Blog Posts

End-of-Season Competition and Off-Season Practice

12/24/2022

We finished our season with Sara Schulman attempting her first two-star long with her Cooley Chromatic, which seems like months ago because time is flying! Caden, as we call him, had a beautiful dressage, and cross-country was mainly good—I thought he handled the hill well, and jumped amazing. Unfortunately, at the second to last down the steep hill, there was a sharp turn to an upright skinny and they never quite got their balance back to make it work. Caden got under the jump and jumped Sara out of the saddle, which sucked for Sarah. If you’re not winning you’re learning, right?

Sarah also rode a client’s horse, Merlo VDL, and did a great job. They were fourth after dressage, with one down in show jumping in the pouring rain with no studs, jumping around in a beautiful rhythm.

Now we’re in the part of season where we’re practicing how to get balance, and I’m teaching tons of clinics. At home, my friend Sue Lyman has been helping me work on shortening and lengthening at the trot and canter, and making transitions from trot to canter to counter-canter and back to the trot and back to the true canter again. We also work on balance in the turns and making sure our horses are listening to us…duh, the basics.

Sometimes I feel we get too far away from the basics. One exercise we do is going in an open five stride line to a short turn to an oxer, then coming back to the trot over a small jump. I think this is a good time to practice all those things because sometimes, I think we get away from making sure we’re connected, relaxed and responsive, and we have really good positions with our heels down and chin up. I used to look to Reed Kessler to model great position, and now I think about Jenny Brannigan. A good position can help us react quicker and get balance done early.

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Maryland Three-Star Long

11/5/2022

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I had a really amazing, fun weekend with Beautiful Storm at the 3-Star Long at Maryland. First, it was such a nice competition, and so great to have it held basically right in our backyard. I wasn’t sure as I started this year that it was going to be my goal, but I began to think I would do it and it’s nice when a plan works. I don’t know if you remember that I bought Storm as three-year-old who’d raced ten times from Jessica Redman. It’s amazing to bring up a horse from that stage of their career to where he is right now. Sometimes you have to remind yourself that they’re not a baby any more and that you have to train them, because he’s kind of like my little best friend.

I was super lucky because my mom and sister came to support me, Sara Shuman groomed for me, and then on Saturday, Laila Martin and Marlene Lyons came to help as well. I also had my great cheering squad from Vermont. My dressage warm-up was both the best work I’ve ever done, and some of the worst work I’ve ever had as far as Storm's tongue and the bit go. I wouldn’t say he felt nervous, but the connection was difficult. Other than Tuesday night, when I first got to Maryland and Storm found everything so impressive (I could hardly walk him), he otherwise never felt nervous and I was impressed with how he handled the whole competition. My test went better than expected, which is always a nice thing. Although I always have trouble with connection, which is a work in progress, and Storm still needs more strength in the canter, I can feel it coming together.

I was so excited when I walked the cross-country Wednesday afternoon for the first time, and couldn’t wait to get to gallop Storm. With the rain on Thursday the footing was ideal, and I knew he could answer all the questions and lucky for me, he did and I could ride to plan.

I thought the show jumping was quite technical, plus Storm had a little cut on the right side of his mouth and my connection was worse than normal because of that. I thought I could have ridden with better connection and more power the whole course, and had three down behind—the first was Storm’s, the second at the oxer in the final line was mine lacking power, and the third was the next jump that he took behind as well because he got a little inverted. It’s amazing how much the connection, starting with flatwork, always plays a huge part and shows up when you least expect it or when your horse is most vulnerable.

I’m so excited to see what Storm and my future brings and I’m so proud of him! He received the seven-year-old 2022 USEF Young Horse Eventing National Championship Reserve Champion. Storm’s currently on vacation trying to arrange his rugs every day because he’s so bored and thinks he’s done something wrong because he doesn’t have all the attention. He might have to start hacking next week…

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Old Tavern

9/29/2022

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Fall blew in on the 21st and I think with the weather the horses are ready for some action—they’re all a bit fuzzy and feral!

