Summer 2024—Olympics, AECs and Blenheim!

The Paris Olympics with my parents, my siblings and their families, and Tom— trip of a lifetime!

It’s been a long time once again and I though it would be good to catch you up on everything I’ve been doing. I had a great time at the Olympics in Paris with my family, the trip of a lifetime. One of the highlights was our family bike ride around city that my brother organized. A lot of roads were closed so there wasn’t a lot of traffic, which made it ideal to tour around on bikes. Another highlight was Versailles and the eventing competition. The setting was so iconic and beautiful. The organizers did an amazing job—the arena, the cross-country—all the details were second to none. The whole experience was pretty special, so much history there, and I’m pretty sure we’ll never have another Olympics for the horse sports at such a special place. The other highlight for me would be that Tom, my sister-in-law Jen and I got to see the first round of the #1 tennis player Novak Djokovic, from the third row, thanks to Colby Connell. Of course it was really great to see other sports, swimming, soccer, etc., any sport at the highest level is amazing.

Paris is a great city to walk, so the more you like to get out the more you’d like it. One day Tom and I racked up 15 miles!.
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Tom and I left France early because I had big plans for Storm and I wanted to prepare for my fall season. Five days later I was at Fair Hill. I was pretty proud of Storm, who did a good job in all three phases, though I could tell he hadn’t been out in a while, especially in the dressage. I used Fair Hill as my prep for the AECs. I’d not been to AECs since 2016 and it was so nice to have it at the Kentucky Horse Park because it’s such a beautiful venue. I was last to go in the dressage (and the cross-country) and Storm did a nice test, I was really proud of him, and as he gets stronger and grows up he’s going to have a great test in him. 

It’s hard to wait all day for cross-country but I managed to keep my nerves in check and was so proud of my horse because he was the bomb! It was a great prep for England, just what I needed. Show jumping under the lights was quite hard on Storm, especially because the Horse Park isn’t really set up for nighttime competition. We also had a lot of delays so we went much later than planned. I walked up main road in the dark, and the first warmup was in the dark. We weren’t allowed into the main warmup til we were eight out. I think this blew his mind, maybe because he raced under the lights? On top of this, I couldn’t ride him in the hackamore, so we had a quick bridle change to a snaffle I’d never jumped in. I could feel Storm’s heartbeat going down ramp to the arena; I wasn’t sure I could actually jump he was so shaken. I ended up having two rails, a little my fault as I couldn’t ride forward into the contact. Storm did get better and better as he went on. When we finished my good friend, Debbie Snyder, took him from the Horse Park to her farm in Kentucky, and took care of him with Sarah til he shipped to England.

I flew home to Virginia, and packed up all my stuff so I could meet Storm in England. I went to Rebecca Howard’s yard; Lynn Symansky had helped with with that decision. It turned out to be a great choice for me. Rebecca helped me with Storm and was there as a friend for all things pertaining to him. It was a great experience to be there. I was able to ride with Grant Wilson from Holland, I’d ridden with him in the states as well. Rebecca helped me on the flat, and with a little cross-country and show jumping as final prep before we went to Blenheim. 

At Blenheim with my parents, Tom, and my wonderful groom and friend,
​Laila Bolstein

I competed at Blenheim 21 years ago and I thought going again would be a great step for Storm. Parkland courses are really great to build a bottom on a horse—Morven, Fair Hill, Maryland, Kentucky —they really help to develop your horse. I decided to try Blenheim over Morven because I thought the atmosphere would be a great prep for my horse for the future. My dressage test was adequate and I say that because my noseband came undone seven times, til we taped it, so we didn’t have a lot of warm up, maybe three minutes. Storm handled the atmosphere well, he’s trying to grow up! Cross-country was great, the only thing is you need to stay on your line, then you have options. If you cut in or out at all, it doesnt allow you to have the connection. When I went to 7AB in the arena, I knew I needed to be going to first jump, but he was wide-eyed, so I should have pushed him out after but I went for the first thing I saw, on the wrong line for the second. I never presented because I ended up about 10 feet from the jump. Storm handled the rest so well and he is going to be the horse that wants to make the time. He finished cross-country like he’d done nothing. 

In show jumping Storm tried his heart out. We were deep to jump to #4, and on a half stride to the next, so he put two in the one and had a back rail at A going in and top rail at the B vertical. 

​It was so fun to have my parents and Tom at Blenheim with me. It’s pretty special when you can enjoy a sport with your family.

My horse grew up a ton for the whole experience and shipped home well. I’m so happy with him and I can’t wait to do it again. It certainly made me want to do more European trips and really get competitive. I was really lucky that Tom, Marlene, and Anne Ferrio kept my horses going while I was gone. Anne did the barn and Marlene rode and lunged the horses. Tom kept the barn, farm and dogs all in one piece. 

I’ve just started to hack this week, and this winter I’ll work on dressage and show jumping. My plan is to do the four-short at Kentucky and then ship back to England and do Bramhan in June. As far as my other horses go, Ransom (Time To) is back in full work, which is exciting. Tate did Morven Park and although he had rail behind in show jumping, he had a really nice weekend including jumping the biggest trakehner I’ve ever seen on a training course, and  finished 7th. 

Finally, I’m proud to say that Maggie Carter (Sharp), a long-time friend and student, bought Invito and I can’t wait to watch them!