tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79523105558339791652024-03-12T17:07:34.675-07:00Defying Gravity EventingHome of Professional Event Rider, Courtney SendakDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-71424348229075797052012-09-06T20:11:00.001-07:002012-09-06T20:22:20.575-07:00Living the Dream<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyqOHPFDIBMOEZCKZJOw1dy_HjcSo1ZsCSPu09eTWC0XlMpFjYiAFeulBxIrFqogAhEKcIikx939jmTGMbFglsDQItGV92pArMSfBvOzgYpyh9VYB83l4GI9yRYG9ManiurVkvgQVQjUA/s1600/corner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyqOHPFDIBMOEZCKZJOw1dy_HjcSo1ZsCSPu09eTWC0XlMpFjYiAFeulBxIrFqogAhEKcIikx939jmTGMbFglsDQItGV92pArMSfBvOzgYpyh9VYB83l4GI9yRYG9ManiurVkvgQVQjUA/s400/corner.jpg" /></a></div><br />
While I am not serving as personal assistant to the great Wil'Ya Love Me, my teaching and training business is steadily expanding! And by steadily I mean that I really don't have time to sleep, take a vacation, do laundry, or visit that mythical place called the beach?? This summer has been non-stop between traveling to shows, teaching camps, house-sitting, riding all of the horses in training, riding my own horses, and teaching upwards of 37 consistent students. PHEW! (yes I had to do a headcount to order DGE logowear... coming soon!). <br />
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Have any of you noticed my SUPER FREAKING AMAZING NEW SADDLE THAT ACTUALLY FITS MY HORSE AND I????? Well please keep your drooling away from my beautiful new piece of equipment that is currently covered in bubble-wrap. I am so excited to announce that my 2G CWD saddle has arrived! I am so lucky to be in CWD's program... the saddle speaks for itself. For the two shows I have used it... Willy has not touched a show jumping rail! This saddle keeps my lower leg right where it is supposed to be, and I feel so secure! This is no easy feat with my long thigh, ghetto-fabulous rump, and the fact that I need to jack my stirrups up so high because I am on a pony! Oh wait, the saddle also can't go over his shoulder or be too large in the seat. Somehow CWD did it! I cannot say enough good things about the equipment itself and the wonderful service! Ugh I am in love! I was a very proud professional to sport the CWD logo on my saddle pad! Several of my students have already converted and boy everyone's position is much improved... and their horses are going like a million bucks! Willy loves it. I love it. What more could I ask for? <br />
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Unfortunately the young horse I was super excited about, Adam, has degenerative navicular disease. Nothing I did or didn't do could have prevented this. My vet, who ALWAYS recommends some cutting edge treatment or very expensive plan A/B/C/D/E/F, said to throw him out in a field and cut my losses. I was completely devastated. It's interesting how he passed the vetting with flying colors and a month later he was dead lame. Oh well, live and learn. Luckily I was able to find him a new home via Thoroughbred Retirement Program, and he is living in Indiana trail riding in a western saddle! <br />
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My "dangerous" little red mare, Whynn, is progressing quite well. I say"dangerous" because her former owner was quite certain that this mare was beyond all hope and had even scheduled a date for the vet to put her down! While Whynn is definitely a sensitive red-head mare who has her own opinion on just about everything, she is such a sweetheart on the ground and is quite athletic! Most of her attitude comes from things she doesn't understand. So I basically started with her from the ground-up. Most days we are now able to walk, trot, canter, jump, and even hack outside! Recently she has been more "opinionated" than normal, and it turns out she tested positive for lymes. UGH! Oh well, hopefully she will be feeling better shortly and we will be hitting some schooling shows this fall! <br />
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So I find myself horse shopping again. Joy. Most people (when you are looking at inexpensive 'eventing' prospects) characterize event prospect horses as "hunters that were too hot", "Jumpers that were not tidy enough", "Dressage horses not fancy enough", "Foxhunters that bolt and cannot under any circumstance stand still", or "horses who are generally too dangerous". While I have no problem working with difficult horses... I need to purchase horses that could be easy to resell in case they decide upper level eventing isn't their cup of tea. I can't wait to see what I end up getting this time! (I'm slipping on my air vest now)<br />
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All of my students are doing great! Morgan and Kelsey A achieved the D2 USPC rating. DGE has had so many successful outings at events all over area 2... and I know that trend will continue through the fall! Hopefully in the next couple of days I can find some additional pictures and put them on the new and improved website! <br />