We took the whole Surefire Event Team to Old Tavern last weekend and it was super fun. I did Cash, or Collection Box, for first time since July and he was foot-perfect. It’s amazing how much more broke and strong he’s become. He was second after dressage and stayed that way. He’s such a beautiful horse to ride.

Thanks, once again, to Janet Gallay for all the great photos!

Cash (Collection Box)

Storm continues to impress me. We’re getting ready for the 3-long at Maryland, so this was our last run. There were some good things in dressage, and some bad, so that’s still a work in progress. He had one down show jumping going into the triple and I think I could have balanced him a little more beforehand. He was super cross-country, fun and very smart!

Sara continues to impress as well, and improve with her Cooley Chromatic. I didn’t see her dressage, which she said wasn’t accurate enough and could have been more connected, maybe partially due to her doing two competitions in a large arena and then being back in a small, and her score was affected. She had two down in show jumping, one hers and one his, but overall a lot of great things and this is the first time she was able to add speed to cross-country and still have great rhythm, so that was super fun. Sara finished 6th.

Marlene, my right hand, did her first competition of the year in the Novice with her horse Manchester (Manny). She had the best connection she’s had yet in the dressage, a beautiful round in show jumping, and finished cross-country on her dressage score.

Marlene and Manny (Manchester)

The highlight of the weekend was Inmidair (JR) and Maddie Wood-Lewis, who’s been leasing him until we find a horse for her. (If anyone has a good 2-star horse for sale, let me know. Just remember, Maddie’s been riding JR and loves that feel, just not the budget for a horse like him, LOL!) I think her dressage could have been a little better if she’d allowed more time to warm up, as JR was definitely having a party in his pants going down center line. Maybe he thought he was at Kentucky again, who knows? Jumping he was foot perfect, and JR told me we’d made his year. He doesn’t know it but he’ll be out again at Morven Park and I can’t wait until then.

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Competition Report

9/13/2022

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Time is flying like always—I can’t believe it’s September! Things have been going along well, and I was lucky to do the 3-star short at Great Meadow with Beautiful Storm and Sara (Schulman) was able to do the Preliminary with her horse as well. My sister, Kristen, came out for five days which was super fun because she hadn’t seen me compete since the World Games in 2006. She also hadn’t ridden for 36 years and Kaylin Dines was nice enough to let her ride Volcan. It was super fun to be with her and she looked like she hadn’t missed a day. If you know me at all, of course we’re going to do more than walk, trot and canter, and of course, Kristen was in her tennies!

At Great Meadow, Sara started out with her dressage on Thursday and had a seamless and beautiful test. She put all the things we’ve been working on together and tied for third after the first phase. Her horse, Cooley Chromatic, will soon be the winner. I did my dressage Friday. Storm is a funny horse—he’d had a bit of a busy week and was a little back sore, which made it hard for him to stay connected or through and steady in the contact. Whoopsie! I was lucky that Sally Spinard came to help and keep me to a dull roar when he felt so disconnected. It’s disheartening when you warm up and don’t feel your horse is the best he can be, but that is the sport. The nice thing about Storm is that he handled the atmosphere like a champ.

Sara Schulman and Cooley Chromatic above, Beautiful Storm in the showjumping below.

Sara did her showjumping and cross country and had one down though she rode in a beautiful rhythm. On cross-country he was the most rideable he’s been and was so fun to watch. David O’Connor, who loves Sara’s horse, asked if she’d give him to him to ride. Storm was great in the show jumping, even though I had two down behind, I thought the first was his fault as he has a bit of a funny style if he’s a little deep. The second was my fault—I was a little too strong coming into the combination, a five-stride vertical to vertical one—and ran out of room. I allowed him to be a little open and never adjusted enough. I have to remember how big his stride is! The triple was my favorite part of the course. Storm jumped in and I felt meter-40 scope, most Thoroughbreds don’t have that and he made me smile. Sara ended up sixth 6th. She didn’t make the time on cross-country but stayed in rhythm. My cross-country was Sunday. I liked the course, and felt they did a good job with the footing. My plan was to not worry about time, I wasn’t going to win, Storm just needed the experience. It turned out I was just one second over! Our worst fence was #5 because I rode a distance, not the rhythm, and Storm was a bit surprised by the terrain change at the log but ate up the rest of course. I could have gone twice as fast, it was easy to make the time, and I felt going uphill after 9 ABC, he could have hit a whole other gear. I could have easily gone 20 seconds faster. I would have loved to be more competitive but so proud of my horse!

