalties. We probably could have sped up a bit, but because it was our first "official" time out at prelim since October (since Pine Top's cross country was canceled earlier in the month), I wanted to take it easy and get in a good round, which we did! I found that Octavian was exuberant the whole time! We brought home a nice, brown, 8th place ribbon, but more than that, we brought a good experience and some dressage homework...

Two weeks later we headed off to The Fork. The Fork (http://www.forkstables.com), has to be one of my favorite events. I love the atmosphere, scenery, and set up. I don't even mind the long walks. I managed to make one of my silly, irresponsible mistakes and memorize prelim test 'b' instead of 'a'. I will say that we were definitely ready to ride a nice prelim test 'b'. Unfortunately, we had not even ridden through test 'A' since August of 2008. Thankfully, we had the nicest dressage judge I have ever met and she allowed us to leave the arena, memorize the test, and come back in during the break. I would like to say a big thank you to a kind stranger who verbally took me through the correct test and even let me rehearse it back...I am very grateful! We headed back into ride the test, Octavian was good, I think he was maybe a bit burnt out at that point (we had warmed up for an hour and a half altogther, after having to leave and come back in, etc.), but this was the first test that he had been under the influence of Quiessence, and it seemed to help. I felt as if the test was a little bumpy, but it was better. I was fairly pleased with our score considering the circumstances. We ended up with a 41, but had to carry two error points because of my rider error when I memorized the wrong test, so we actually scored a 39. We are slowly making it back to the days of getting 37s and hopefully lower!

Cross country the next day was amazing. Octavian was very strong in the warm up, but went around the course beautifully. I was so excited at the end. We also had no time penalties. I don't want to jinx us, so knock on wood, but Octavian has felt the best he ever has this season and seems to be really enjoying his job more than ever. The next day in stadium we had a good day - we pulled the very last rail which was entirely my fault. It seemed to be a rather treacherous stadium course, because a lot of rails came down. At the end of the day, we ended up in 5th, but again, had a fabulous experience.

Due to unforseen circumstances, we've had to make a few changes in our spring schedule. We will no longer be going to Plantation or Virginia CCI*. However, we are headed out to the first Young Rider training camp at River Lawn Farm in two weeks, which is something to look forward to! Until then and after we will continue to work on our homework.

The new horse, Vesuvian, has settled in very nicely. He's very sweet and willing and seems to have a great brain. Right now we've been doing only work on the flat, but he has been going very nicely. He doesn't like to go to the right, but it makes sense as he only raced to the left! I know it's been over a month since I last promised pictures, but they will be coming soon!

I would also like to thank everyone who has been supportive. Specifically, I would like to thank Shirley Phipps. Shirley called last week, with the best gift that anyone could wish for - a 4yr.old Hanoverian filly known as Emmy! I don't know how to say thank you enough! We are extremely excited about this opportunity and will post back with updates on Emmy's progress! Thank you again, Shirley! I am looking forward to a long future with Emmy.

I would also like to say thank you to everyone who has donated for our Young Rider Fundraising. Thank you to: Julie Georges, Roberta Dascoli, Elizabeth Post, Shirley Phipps, Chris Taibbi, Debbie and Ben Bono and many, many others! Also, thank you to everyone at home for being so very supportive and tolerant of my constant planning!

Hopefully the next update will be soon despite the demands of this time of year. Thankfully, graduation day is merely a month and a litle under a week away. Happy spring!

It's Finally Warming Up

2009-03-18T21:57:00.000-04:00

After complaining about winter, cold weather, and rain for months, the realization has set in that the winter and cold weather parts should be over soon (maybe they already are?). Spring begins this weekend! Speaking of this weekend, we are headed off to Southern Pines II tomorrow. Octavian and I have been working very hard on our dressage. We rode through our test for the last time before Southern Pines. Thankfully, I ended thinking "Great. I feel good about this!", vs. "Hmm, I'm going to have to work for this in the ring this weekend...". The weather forecast looks great for this weekend and I would say "we" are very excited, and although I think Octavian would be, and will enjoy himself this weekend, I'm just going to say that I am extremely excited!

Two weeks ago we headed up to Berryville to look at an off the track thoroughbred, "Vesuvian". Last weekend, we went back to Berryville and picked him up. He is currently at the barn happily muching on his hay. Vesuvian is a 6 yr.old, 16hh liver chestnut thoroughbred gelding. I'm hoping that he will have a lot of potential. I don't feel that we know each other well yet, but he seems to have a great brain and always wants to please. He's got quite the personality, too! "Ian" has only been off of the track for two months, so is still has the mindset of a racehorse. He's been getting used to his new home for all of this week, and I'm hoping to start doing very light work with him this upcoming week. Pictures of Ian will be up soon!

