Well the past week has been actually a lot of fun. With Doug out of the country myself,chrissy. megan(dougs w/s) Holly ( no Matt bc he was stuck transporting a horse in Holland!),Sam ( Holly and Matts w/s) Dick and Marilyn Payne brought the Holiday Season in with at Trash Can Turkey!. You might say "what!|??" but Dougs dad read about how to make a trash can turkey in the drive way in an hour and a half.. so of course we all showed up to see this .. litterally a metal trash can turned upside down with coals on top and all around basically steamed the turkey to perfection. Marilyn made sure she cooked another turkey just in case that one didnt work out( not that she had any doubts :)!!). .. But it kicked off a very fun weekend.
As you can see in the pics above Melonie, her daughter sophie and I had a great time with echo. Echo is a windfall baby that I only started a few weeks ago and he has been such a treat! Sophie was home for the long weekend and got up and rode as did melonie! 10 rides in and he is already the perfect little dude so we had a lot of laughs and enjoyed the chilly mornings playing with this little 3 year old.
Sat. Night there was a party at my barn for Dana and Sean's ( the owners of Hart Farm) Nanny Teda at a house down the street which was really fun! Dana is mostly involved with hunter/jumpers and its a shame our worlds dont cross more bc i really enjoyed chatting with the gang at this shindig!.. Then from there was onto Dick and Marilyns again for a party Holly was throwing to show videos and pictures from her trip to England. She had a lot of local support to raise money to fly herself and her horse abroad and this was a thankyou dinner. It was very interesting, everyone was so excited and iterested in all the little details that, we as trainers/riders do everyday and find so ordinary. It really opened my eyes that pictures really do say 1000 words and the pictures and videos she has were priceless for those who helped her on her journey but didnt get to actually take the trip.. point noted!
So the weekend closed with a leftover turkey dinner for matt and doug to enjoy since both of them missed thanksgiving.. but the two of them a bit jet lagged the rest of us stuffed and tired were all thankful we were in pleasent quiet company that didnt mind the fact that all of us just sat, had some food shared a few stories and off to bed by 8:30.. ..
on that note.. hope everyone had a happy turkey day and ...goodnight x
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
This blog might not so light i apoligize ahead of time! My first ride today was a dressage school on Nigel... Nigel i love and my he holds my heart in most conversations but if i were to be honest id say he is such a trier but i cant get through to him on the flat. I can get him to be obidient but not competitive against the horses that are holding our sport to a high level today. I always get excited and chrissy or friends will ask how was nigel and i say "he was great, for nigel" but today something got through to him and he was just great. Compared to any horse Nigel was a star, it took all i had not be in tears at 8 in the morning bc weather he gives me that at an event or not i felt like today he understood me and for that i was thankful...next in my day i traveled to my friend, melonie downt the road. Melonie had a 3 year old windfall baby. I started Echo a little over a week ago. Melonie and her family lost her husband and her childrens father a little less than a year ago to a heart attack. Melonie gave me her sons ( who is at law school) car, a little 325 bmw in return for starting her horse, because money isnt something to be frivously spent. Today her daughter, Cloey came to see echos progress. Cloey was excited and couldnt stop smiling,as I held Echo while she got on she said " I have been waiting for this for 3 and 1/2 years. She was so happy. I stood lunging her on the baby, her and her mom brought into the world 3 and 1/2 years ago and I felt I was part of something that was bringing a smile and love to a family that had seen alot of pain in the past year. I drove away thinking " I love my job"
The last thing that made me thankful in my day was around 12:30pm when i was in the indoor helping chrissy on amatoro and riding Geoffrey. Doug sent me a message from Ireland ( where he has been for the last week foxhunting) saying he had a rotational fall on a 4 y/o jumping a 3 board fence with barb wire. Rotational falls rarley end well, I have had 2. The first both the horse and I ended up fine, alittle concussion and that was about it. The second my luck ran out, I lost my horse. This was one of the most terrifying and saddest moments of my life. I lost myself for a while after this. Now I try and identify moments that luck was on my side and thank god or whoever you would like to for those moments. Today I am very thankful that after a rotational fall Doug and his horse are fine. Doug has hurt his shoulder but nothing alittle surpass and advil wont help. I am taking this night to be thankful for my wonderful horses,my family,my friends and health .. please do the same
The last thing that made me thankful in my day was around 12:30pm when i was in the indoor helping chrissy on amatoro and riding Geoffrey. Doug sent me a message from Ireland ( where he has been for the last week foxhunting) saying he had a rotational fall on a 4 y/o jumping a 3 board fence with barb wire. Rotational falls rarley end well, I have had 2. The first both the horse and I ended up fine, alittle concussion and that was about it. The second my luck ran out, I lost my horse. This was one of the most terrifying and saddest moments of my life. I lost myself for a while after this. Now I try and identify moments that luck was on my side and thank god or whoever you would like to for those moments. Today I am very thankful that after a rotational fall Doug and his horse are fine. Doug has hurt his shoulder but nothing alittle surpass and advil wont help. I am taking this night to be thankful for my wonderful horses,my family,my friends and health .. please do the same
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
On the way home
Well all very exciting! Nigel finished 3 over all! Penny 1 waylon 2 nigel 3 . I'm so glad we made the trip up north. The event was fantastic the people were so nice I had a great time really spending some time with Canada s up and coming riders Diana Burnett Jess pheonix karl s and several others. Don Good nigels owner and sponsor of the indoor eventing could not have been a more gracious host and I think he was very happy with the nig! So this will be an annual event we will be attending and I would strongly reccomend to take a visit there next Nov to see it yourself!
