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End of Season

11/9/2020

I’ve had a busy couple of weeks since the Maryland Horse Trials. I went back to Maryland the following weekend to help some students, but also to take Storm and see if I could qualify him for the YEH Championships that were taking place at Virginia. I kind of left it to the last minute because I wasn’t sure he was ready. Storm’s a really nice Thoroughbred but he’s quite immature physically. He’s built more like four-year-old than a five-year-old. But having him go to a bunch of horse shows this summer and fall, he actually really came into his own in the last month. My plan worked and he did get qualified. Storm was super, though I could have been have been in more in a cross-country rhythm and not show jumped my whole cross-country course… Whoopsie! Things to work on for the championships, right?

The following week we went to the Virginia Horse Center to do the the jumper show Thursday and Friday. I took Storm with me because I thought it would be good for him to be overnight again. He was great each day in the TAKE2 meter jumper class. He had a rail down in both jump offs but was super to ride. I also took Rem and Volcan. Volcan won the meter-25 on Thursday. Both horses did the Welcome Stake on Friday and both had a rail in the jump off; Volcan had two rails and Rem had one rail behind. I still got some money and was super pleased with them. I would have stayed for the Grand Prix on Sunday but had no time, and needed to get home and teach and ride the other horses.

Because Storm was qualified for the YEH, I went down to Virginia on Wednesday morning for the five-year-old championships. I was super proud of Storm—he had a nice dressage test, a nice confirmation score, and then on Thursday for the jumping it was raining and crazy wet. I was the last to go before they cancelled the jumping phases. Storm threw a shoe galloping in the warmup, but I went and jumped anyway. It was raining so hard and almost sideways, I could hardly see. It’s amazing how great that horse was and how he handled the whole situation, though. We won the T.I.P. Award from the Jockey Club, and also The American Bred Thoroughbred Award for the highest-scoring horse that's bred in the U.S. Storm ended 7th out of the 29 that were able to jump, the only American Thoroughbred in all the five-year-olds.

I taught a clinic in Colorado this past weekend, now headed back to Virginia to the horses, dogs and Tom.

Fall Training and Competitions

10/15/2020

Because of the way the season has gone, I’ve been doing more horse shows than eventing. I was fortunate to do the Piedmont Jumpers at the Upperville show grounds. I showed Gino and Storm in the young classes—Storm was reserve champion in the TAKE2 Thoroughbreds (https://www.take2tbreds.com) and Gino did the meter and meter-10s. They were both great. REM didn’t have best meter-20 but did the $10,000 Classic with just one rail down. Volcan was also good, a little amped though, so I spent my time going back and forth through the levels between meter-10 and 20.

I did the finals on Sunday with Storm and then Monday, Laila and I went down to Tryon to jump on Wednesday through Friday. It was nice to have a little road trip because haven’t traveled much this year. Tryon was super educational for all the horses and for me. I took all four again—Storm did the TAKE2 Thoroughbreds each day, never had a rail and was super in the jump-offs and in his turning. Gino was a little gob-smacked in the international ring, or maybe I was! He went back and forth between meter and m-10. in his last class on Friday, Gino was 4th in a big meter-10 class. I started with meter-10 and m-15 with Volcan and finished the last two days meter-20. While he had a few mistakes at the beginning, both final trips were super. Rem was great, too—4th in meter-20, and in the meter-20 speed class she was third. On the third day, Rem had two down in the stakes class, I think she just stood too long at the gate before going. Live and learn. It’s amazing how much education I got and the horses got in those two weeks. It wasn’t always an easy education, but very helpful at the end of the day.

It was super watching Doug Payne do his horse Quincy (Quintessence) in the bigger classes at Tryon, and I got to visit with him and his wife, Jessica. I was also super fortunate to get help from Katie and Henri Prudent and their assistant, Paula Randall. I stayed with Penny and Don Nault, who live right on the cross-country course. It was like staying at 5-star hotel—beautiful house and company. Between Don’s ribs and Penny’s dinners, it was delicious and amazing!