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More to come later! <br />
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DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-82676792353319310582012-09-06T19:02:00.001-07:002012-09-06T19:09:12.676-07:00Advanced... Accomplished! This past season has been surreal to say the least... and we are only half way done! <br />
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I no longer question if my super pony can handle the height, width, and technicality of the advanced courses. He has attacked each and every course, with a level of cockiness that can be obtained when you are the only pony in the USA jumping 4'3" in three-day eventing. While we continue to be amazed by Willy's jumping prowess, his growing affinity towards the dressage phase is perhaps the most remarkable development over the past six months. Much of that is due to Jo Young, who began the transformation in Aiken, and Donna Ruth who has the distinct pleasure of seeing my smiling face every week as I attempt to do "gymnastics" in dressage (yes it is just as painful as it sounds). <br />
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Historically Willy and I play the "catch-up" game - posting a dressage score that warrants judge's comments "interesting interpretation of the halt" or "horse was rather distracted while rearing." The reality of the situation is - Willy will never be top 5 in the advanced divisions after dressage. The horses at this level don't trot, they float. And while it is sometimes frustrating watching these 5/6 figure horses warm-up, I am satisfied knowing that my beloved pony is giving every ounce of what he has. He has surpassed any and every goal we could ever have imagined for him. And surprisingly enough, he has become competitive on the flat! When Willy is on his game, he can produce a steady, consistent, accurate test. Nothing flashy, but filled with workmanlike obedience. And judges are rewarding this with somewhat competitive scores (typically mid to high 30s). <br />
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This past year, Willy and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. Talk about an old, married couple. I am incredibly spoiled with this athlete - he knows what I want practically before I do! We read the subtle changes in each other's demeanor, detect the slightest shift in weight coming towards a fence, and (most importantly) we know when to ignore each other. <br />
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I have become incredibly aware of what is going on underneath me, particularly while we are at competitions. I tend to be VERY careful with all of my horses - opting to pull up or scratch rather than risking anything. Much of my excessive diligence comes from my background in pony club (read HORSEMANSHIP). Most of my "mother hen"(also called neurotic obsessive over the smallest things) nature stems from the fact that... this is it. These select few horses are all I have. I don't have a string of horses ready to replace whichever horse broke this time out. So, I exercise extreme caution. Regardless if they are going elementary or advanced, they are each treated like the spoiled rotten ponies they are! <br />
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Anyway, I digress. Over the course of the spring I knew something just wasn't 100% with Willy. He was flatting GREAT, jumping GREAT, galloping OK. I was hitting a bit of a wall in his conditioning... around 5/6 minutes on course, Willy would really struggle to give me his second wind. I talked to several top trainers, discussed diet change, tweaked his training regiment, gave him "energy boosts", ran his bloodwork, and did a lameness evaluation. Nothing. Everything pointed that, yet again, i was being overly paranoid. Months later, after a dressage lesson Willy endured a pretty bad colic. We rushed him up to New Bolton in PA and kept him there overnight. Long story short, it turns out he has right dorsal colitis.... or a colon 3 times the size of normal. Lots of kisses and a diet change later.... I have my rotten pony back! AND..... HE WON HIS LATEST OUTING. We ran the intermediate at Loudoun to make sure he was feeling great and well... he galloped beautifully! I know it was a shorter course, but I had a lot of horse left... which felt great! <br />
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Onward to Plantation, Morven, then Fair Hill CCI** (qualifications for a spring ***). <br />
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Courtney! DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-24700681330720616222012-05-29T19:54:00.001-07:002012-05-29T19:54:28.199-07:00Southern ComfortPhew WE MADE IT! How one person can pack so many clothes and other miscellaneous belongings (alas less than last year's attempt at "consolidating") to take up an entire truck??? Thanks in large part to my wonderful girls at the barn, the horses and myself were packed and made the 7 hour trip to Southern Pines, North Carolina - Defying Gravity Eventing's destination event in March.
