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Surefire Horse Trials Prep and Upperville

6/10/2018

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!

Remembering Waterfront

5/22/2018

Waterfront, Jan's former three-star event horse, has recently passed on. Owned by veterinarian and amateur eventer Keelin Redmond since he retired from upper level competition, Waterfront was 22 years old.

Always the bridesmaid, rarely the bride, Waterfront was extremely consistent, notably placing second a number of times: at Advanced at Richland and Pinetop, at the Jersey Fresh CCI3* (qualifying him for the 2006 WEG), at the 2007 World Cup CIC3*W at The Fork, at the Fair Hill International CCI3*, and at the Foxhall Cup CCI3* and the Virginia Horse Trials CCI2* (leading to his selection to the U.S. Equestrian Federation's "Talent Tour" team that competed at Luhmuhlen, Germany).

Jan remembers Waterfront as one of her favorites: "He always showed up to work, and though not the biggest mover or bravest horse, anyone could ride him and he was incredibly consistent. He was never really confirmed at the four-star level although he made several attempts with me, with two run-outs at both. Phillip Dutton rode Waterfront at Kentucky for me in 2010 after I was hurt in my fall, where he also had two run-outs and then was held on course. Phillip infamously used the break to borrow a cell phone from a spectator, and called Evie to get her to ask me if I wanted him to continue. My answer was no, and I retired Waterfront from the upper levels and then he found his home with Keelin."

From Keelin: "This is one of my favorite pictures of Waterfront because it so shows who he was: super alert facial expression, mad red hair flying, out to show off and have fun.
Waterfront taught me so much, and took me places I didn’t think I would ever go. Riding him was like taking a riding lesson; he knew what correct was, and he rewarded it, but he tolerated incorrectness with patience and heart.

Even if I had never ridden him I would have loved him. He was a wonderful friend. He had a huge personality. Tukie was ambivalent about other horses, but he loved people. He was so happy in the company of humans; he liked to eat our food (all of it, anything), hang out, go places with just me. He demanded treats and attention loudly and passionately; everyone knew what Tukie was feeling all of the time. He loved to go to horse shows; he had my undivided attention for a weekend and a whole new audience to admire him. He loved to finish up a show jumping round with a bit of “dolphining”; he would drop his head and sort of crow-hop along for a few strides. The more people would gasp, the better he liked it. He was always very, very careful not to unseat me. We always said he was saying: “it’s for the fans, mom! I’ve got to give them a little something!” He did it at home a bit too; whenever he thought he had jumped well. I remember he did it the very first time I ever jumped him. Jan laughed and told me that if I would rub his mane, he would get even happier and do it even more. So I always did!

I miss him terribly. Think of the most funny, brilliant, loyal, fiery friend you have. That’s who he was to me."

Jersey Fresh

5/21/2018

I just got done with Jersey Fresh and it was quite a nice event. You can tell they’re really trying to improve the courses and the facility. I rode Volcan in the CIC**, and he got there and couldn’t figure out what he was supposed to be so excited about, maybe cross-country right away? It took a little bit to get him rideable before the dressage! My plan was to do a half-hour pre-ride before my test on Friday morning, but it turned out Volcan was a bit excited so it took an hour. After the pre-ride I got off him, and then back on for the test. He wasn’t as rideable as he can be but still put in quite a pleasant test. When Volcan’s really on my aids I think he’ll be in the top couple every time, he has so much presence.

I wasn’t sure how Volcan would handle the cross-country because he’s quite green at the level, but he has such a beautiful gallop (though not the best to turn yet), and he got better and better around the course as far as footwork and rideability. He was 9th after dressage and ended up coming right on the time cross-country to move into 7th. He actually had the best warm up he’s had yet for show jumping, though had one down behind because I got him a little in his mouth coming out of the in-and-out at 9b. I was bummed about the rail but we ended 11th out of 57 starters. I’m super excited about him!