Next, Sara and I went to Five Points Horse Trials. I wanted to go there so Storm could see a different course and I’d forgotten how nice that event is! We had a great weekend. Sara started us out with her dressage and I didn’t get to see it but she thought it was on par with Great Meadow’s test, other than the buck in the medium counter! The judge didn’t agree with that but because we were so close in times, I didn’t get to see or help her.
Storm was much better than at Great Meadow and his dressage is going in the right direction for now! We got a lot of rain in the afternoon but all we had to do was walk our courses and prepare for the next day. The show jumping course was designed by Mark Donovan and it was awesome. Both of our horses had great rounds, though again, I didn’t get to help Sarah because of our close times. Luckily, Sara was able to help me and Storm was the best he has been yet! I think I also had the best cross-country round I’ve had with him, although I did have a little drift to the right at the second corner, more than I should’ve. Not that it mattered as I had the pin at the gate at 14. I’m not sure what happened because I felt I’d done a good job of preparing and was in a good balance, and he didn’t even hit it that hard. Sara had a great cross-country and I did get to watch that. She’s started to work on being able to keep the same balance and go for time! The courses were big but rode well.

The only bummer of the weekend was our beautiful dog, Ella Mae, was hit by a car on Sunday and we had to bury her. Tom, Teddy, and I are heartbroken and gutted.

Next up is Old Tavern, and then hopefully the three-long at Maryland for Storm. My young horse, Cash, has been great—he’ll do Old Tavern and Morven to finish up the year. Sara is trying to get ready to do the 2-long at Virginia, and with any luck we’ll see JR at Old Tavern and Morven with Maddie Wood-Lewis.

Back at it—Inmidair (JR) and Maddie getting ready to compete.

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Summer

8/16/2022

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It’s amazing that it’s already the middle of August, where did the time go? We’ve been super lucky with the weather this summer, with some heat but also a lot of rain, so the footing for the most part has been great. Storm has now successfully done three Intermediates. The first one, at Maryland, he won, though he was not super in all three phases. He was fine in dressage, just a little stiff. In the show jumping, Storm thought the jumps were bigger but jumped quite well, and he handled all the cross-country exercises in spite of the pouring rain. We were helped a bit because we got pulled up by mistake on cross-country and I ended having less time than others because there wasn’t a watch on me.

I decided to run back-to-back Maryland weekends to see if Storm was still confident and he was. His dressage was good, we had a rail in show jumping, and on cross-country he was a little lazy but still direct about his job.

This last weekend he ran at Fair Hill and was great! Our morning started off a little hard because he lost a hind shoe and the farrier wasn't there, in fact, he didn't get there until 9:25 and my time was 9:03! The organizers put me at the end of the division, and I had ten minutes warm-up before going in. Unfortunately, I forgot to take off Storm's hind bell boots so I got an error. We had a beautiful show jumping except that I let him swap to the right lead at the last combination, which disrupted his rhythm and he added one, so I had a rail down. Poor Storm! His cross-country was great—getting much more consistent in his rhythm and pace. Sometimes I do get too much in my hand and he throws his head, but all-in-all I'm super happy with him. Hopefully we’ll do the 3-star at Great Meadow. After that, I’ll make plan for the rest of the fall. It’s pretty exciting to have horse at the Intermediate level again. He makes me feel proud of him all the time, especially since I’ve had him since he was three.

