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.
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!
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