We got home on Saturday morning at around 2:00 AM and then had a pretty low-key weekend getting the horses at home back going again. On Wednesday, we went cross-country schooling at Stephen Bradley’s so I could get Storm and Gino ready for the Maryland Horse Trials. Gino ended 2nd and Storm was 3rd in their Training divisions. Unfortunately, Storm didn’t have the most beautiful test because he was a little disconnected at the canter, but he didn’t put a foot wrong and ended on his dressage score. It’s been super fun to develop these two horses this year, to see how far they’ve come and how much jumper shows educate your horses. It’s also fun to put the pressure on yourself and be competitive in every class you go to.

Gino on left, Storm on right. Photos by Janet Gallay.

Eventing and Horse Showing

9/21/2020

It’s so nice that the weather has started to change, fall is my favorite time of year. Knowing that winter is looming makes me a little sad, but I love the changing temperatures and turning leaves. Fall makes me appreciate what I do every day because I get to be outside hacking and training and enjoying nature. I’m lucky!

The horses have been good and fun to work with, and I’ve continued to horse show. I’m changing the way I do things with my young horses because I’ve found doing two weeks of horse shows educates the horses, and myself, more than one horse trials. It’s not that I didn’t know this, but sometimes I think we forget how things influence horses and our riding until we revisit different training methods and disciplines. Horse shows provide multiple classes per day for multiple days. I’ve found the young horses realize a show is just another day and not something to get excited about. Also, shows give them great tools without much risk of them getting hurt.

I also got to take my young horses to two horse trials. At Seneca, Gino (Jinshallah) and Storm (Beautiful Storm) did Novice and Training and were super. I was going to do Lilly (Helloway) in the Preliminary—she’s been doing the hunters as well schooling cross-country—but her fitness wasn’t quite where it needed to be to be fair to her, so I decided to just do the Training. Lilly’s quick because you don’t have to set her up and she ended second, tied for first.

Thanks to Janet Gallay for the photos!

Lilly

Gino

Storm

The next weekend I went to CDCTA with Storm and Gino. Gino was a little bit of a home boy going by the trailers parked along fences two through five, he wanted to go back to his trailer! Otherwise he was great, though I never trotted in my lengthening in dressage. Storm moved up to Training and gave me everything he could. His score showed he had a rail (I disagreed), and I even provided a video of our round, though you couldn’t really see the jump in question. It’s not the easiest warm-up there because it’s so small, but Storm handled the new level easily. I decided not to do Lilly at CDCTA because she was doing the Middleburg Classic in the hunters. It’s nice to have horse that’s so versatile.

I’m spending last week and this with Volcan, Rem, Storm and Gino in Upperville at the Piedmont Horse Show and then at Tryon. Hopefully, I’ll finish the year at the Maryland Horse Trials.

Things on the farm are great, and I’m so lucky to have Tom making sure everything is mowed and beautiful and of course to have Kelsey and Marlene being the great team they are in the barn.

A Different Spring and Summer

8/12/2020

It’s such an interesting time in our lives with COVID. I feel like I’ve lost track of things—time, the days—everything seems to blend together and maybe that’s why I haven’t done an update in so long. With that being said, it’s also been a super nice time personally. Though I wasn’t able to teach for a while, I just rode all my horse and really worked on the basics. It’s amazing how, when you have the time, it’s easy it is to actually make your horses better and a little more true in the way they go.

I was able to get some help from Katie and Henri Prudent starting the first of May. I also took some cross-country clinics with Phillip, who had really good exercises for my horses. Basically, we worked on serpentine lines and angles, focusing on riding inside leg to outside rein to make the distance work. Funny enough, I had some days with Katie working on the same idea but she had me ride one-handed on flat, inside leg to outside, shoulder in then out, haunches in then out in the trot and canter, both directions. What a great exercise to remind me to ride off my leg and not my hand. The one-handed exercise really allows you to put the bit in the corners of the horse’s mouth and ride from the leg through the hands to corners of the mouth so horse comes over their back, up in the shoulders and down to the bit.