Because I can’t feel my right hand, a result of my accident, I don’t have the best coordination or fine touch, so I’m going to spend the next couple months working on improving my reactions with my hands. I’ll also be working on making Volcan better in all three phases and rather than going to Bromont, I plan to do Fair Hill in the fall. My hope is that he’ll be a Pan Am contender next year.

Early Spring

5/9/2018

I haven’t done a lot of competing this spring. When I got home from Aiken and decided to retire JR, other than young horses I just had my last man standing, Volcan, to compete. He’s been really great; I did the Intermediate at Morven and he handled it like a rock star. Then I decided to do 2-star at Fair Hill—he was a bit tense in the atmosphere, which is unlike him, but had a solid dressage test. He had two down behind in the show jumping but I think it was mainly because they had cross-country going at the same time and he was really amped up—he knew he had something else to do and was so sure he was going cross-country with people galloping by! The event was really nice because the organizers ran the two- and three-star on the Gallaher Road side, where they hold the International in the fall. It was a beautiful course, bigger than I thought it would be, but Volcan handled it really well. Because he had been excited with the cross-country going on during show jumping, it took him a while to settle, but I was thrilled with him. After that I decided I was going to go to Jersey to do the CIC**, having done some cross-country schooling at home and twice with Phillip.

Volcan, photo by Janet Gallay

I have a couple of young horses belonging to Anita Antucci and they and all the other horses stayed home this winter so are just getting back into competition order. Dashwood (Nora) has been to two events so far. I was super pleased with her cross-country at both events, but I think I need to work on some local jumper shows to make that phase a little more routine. She is for sale—just a super, all-around horse for an adult amateur or young rider.

Kortina spent the winter with Roddy Strang, who worked on just giving me some more tools with her. It’s always more difficult to have a horse that’s broken so late—they’re mature physically but not mentally so it’s like riding a three-year-old in an eight-year-old’s body. I don’t highly recommend it! Anita also has a new horse, Jolie, a big Thoroughbred that we brought from Liz Milliken last year. Having spent several months turned out at Anita’s we brought her to Surefire in November and started her new career as my next upper level event horse. She has a great mind and an amazing canter, and I’m really excited to get her going. I’ve jumped her twice and she seems to have great instincts. I’m hoping that I’ll do some local shows with her and maybe have her tag along to some events before I start to compete her myself.

I also went to The Fork and Kentucky as a selector. It was great to see the Fork and get an idea of what the course is going to be for the WEG, what the horses will do. Kentucky was awesome. One, I always find going to a competition of that level inspiring and educational. Two, I thought Derek’s course was masterful. It walked hard and rode like the riders really stepped up to the challenge. As far as the American horses, I thought it was great fun to see the quality of riding. Although we didn’t win it this year, I was impressed with our level of competitiveness in all three phases. I thought Lynn Symansky and Donner had the ride of the day cross-country. It was just effortless. Lauren Kieffer on Vermiculus was also noteable. Lauren has always impressed me by being so stylish, but this time she combined style with grit. It looked to me like both horses could have gone for days! I also think my good friend Sharon White’s ride on Cooley on Show was memorable, as well as Phillip’s masterful ride on the new-to-the-four-star level Z.

At home, we’re starting to ramp up for our Surefire Horse Trials, and the mowing has begun. Tom and I haven’t been inside before dark this last week and it only gets worse from here. Tune in for what happens at Jersey and how event prep is going!

Perfecting the English Muffin

3/6/2018

I’ve just finished six weeks of my Wellington experience. To be honest, it was really, really educational. In fact, I was talking to my better half, Tom, about it and he said, “Jan, it’s just like learning to be a chef.” I thought it was funny he said that, but he explained his point: “As a chef, say you have to perfect the English Muffin. You learn techniques to make the dough, you give it enough time in the toaster so it’s golden brown, a bit crunchy and a bit soft, you play around with it until you can win Top Chef!”

Tom’s so right, perfecting our riding is like learning to cook—being able to work on the my show jumping and dressage in Wellington, and concentrate on that and not be afraid to change my warm-up, experiment with sitting down or staying out of saddle, or figure out when to leave out a stride or cut a turn—it’s been amazing. My whole experience has been basically how to perfect the English Muffin.