Cash, my other, newer, Thoroughbred, has now done a couple Novices with me and Sara. You can’t beat his brain, so it’s been fun for both Sara and I to share in responsibilities and the ride, and to bring up such a beautiful horse. I took him over to David O’Connors to do some flatwork and handled eight horses in one ring jumping and flatting without batting an eye—doesn’t get better than that! I’d like to give a huge shout out to Natalie Wales, who I bought him from. He’s just going to spend the fall getting stronger and more educated as he’s quite weak at six and raced just last December. He just needs time to develop.

Kaylin’s horses have been going well in the jumpers and are starting two weeks of HITS.

Tom and I were lucky enough to go with his sister and brother-in-law to Canada for four days of incredible fishing. It’s so amazing when you can wake up, get in a boat, be on a on lake, see no other people and enjoy nature and everything it has to offer. It’s always nice to do something out of the ordinary. Our flights were a little chaotic because of cancellations, but when you’re served lemons, you just have to make lemonade!

I’m super excited for the fall season, and just enjoying my horses, the clinics I’ve been teaching, and life!

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Storm Update and a Five-Star Report

7/5/2022

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It's been a long time since an update, but all the horses have been going well. For me, Storm has gotten better and better every competition, even the last one at Middleburg Horse Trials, where I felt like I had ride-ability and responsiveness in all three phases, which is a good thing because I’m moving up to Intermediate at both Marylands! I'm excited. I think the ride-ability is always tricky in that they need to follow your hand and still find connection without getting backwards. Although I have experimented a lot with different bits, it's never about the bit, is it? It’s always about the ability to go forward and come back and still have them stay in front of you. After all, it is their job to jump the jump, and it’s our job to have the right line, the right rhythm, and a really strong position. Storm has always been so offended about me having a conversation, and most of the time when I take the reins, his first answer is, not you again, and his head goes up. I'm always working on being able to find the balance of forward enough and not offended about what I do with the reins. And clearly, that's the name of the game with Storm.

I’ve been so fortunate to go to Kentucky, Badminton and Luhmuhlen. I wasn’t selector at Badminton, but went with my friend, Susan. I feel it's important to have impressions of the top courses and horses. It’s a funny thing because the dressage now is so tight that the time in the cross-country and the time and faults for the show jumping can be hugely influential. I thought that Kentucky walked harder than I’ve seen it, but at the end of the day, the best of the best made it look easy. Watching Badminton, and walking it, it’s amazing how you realize that in Europe and England, horses are just a way of life. I don’t think I’ve ever walked a course at the 5-star level and found it to be so intense. It was relentless all the way to the end.

Then at Luhmuhlen, there was a completely different track yet again, with flatter terrain and quite narrow roping both out in the fields and in the wooded tracks. All the distances walked pretty normal, other than 11 ABC, the three vertical gates that had a different feel than the rest of the course. I was surprised when they started the competition and the first three horses fell—the first at the gates, the other two at other fences— how hard the course rode. It’s hard to qualify difficulty because we are talking the 5-star level, with the German Championship at the 4-star. Watching it live, especially sitting where I could see fences 6-11 and still see the big screen, was a huge education in itself. It was apparent just how fast you had to go to get the time and still be accurate.

I thought all three show jump tracks from Kentucky, Badminton and Luhmuhlen were good tracks, but I would say that Luhmuhlen had the atmosphere and the height and the technical aspects that, combined with the time allowed being tight, put more pressure on the riders and was even more influential. You realize why Kentucky is so hard for many of the horses and riders because we don’t have that kind of speed and accuracy pressure often in the US. In my mind, if you want to educate yourself as an American rider, don’t spend a ton of money to fly your horse over, just go watch, so that before you apply for a championship or nations cup like Aachen or Boekelo, you understand what’s being asked of the horses and riders and what it takes to get that done. You'll need to be able to ride forward, hold the line and have your horse stay with you. And you'll need to have a cool enough head to care about all the details, and not care. I have been impressed with the riders that have spent the money and the time to start to educate themselves about the best in the world, because that's the only way to get better.

