It’s so nice to be home in Virginia! Sorry I didn’t do an update right after Red Hills and Carolina, but sometimes life gets away from us.

I think sometimes when you have things go wrong, it’s an opportunity to think about what to fix and how to get better, rather than being devastated. At Red Hills, I was pleased with Inmidair’s (JR’s) dressage. In show jumping, I was last to go and the footing had deteriorated so much that it felt like it was hard for him to get good purchase at the jumps. He jumped the first three jumps well, but got a bit too deep at the oxer at 4, which caused my rail at 5. That, and probably my lack of balance in my upper body didn’t help, either. Then we had a rail at 6a. I might have gotten a bit too much to the inside of the line, but when you watch video it seems he also didn’t have purchase off ground. The rest of our round was not the worst, not the best; JR doesn’t want to have rails, but if he does, it will be behind. Always more to work on!

Having already gone cross-country on Syd Kent, where I had problems at the corner at 5a, I thought I rode 5a well on JR, but I was just too quick in the turn, even though I had been advised not to be, and had a run-out at b. Sometimes you have to make a mistake in order to really learn what someone means when they advise you! From that point on I used Red Hills as a school, and really thought about being able to cover distance, ride each jump with the canter I needed, and work on focus. I was very pleased with what I was able to accomplish.

Syd had the unfortunate draw of going in the worst of the rain for dressage, but still put in a nice test. His show jumping was pretty good until the triple—I think I was a bit too quick for the way he likes to jump. He felt great warming up for cross-country, jumped the first four jumps awesome, but just didn’t understand where to jump at 5a, the corners that caught out more horses than we thought they would. I thought I had the right balance and speed, but Syd’s really careful about brush and saw no clear place to jump, which I feel made him more careful. The brush was so high it didn’t make sense to him, and if a horse wanted to jump all brush it made it a hard thing for them to read.

As it turns out, things happen for a reason. I got home, jumped about ten jumps on Sunday, angling everything, and it became apparent Syd had hurt his left front suspensory, either in the mud at Red Hills or because of the change in mechanics in right front foot, a result of his injury last summer. It may be that the injury which changed the way he goes and put stress on his left front. So once again Syd is on rehab. It’s probably good, I can let the hoof grow out and maybe he’ll be ready by July or August. I have to thank Steve Teichman and Sean Crocker for so diligently helping me out with Syd.

I sold Luminati right after Rocking Horse to Susanne and Harold Lichten for their daughter, Kate. It was a really hard thing to do because I need horses for my career, but trying to financially support my own horses has become difficult so I need to sell horses to keep going. I’m really happy for Kate and know Luminati’s going to be in a great home, and when I go to Gathering Farm in Massachusetts to teach I’ll be able to see them as they’re nearby.

With Luminati gone, I had just Duke of of Diamond (Dyson) and JR for the Carolina International. I just have to say that Carolina really stepped up their game and it was a pleasure to compete there from all aspects, as a rider and an owner. JR was great. I ended going by myself and Jessica Hampf helped me get ready for my dressage. We went out and did our thing. When we went down center and turned left at C, I decided to slow down in my rhythm as we didn’t have the best footing in ring that morning. JR felt easy and was a pleasure to ride. I have to keep working on my hands and my posture, but I can tell how much horse wants to do his job. It was nice to start on top; I was so proud of him. We warmed up for show jumping with Silvio, which was really helpful. We had one down at 4, JR barely hit it behind, but overall it was one of the smoothest trips I’ve had with him. Cross-country was a blast. I never planned to run for time, there was plenty to do on course, and JR felt like he was on it.

My other horse, Dyson, was not his best for his dressage test, but I would say the whole weekend was a big boys weekend for him. There was a lot to do in the show jumping and on cross-country, and even though we had the last jump down in the show jumping, it was more my fault than his. Dyson tried really hard on cross-country and was really fun to ride. I have to give big shout out to Maya Black, who was 2nd in her 2nd Advanced in a tough division.

We’re all home now, unpacking and packing again for the Fork next weekend. The plan is for Maya, Caitlin and I to each have one horse there. I'm so lucky that Tom did such nice job of cleaning the barn and fixing everything that needed to be fixed while we were gone. Thank you, Tom!

