Many thanks to Kate Samuels, who took the following pictures of Jan and JR at this week's training sessions in Aiken.

Happy New Year! To be honest, I don’t know how everyone else feels, but the holidays seem like long time ago now.

We migrate south right after first of year like a lot of eventers, but first I’d planned a vacation with family. Right before I went away for Christmas I unexpectedly found myself without help in the barn, so I had to make some last-minute changes; who would ride my horses and pack for Aiken while I was gone? It was a bit of a big debacle, but my New Years resolution was to not to stress over and get to upset about small things, so this was a good test of that! People who know me know that I get my hackles up when things go wrong, but I feel it’s always good to try to improve yourself and be a better person, and that was my goal for 2014.

Lucky for me, Jen Simmons came to the rescue and she and another girl, Carly, rode my horses in addition to her own each day. Jen is a lifesaver and a great friend. I had called Caitlin Calder, who was coming to help me in Aiken anyway, to see if she could come earlier than planned, and she took over when Jen left for Florida, riding eight horses a day and, with Adolfo’s help packing the trailer, so I had very little to do when I came home from skiing. Tom and I arrived back on the second of January, and as luck would have it the next day we got 3-4 inches of snow. It was so cold with, with 50 mile-per-hour winds, and all the roads and schools were closed; the weather was brutal. I again used using my new resolution— no stressing! I decided to not worry that I hadn’t ridden for two weeks and helped Caitlin pack some more and oversaw the trailers being loaded with hay. No stress, don’t sweat the small stuff.

Tom and I arrived in Aiken Saturday afternoon and met up with Maya Black, who had come back to work for me, and her dad. It’s such a great pleasure to have Maya in the barn. She’s an amazing rider, a really good teacher and just a nice person. If I’m lucky and keep my resolution I might get closer to being as kind as she is.

We all moved into the barn on Sunday and were ready for the horses to arrive Sunday night. It was probably the easiest move-in ever and the Newbridge management was great about getting the barn ready for us. They also had a big surprise for me, a new ring built by Joe Watkins from Longwood Farm South with beautiful GGT footing.

For anyone who was here that Monday and Tuesday, January 6th and 7th, it was freezing! I decided to not ride for two days—don’t sweat the small stuff, and to be honest, weather is the small stuff. All horses are settling in, and we have more sale horses that are fun to ride. Danielle Quinn, who does the jumpers, is back with us, too. We’re all going to go do a couple small schooling shows in next week, and take time to enjoy the young horses and get them acclimated until we begin competing them in March. All my horses are going well so far and I’m enjoying the fact that I’m back riding. Here’s to the next time. I’ll let you know how my New Year’s Resolution is going!