I got to put into practice what I’d learned for first time showing at Culpepper for two weeks in July. Rem, Gino and Storm had been practicing being able to canter into that balance I's been working on, and I even got to win the meter-20 class on Rem. That set me up for the second Maryland Horse Trials with Gino and Storm in Novice. They were both great! Gino was second, and Storm was awesome but unfortunately I never showed him fourth jump off a turn and missed it. Always remember to show your horse the jumps! I’m hoping we’ll show this week at Culpepper and event again in September.

Back in June we did run our horse trials. It was a bit different than normal but ended up to be a nice thing to do for Area 2 and all the competitors got in and out safely. Trav and Graham Schick and Tom made sure all the courses were set and tracks and fields mowed, and Christy made sure everything was organized. It was a bit quiet because normally we’re a family-run show but my parents stayed home and so the feeling was a little different. They love to see everyone, cook dinner and help out and it just wasn’t the same without them. Because of all the rules and regulations necessary due to COVID, we had to be super careful running the horse trials but we’re so lucky in a lot of ways because we’re pretty isolated here at Surefire. Make sure you’re careful because the pandemic’s a real thing!

Storm and Gino at Maryland, Janet Gallay photos

Ocala!

2/3/2020

Happy New Year (a little late)! I had a great holiday in Colorado with my family and Tom—it’s always nice to do something different than my normal routine. I love being with my family and love skiing and got to combine both of those once again this year. I always try to get away long enough that I’m ready to go back to work at the end. That’s important to me, so I feel like I’m recharged and ready to go resume my real life. This year, I got home on January third and the next day Tom and I drove with the horses down to Ocala and Marnick Farm, home of the Merle-Smith’s. I was ready to do something different and I’ve been lucky enough that Barton and Susan invited me to come this year. I brought six horses down and two horses met me in Ocala to train for month of January, a nice number for myself and Gabbi Rogers, who came with me to help and ride.

Once I got settled into the amazing farm, the first thing I did was a cross-country clinic with Joseph Murphy on Kaylin Dines’ horse Unbridled Numbers, known as Steely in the barn. Going to the clinic so quickly actually made me put a little pressure on myself to get back into gear with my horses. It was quite fun because Joseph’s approach to cross-country is a lot like my own—allow the horse to balance on the jump, and hold the line at a pace that’s appropriate for them. Then, the exercises make sense to the horse and you can build in difficulty as the horse is able to have more pace and still answer the question. The clinic was at Horsepower, a super facility because there are so many different exercises for the horses and riders. It was not for the faint of heart but in Joseph’s words, "It’s good to make yourself a little bit uncomfortable, that’s how you get better." My philosophy for 2020 is to try, within reason, make myself a little bit uncomfortable in order to get better.

With that in mind, I went to Rocking Horse I with one horse and put my new tools I’d worked on into practice and I was lucky enough to win on Kaylin’s beautiful Steely. I would have to say it was a great win for Surefire Eventing but also for Marnick Farm, because everyone pitched in to make sure everything got done that day. As we know, it takes a village!

Changing It Up

12/18/2019

Sometimes winter is a bit of a funny time of year—we run out of daylight, the weather is cold and dreary, and I often get bored. But it’s also a really good time for me to focus on riding basics like my horses' rideability, my position and making sure I take the time to experiment and add new details to my knowledge. I often pick different people to ride with on the flat or to the jumps in order to expand my knowledge and freshen up my own teaching. I normally ride dressage with Sally Spenard, but she’s gone south for winter, so one of those new people is Britta Johnston, German trained and local to me in Amissville, Va. at Mountain Vista Farm. There are a couple bonuses to riding with someone who does pure dressage: Britta has an indoor with mirrors, which are a huge help, and I’ve also had the opportunity to ride her grand prix horse and learned to piaffe. It’s been super fun to learn to operate a highly trained horse and to get better with my position and seat.