Embarking on our great adventure was Louie and his fabulous rider (and DGE student Kelsey), Woody (who would be competing in his first event ever - at training), and the superstar advanced pony Willy. Kelsey and I arrived at the Carolina Horse Park with just enough time to walk the training level cross country, since our dressage and cross-coutnry would be run the following day - and times were pretty tight. Willy was also set to do dressage, but would run one phase each day (friday, saturday, sunday). The course looked rather small, but definitely asked some challenging questions - particularly with this being Kelsey's first outing of the season and Woody's first event ever!
Both Kelsey and I were left wanting in the dressage arena. Woody put forth a great first effort, but I know there is so much more in this horse! I am so excited about his future - unfortunately he is a rather large horse and the arena is quite small, and he became a bit overwhelmed by the atmosphere, which then made my job more "entertaining" shall we say? This winter I have been completely revamping Louie and Kelsey's dressage - and it is always a challenge to let go of old habits in the competition arena. For the first test of the season, I was a proud mama! We have lots of room for improvement, but hot darn are they on the right track.
Willy's dressage was such an improvement over our Pine Top performance. He was focused, and actually allowed me to ride him through the movements instead of holding our breath. His score was in the low 40s, and again I was quite pleased with the little superstar!
Cross-country for the training horses went beautifully. Louie skipped around the course, making it look like an easy novice - a testament to some darn good riding. Woody made the course look like child's play until we had a bit of a steering issue at a turn to corner. No big deal though, I am SO SUPER DUPER EXCITED about this horse - it was by far the most fun I have ever had on a cross country course. He really shines in this sport, and this horse has all the makings of something truly special. Louie and Woody also show jumped well, Louie pulling one rail to finish in the ribbons, and Woody pulled a couple - mostly due to fatigue! A great weekend for these two, and I am so excited for all that is to come!
The rest of Willy's weekend was nearly textbook. The advanced cross-country was eating people alive. Most of the first advanced division fell off at the water, but Willy made it look like an easy gymnastic exercise. This was by far the biggest and most technical course we have tackled in quite a while... and while we snagged a silly runout in the last combination, I was so proud of this little guy! There are quite a few youtube videos that surfaced after the event of Willy going through the water. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJDePKdqYP4 - check that little pony out!
Show jumping was amazing yet again, although Willy was feeling a tad on the fresh side! He had one unlucky rail at the very end of the round, but otherwise beautiful - especially since most of the other horses went bowling. Yay for advanced super ponies =)DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-67793674081490734722012-05-29T19:00:00.000-07:002012-05-29T19:14:02.535-07:00Long Overdue Aiken Recap... Blue Numbers!It seems that with the everyday struggles of building my business, getting all of the horses worked, working my second job to help pay for said horses, and possibly spending time with family/friends have tremendously interfered with my blogging. Never fear, I will update you all! I have such exciting news to share, but I think it is best to start right where I left off...Aiken, South Carolina.
Three horses made the 10 hour trip down to our winter home at Jumping Branch Farm in Aiken this year. Woody "WoodView" owned by a friend/client was to make the trip to finish his rehab on a collateral ligament injury (since the sand in Aiken is quite a bit softer than the frozen tundra back home). My new partner, Adam, was the second 17+ hand horse to make the trip down after purchasing him just two weeks prior to leaving. Both of these wonderful giant horses were coming to get jump starts on being "big time" horses, schooling at different farms, lessons with top trainers, etc, etc. The star of the show (as always) was my partner of 13 years, the 14.3 hand superstar, Wil'Ya Love Me (aka Willy).
Working with Sally Cousins, Colleen Rutledge, and Richard Lamb, we had big things planned for the pony this year. Last year, our fall season was cut short after a freak fall at Seneca Valley Horse Trials. To make sure all of our ducks were in a row, we were going to start off at a preliminary event, then one intermediate, and if all went PERFECTLY… an advanced. Beyond that no plans, just focusing on the here and now.
Woody and Adam had a fabulous time in Aiken, becoming instant best friends forever. I took several lessons on them with Richard, getting fabulous results and even went to a couple of farms for XC schooling. Neither horse was confirmed enough on the flat to warrant competing against the best of the best in Aiken, so we continued to work, improve, and have fun! Willy on the other hand was all business. We found an absolutely wonderful dressage trainer, Canadian Jo Young, who was transforming our flatwork from "barely broke" to "competitive." Once a week I would head over to Sally's for a jump school, and Willy was jumping better than ever!
