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!
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!
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