I had a great week at Fair Hill. I have to say I feel I went into it as prepared as I could be. Even though I haven’t really competed that much at the upper levels for last two years, I had done three Advanced horse trials before and felt like everything I had been doing to get ready, especially for dressage, had been good and would hopefully pay off. I had a school with Silva on Monday, which was very helpful. J.R. wasn’t as relaxed as he could have been, but we worked mostly on the movements from the test and the overall picture of how he looks. He’s such a good mover but doesn’t always have the best ability to stay in one rhythm, so we worked on that. Sometimes J.R. gets so intense about doing the right thing, instead of looking effortless, he looks tense. We worked on the kind of seamless effortlessness in dressage that I wanted to have at Fair Hill in order to get the best possible score.

I jumped with Phillip on Tuesday and that was good. I would say that by far I was feeling the most rusty in show jumping, which is odd for me because it’s always been my strong suit, so it was good to get some more practice in. Meghan and I went over to the grounds and moved in on Tuesday. I knew I was going to go Friday, so Wednesday I did some long and low and tried to get J.R. loose and relaxed. After two days of lessons his back was a little sore— I think our horses might get pre-competition nerves like us, and maybe that’s why he felt a little tight.

Phillip had agreed to jog J.R. for me. I still have some lingering lack of feeling in my right hand from my accident, and with J.R. so fit and fresh, I felt better with Phillip handling him. On Wednesday I saw the course for first time. I loved it—big and pretty scopey, Derek did a fantastic job. I thought the Chesapeake Water, with the duck jump in the water followed by four strides out up the hill to a brush on top, one long stride to a really severely angled brush with only small window to jump, was by far the hardest with a lot to do. The whole course had great flow, though—first impressions always stick with you and I really liked the flow, and I knew, barring a silly mistake, it would be a great course for my horse. The only thing I didn’t know was how much rain we were going to get, it rained all Wednesday night, all Thursday and part of Friday morning.

On Thursday I had another lesson with Silva and J.R. was in really great form. We only worked for maybe 25 minutes then hacked around. I felt completely prepared for my test on Friday morning. On Friday I rode J.R. twice, once just a walk, trot and canter for about 20 minutes to take the edge off him and see how fresh he was. I was a bit surprised because he was fresher than he’s been—I think he thought it was cross-country day! When I got on for my test I knew he was in good frame of mind, I felt really ready, and Silva warmed me up for about 20 minutes. I was so pleased with my horse’s test! One half pass he was maybe trailing a little with his haunches, and I missed my first change in the canter and he was maybe a little tight for the second, but he was really fun to ride and I don’t often say that about dressage! It was definitely one of the best tests he’s ever done and I was thrilled with him.

On Saturday morning, I decided to walk around and see how footing was holding. I really concentrated and where footing was best and how to get to it to keep him on good footing as much as possible. I went about half way through the three-star division so I knew that good footing would be hard to find. When I got on J.R. he was a pretty relaxed but really focused, he knew what was coming. I’d say it was the best ride I’ve had with him yet, though they’re all pretty good. Before I went, Phillip was great and talked with me about how these big events don’t some up often, that I needed to think about time, ride one fence at a time, and just go out and do my stuff. I feel like J.R. and I did just that, we went out and did our stuff. The footing was sticky, which didn’t make it easy, but these competitions are hard and you have to fight for everything you get. With that being said, I feel as though I was really efficient about my gallop, except for last two jumps not being out of rhythm. I changed to those because I didn’t want to make a mistake at the end, but everything else just flowed and whole course felt easy for him. Sometimes J.R. tries too hard in the air so I had to keep him going on the back side of the jump. I don’t want him to think it’s too hard, so I just encourage him forward after. You can also leave a lot of time after the jump if you don’t gallop away.

J.R. pulled up great and had a nice night thanks to great care from Meghan. Being in the lead after cross-country at a big three-star is so satisfying and even though I nervous on Sunday morning, it was so nice to feel like I did my job and was in a position to win the whole thing—that’s why we do this. Along with enjoying the sport and the horses, we also want to be good enough to win. Even though my butterflies were flying around a little crazy, I was really excited for the show jumping on Sunday morning. I tried not to focus on how close we top three were and just focus on my plan and my warm-up and how I wanted to ride the course, which I really liked when I walked it. And then it was time to warm up. It’s amazing that when you get on your horse you can feel the butterflies fly into formation; that helps you so much with your focus.

Overall my horse warmed up well and Phillip was kind enough to help me. I felt really good about my plan when I went into ring. I had a great first jump, but on the way to second fence I cut the bend and never put J.R.’s eye on the jump, plus even though we arrived on a little bit of a longer distance, I trusted he would jump it. Horses will jump what they can see, but J.R. never put his eye on it so he didn’t think he had to jump. Big, big mistake! And everyone was there to see it. I was actually lucky I didn’t fall off and he didn’t fall down.