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Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
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Monday, November 9, 2009
Nigel
Nigel was awesome!! Only clear round!! Finished 4th tonight but I'm excited about tomorrow bc I was pretty worried about tonight and all the atmosphere so rode a bit conservative but tomorrow we are gonna bring it!!
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Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel
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Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Very Exciting News!!
I got an email yesterday saying tate and I are on the High Performance List!! Which basically means the short list for USET. They create an A and B list every spring and fall that consist of horses that are not only qualified for a Team Competition ( Olympics,Worlds,Pan Ams) but are very selective of the quality of horse .. only choosing horse and rider combinations they feel would be competitive and have the potential to medal for the country. So it is a real compliment and im so lucky to be teamed up with the Tater he really is such a star! The next team competition are the World Games 2010. These lists will be re-evaluated after spring three days (Rolex,badminton,Jersey Fresh) and that list will be what the WEG team is chosen from. The High Performance horse and rider combinations will have top focus in training and grants to help get to the final list that will be chosen in the late spring.
Other exciting news is that Nigel and I were invited to compete in the Royal Fair in Toronto,Canada next week. There are basically 12 riders that compete in a $10,000 indoor eventing competition. We compete on Monday night and Tues night. The course is a combo show jumps and cross country jumps. If you have a rail its converted to time 4 sec added to your total time to complete the course. At the end of both rounds the pair with the fastest time combined will win! It is in a coliseum that can hold 6000 people hopefully Nigel keep his eyeballs on the job!! Don Good owns Nigel and is a major sponsor of the Event so it would be fun if he did well. Ill take pictures on my phone and keep the blog updated! supposed to be a lot of fun!!
Other exciting news is that Nigel and I were invited to compete in the Royal Fair in Toronto,Canada next week. There are basically 12 riders that compete in a $10,000 indoor eventing competition. We compete on Monday night and Tues night. The course is a combo show jumps and cross country jumps. If you have a rail its converted to time 4 sec added to your total time to complete the course. At the end of both rounds the pair with the fastest time combined will win! It is in a coliseum that can hold 6000 people hopefully Nigel keep his eyeballs on the job!! Don Good owns Nigel and is a major sponsor of the Event so it would be fun if he did well. Ill take pictures on my phone and keep the blog updated! supposed to be a lot of fun!!
Monday, November 2, 2009
VA HT
I was so pleased with the horses at VA but unfortunately the scores don't really show it. Racer did a perfect Little 28 in the dressage only to be technically eliminated for my whip being to long! This whip I have used all season and has been measured numerous times and always been approved.. it even has a green strip on it reading 110 cm but there was a little tassel type thing on the end that put it slightly over and no one caught it before.. nothing I could do about it other than be really mad! but there wasn't really anyone to be mad at .. I still show jumped and he put in a hunter clear but due to the rain(theme of the season) They wouldn't let me go xc o well.. He is now out in the field at home with Barb in va and will pick work back up in January. Nigel was great! he was typical Nigel on the flat tried hard but just gets nervous in that little box.. the xc was the prelim Olympics and although Nigel has gone advanced he has not jumped a log since April.. i stopped in middleburg on the was to VA HT to xc school and he was good but i was not expecting such a massive prelim so i didn't school that much. He was very good though I tried a new bit and it seems to get through to him.. he is still strong but i can get him back if i really need to which is nice.. Sj he was very good to not to be a complainer but the course i thought was really unfair.. twisty and turny with multiple roll backs that you couldn't help but yank on there faces but he was very tolerant and jumped very well.
So Im taking Geoffrey in tomorrow to get re-scoped to make sure his ulcers are all gone and then hopefully he will start back into work. Tater still gets another month off and has had his hind shoes pulled. We also have a new comer to the barn for the month. Amatoro, is a 4 year old Lucitano I started for Cindy Sty's. He is coming to boot camp for the month so Cindy feels confident with him over the winter. He is a sharp little dude but he really wants to be good so I think it will be fun getting him used to life at the farm!
So Im taking Geoffrey in tomorrow to get re-scoped to make sure his ulcers are all gone and then hopefully he will start back into work. Tater still gets another month off and has had his hind shoes pulled. We also have a new comer to the barn for the month. Amatoro, is a 4 year old Lucitano I started for Cindy Sty's. He is coming to boot camp for the month so Cindy feels confident with him over the winter. He is a sharp little dude but he really wants to be good so I think it will be fun getting him used to life at the farm!
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