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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!

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Kentucky and Badminton

5/29/2019

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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!

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Early Spring

4/21/2019

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A lot has happened since I last wrote!

After spending the winter in Wellington, I stopped in Aiken on my way home. I’ve so enjoyed being there over the years and at some point would like to have a barn there in the winter again. I was lucky enough to have my horses at Kevin Keane’s barn and he’s always gracious. I stayed with Jane and Carl Hampf, which was so convenient. It was great to be right next to Holland Eventing; they’ve done such a nice job with that property in the year they’ve owned it, adding cross-country, a dressage ring with good footing and mirrors, and show jumping. You can come and school in any of them at any point. It was super fun to be able to school cross-country with Phillip there—I forget sometimes how much I enjoy cross-country. I was so proud of Kortina because although she was a little green into the water, she was actually quite brave and jumped super. I was just just excited for the season!

I also had flat lesson with Phillip and that was very helpful. He reminded me about getting Kortina really through to the bridle and continuing to keep that thoroughness whether changing pace within the gait or going from gait to gait. Also, it’s always so helpful to have mirrors when you ride because you can see what you’re feeling and I think it’s the best way to train yourself.

I was also fortunate enough to teach some of my students and do a mini clinic for Jessica Halliday and her students while I was in Aiken (you can read about it here: https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/create-a-more-rideable-horse-with-jan-byyny). And, I found some time to go over and watch Ian stark at Stable View’s new cross-county schooling field, where he was helping all the listed riders. It was fun because I’ve never seen him teach cross-country before and found he has a lot of the same philosophies as myself. One of the biggest things was that he had people slow it down and trot some of the skinnies, especially green horses or if the horse was a bit strong. The other notable thing he stressed was making sure you keep your hands at the same level as the horse’s head to keep your horse in control and allow their shoulder to come up. This is George Morris 101: If the horse’s head comes up, you pick up your hands to keep from pulling down at the bars of the mouth. Another notable thing Ian worked on is allowing the horses to do a little of the work themselves, especially the greener horses. Allow them to be in a rhythm and balanced, and let the horse use the fence to figure out where their body is and how to jump. Every horse got better. There were two greener horses, new to the 2-star level, and they started to make a better shape when the riders weren’t trying to place them perfectly. Both horses became more relaxed in their canter, and started to pick up on the jumps themselves.

After Aiken, I went home to Virginia but pretty quickly headed back down to watch Carolina as a selector. Carolina International was great to attend. One thing I would say is that the team behind that event is amazing and try every year to make it better. I think Ian Stark got the courses right, with great flow and great questions. While some thought the courses were softened from the last couple of years, I though they had better flow and felt Ian did a great job on all levels. It seemed to me that a lot of the listed riders were certainly getting their A game on. I also thought the concept of the mixed level team competition between Erik and Leslie was such a great experience for the younger riders, and a great asset for developing teams down the road.

My own competition plan was to run my and Anita Antenucci’s mare Kortina in the Training at Morven and then step up to Preliminary at CDCTA. She was great in the Training, super fun to do, and she won. I want to give a huge shout-out to Emma Wick and In Flight and Out of Sight for winning their first event of the year, too. Go Team Surefire!

The next weekend I ran Preliminary with Kortina, who was good in the dressage and show jumping. I didn’t run for time cross-country because it was quite slick, and although she jumped great, she slipped and took a bad step at the end of course and has to have a month-and-half off.

I also had the the pleasure of riding Kaylin Dine’s horses Why Not and Unbridled Numbers in the Training at CDCTA and they both won their divisions. Those two horses are so nice and such a pleasure to ride. She got both from me and now they’re broke to death—both are good jumpers, good dressage horses, and easy—no fuss no muss.

Trav Schick has been here at Surefire all week setting the courses for our Surefire Horse Trials in June, and we mowed the lawn for first time, so spring is here and I love it!

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Wellington

3/18/2019

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I feel like I‘m a world traveler. I had two horses of Anita Antenucci’s, Kortina and Dreaming of Repent (Jolie), in Wellington, Florida at Katie and Henri Prudent’s Plain Farm Bay Farm for the last couple of months. I taught a couple of Katie’s students on the flat and sometimes I rode some of their horses for them so they can watch them go, and also flatted some of Katie and Henri’s horses. I helped Abigail McArdle a little with her horse Fanta Light B, and a bit ago she won the under-25 on the derby field. It was fun to see their improvement and hopefully I gave her some ideas to think about and some different exercises she can use.