We started off in the preliminary at Sporting Days, which while we had a fabulous result, was terrifying. Willy didn't look at a thing - rather he was SO SUPER FREAKING EXCITED TO SEE XC THAT WE MUST GALLOP AS FAST AS POSSIBLE OVER THE RIDICULOUSLY SMALL 3'6" FENCES. What I realized is, now that Willy was jumping 4'3" consistently... he thought 3'6" was pathetic and not worth his time. Not really fun for me, but we finished on a great score to place us in 3rd right behind Jan and Sally. So far - so good. The same was true for Pine Top. Cruised around the intermediate like the champion he is. Now a two week break before the big test.
During our bootcamp weeks, several of my clients from back home came to enjoy some sunshine and sand. I think it is safe to say everyone worked hard but had a fabulous time.
Then, before I knew it the weekend of the advanced Pine Top was here.
Luckily Richard said he would help me with my jumping courses to decrease the likelihood of me riding like a monkey - since my pony would actually need me to help him around the fences that came up to his ears! Dressage was not our best effort, but it wasn't as catastrophic as I thought it would be. There were some nice moments and some moments where we became a bit air-bound (insert flying change NOW). But our score was under a 50, which was my goal for our first attempt. SUCCESS! Particularly in a division filled with the top contenders for the London Olympic Games.
Tacking up for XC, some pretty scary dark clouds were looming over the parking area. As I put my foot in the stirrup (I was the 3rd horse on course) WHOOSH. Rain came pelting down so hard and fast. Everyone ran into the trailer and hid with Willy to wait for the worst of it to stop. Unfortunately the rain was so bad that the organizers deemed it unsafe to run and moved both jumping phases to Sunday morning.... just what i needed, more time to think about the HUGE jumps waiting for me.
The show jumping course was quite tricky and HUGE. It was filled with max height and width oxers, and required several tight rollbacks. For the first time in what seems like a century, I left the ring with a huge grin on my face. Willy performed flawlessly, jumping the heck out of each and every large fence. I earned a gold star as well, maintaining an appropriate canter and seeing all of my distances at least 5 strides away. Phew. Now onto the fences that don’t fall down if you mess up.
The cross country once again rewarded positive, forward riding over all of the large/wide tables. After walking the course four times, I was quite confident about the technical aspects of the course – with the exception of the large, downhill bounce at the tail end of the course. Willy came out of the box acting pretty cheeky. He was spooking at the flowers, photography (sorry Mark!), various blades of grass, etc until finally I decided to give him a motivational "whack" with my stick before the fourth fence - and that seemed to finally get his attention. The first combination was fabulous, two downhill rolltops, then a maxed out table and then onto a tough question - big table, up a mound to a log, down the hill to a right point corner. Willy made quick work of this element, the first water, quite a few more maxed out tables, the bounce combination that I was terrified of, and finally the second water. Before I knew it - we were home safe! Our first advanced - finished CLEAN! I could not have been happier.
