Surefire Eventing
  • HOME
  • SUREFIRE EVENTING
    • JAN BYYNY
    • SUREFIRE EVENT TEAM >
      • HORSES
      • SUPPORT
  • LESSONS AND CLINICS
  • SALES
  • BLOG
  • SUPPORT THE TEAM
    • SPONSORSHIP
  • CONTACT

Surefire Horse Trials, Summer Training, and Some New Horses

8/6/2019

0 Comments

 
I’m so sorry I haven’t kept this current, seems like it’s always hard to find a balance in life! We were flat out trying to get everything ready for our Surefire Horse Trials and that went off without a hitch. Thanks to all the people—family and friends—that do everything to help us out. Mother nature cooperated this year, and I think we had the best weather ever. I was sad not to have more entries, and although some thought the Essex Horse Trials wouldn’t affect us, obviously they have. Drawing from the same people in Area 2, I can see why if you’re in Pennsylvania, you would drive one-and-a-half hours for prize money instead of three plus hours to an event that’s a one-day. Essex looks like amazing event and I hope to compete there at some point, I just wish it wasn’t on the same weekend as our horse trials. All in all, though, I was super pleased with all our courses, and our footing was amazing. We’re certainly looking forward to our fall event on September 28-29 and hope weather gods are on our side once again.

We haven’t been competing a ton but have been out more than in the spring. We’re busy getting the horses ramped up or back in work, and mostly have fall goals for them. My focus right now is Fair Hill and Great Meadow in August with Helloway, a new horse of mine that we call Lilly, and Kaylin Dines’ Unbridled Numbers (Steely). I did have a horse entered at the 2-star at Maryland but he blew an abscess the day of the jog—sometimes that’s how life rolls. 
​

I've also been working on my dressage and I got another score for my silver medal this past weekend with Kaylin Dines' horse Why Not, and some great practice with Kayln's other horse, Steely, and my mare, Lilly. The weekend before that I competed Lilly and my nice four-year-old Thoroughbred, Beautiful Storm (Storm) at Hunt Club with mixed success. I went off course for the first time in my life, after I had won the dressage! My moral of this story, and what I told my students, is: don’t let anyone rush you, do your pregame check. I always go over the course in my head before I go in—the colors of the jumps and everything–and I didn’t do that.
Day to day, I’ve been working on ridability in show jumping and also on my posture, as I’m always trying to form good habits. For instance, every time I pick up canter I bring my head up, collect in the corner and then go forward, thinking about my posture and my leg. I make sure I can go forward, then collected, and then forward again. I try and continually vary my exercises, putting poles on the ground or cavaletti in two and three strides and then three and two, and then doing a lot of the same exercises cross-country. I put jumps on blind turns, because after watching Aachen, I want my horses to have the ability to be able to understand what they have to jump within two-and-a-half strides, basically a blind turn. I set up jumps where we have parking for our event, which we aerate and drag after, because I can have all the jumps in one place and I can practice varying the courses. Philip always says let the jump be the bit, and the more focus your horse has the better the ride will be, and I keep that in mind when I practice.
​
My last bit of news is I got a new lurcher puppy! Her name is Ellie May and she’s 11 weeks old and so cute!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2025
    February 2025
    November 2024
    October 2024
    June 2024
    April 2024
    February 2024
    September 2023
    July 2023
    April 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011

    RSS Feed

Website by Bright Horse Communications