I also rode one of Adam Prudent’s horses on the flat, who was a little stiff and down in his shoulders, and offered what I felt might help. I rode Olivia Chowdry’s horse, Chuck Berry, some, and he won the meter-40 on the derby field. on. I think it was nice for Katie to have someone say the same things she did but in a different way, and to look at horse and rider problems from a different perspective and offer some other solutions.

I got to to jump a couple of horses other than mine, and even jumped a meter-35. Jolie stepped up to the meter-1 class; she’s only been off the track for year-and-a-half, and got some money in the Thoroughbred classes, so I was thrilled with her. Kortina did one week of the meter-1, then moved up to the meter-10 and then meter-15. I rode in a ton of different rings, and you just can’t beat it as an education.

I would spend three and one-half days a week in Florida, and the other days I was home in Virginia teaching and riding and also teaching at Morningside. I alternated that with teaching in Aiken or in Alabama. A couple weeks ago I was in all four states—Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida in one weekend! You do whatever you can to make it work. I so appreciated my ability to get more education myself, and being in Wellington with amazing weather and seeing the best of the best horses and riders, whether on the flat or to the jumps, was an invaluable education.

My riding take-away from my winter of training is that the beautiful feeling I create on the flat has to also be created to the jumps, and I need to ride every stride to create the perfect jump. Riding is hard. Sometimes you forget to have that feel when you jump, and to have it all the way around the course. At Katie and Henri’s, they have so many good riders on the farm you’re surrounded by excellence, and that helped my riding so much.

Meanwhile it snowed a lot in Virginia! Lila rode the horses that were at home around the aisle inside the barn when the weather was bad, and she also took them to Brita Johnstone’s and has dressage lessons. Silvio also came and rode some of the horses, and helped Lila, too.

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Skiing and Riding

1/15/2019

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Jan and Richard

Happy New Year! I love this time of year because I’ve just been with my family, skiing and visiting with my nieces and nephews, and celebrating my Dad’s 80th with the whole family. They always inspire me in conversations about their lives and and jobs. Everyone in my family is a teacher of some sort—three generations--and spending time with them makes me a better teacher.

This year in particular, Tom and I skied a lot with my brother, Richard, who often doesn’t have the time off because he’s an emergency room physician and trauma doctor who has to cover shifts during the holidays. He also teaches residents at the hospital, plus was a ski instructor for five years before going to medical school, so he’s actually an amazing teacher and Tom and I benefitted from his wealth of knowledge. It was actually quite funny because the first day Richard was helping me, he said, “Jan, you look like you’re riding dressage going down the mountain. You need a more athletic jumping stance, and you need to blend your aids and incorporate the steps we’ve been going over: hips down the hill, turn your skis and bend your knees, make sure you go with your skis, and don’t be so rigid! Feel like you’re on a horse cantering a bank—up, one stride, jump off—let yourself go and adapt to the motion of the horse and use your ability to let your body go with the motion. Blend your aids so you look like it all works together." The result was the best skiing I’ve ever had, whether dropping in on double black or cruising on a blue. After that, I was inspired to add that philosophy and feeling of blending my aids in my riding and teaching, and I couldn’t wait to get home.

Sidebar: My brother rode horses until he was twelve, but he hasn’t ridden much since, so it’s amazing he came up with a way to help by relating my skiing to my riding. I’m inspired to be a better teacher and rider and am on my way to Wellington for a while. I’m going to ride some for Katie and Henri Prudent and ride dressage with Sallie Spenard. I’ll be showing during the week at WEF and Global with two of Anita Antucci’s young horses and Sunday through Tuesday will continue to head home to Virginia or to teaching clinics in Alabama and Aiken.

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Fair Hill

10/31/2018

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I’m so happy to have done Fair Hill and so proud of our whole team and my horse, Volcan. I hadn’t done Fair Hill since 2013, the year I won. When you haven’t had an upper level horse for a while you can kind of forget what it’s like to be somewhere like Fair Hill. During our drive home and the Monday after, I realized: I had a blast! The more I do at the level, the more horses I want at the level—I can’t get enough! We’re making up some great horses at Surefire, but I’d like to have five at the upper levels right now. That was my gut feeling after Fair Hill.