So finally we headed back to the land of the Mary - with a new advanced super pony!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kqADH6GUkvTWilIcBu-uS0Bw1gZ-Hdz-km4PeeKlUR_C4yFkhIl8o2-guZE2-f4cm1WgC9UDcREhdXQzqko0sAqykf6NCg4l96tZb17wqk9KTquhUiwGkKeiuFZYMG3b-cwxaFJs1wA/s1600/willydressagesp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kqADH6GUkvTWilIcBu-uS0Bw1gZ-Hdz-km4PeeKlUR_C4yFkhIl8o2-guZE2-f4cm1WgC9UDcREhdXQzqko0sAqykf6NCg4l96tZb17wqk9KTquhUiwGkKeiuFZYMG3b-cwxaFJs1wA/s400/willydressagesp.jpg" /></a></div>DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-9854200428601452102012-01-24T18:43:00.000-08:002012-01-24T19:57:45.924-08:00Matchmaker, Matchmaker...Well....here is the BIG NEWS. Deacon has SOLD to new student Kelsey! It has been a wonderful four years brining Deacon along from a just starting out 6-year-old to a seasoned preliminary horse and even jumped around an intermediate! He is a fabulous horse, who had all the makings of being a quality, competitive upper level horse. This is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a trainer - seeing a horse I produced go on and teach someone else the finer points and thrills of the sport! Deacon LOVES having a little girl to call his own... he is eating up all of the attention (and cookies!). <br /><br />This year we have paired.... <br />Janet with Irish Star<br />Grace with Savannah <br />Hayley with Holly<br />Rachel with Aaron<br />Sue with Peaches<br />Janet with Bella <br />Hayley with Smokey <br />Kelsey with Deacon <br />Susan with Cody <br />..... whew! What a year it has been! Not bad for DGE's first full year in Maryland! <br /><br />In other news... DGE was well represented at the January Serra Valley Jumper show. Big Kelsey was champion in the 3'3" division with her wonderful horse Louie, and put in a fabulous showing in the 3'6" division. Kelsey and Louie have been working all winter on taking their game to the next level... and boy are they a pair to look out for this season! Little Kelsey made her competition debut with Deacon, and did they clean up! They competed primarily in the 2'9" division and even won a blue ribbon! For extra measure we did one of the 3' classes... and they WON! Whew, what a way to start the year! My students definitely set the bar high for me traveling down the Aiken! <br /><br />Now for my update... I HAVE BEEN BOY SHOPPING!!! I wanted to find someone close to home, long legs, a great heart, and of course a nice butt! Okay kids, get your mind out of the gutter.... I am talking about horse shopping of course! What a horribly painful process this is. (I know my teachers are cringing ending a sentence with a preposition) As soon as you say "event prospect" people start throwing horses of all shapes and sizes at you... crooked legs, "great personalities" (aka bites, kicks, bucks, rears, and dumps you for good measure), "over 16 hands" (aka medium pony). People at least around here, seem to think that horses that have failed at every other job can, at the very least, be an event horse. These days this can hardly be true, as event horses are drastically becoming fancier, braver, and jumping better than just 10 years ago.... trust me, I see them in the dressage ring ahead of me every weekend (since when is a BN horse doing 3rd level dressage????). Anyway, i digress. I vetted five horses... so much heartache... until i finally found one that met our high standards! WELCOME TO THE TEAM, ADAM! Adam was found through the help of a friend, and he is 17+ hands, 6 years old, all bay with no white, and ALL LEGS! He has fabulous jump and we hope he starts to settle in and likes his new job! He will be making the long journey to Aiken along with Woody and Willy. More about Aiken shortly... we have a 17.1 hand horse, a 17 hand horse, and a 14.2 hand pony. Guess which one will be going Advanced? :) <br /><br />Until we venture down to the sunny south!<br />CourtneyDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-67494808414885432322011-11-19T12:25:00.000-08:002011-11-19T14:04:52.316-08:00Bring on the end of the world... getting ready for 2012Hello everyone! I want to thank you all for your continued support and patience in my absence of blogging. My New Year's resolution will once again be to force myself to sit at this computer and type out the good/bad/and ugly that is emerging as a young professional in the horse industry. So i must confess that I have not done my due diligence because it has been a most trying year. Just when things start to turn upward and progress is made, POOF! Something happens that sends me back the 5 steps of progress I had just achieved. I have been told "that's life", but boy oh boy does it still stink! OK without further ado, here we go... <br /><br />The year started off great! The boys were fabulous in Aiken, I had found some wonderful instruction from the great Kim Severson, and came back to Maryland ready to take the year by storm! That didn't last very long as right before my first show back, I broke my hand... luckily though Sally Cousins was on hand to sit in the saddle for me! The boys still competed at the top of their game, with Deacon winning the open preliminary combined test and Willy finishing 5th or so in the open intermediate. Then onto MCTA/Seneca which yet again the boys performed quite well! We definitely had some things to work on, but progress was certainly being made! <br /><br />The number of lessons I was teaching was getting off the charts... almost tripling our number of students! I made the decision to take it easy on the competitions and instead focus on taking lessons on the big horses, developing the babies, and helping my students achieve their own personal goals. Many of my pony club students qualified for Nationals and kicked some major bootay!!! Several other students achieved personal bests in their events and/or jumper and/or dressage shows and even in a hunter show!!