Home | Contact |

Latest News:

April 24, 2007

Note: The articles below were written for: www.eventingworldwide.com

The Florida season ended well for me and the horses, and I am happy to be home!

The personal transition from living with the horses on the road to being home in the house with Tim and the demands of the teaching business is a tough one. Tim and I always look forward to getting back together and back to normal, but then when it happens it is a bit of a shock. It’s hard to share the bed instead of sleeping diagonal, it’s hard to explain (again) that “I’ll be home by 8:00” actually means “I’ll be home by 8:00 as long as the vet is not late, no one falls off, and there are no broken fence boards to repair,” and it is hard to leave some of the horse care to someone else at the end of the day. We have managed pretty well this year – only a few arguments that quickly appeared silly and fizzled out!

The horses all finished the winter season in great form. For our last event we drove north to Poplar Place Farm in Georgia with 4 horses. Tim and one of my farriers, Scott Becroft, came to lend a hand. We all stayed in the lorry, which was fun but more smelly than usual – must be a gender thing! Tim did a great job of feeding all the people, including 2 clients, and Scott was super-groom. He even braided, which impressed the girls in our stabling aisle.

I had three training level horses. My young horse Billy got his first ribbon – 6^th place. The courses were so difficult that his good jumping moved him 13 places up the leaderboard after a relaxed but unremarkable dressage put him only 18th! This kind of move is very unusual at this lower level, but it sure was fun. The two client mares were great too. Pearl, a 9 year old dutch mare, settled well and was 3^rd. Maya, a 5 year old Irish mare, went clean in her 1^st Training to finish just out of the ribbons. Her cross country was one of the most fun rounds I have ever done. She studied each question intently, moving forward with her ears up, responding to my suggestions. She trusted me and tried her best, and for the first time I really felt like we were on the same page. She gained confidence with every fence and we both enjoyed the challenge.

The biggest excitement was that Ping Pong came up to Poplar and did his first start since 2005. It was the highlight of the year to date. I am thrilled but somewhat daunted to have him back! He seems to believe that every event is the Olympics, and he completely overdoes all jobs. In dressage warm-up he strained his every cell to extend, collect, go sideways and impress the elderly warm up steward. He then blasted up the center line and collected 7s and 8s for his trots and walk. Our test then called for a walk-to-canter transition at C (tracking right), followed by a 10 m circle at B, then a 20 m medium canter circle at B. As I walked through the corner and started to think about the canter depart, I sensed an impending explosion. I decided to give him the world’s smallest canter aid (turn my head right) and to allow him to bound into a big canter instead of the required collected gait, but it didn’t work. At C he gave his best hi-ho Silver, jumped vertically into the air, and landed with the wrong hind leg forward. He became totally unhinged at being disunited, and bounced from his front legs to hind legs all the way to B and half way around the 10 m circle slammed to a halt, then bounced into the air and landed in right lead canter. They don’t call him Ping Pong for nothing! He then achieved an 8 on his medium canter and completed the rest of the test perfectly. He dragged me around cross country at warp speed, jumping perfectly. It was fun, but it must have tired me out. After clearing the standards all the way around stadium, I decided it was imperative that we jump the last line in the suggested number of strides, I rode backwards, and we pulled the final rail. No worries – he finished a close 3^rd.

Tim drove the horses straight home to Connecticut after the event, and Scott and I went back to Florida to ship the rest of the group home in the remaining two trailers. It was a tough week!

Other fun news this spring is that we have our first foal on the ground. His name is Rex and he was bred by my great friend Ali. His dam is an Irish sport pony that Ali events, and he is by Chant de Paix, a super stallion who has evented advanced, dressaged to PSG, and jumped in mini-prix. Rex is following in big brother Ping Pong’s footsteps already, causing trouble, bounding around, and making his presence felt. I can’t wait for him to grow up!