My week at Fair Hill was great, especially since my parents came. The Surefire Team—Kelly Wick and her daughter Emma, Lila Brown, Katlyn Dines, and Marlene Lyons all came to support, too, so it was nice to have the whole crew there, especially on Saturday. During my ride the day before my dressage test, with David helping me, Volcan was probably the best he’s been. He helped me again to warm up before my test, and Volcan was so good. He's is getting better all the time. He was such an unbroken six-year-old when I got him, he was like riding a three-year-old. Then he grew almost three inches, which didn’t help with his strength or ability to keep on his feet. He’s always had a great attitude but it’s been a long road to get where we are because until now, he hasn’t had to figure out his jumping style because he’s so big and so scopey. He’s finally figuring out how to conform his body, that’s been his hardest thing. He’s wicked brave and really careful and is finally sorting things out, now that we're at the two-star level. His whole body and way of going has been work in progress. He also suffers a little from nerves in the ring, at the beginning of each phase. Volcan gets anxious about doing the right thing, that’s his personality to a “T”— on the outside he doesn’t seem too sensitive, but inside he doesn’t want to do anything wrong. So I had some baubles in the dressage test, but overall I was happy with him.

On cross-country, there was plenty to do. I ran the CIC 2-star at Fair Hill in the spring and knew how awkward the waters can ride. I had great warmup with Phillip but when I started out of the box, Volcan went but wasn’t really thinking about jumping, so the first four jumps were completely awkward. The first water had a brush in and a cabin out. I saw a good distance to the water but he didn’t jump well and landed on all four feet, giving us an awkward turn to the out. He didn’t give me the best feeling to start! 5 A/B was a rail to a corner that was set a bit against the camber, and it turned out that putting Volcan together for that was the best thing for him because he finally got feet and brain organized. He is one of those horses that needs to think a little more about the jumps in the first part of a course because he gets anxious and just goes. That will be my work in progress for next year—how to travel at speed and keep him relaxed and focused. Isn’t that always the art?

From that point on, other than ditch and brush and the brush before third water, Volcan was amazing, though I also need to work on being able to travel straight to a jump and straight away. He doesn’t hold a line correctly and often goes sideways, which wastes time. He’ll have plenty of gallop to make time; he had plenty of gallop left at the end and didn’t lose form. Fair Hill is such a fitness test and you’re never quite sure what you’re going to have. I had opted not to do a CCI2-star in May because I had wanted to work on Volcan’s style and ride-ability. I spent the summer and fall doing weekly nine-minute gallops with him while practicing over smaller-cross country jumps, to work on fitness and technique.

Unfortunately, Volcan had lost a shoe on the Monday before Fair Hill and I think that played a bit of a part at the first jog and a little more at the second. We had pore-in pads put in for Sunday, to try and make him more comfortable. By the time I went to jog he was terrible and was held. He was only sore on that one foot. I asked Dr. Johns if we should pull out the packing and when we did, it made him comfortable enough to jog out.

I couldn’t have been more proud of Volcan in the show jumping. Sue Lyman came to help and support me; we’ve been friends for 20 years and she’s the reason I started to ride with Katie and Henri Prudent. In the warm-up, Sue put a landing pole after the vertical for my last two jumps and that really seemed to help Volcan in the ring. Other than the first jump—when he didn’t quite pick up on the jump and got there with a gap—and the last jump, the rest was probably the best he’s been. The horse really came into himself, got better about every phase and really grew up through the weekend. It’s so nice when that happens!

Jan and Kelly Wick, waiting for results.

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Keeping It Local

10/18/2018

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We’ve have had such a funny year, especially summer and fall. I think Virginia has never seen so much rain! I ran one horse trials at Maryland in July and the ground was hard as a rock, and everything else has been soaking wet or cancelled because of rain. We did go to Loudoun at the end of August the footing was unheard of good, though, and it was so fun with Kortina, Jolie and Volcan.

I decided to keep quite local this year, so next thing on the docket was going to be Seneca. I did run Volcan, who was good in spite of the rain and deep footing, and then went to walk the next day’s move-up courses with Emma and by the third jump we decided there was no way were going to our horses. It was literally standing water on top of the ground and they called the event an hour and half later.

So we came home and decided to enter Marlboro with all the babies and the girls at the barn because they were accepting entries. I ran Volcan in the preliminary so he could have a not overwhelming experience and I could work on his ridability and on myself. Kortina moved up to training and won and Volcan won as well. It was a great day for everyone competing at Surefire; everyone was in the top 10! The only bummer was Jolie had shifted her shoe and was dead lame so she couldn’t compete and move up to Novice.

Then we went to Morven and had great weather. Jolie was still recovering, but I was able to run Kortina and Volcan. Kortina was great but it was the training Olympics and she had two green rails in show jumping. She handled the cross-country course like a champ, though maybe not the with the most confidence because it was such a huge ask. Volcan had a nice dressage test, an unlucky rail down behind in the triple in show jumping and was a bit of a madman in the cross-country but finished third in the 2-star.