I’ve also been going to my good friend Lynn Symansky, to use her indoor and be able to bounce ideas and ways of thinking off her about my horses on the flat and to the jumps. It’s great to be able to share ideas about horses. I always forget how hard it is to ride inside though! The indoor certainly points out that you really have to be on your game and ride every stride, though it’s also really nice to have four walls and mirrors. It can be hard when you ride by yourself all the time to have a feel for what things really look like.

I’m going to be going to Ocala this winter starting in the beginning of January, and will periodically travel to Wellington and also back to Virginia some to help with horses I leave home and to see Tom. Stay warm, happy holidays, and I’ll let you know how things are going in the new year!

Fall Competing and Spectating

11/19/2019

I just finished my eventing season and as horses go in general, it’s been up and down. Some competitions have been great, but I’ve also been a little bit unlucky. Morven Park was quite good with little Helloway, but I misjudged my time, and then I had a super ride cross-country on Steely until he made a little mistake and was punished because of the design of the jump. He hit with his right front and twisted behind, and that made him hit his left hind on the upright post, which wasn’t forgiving. I was quite lucky I didn’t have to ride for a week after that, because I hit the ground so hard I slammed my hip and tailbone at same time! I was so sore!

Taken at the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam when Tom and I traveled to Boekelo.

The reason didn’t ride was because I went to Boekelo as a selector. The trip was super fun and it was really great to be around our Nations Cup team. I thought all four riders—Jenny, Liz, Tami, and alternate Matt Flynn—and their whole team were really well orchestrated, from the leadership of Eric and Jenni, to team moral, and of course veterinary support from Dr. Johns. Plus, the other thing that was really fun was that there were over 50 Americans that came to watch—owners, friends and supporters.

The dressage is always fun to watch at Boekelo because what is good, is really good. The cross-country had a new course designer, Adrian Ditcham, that I thought opened up the course in a good way. It’s always interesting to watch how great our sport is when done well, and certainly watching the German team illustrated that. They were great in dressage, fast and clean cross-country and had a fantastic show jumping. That is certainly what you have to do if you want to be the best, right?

Having been super inspired from watching Boekelo and Fair Hill, I got to the Virginia Horse Trials for my season finale with my 2-star horses in the CCI2-L. My dressage was really good on Steely, he was all class. Lilly was fussier than normal, suffering a little all weekend with hives, and didn’t quite seem herself. That became more apparent on Saturday, when on cross-country we galloped up the mountain for over two minutes, and then had a couple more minute pulls, and she just ran out of steam. She never lost her jumping style, just got going slower and slower. They did give me a 20 when I pulled up, though I feel I was clearly retiring, but she’ll be fit to go another day. Steely, on the other hand, was full of run—it was the easiest thing he’s done. He was clear in the show jumping to finish third, and was reserve U.S. Equestrian USEF CCI 2-star Long National Championship Reserve Champion (that’s a mouthful!). I did not have the easiest season with him between lost shoes, an abcess, and falls. He’s a super Thoroughbred, and I’m so happy for for Katlyn, who bought him from me after I started him as a three-year-old and now he’s nine.

It’s nice to be done for the season but the other part of me can’t wait for next season to get going again. I’m focusing on no stirrups this month, strengthening my position, and making the horses correct, rideable and better.

Summer Competitions and Burghley

10/9/2019

I can’t believe its been so long since I checked in—time is getting faster or I’m having more trouble organizing as get older! I ran Kaylin Dines' Steely (Unbridled Numbers) and my Lilly (Helloway) at Great Meadow, where the organizers did a great job, with mixed results. My dressage was good, but I had no rhythm with Lilly in show jumping and had two rails. Steely’s show jumping was good, though I did have rail with a hind leg because he was cross-cantering. On cross-country Lilly was very good and got better and better as we went; she’s pretty quick. Unfortunately, Steely threw a shoe galloping between three and four and another between six and seven, so I pulled up, not being worth running and making him sore. It was a big bummer as both horses were completely prepared from Fair Hill. Sometimes that’s how things go! Lately, it seems things have been going not quite right more than they go well. I have to remember that if I’m not winning, I’m learning, but someone must think I have a lot to learn!