...It's off to bed to wake up early and finish packing, cleaning, and preparing for Southern Pines!

5 weeks 'till Spring

2009-02-22T18:04:00.000-05:00

Octavian and I have been working very, very hard these past couple of months. Last weekend we headed off to Thomson, Georgia for our first event of the season at Pine Top Farm. Being our first time out since October, we went training. Octavian seemed thrilled to be at an event, which he expressed in great amounts during our dressage warm up! After an hour of warm up we had managed to settle down a bit. Our dressage test had a few kinks, I think that both Octavian and I were a bit tense when in the arena (seems to be an ongoing issue with us, most of it stems from me, so I have been doing a lot of mental preperation for this season), however, I felt more relaxed and clear headed than in previous tests. Thankfully our couple of hiccups were short lived, but I gave us the joy of an error for a late downward transition. When it was all said and done, we scored a 39.

Once again, Octavian was terribly excited before going stadium and was prancing in anticipation before we entered the arena. I felt that we had an okay round, it could have been a lot prettier, no rails or time, and our spots were decent, but Octavian was so excited that there was some extreme head tossing! I was a bit surprised because Octavian has not been nearly that enthusiastic while jumping at home!

When we went out of the start box, I was relieved to see perked ears and feel Octavian enthusiastically take off toward the first fence. All of the courses at Pine Top were beautiful, and it seemed that this particular training level course was perfect for us. There was a bank at three which consisted of up, one stride to a drop, and then a right hand turn to a skinny log. Other highlights included the "corner" at 13 and the up bank, right hand turn, 2-3 stirdes to a slightly skinny rolltop table type of thing. The last water was also great fun with a bank up, one stride over a alligator log and out. It seems that I was thinking that the time, since it was training, would be easier to make then it was. We ended up with 0.8 time penalties. Not a lot, but still a silly mistake!

The weekend was a lot of fun, and I immensely enjoyed being back at the scene of an event, it was a long winter! We also got to do some shopping since Octavian broke his halter (the poor halter was victim number...5 or so). We had a lot of selections so while I was deciding which halter to buy (takes longer when you have to consider how difficult it is to break and how much you want to pay for a halter that may be destroyed at any time!)Octavian toured the show grounds with a halter held together by bailing twine. Now Octavian's "bailing twine halter" is the one he gets to use at home and in the trailer!

This weekend we will be headed back to Pine Top for our first preliminary of the season. This past week we have been working extremely hard on our lengthenings and shoulder-ins. Infact, we suffered through our trot sets in the dressage saddle so that we could more effectively put in more work on shoulder-in. On the flat areas we shoulder-in and shoot for a trot lengthening up the hills! Or just make a few trips around the dressage arena and stick in some 10m circles as well. It seems that we are forever dressaging. But it's worth it for the benefits of improvement in the area of dressage, which it's true, it fixes everything!

First trot set down, 200 more to go?

2008-11-28T21:36:00.000-05:00

We have managed to work ourselves back into trot sets for this week. 2 x 10 to start off with, which is a big contrast from the 2 x 30s we were doing just before Morven! I think we both enjoyed our first trot set back, it was a nice change from the dressage arena.

Thankfully the clipping is finished. Octavian looks like a new horse, very much less scruffy and dull.

I will be planning ahead and scheduling out our work plans for the month of December.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Looking ahead with ears pricked...

2008-11-23T21:00:00.000-05:00

Although 2009 has not technically arrived yet, in all things regarding goals it is here. The Winter/Spring Omnibus for '09 arrived in the mail this week, providing the opportunity for endless planning. I can't help but wish that there was a fast foward button for November - February, allowing March to come right after October. I state this with hopes of making to Area III at least once during the coldest, most miserable months of the year (January and February).

The Thanksgiving holiday is approaching, and it seems to have come at a most convenient time...it's time to clip again. I can't say I'm excited, but I will manage to suffer through the experience.

Otherwise, Octavian and I are off to a good start on getting all of our homework done over the next couple of months. We came back into work a little rusty with dressage. At this point, we have managed to work out of it and hope to start back up on our dressage lessons with Gabriele Hooten in the next week or so. Today marks the first day of our jumping since our stadium course at Morven at the beginning of October. We were rather boring today and just worked over two crossrails, but not without overexuberance. Hopefully we will head to Plain Dealing Farm in January for our first lesson of the year with Molly.

The goal for this year is to do very well at preliminary and try for the Young Riders team, an experience that I am extremely excited about starting! Otherwise, the search for a young prospect is in place, and with a little luck, there may be a new addition soon, we hope!