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Ocala Comes to an End

3/24/2022

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I can’t believe that my Christmas and winter in Florida have all kind of melted into one. I’ve had a great time in Florida but left for home yesterday and leave for a clinic in Colorado today. We had had three girls—Sara Schulman, Casey Little and Ella MacMaster—helping who were with me all winter and were a great group to work with. They were super organized, rode really well, and were just fun to be around! So thank you to them.

Casey helping with Kaylin's horses Urrem, Unbridled Numbers and Volcan

Urrem in a lesson at Will Coleman's

Kaylin Dines had some great placings in the high adult jumpers with her horses Unbridled Numbers, Urrem and Volcan. My own Storm has gotten better and better, thank you so much to Mike Huber, Lynn Symansky and Baron Heilbron for helping me with him. My newest Thoroughbred, Collection Box, has done his first couple cross-country schools and dressage lessons and is even better than I’d hoped!

The weather and the ability to train, lesson, school and compete in Ocala makes the winter really productive here. I'd like to give a huge shout-out to Mike and Cherye Huber for hosting my horses again this year. They’re so great to deal with and great friends. And of course thanks to Marnick Farm and Susan and Barton Merle-Smith—I'm so lucky to have them as friends and stay with them.

Barton and Tom in their fish taco outfits!

I'm super excited for what the rest of year has to bring and I can’t wait to go to Land Rover Kentucky, Badminton and Luhmuhlen. I'm also looking forward to having more adventures with Kaylin and her horses and my own horses. But mostly, it's so great to see Tom and the dogs. I'll try not to wait so long to post again!

Ellie Mae!

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End of the Season

12/13/2021

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I can’t believe it’s December! I tried something new this year as far as my end-of-year competitions go, and finished Storm at Mid-South in Lexington, Kentucky in the 2-star long. It was a great competition, my only wish is that they had used the proper rings instead of the old in-field for the dressage. Everything else about the competition was great, though. Even with that being said, the dressage was still good footing, just not the Kentucky rings. I was so pleased with Storm in all three phases, and he gave me one of his best tests, and was clear and in time on cross-country, making it feel easy. Although I had rail down behind going into the triple in show jumping, it was one of the most ridable rounds I’ve had. I was disappointed because it dropped him in the placing, but I wasn’t disappointed in him, he’s so fun.

I had the pleasure of going to the new 5-star at Maryland as a Selector and was so impressed! If you didn’t see it, I recommend you go next year. I was shocked how different the property looked and what a good job they did in all aspects. In my mind, Maryland could rival Badminton or Burghley. The courses were amazing! The only thing I wish had been offered was more food choices on-grounds to accommodate the amount of people who attended, but that’s a great problem to have and easy to fix. Being near a college town, there were lots of options for dinner and hotels, so that was nice.

I also went to Tryon as a Selector, and I would say having gone to Morven for the 4-star long and short, and Tryon for the 4-star long and short, you couldn’t actually compare the courses because you would be comparing apples and oranges. I thought Morven was amazing and the education it gave the horses with the use of the terrain and the design, was like a 4.5-star compared to Tryon’s 3.5-star. Atmosphere is important at these big events, but if the only atmosphere you have is in dressage as it was at Tryon, it almost feels unfair.

It’s interesting in my mind that we’re getting ready to select for next year’s WEG and we’re selecting from two completely different competitions—how do you do that? I can see horses and riders going well at Morven and then going on to Kentucky. Mark Phillips is always so creative, but I felt Tryon was much less technical than it was the year before, making it harder to see that path to a 5-star. Derek did Morven and it was amazing, though I hope they can step up their atmosphere to match the courses. If you want to know if you have a 5-star horse, go to Morven, it’s an education in course design and fitness and will only make your horse better if that’s what you’re aiming for.

I’m all ready to spend Christmas with my family like I do every year, and I can’t wait. I got myself an early present and her name is Invito (above), who I own with my parents. I call her Vida in the barn. She is the sweetest, most lovable horse to be around and I enjoy riding her every day. She’s a good mover and jumper, and thank you Buck Davidson for selling her to me. I can’t wait to have fun with her and am so excited for myself and my parents. After the holidays I’ll go to Ocala for a couple months. Hopefully everyone has a happy holiday season, and I’ll see you in the new year!

