Fun Outing!

Things are going well at the farm and during the month of November we are always looking for fun things to do.. so when my bud matt flynn said Philip Dutton was coming down for a day of lessons I said sign me up!.. I took the two youngins King and Stella and was wickedly impressed with both of them. King jumped in a "prelim" group but has only done a handful of trainings and was fantastic. Wendy Furlong ( his owner) came to watch him go for the first time since king has been with me. I know I was really excited after our jump and I think Wendy was as pumped as me . I was also very happy Wendy came along bc the young pup zeppo locked himself and the keys to the truck inside the truck with his scampery paws! Wendy thankfully lent me her AAA card and the dog and was saved and access to the vehicle restored :).. Stella was also very good definitely put my neck strap and martingale on but she is quite the lady and I think was excited to have some people there to watch her brilliance :) Philip thought highly of both horses commenting on King being a very good jumper a few times and being surprised by stellas good instincts when he thought she was just going to be quite hot.

Tate is doing well in the field I brought him in and put him in a stall the other day and that lasted about 10 min .. he has gone completely mustang on us and will not put up with confinement so back out he went!.. He will start back in work Dec 1 which should be entertaining. Kelly Baily ( a student of mine) has purchased a sweet little OTT that has joined the team for the next few months to get some good basics as well as Jill Lukens sending her horse, harbour for a bit of training. Harbour is a lovely horse she literally bought right off the slaughter truck so well done Jill! Between Jills horse and my purchase of Stella it is giving me reborn hope that if you look hard you can still find a quality horse without breaking the bank ... and gotta love the Tb's!

so here are some pictures1

nigel at the royal last year

Off to The ROYAL!

By the time the end of the season rolls around I am normally ready for a little break... for about a week then im board! Fortunatly there are some extra ciricular activities that as I become a little older I have started to make an effort to be a part of. Last year I rode a horse named Showdown for a Canadian gentleman called Don Good of Good Crop Services. Little did I know that Don was the main sponsor at and Indoor Eventing Competition in Toronto. He rang me a few weeks before the event in Novemeber of last year and invited me to compete with 10 others in this exhibition event. I thought about it for about 5 sec, those 5 sec really were just spent wondering wether an indoor competition with 6,000 people in an enclosed stadiam with a horse that had a reputation for being a bit "special" would be the end of me... Then Don told me there was 10k in prize money and they put us up in a very nice hotel in Toronto so i though what the hell you only live once and this is the equivialnt of a paid vacation!

We jumped around 7:30 pm so had all day to get nervous. The course is not even set up till 12 minutes before the first horse. You litterally have you and your horse ready to jump and then run in the arena for 5 minutes, try and walk the fastest lines with the course consisting of a corner, bank, skinny, keyhole, logs and several show jumps... the music is pumping the crowd is excited and it is all a pretty big rush! The nerves are like the first time you take a baby to an event its just fear of the unknown .. I had no idea what Nigel(Showdown) was going to do or if I would even be able to get him into the stadium.. how embarrasing I drive all the way up here and am riding the Title Sponsors horse and what if Nigel just lays down in the ring! Anyway I did stuff his ears and put the biggest fuzzys I could find( off the side of a shipping halter) on the sides of his bridle and had a glass of wine to calm my nerves and off we went. Nigel was actually very good once I got his eyes off the crowd and onto the first jump he was playing the game(thank god) I couldnt go very fast bc he got really strong and he is huge but he jumped 2 clear rounds i believe only 2 of us did that, and finished in 3rd overall.

Well its that time again and I am off to the Royal for a second time tomorrow. I am catch riding a horse of a fellow eventer that lives outside Toronto. Myself and Dana(a friend and the lady who ownes the farm I am at) will head out at 5 am and will head to the farm so I can have a test ride tomorrow evening before the show starts on Friday night. Doug Payne, Holly Payne and Chizzy Wilmerding are heading up aswell, and pretty much the whole Canadian WEG team will be there..I am pumped... This weekend although a little wild and who knows what will happen is a definetly a way to keep up the adrenaline in the off season! I will send pics from the road... CIAO CIAO!