<br /><br />So all seemed hunky dory right? Well then we get down to business. Gearing up for the fall season. I ran Deacon at Loudoun Hunt PC which just so happened to occur the same day as a hurricane! Awesome! I made the decision to run anyway since I had such a fabulous show jumping round that morning, but Deacon and I came out of the box a bit rusty. He normally comes out of the ready to attack the course, but that rainy/windy/sleeting day I had to really kick him forward. I had to ride him quite strong, and got through several tough combinations, but wasn't quite ready for the sunken road... a silly glance off, fine the second time but oh so frustrating! After a couple of wacks after that combination Deacon woke up!! (That would have been nice to know!). The rest of the course was quite nice and I sped home in a desperate attempt to make it back to the barn before the storm hit in full force. <br /><br />The next event we headed to Seneca... where I had 5 horses entered. One intermediate (Willy), one preliminary (Deacon), one training (Woody), one novice (Smokey), and one in starter (Aaron). The day started off fabulously with Willy putting in a great test landing him in the top five in a very competitive division. I was on Deacon circling the dressage arena and WHAM thunder storms and there ended up being an hour delay of the competition. Deacon is a smart cookie and knows that after dressage comes the fun part, so he in no way wanted to play the dressage game again. Oh well... time for Willy show jumping. Oh wait. They were calling me over the loud speakers because I was the last rider to go! YIKES! Well I somehow made it, albeit with just about no warm-up and it showed. Willy had two very uncharacteristic rails down. I decided to give the cross country a go, since we needed a good solid run before sending in my CCI** entry for Fair Hill. Willy was foot perfect for the entire course, particularly through the water and really tough corner combinations. WOW what an incredible cross country horse! Three fences from home, one big table left.... galloping up to it... where did my distance go????? CRUD! Willy went to put in a last pat on the ground, and like a champ I leaned at the fence. The super pony was unable to get his left side up over the fence clearly, and he wacked the fence, started falling right... the impact made me start to fall underneath his right shoulder (so severely that i looked up and saw his knee coming right at me), then all i remember is seeing willy twist himself left to not fall on me, and then both of us hitting the ground face first. Willy quickly got up and started galloping towards the next fence, but I couldn't move. I most certainly had the wind knocked out of me, but there was a really tight pain in my chest, neck, and head. Once i could lift my head, i located willy and saw that the fence judge had captured him (poor thing, he was still jigging and leaping in the air, quite upset that we didn't finish our course). My breathing trouble came from my Air Vest going off (thank the lord I had this on to prevent snapping my neck backwards), but there was blood all over my face - later found out that as I fell I bit through my chin with my front teeth. Initially I thought i was no worse for wear, but by the time we made it to my trailer, I had horrible shooting pains in my neck and back... a pain that i remember all too well. I immediately panicked that I broke my back (again) and after making sure that Willy was comfortable ( I am a horrible patient, i refused to let them put me on the stretcher until I made sure that the vet was attending to Willy and he would make it safely home/recovered from the course), then on the back stretcher and into the ambulance i went. <br /><br />It is at these awful moments that you realize what a fabulous support team stands behind me in both the good and bad times. An entire slew of people met my mom at the barn... making her stop in the driveway, and taking control over everything... including dealing with our own vet to check Willy again. Even now, two months later I can still feel the love and concern from all of these wonderful people. What would I do without them? How many people would stop what they are doing and wait at the barn for an hour for my pony? I have quite a few! Long story short Willy pulled/strained ligaments and muscles all along his body, from his neck/shoulder/back/hindquarters. The recovery process has been a long one, with massages, acupuncture, electric stimulus therapy, and many many vet visits. On November 17th, Willy jumped again for the first time... and so far so good! Fingers crossed we can get the pony back on track for Aiken, and a move up to Advanced (after running a preliminary and intermediate). <br /><br />After that event, I concentrated on my sale horses - taking Rumor Has It (aka Aaron) to his first little event (finishing 3rd), and Above the Fold (Smokey) to