I was lucky to get to go to Burghley with my Mom. It’s aways so inspiring to watch the best riders and see the top level of our sport. I thought the course was massive and I wouldn’t have wanted to jump around with a horse that didn’t have some real scope. The ones that did it well made it look easy. Eventing riding has evolved in technique and style, and I’m kind of in awe of it. It’s really difficult but something to inspire and aspire to! I would say, not that I didn’t know before, you have to ride to find it, you can’t wait to see your jump. You have to be in good balance, from leg to hand, especially when jumping massive jumps. No one got hurt, but there were so many rides that triggered pins because of the balance and technique people were using.

Another thing that struck me at Burghley was the completely different styles of the most successful riders. When you watch Tim Price jump around compared to Gemma, both are completely effective but have completely different techniques, both correct. I loved watching Dom Schram and marveled at how smooth his round looked—short reins, two point, just change the balance a little. He did beautiful job at Burghley, but was just a little slow.

I had a funny week at Burghley because I hurt my finger quite badly (closed it in the door heading out to the airport) and it was fairly painful the whole time I was there. I still competed at CVCTA when I got home but I’m not sure how I did it with my compromised finger. I was really pleased with Lilly, Steely and Storm, and Kaylin was third in her first Preliminary in a long time with Why Not. I had a silly rider moment on Lilly when we trotted off the bank into the water and just kept trotting to the chevron, where I forgot to tell her she should jump! I circled round and she jumped it easily and I continued on. Steely ended up 4th and Storm was amazing and tied for first, though because we were three seconds faster, we ended up 2nd.

Surefire Horse Trials, Summer Training, and Some New Horses

8/6/2019

I’m so sorry I haven’t kept this current, seems like it’s always hard to find a balance in life! We were flat out trying to get everything ready for our Surefire Horse Trials and that went off without a hitch. Thanks to all the people—family and friends—that do everything to help us out. Mother nature cooperated this year, and I think we had the best weather ever. I was sad not to have more entries, and although some thought the Essex Horse Trials wouldn’t affect us, obviously they have. Drawing from the same people in Area 2, I can see why if you’re in Pennsylvania, you would drive one-and-a-half hours for prize money instead of three plus hours to an event that’s a one-day. Essex looks like amazing event and I hope to compete there at some point, I just wish it wasn’t on the same weekend as our horse trials. All in all, though, I was super pleased with all our courses, and our footing was amazing. We’re certainly looking forward to our fall event on September 28-29 and hope weather gods are on our side once again.

We haven’t been competing a ton but have been out more than in the spring. We’re busy getting the horses ramped up or back in work, and mostly have fall goals for them. My focus right now is Fair Hill and Great Meadow in August with Helloway, a new horse of mine that we call Lilly, and Kaylin Dines’ Unbridled Numbers (Steely). I did have a horse entered at the 2-star at Maryland but he blew an abscess the day of the jog—sometimes that’s how life rolls.

I've also been working on my dressage and I got another score for my silver medal this past weekend with Kaylin Dines' horse Why Not, and some great practice with Kayln's other horse, Steely, and my mare, Lilly. The weekend before that I competed Lilly and my nice four-year-old Thoroughbred, Beautiful Storm (Storm) at Hunt Club with mixed success. I went off course for the first time in my life, after I had won the dressage! My moral of this story, and what I told my students, is: don’t let anyone rush you, do your pregame check. I always go over the course in my head before I go in—the colors of the jumps and everything–and I didn’t do that.

Day to day, I’ve been working on ridability in show jumping and also on my posture, as I’m always trying to form good habits. For instance, every time I pick up canter I bring my head up, collect in the corner and then go forward, thinking about my posture and my leg. I make sure I can go forward, then collected, and then forward again. I try and continually vary my exercises, putting poles on the ground or cavaletti in two and three strides and then three and two, and then doing a lot of the same exercises cross-country. I put jumps on blind turns, because after watching Aachen, I want my horses to have the ability to be able to understand what they have to jump within two-and-a-half strides, basically a blind turn. I set up jumps where we have parking for our event, which we aerate and drag after, because I can have all the jumps in one place and I can practice varying the courses. Philip always says let the jump be the bit, and the more focus your horse has the better the ride will be, and I keep that in mind when I practice.

