I haven’t done a lot of competing this spring. When I got home from Aiken and decided to retire JR, other than young horses I just had my last man standing, Volcan, to compete. He’s been really great; I did the Intermediate at Morven and he handled it like a rock star. Then I decided to do 2-star at Fair Hill—he was a bit tense in the atmosphere, which is unlike him, but had a solid dressage test. He had two down behind in the show jumping but I think it was mainly because they had cross-country going at the same time and he was really amped up—he knew he had something else to do and was so sure he was going cross-country with people galloping by! The event was really nice because the organizers ran the two- and three-star on the Gallaher Road side, where they hold the International in the fall. It was a beautiful course, bigger than I thought it would be, but Volcan handled it really well. Because he had been excited with the cross-country going on during show jumping, it took him a while to settle, but I was thrilled with him. After that I decided I was going to go to Jersey to do the CIC**, having done some cross-country schooling at home and twice with Phillip.
Volcan, photo by Janet Gallay
I have a couple of young horses belonging to Anita Antucci and they and all the other horses stayed home this winter so are just getting back into competition order. Dashwood (Nora) has been to two events so far. I was super pleased with her cross-country at both events, but I think I need to work on some local jumper shows to make that phase a little more routine. She is for sale—just a super, all-around horse for an adult amateur or young rider.
Kortina spent the winter with Roddy Strang, who worked on just giving me some more tools with her. It’s always more difficult to have a horse that’s broken so late—they’re mature physically but not mentally so it’s like riding a three-year-old in an eight-year-old’s body. I don’t highly recommend it! Anita also has a new horse, Jolie, a big Thoroughbred that we brought from Liz Milliken last year. Having spent several months turned out at Anita’s we brought her to Surefire in November and started her new career as my next upper level event horse. She has a great mind and an amazing canter, and I’m really excited to get her going. I’ve jumped her twice and she seems to have great instincts. I’m hoping that I’ll do some local shows with her and maybe have her tag along to some events before I start to compete her myself.
I also went to The Fork and Kentucky as a selector. It was great to see the Fork and get an idea of what the course is going to be for the WEG, what the horses will do. Kentucky was awesome. One, I always find going to a competition of that level inspiring and educational. Two, I thought Derek’s course was masterful. It walked hard and rode like the riders really stepped up to the challenge. As far as the American horses, I thought it was great fun to see the quality of riding. Although we didn’t win it this year, I was impressed with our level of competitiveness in all three phases. I thought Lynn Symansky and Donner had the ride of the day cross-country. It was just effortless. Lauren Kieffer on Vermiculus was also noteable. Lauren has always impressed me by being so stylish, but this time she combined style with grit. It looked to me like both horses could have gone for days! I also think my good friend Sharon White’s ride on Cooley on Show was memorable, as well as Phillip’s masterful ride on the new-to-the-four-star level Z.
At home, we’re starting to ramp up for our Surefire Horse Trials, and the mowing has begun. Tom and I haven’t been inside before dark this last week and it only gets worse from here. Tune in for what happens at Jersey and how event prep is going!
Kortina spent the winter with Roddy Strang, who worked on just giving me some more tools with her. It’s always more difficult to have a horse that’s broken so late—they’re mature physically but not mentally so it’s like riding a three-year-old in an eight-year-old’s body. I don’t highly recommend it! Anita also has a new horse, Jolie, a big Thoroughbred that we brought from Liz Milliken last year. Having spent several months turned out at Anita’s we brought her to Surefire in November and started her new career as my next upper level event horse. She has a great mind and an amazing canter, and I’m really excited to get her going. I’ve jumped her twice and she seems to have great instincts. I’m hoping that I’ll do some local shows with her and maybe have her tag along to some events before I start to compete her myself.
I also went to The Fork and Kentucky as a selector. It was great to see the Fork and get an idea of what the course is going to be for the WEG, what the horses will do. Kentucky was awesome. One, I always find going to a competition of that level inspiring and educational. Two, I thought Derek’s course was masterful. It walked hard and rode like the riders really stepped up to the challenge. As far as the American horses, I thought it was great fun to see the quality of riding. Although we didn’t win it this year, I was impressed with our level of competitiveness in all three phases. I thought Lynn Symansky and Donner had the ride of the day cross-country. It was just effortless. Lauren Kieffer on Vermiculus was also noteable. Lauren has always impressed me by being so stylish, but this time she combined style with grit. It looked to me like both horses could have gone for days! I also think my good friend Sharon White’s ride on Cooley on Show was memorable, as well as Phillip’s masterful ride on the new-to-the-four-star level Z.
At home, we’re starting to ramp up for our Surefire Horse Trials, and the mowing has begun. Tom and I haven’t been inside before dark this last week and it only gets worse from here. Tune in for what happens at Jersey and how event prep is going!
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