I hope everyone had a great New Year and holiday season, I did! Tom and I enjoyed being with my family and had a blast skiing for five days. I got home on January 2nd, packed up and drove down to Aiken on the 3rd to set up, and by the evening of the 4th, Surefire south was open for business. I’d like to give a huge shout-out to Adolfo and Alissa for all their packing, to Tom, his brother, Jimmy, and his friend, Carl, for loading 150 bales of hay in 20 minutes, and to MJ transport, who once again shipped all the horses beautifully. We have a great crew: Adolfo, who runs the whole barn; Alissa Ricapito, who’s here for the Aiken season with her horse; and Madlen Lesesen, who’s here for her J term from Randolph Macon and will stay until the 5th of February.
We got to Aiken and the weather was great at first but then we had three days of freezing cold. Coming from Virginia it wasn’t too bad; there were snowflakes in the sky but they didn’t touch the ground. Since I didn’t go to Wellington this year, I’d entered the event at Stable View, which is quite early, and I had to get ready to compete! In Aiken, we’re lucky because we have The Vista, where we can cross-country school, gallop, and do dressage or show jumping. The whole facility is irrigated and run really professionally, allowing our horses be up and ready to run.
I ran Volcan, Dashwood (Nora) and Francesca’s, Cooley High Flyer, at Stable View, Dashwood and Volcan in the Training and Cooley in the the Novice. All of them were quite good. Volcan ended second, and I think he’s almost ready for Preliminary. Other than a steering mishap on cross-country with Cooley, when I couldn’t turn, everything else was great.
Inmidair (JR) is galloping five miles and starting to jump and I’ve entered him at Pine Top in the Preliminary. Who knows what’s going to happen, I’m taking it day by day, but I’m certainly having a lot of fun riding him! Urrem (Rem) is feeling well and is enjoying the Aiken (mostly) sunshine. In my 14 years of coming down here it’s never been this warm or this nice. The girls and Francesca compete this weekend at Full Gallop, and my horses will do Stable View Tuesday and Wednesday.
It was great to see Phillip on the weekend and get some great help from him. We’re all thinking about Phillip, Evie, Leelee, Olivia, Mary and Richie, praying for them and hoping we can help them stay strong.
I’ve also had a couple lessons with Boyd and I really enjoyed his attention to detail. He reminded me about being precise in my position, and to make sure I ride all sides of the horse.
My goal this year is to concentrate on what I do well and not sweat the small stuff—I’ll let you know how it’s going!
We got to Aiken and the weather was great at first but then we had three days of freezing cold. Coming from Virginia it wasn’t too bad; there were snowflakes in the sky but they didn’t touch the ground. Since I didn’t go to Wellington this year, I’d entered the event at Stable View, which is quite early, and I had to get ready to compete! In Aiken, we’re lucky because we have The Vista, where we can cross-country school, gallop, and do dressage or show jumping. The whole facility is irrigated and run really professionally, allowing our horses be up and ready to run.
I ran Volcan, Dashwood (Nora) and Francesca’s, Cooley High Flyer, at Stable View, Dashwood and Volcan in the Training and Cooley in the the Novice. All of them were quite good. Volcan ended second, and I think he’s almost ready for Preliminary. Other than a steering mishap on cross-country with Cooley, when I couldn’t turn, everything else was great.
Inmidair (JR) is galloping five miles and starting to jump and I’ve entered him at Pine Top in the Preliminary. Who knows what’s going to happen, I’m taking it day by day, but I’m certainly having a lot of fun riding him! Urrem (Rem) is feeling well and is enjoying the Aiken (mostly) sunshine. In my 14 years of coming down here it’s never been this warm or this nice. The girls and Francesca compete this weekend at Full Gallop, and my horses will do Stable View Tuesday and Wednesday.
It was great to see Phillip on the weekend and get some great help from him. We’re all thinking about Phillip, Evie, Leelee, Olivia, Mary and Richie, praying for them and hoping we can help them stay strong.
I’ve also had a couple lessons with Boyd and I really enjoyed his attention to detail. He reminded me about being precise in my position, and to make sure I ride all sides of the horse.
My goal this year is to concentrate on what I do well and not sweat the small stuff—I’ll let you know how it’s going!
Thinking of Leelee!
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