During week three, it felt like all the wheels were coming off the cart, but it was simply me experimenting with new techniques. Our sport of Eventing is so small, you can get stuck in your own bubble—the events you go to and the people you ride with—and you don’t always expand your own program. It can be good to keep putting yourself in new situations, to be uncomfortable and work it out. With Volcan, Katie taught me I need to slow down and use the turn before the jump to get him in front of my seat and leg. That’s no different than using the corners in the dressage ring. I would jump Friday in the High Schoolings and then used the same philosophy to get a 70.9 at second level in dressage at Global, which was two points higher than the week before. This is just one example of being able to combine my thought processes to completely perfect my English muffin.

Toward the end of my stay, I got to jump Inmidair for first time. He was buck-wild on Wednesday, really relaxed and casual Thursday, awesome and sharp on Friday and then had a great dressage test. It’s been fascinating to be able to do enough showing to really be able to think about what I’m doing as I do it. I’m mindful I don’t normally get to practice like that. Wellington was an awesome experience and I can’t wait to see what my horses do this year!

Wellington

2/9/2018

Happy New Year! So far, this year has been different than any before. The farm that I’ve gone to in Aiken was sold in November, and for other reasons, too—hurt horses, clients moving, and not a lot of horses in the barn—I took the opportunity to come to Wellington and help Katie and Henri Prudent at their Plain Bay Farm. Right before Christmas, Dr. Johns gave Inmidair (JR) the go-ahead to do whatever I want with him, so I decided I’d bring him to get fit and do some dressage and some jumpers and Volcan to practice in the jumpers.

I would say I know why people go to Florida—because the weather is beautiful! Every week I fly home on Saturday to ride and teach in Virginia and then fly back to Florida on Tuesday. During the week, I flat horses for Katie and Henri and teach some of their people on the flat. Volcan shows in the medium or high schooling jumpers, depending on how the week is going, and on the flat at Global or White Fences.

I was actually quite nervous about doing this because it’s hard to get out of your comfort zone and make yourself train as precisely as is needed for our sport. This is my biggest take-away from Wellington (other than it’s cold in Virginia this time of year)—that on our own, it can be hard to practice with the technique and precision eventing requires because we all have our own, familiar training methods—our comfort zone—that seem to work well enough for us.

So simple, right? Of course we need to be precise. My Eventing attitude allowed me to make it work and get it done, but to be honest, that attitude is not good enough. To be competitive every stride when jumping—forward, balanced, able to go for the big one or forward to the base, to add one, learn how to get a rub—those are all skills we should have if we want to be truly competitive. These fine points of precision riding and making your horse adjustable are a lot harder to do than you think. Being able to do them with composure and a relaxed mind and relaxed arms is even more difficult! But there's a reason Michael Jung is so successful, and anyone can benefit from immersion in other disciplines.

Even though being able to go into the jumper ring or compete at a dressage show every week is something we don’t do enough of as eventers because it’s hard to make the time, it’s a great experience, and shows become just another day at the office practicing the skills that you need.

Stay tuned for more updates and to follow Inmidair 2018!

Boekelo and Fair Hill

11/12/2017

Now that the season has ended for me, I have a little time to do an update. First thing, I had a blast at Boekelo, especially since Tom was able to make time in his busy schedule to come with me. I had forgotten how inspiring it is to go to events in Europe. Tom and I arrived Thursday morning. It took forever to get from the airport to the event, and it was windy and rainy from Thursday through Saturday, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. We got there in enough time to see all our U.S. Team members’ (Caroline Martin, Katherine Coleman and Liz Halliday-Sharp) dressage. I was pleased with all of them.