Training Sessions
I’m at Red Hills, but I’m going to back up a bit and write about how my horses have been going. I had a great training session with David on the flat before Pine Top, in spite of a lack of power and awful weather. Mother nature sure is wreaking havoc on us this year! David gave me some great tips, which were simple. He talked about how we get so familiar with our horses, we become satisfied with what they do even if it’s not the best work they’re capable of. I had not really been preparing Syd well enough to do a dressage test. He doesn’t feel like he can fit in a dressage ring and David’s tips were helpful as far as really preparing and reminding me that dressage is all about precision. He likened it to being a figure skater and knowing which side of blade you’re on before doing a triple toe loop. I have to be that aware of where I am in the ring, and how to prepare my horse to get the best movements. It was a good reminder for me. Half the battle is to be precise. William Fox-Pitt made the same point when I did the clinic with him last fall—if you get all 7s on your test, you’re going for the clean round. David really helped me with some tools to do that.

I also got to jump with our new show jump coach, Silvio, who seems like a nice guy. It wasn’t an ideal prep for me because I hadn’t jumped JR since Pine Top, but it was more him getting to know the horses so it was okay. It was fun to watch Doug Payne and Will Faudree in the group before me, and both horses got better with Silvio’s help.

Pine Top
At Pine Top I was pleased with all four horses. JR’s dressage test was one of best we’ve had, although I missed all four changes. He was so rideable that I didn’t put him together and that’s why I missed them. The test itself was fun! He warmed up well for show jumping, then went in and stopped at the first jump!. I never felt coming; Philip and David didn’t either. I was shocked, then hit him hard, twice. Then we had one of the best rounds ever. Cross-country was flat out fun.

Syd ran in the Intermediate because he hadn’t been out since Millbrook, where he injured himself. His dressage was really lovely, consistent and rideable. Unfortunately, I had an error because I posted the medium trot; I forgot to look at the test beforehand, and often you can post the first medium so I thought I was okay. He was awesome show jumping, and cross-country with Syd was fun, fun, fun.

Luminati was much better in the dressage at Pine Top. I’ve been working to have some tools with him and took ten points off my score. His show jumping was really nice and so was his Preliminary cross-country.

Dukey did his first Preliminary at Pine Top. He was second in the dressage, had one rail show jumping, and was a bit lookey on the cross-country. It was a lot of course for him, but he has such a good attitude and got better as we went.

I have to give a big shout out to Maya Black, who did her first Advanced. She’s been waiting six years for that, and though it wasn’t an ideal competition for her, it was awesome for her to do it and I’m so proud of her. And Caitlin Calder rode the best yet in all three phases. We’re keeping it simple; back to basics is always important.

George Morris
I was lucky to do the George Morris clinic on Monday and Tuesday. Boyd Martin invited me to ride and hosted. The whole clinic was about simple basics and classic riding. For me, it was all about my arms, trying to carry my hands a bit and keep my arms a bit looser. The one exercise George told me practice on a daily basis is to move my arms from my shoulder at the walk for a softer, more supple arm. Anyone who watches me ride would probably agree I need to do that! It was fun to watch every horse in the clinic jump better under his instruction. He had Doug just drop his horse, giving at every jump and following the horse’s mouth, to stop managing so much, and the results were visible. What an honor to ride with George, who is a master, plus he rode Kaylin Dines horse, who I was lucky to have there, and commented on how beautiful to ride and how well broke he is, which made Kaylin smile. The group was so fun because they were really good riders—Phillip, Boyd, Doug, Ryan, Will Coleman, Colleen Loach—and though there weren’t a lot of big changes, George added something to every person to make them better.

Full Gallop and Sporting Days
Maya had a good, successful Wednesday event on the babies and then again on the weekend, including second in Preliminary at Full Gallop on Edmonton Affair over a really difficult show jump course and quite a hard cross-country. Roundhouse Red went to his first event ever and was second in Beginner Novice. Call to Order, who’s not great on the flat yet, had good week at both Full Gallop and Sporting Days, in spite of the warm-up at Sporting Days when Novice was going cross-country nearby while he was warming up for dressage—quite exciting for a young horse! I decided to ride Luminati and Dyson at Sporting Days and got in at the last minute. Both were really good on the flat, and had beautiful show jumps, though Dyson had one rail. Luminati was quite quick cross-country and ended third. I took my time with Dyson and he was even more grown up than the weekend before.