Up next was Loch Moy with Kortina in training and Jolie in the novice and now Volcan is in the 2-star at Fair Hill. My parents are here, which is great—this is always one of our favorite events.

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Maryland Horse Trials I & II

8/1/2018

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I gave Volcan a little bit of down time after Jersey and did some jumpers and a combined test at Morningside, just to practice the finer points of competing and to work on his ridability. I entered the babies in both Maryland Horse Trials and the girls were all great. The first weekend had Nora (Dashwood) back out competing and she won! I was so proud of her, she did a beautiful job. She won from the dressage on—she put everything together and was so fun. Congratulations to Joni Jones for buying her; Nora has now arrived in Utah at Lynnleigh Farm.

I also had two of Anita Antenucci's mares—Kortina, out for the first time this year, and her new mare, Joli (Dreaming of Repent), who was a little tight in the dressage but handled the whole event thing great considering it was the first time she ever went to a show. We call Jolie baby genius because she figures things out so quickly!

The second week I had Volcan in the 2-star and Kortina in the Novice again. Kortina was third only because I misread the test and got two low marks on my canter departs. SHE was awesome! Volcan was probably not through his back enough on the flat, he needs more connection to score better, but I was very proud of him in the show jumping. The cross-country was hard for him for two reasons: 1. the footing was quite firm, although I know the organizers tried their hardest to do a great job with it, and 2. there were so many downhill jumps or jumps off of drops that even though Volcan jumped around, I think it was a hard course for him and he started to feel it in his feet and his body. He got better and better at the end, and I had to ride better. I’ve decided that I’m not going to take Volcan to Bromont, but rather stay local and work on rideability and making sure he still likes the sport.

Finally, what a crazy summer weather-wise! We went for a month without any rain after our horse trials were rained out, and then had a week of flooding and rain. Thank goodness we got it, at least the ground is softer again.

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The Horse Trials That Wasn't

7/28/2018

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As most of you know, our June event was cancelled. We did run the YEH classes on Friday, and while that was going on our pond went over the edges and flooded the water jump, the ditches and the whole bottom of our course. It was, to be honest, devastating for me and all those involved to actually make the decision to cancel the event. I don’t think people realize how much goes into the preparation of an event, especially at that point. You’ve done all the work—all the judges and officials, tents, rings, flagging and brush—every single part of the event was ready except for having the competitors there. It was especially heartbreaking because Tom works so hard on the footing at our farm and so much time and money goes into that.

I know a lot of events have struggled with the weather this year, but because we’d decided to not to have our fall event due to the WEG, it was probably even more of a let-down to have to cancel. On Saturday morning, when we were cleaning up, I think the whole crew was feeling completely depressed. Normally we have a Surefire Horse Trials hangover, but this year's was a bad one. In spite of everything, we do all this for the competitors and are proud of our horse trials and will always try to make it the best we can.

I’d like to give a huge shout-out to all the competitors who signed up, all the people who sponsored us, all the volunteers who signed on, and the huge crew of helpers that make everything run smoothly. I can tell you courses were best they’ve ever been. Hopefully you’ll all want to support our event next year as well!

Such beautiful courses that, sadly, were too wet to use.

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Surefire Horse Trials Prep and Upperville

6/10/2018

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The farm is in full swing getting ready for our Surefire Horse Trials. The mount of rain we’ve had in Northern Virginia has been unreal; I don’t ever remember this much. It’s made it hard to keep up with all the mowing and getting the farm ready, so fingers crossed! The upside is we’ll probably be able to have the best footing ever!

As far as the horses go, things are ticking over. I gave Volcan a couple easy weeks and showed in the meter-20s at Upperville. He was double clear both days and jumped the best and most consistent he has yet. I’m finally able to ride him in the snaffle, though he was a bit fresh on Wednesday not having shown for a while. Thursday he settled right in. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this horse! The more he’s figured out his own jumping style the easier it is for me to ride him and it’s a blast. I plan to do a few events with him—Maryland, Jersey, Bromont and possibly Plantation—before Fair Hill in the fall. I would think with the Pan Ams next year at the 2-star level, Volcan would be a contender. I think he’ll be ready for a 3-star next spring.

Rem is hacking and getting ready to start trotting so that’s exciting, and the three young mares—Jolie, Kortina and Nora—are all going well. JR is starting to hack out so he can start into his new job by this fall, whatever that’s going to be. I’m sure he’ll let us know!

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