Leslie Law, there as our Chef and Coach, invited us to go on the course walk. To my delight, Rob and Chris Desino, who help support Liz’s horse Deniro Z, were there to watch; I hadn’t seen them for a really long time so that was fun. The cross-country course was great, and I thought it was one of the those courses that I would love Urrem to do for her first three-star. I felt the combination ABC of corners was quite difficult, and found the narrow tracks intimidating, but I also thought it looked like a blast to ride.

Having not been to Boekelo before, I found it so nice that riders either stay in their lorries on-grounds or at a hotel, named Bad Boekelo, which is only two miles away. Everything is quite convenient, plus they have the Grolsch factory right there so Tom and I went for a tour and a taste. In spite of the rain the footing held better than I thought it would, and made for a great day of cross-country watching. Unfortunately, Katherine’s mare needed to have a little better communication with her rider, but certainly Liz and Caroline had great rounds. The show jumping on Sunday was fun to watch and the day was beautiful and sunny. I loved Tim Price’s mare and they had a classy round to win. After the event, Tom and I spent the night in Amsterdam and had a fun time and a great dinner.

I think it’s important that the U.S. get involved in sending teams for every possible Nations Cup. Watching the final, you realize the advantage of practicing in a team situation—for the riders, coaches and support staff. They’re able to develop a system and perfect how things are run. Every nation had a huge group there with them, strategizing how to win the Team competition. It was great that we had three riders there, but I feel we need to try and make the team competitions a priority for the U.S.

I also went to Fair Hill to walk courses Friday and to watch Sunday, which was a great day of sport. I didn’t see Selena’s round but the highlight of my day was watching Will Coleman’s round on Tight Lines, it was complete class. Certainly, my congrats to Selena for her big win and for being the first Canadian to win Fair Hill, though I did have my money on Will.

All the watching inspired me for my one-star with Volcan at Virginia. He was good in the dressage, not ready to win yet but getting better and better. He was a bit curled in the long and low circle in trot and broke in the counter canter.

On cross-country he was fast and it was easy for him. I would say he was strong at the end of the course, and it’s amazing how mature he’s become. Then he had a beautiful show jump round but I had three time faults and I know just where I lost it. It’s a good idea to always trust your gut and your plan, which is sometimes easier said than done! We ended up finishing 11th.

I also rode Nora (Dashwood) and she was awesome. She was a little tense in dressage, which is unlike her, but she had to go in the big, scary Coliseum! She put in a beautiful show jump round and then went cross-country in the pouring rain. She finished her season well and now we’ll work on marketing her as a Training level packer or one-star prospect.

Summer

9/22/2017

It’s amazing how quickly time gets away! We’ve had a good summer, and preparing for our Fall horse trials, I realize how much time has gone by since my last entry.

I’ve been staying local this summer, competing at events around Area 2 to save some money. The highlight of my season so far has been riding Volcan and doing his first 1-star at Plantation, where he finished fifth. He’s such a good jumper and a fun horse to compete. I have been lucky enough to have Rem (Urrem) out twice, doing the Preliminary at Loudoun Pony Club Horse Trials. It was the best that Loudoun has ever been, so hats off to the organizing committee and crew there! Rem also ran Seneca in the Intermediate in the pouring rain and managed to win in spite of having two rails down. To be honest, I think she didn’t see that well because it was raining so hard. Now she’s is going to have a little break and I'll bring her out next year.

Anita Antenucci and my Dashwood (Nora) has has been a bit unlucky this summer. First, she got cut in the field and had to her hock flushed, so she missed about six weeks. Luckily, the hock has come back great. Then, I missed a turn on the cross-country at Loudoun and got a 20 because of poor planning. Nora was amazing at Seneca, but because they were running so late in dressage I was on her for about one-and-a-half hours and she was over warm-up. At CDCTA she pulled a shoe in the dressage and then proceeded to pull the same shoe in the show jumping when she went to take off, getting her hind foot stuck in her front. I almost fell off, and though I didn’t know at time, her shoe was halfway off. Unfortunately, she was favoring that foot so I decided not to run cross-country.

Kortina handled the bigger jumps at Training well and finished 8th at Seneca. Although she’s not quite ready to run for time and fully understand her job, she will soon enough.