From that point on you’re in survival mode and just try to minimize the damage and have the best result you can. I did have one more jump down that I think was a little bit of an unlucky rail behind. Overall the course was not smooth at all. But I still finished in third and looking back on it, I know I’ll be better next time. I feel that not having had a lot practice over big courses since I’ve been back might have been a factor. I went to two jumper shows then did three Advanced horse trials with J.R., which is probably not enough practice to have the kind of results you want to have. This was one point in time for me and I know I’ll be better next time. As we know with horses, it could have gone the other way; I could have jumped from the gap and had a different result.

I’m so thankful for my horse, first of all—he’s a great horse and great jumper—and second, for all the people who have supported me through everything: my parents, my boyfriend Tom, the girls in barn and all my kind friends. It was an added bonus to win the Sportsmanship award. It was so sweet of both Boyd and Becky to say at the press tent that they were both rooting for me to win. I have to say that I’m really looking forward to next year with J.R., Syd Kent and Why Not. I would love to have a good run to the Olympics, which has been a life-long dream and goal of mine.

Back home, J.R. gets a month off, which he’s so excited about because he loves to be in his field. I’m back at work teaching and traveling to do a clinic this weekend. I’ll keep you posted on fall and winter plans!

I’m happy to be here at Fairhill! But first, a little recap of the past few weeks. Between Plantation and now, we went to Middleburg, Morven and Maryland Horse Trials. At Middleburg, I rode Victory Shetan (Toddy) to get some miles on him for his owner, Chase Shipka. He was really good in dressage, brave show jumping, great cross-country and ended fifth in Open Training. Chase did her first event on the east coast and she won the Junior Novice Division with Loreal.

Then we went on to Morven, where I planned to do a combined test with J.R. and run the whole event with Kem and Toddy. With all the rain, it was a pitiful weekend! J.R. had a very good dressage, the rider had a couple of mental errors, but he still scored well. We had one down in show jumping and overall I was very pleased. Usually, J.R.’s very spooky at liverpools but he wasn’t at Morven, so he didn’t jump up like he normally does and had the rail down. Kem was good in the dressage, fairly good in show jumping—with the same fence down, another rider error. One error was long and one was deep, so at least it wasn’t the same mistake twice! I think the footing was so wet and it was raining and blowing so hard, that Kem was having a hard time seeing, too. The weather was so erratic during show jumping, and cross-country was even wetter and windier, I just tried to support him. Kem was great at all the jumps but it wasn’t much fun. Toddy was great on the flat, won the dressage, and even though it was windy and rainy he jumped beautifully in the ring. After cross-country on Kem, though, I decided not to run Toddy cross-country because he’s so careful—there’s always another day.

The highlight of the weekend for me was that Meghan did her first Advanced on Pirate. They had a decent dressage, a beautiful show jump, and she and her horse made cross-country look easy even though the going was so bad. They finished sixth. Meghan also rode Globetrotter for Darcie Shipka in the Novice and was sixth in that division, too. Chase had Loreal in the Junior Novice and was second. We were all glad to have the weekend over! It was still raining on Monday but the rest of the week was beautiful and sunny and everything is green.

The following weekend we went to Maryland and I did Kem and Toddy. Kem was his best yet in dressage and tied for fourth on a 28.6. We had one down in show jumping and a just a little time cross-country to finish third. I was actually really pleased with him and think he’s ready to move up. If I don’t sell him, I think he’ll do the 2-star at Jersey in the spring. Toddy was not great in dressage but it wasn’t his fault. The event was running so far behind, almost 25 minutes late, that I think he was overdone by the time we went. He was awesome for show jumping and cross-country, though, and finished fourth. It was really fun because Katie Bleyer rode my old partner, Waterfront, in the same division and finished right in front of me. She’s leasing him and works for me. Then Chase did her first Training with Loreal. She did have stop in show jumping but everything else was awesome, especially her cross-country. Meghan rode both Globetrotter and her horse, No Nonsense. It was Globetrotter’s first Novice and No Nonsense’s second and they finished first and second. Katie did Gamble a Bit—his jumping phases were great but his dressage ring was running late, too, and I think he suffered from too much warm up as well.

This weekend we’re at Fair Hill. I had a good jump with Phillip on the way up and am really excited about the weekend and looking forward to seeing my parents and riding my horse. It will be really fun to do a CCI 3-star again! After this, the season winds down and we’re all ready for the fall and some down time and working with the young horses.