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Fall Competitions

10/8/2021

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It’s been a little bit since I blogged last, and it’s hard for me to believe we’re right into fall now. I did get to go on a nice vacation to Mexico in August with my whole family. It was super fun to see my nephews and nieces, and to spend time with my Mom and Dad. Unfortunately, Tom and Rich couldn’t come because of work, so that was a big bummer.

Storm has been super fun and he’s really starting to get a little more mature in his thinking, and though he still lacks some strength, it’s all going in the right direction. Because I was gone to Mexico I decided to run him at Waredaca the weekend before Great Meadow. It was actually quite a good course for Storm because it had a nice flow with some good exercises that in my mind set him up perfectly for the next weekend.

I was super pleased with Storm at his first 2-star. Great Meadow is always impressive because the rings have a good atmosphere plus beautiful footing. He had a nice dressage test, he just broke from the canter because of lack of strength (and a little bit because of his laid-back attitude), so our score suffered a bit. We had really nice show jump and he was super all the way around. Of course cross-country day was incredibly humid, but Storm handled that like a champ to just have two time penalties. I though the second water, with the log into it, was quite a big effort to the corner out, and again, Storm handled it really well, showing me how much he’s matured.

Old Tavern Horse Trials at Great Meadow

I did a day at the local jumper show and Kaitlyn’s two and Storm were all double clean—it was super practice! Volcan and Kaitlyn were fourth in the speed and third in the classic. Next I ran the Preliminary at Old Tavern at Great Meadow and again, Storm had beautiful trot work, nice halts, but was maybe a little green in the canter still though working in the right direction. He was double-clean in show jumping and had just two time to finish second. This weekend we’re at the CCI-2 short for six-year-olds at Morven so wish me luck!

We have a lot of fun things coming up this month: I get to attend the 5-star at Maryland as a selector and then my plan is to do the 2-star long at Kentucky at the Horse Park with Storm. I finish the month teaching a clinic at Platinum Farms for Rochelle Constanza. I love going there because she and her husband, Nick, have done a great job with their cross-country course, and the bonus is I get to see my parents!

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Summer

7/23/2021

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I’ve been super busy this summer with the horses. I went backwards a little bit with Storm after talking with Phillip, just to fill in some of the holes in his training, and decided to compete three weekends in a row—Louden Training, Loch Moy Modified (and snuck to a jumper show on Wednesday), then back up to Preliminary at Loch Moy 2. It was actually a super easy progression and thank goodness the footing wasn’t as hard as it is now because I would have had to modify my plans if that were the case. It’s amazing how quickly Storm got some good experience and how mature he finished cross-country at Loch Moy. Thank you Janet Gallay for the photos below.

Being able to do the jumpers at HITS and other venues has been a lot of fun and a great experience for all the horses. I find it extremely helpful for them to get in the ring again and again for several days of progressive jumping and not just single rounds as we have in Eventing. I’m so proud of student Kaylin Dines and her Urrem, who won the Classic at HITS Culpepper, and Volcan, who was second with Kaylin. She has really found her stride with both horses and it’s been so much fun to help her and watch her progress. As a bonus, I still get to ride her horses a bit.

I’ve been lucky enough to have Ella MacMaster, who is from Woodstock, Vermont, join us for the summer. She was with Clayton during all the restricted Covid months, and she’ll be heading back to finish school this fall and then hopefully go on to vet school. She has a young Thoroughbred that has been super fun to help her with, plus, if you haven’t noticed, Inmidair (JR) has been competing with Ella, which makes all of us smile. That tells you how special I think Ella is, because as we all know, JR is my heart horse.

Earlier this week, I taught in Vermont for a couple days and visited with my friends, Susan and Barton Merle-Smith at their High Wind Farm. Then, I headed to the Green Mountain Horse Association (GMHA) to help teach at the Area 1 Young Rider Camp. Until next time!

I love Horse Pilot clothing, for nice weather...and not so nice!

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