I’m planning to run Morven with my horses, then go to Boekelo as a Selector. I’m looking forward to that because I’ve never been. I’ll be at Fair Hill as a Selector as well. To end my season, I plan to run the CCI* at Virginia with Volcan.

We're supposed to have great weather this weekend for our Surefire Horse Trials, and the really wet August has made for great footing and green grass. I'll let you know how it goes!

Great Meadow

7/31/2017

I was so excited to be able to compete at our Nations Cup, especially on JR (Inmidair), a horse I thought would never compete at that level again. I was so truly honored to ride him, and was thrilled with my weekend. That little horse certainly hasn’t forgotten how to put his super suit on!

I felt prepared going in because I had a plan and I put it into action. JR’s dressage needed to be better so I really worked on that with Sallie. I needed to be able to practice jumping 1.30 meters, so I did that with Katie Prudent’s and Packy McGaughan’s help. I had to get better at cross-country, because as much as JR has a super suit and is really talented, he still needs to be better, more in front of my leg, and I really worked on that. I had had an earlier school with Boyd at his place and I almost fell off about four times, I couldn’t see a distance, I had no rhythm, and I kept taking the reins and slowing my horse. It can be hard to make yourself keep going and get in the mindset you need to compete at the upper levels! But I kept working on all these things, had a good school with Phillip, and felt prepared.

I thought JR was great in the dressage, but our show jumping lacked some polish. I was surprised how spooky he was, I wasn’t even sure he would go over the first jump! It took about three jumps to put him together, and even though I got a bit backwards to a vertical, we finished well with a clear round. JR’s really hard to show jump because he never jumps each jump the same. Sometimes it takes a little bit of me letting go, knowing it might not work out, and sometimes I’m good at it and sometimes not.

I walked the cross-country and was quite comfortable with course but but it was hard to wait to go second to last. I probably walked the arena corner five times, and talked over how it would ride with Lynn and Buck four or five times. But as I walked back to my trailer I told myself, he’s going to go in four, just be ready to think on your feet and react. If you mess up, you learn something, you can’t protect yourself all the time. Then I never looked back. The decision was made, I knew my job, I wasn’t nervous. I really thrive on this sport and I love trying to get better, and my horses make me better all the time. I can’t wait to do it again. The weekend wasn’t perfect but I improved my skills on JR from the last time I rode him at Kentucky. I realized how quickly our sport evolves, and if I’d gone faster I'd have had a chance to win. But I had ten time, and I was a bit upset about that. I’ll just try and be better the next time.

One Crazy Week!

7/24/2017

I got home from Germany Monday night, the week of our Surefire Horse Trials. I’m so lucky that Tom, Christy Stauffer, Caitlin Calder, Katie Hasse, Hellen LaFitte, Trav Schick and his wife, Kat, and brother, Graham, and Josh Sylce had a great jump on what needed to be done for the weekend. Our event went off great—we were so lucky to have the weather we had, plus we have the most amazing group of people that come and help us every year. It’s a huge chore and a huge team that makes everything work. Nanky Doubleday, Po Tatham, Mary Coldron, my parents Dick and Jo, Lisa Welch, Lisa’s step-mother Anne, Sarah and Michelle, all help so much it’s really impressive. I don’t know how Tom, myself and my parents got so fortunate to get all the amazing help we have. Everyone knows what they’re doing, everyone steps up. Thanks to Janet Galay for all the great photos!

I had a pretty crazy week following our horse trials. The Monday after, I got in the car at 4:30 in the morning to take JR up to cross-country school with Phillip at Windurra. I really felt like I needed to get my head around being competitive at Great Meadow, which was coming up quickly. Tuesday morning I headed to Sallie Spinard’s, my amazing dressage coach, for lessons. Wednesday, I caught a 5:00 AM flight to Colorado for a clinic and started teaching that morning. There’s no rest for the wicked and I got back Saturday afternoon just in time to do a little bit of last-minute prep for Great Meadow.