My last bit of news is I got a new lurcher puppy! Her name is Ellie May and she’s 11 weeks old and so cute!

Kentucky and Badminton

5/29/2019

I haven’t been competing much because my horses have been hurt and are all rehabbing. I have plans to compete later this summer and hopefully do Volcan in the four-star at Fair Hill or Ocala, and Kortina in the 2-star at Virginia.

Meanwhile, no rest for the wicked. I’ve been able to travel as a selector and went to Kentucky and then to Badminton. I have to say, going to Badminton and watching was truly inspiring. The first day I contacted Leslie Law so we could watch Woodge Fulton prepare and have a lesson with German trainer Dirk Schrade. I was so impressed with Woodge’s improvement in her dressage (although you didn’t realize how much more understanding she has from her result), and how far she’s come. I was also completely impressed by Dirk’s passion and enthusiasm as a coach. In all the things we know as riders, one of the most important is to be able to ride our horses completely through in the connection, slow down make to them bigger, and then make them smaller—it’s all about the horse being on your aids. Dirk was so smart about how to make Woodge work with her horse, even though he’s a quite a tight Thoroughbred. Dirk had Woodge always putting the pressure on and then releasing without losing the connection, so she could get the results and relaxation.

The dressage tests on Friday were truly great to see. The precision of some of the best tests was mind-boggling and a reminder of how great and competitive this sport is. Watching Kentucky, I was surprised at how many missed the flying changes, and how few missed changes at Badminton in the tests I saw (which was not all of them). As a rider, I know how hard it is to actually ride a clean test! I’m not sure if they practice more, or there were just more competitors, so the odds of seeing the clean changes were higher. I’m not trying to be critical, just making an observation. The quality of horses was mind-boggling, and even Piggy French’s little mare that won; she wasn’t as physically impressive but so correct.

Leslie and I walking the course with Jenny Caras. The first photo shows the Shogun log option.

Cross-country day was a great day for our sport. I thought the track asked difficult questions of the horses and riders—it kept coming and riders had to react to what they felt, not what they thought was going to happen. An influential example was the combination at 10 A/B, the Shogun Sport Hollow, where the riders had to first go through a pergoda that funneled you straight to the ditch—down an incline, over the ditch, and then back up an incline to the choice of a skinny log on the right or the left that walked in two strides. You had no idea how your horse would jump the ditch; we watched a lot of rides here, and no two rides were the same. It was a great lesson in riding what you felt, not what you walked or thought you should ride. The riders that were successful had a strong position, and didn’t give up until they landed from the log. There were people that seemed to give up and their horses didn’t understand to leave the ground.

I think overall my favorite ride of the day had to be Piggy French, she and her mare were so together. They started great and got better and better and were just so in synch. Having watched Piggy at Kentucky with a great result but a much different ride—she had to fight all the way around and it was not smooth—I saw almost the other extreme at Badminton. Sometimes it’s seamless, and sometimes it’s just about getting it done and fighting for it, and not how you look.

Finally, show jumping day. There was some great riding! Sometimes in America, people don’t like to ride on the grass, but at Badminton, Burghley, and Blenheim there’s grass footing and Sunday’s course was quite technical with a lot of related lines. I was inspired watching the quality of horses and riding. Was it everyone’s day? No. But everyone seemed to take it in stride. It always makes me marvel being overseas because horses are such a way of of life. In the U.S., horses are perceived as a luxury. Even if people in Britain don’t ride, they take their dogs and spend the day watching sport. That is inspiring. Also, you can’t help but be jealous if you’re British and Badminton is in your back yard and it’s your first 5-star.

Back here in the States, our Surefire Horse Trials prep is in full swing. We’re really looking forward to this year, so don’t forget to get you entries in!