his first novice event. Both horses finished on their dressage scores and made nothing of the courses! Aaron has since sold, as has Peaches (a racehorse we kept for resale), and one other big sale that will be mentioned later on! (full story to come in the new year!!). A horse I am really excited about, Woody, has been sidelined with an injury - but we are looking forward to a great Aiken with this special horse. <br /><br />As the temperatures drop and we go into the season of very little sunshine, bone-chilling winds, getting stuck in the indoor, and all together COLD (can you tell I am not a winter fan) I am looking for some new sale projects, upper level prospects, and continuing to expand my teaching/training clientele. Things are busy as ever, and hopefully they stay that way! Now to plan for Aiken... <br /><br />Until I lock myself inside again!<br />- Courtney and the DGE teamDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-51020640836049952512011-06-13T18:54:00.000-07:002011-06-14T06:30:15.690-07:00On the Mend...Well there are positives and negatives about not blogging for hmm, two months? The positives - life has been so crazy and DGE has a bunch of new horses and students in full swing. The bad news - I haven't kept anyone updated and really haven't gotten a good night's sleep in weeks! Today is my first day off in I have no idea how long, and I had the guilty pleasure of sleeping in until 7:30am and to blog, all before I have to ride the boys and clean the house/trailer in preparation for this weekend's competition at Seneca with the big boys. <br /><br />So here goes nothing... you will have to excuse the typos and grammar errors <br /><br />After spending a longer than anticipated time in Aiken, SC (with skyrocketing hay prices and two very hungry ponies) my pockets were feeling a bit on the light side, so the plan was to take March and absorb all I had learned lessoning and competing in the south, then a quick run in April then Jersey Fresh ** and Virginia *. But that was the problem... I planned. And as anyone that works with horses will tell you, you can NEVER plan with horses. So as lessons were picking up in March and April, I decided to enter Plantation Field for a positive run on what is typing great footing on an "old-school" gallop type course. But these plans came to an abrupt halt when, while schooling a student's horse, I jammed by hand and broke the bone between my wrist and pinkie finger. Essentially the horse lunged forward and took off around the arena, and in the initial lunge my weight was thrown forward onto my hand and snap! A clean break on my left hand. As most riders would do, I stayed on and finished the ride... and of course the horse was absolutely perfect thereafter. I felt a shooting pain in my hand and really wasn't able to move my pinkie ... so off to the hospital I went. Fun times. Six weeks in a cast from my fingers to about half way up my forearm. With this injury I promised myself I would be good. I would take the time off and allow the bone to fully heal... lord knows I don't need another part of my body to tell me when it is going to rain. The big boys were sent off to Sally Cousins so that they could stay in shape and run around Plantation. Big THANK YOU Sally! The boys stayed up in PA for about two weeks, and then competed at Plantation. Deacon was the first horse of the day and put in a very solid dressage test, followed up with a picture perfect show jumping round. After his round, Deacon was in first place in the open preliminary! Not too bad! The weather started to deteriorate rapidly as the day went on, though luckily Willy went into the ring shortly thereafter. Willy kept it relatively together in the dressage and then put forth another clear show jumping round to finish in 5th! Yay boys! <br /><br />Another great development in the DGE team was selling of Barrett Warner's little filly Havannah to Grave Fulton at Full Moon Farm. I am really sad to see Havannah go because she is such a talented little girl, but if anyone will utilize her talents while having an absolute blast with the mare, its Grace. Grace, take care of my little girl! (I know you will!) I look forward to seeing them out and about at events! <br /><br />New developments for DGE students (If I miss anyone, please let me know and I will add you in): New student Kelsey placed 3rd in the Open Training at Rubicon, Hayley Mullen qualified for USPC national championships in show jumping with her new mount Holly AND earned 4th place in equitation, student Rebecca Toms qualified for USPC national championships in eventing at the novice level with the second best score of the weekend (and Rebecca completed her first novice event at MCTA), Christa Shive placed 3rd at her first event out this year at BN, Lauren Drenning placed 2nd at MCTA at novice, Eliza had a very positive first competition at Full Moon, the Jacksons are enjoying the horses I paired them with (found while working at Colleen Rutledge's farm) and are heading towards Loudoun Hunt PC camp next week, Ellie, Taylor, and Rachel also had great rounds at show jumping for a very positive weekend. Student Janet Dyer had a great first competition at Petticoat's dressage show earning her first two ribbons ever! My mom and student Janice Sendak earned two blue ribbons in her Intro tests A and B at the same competition. All of my other students continue to progress and are looking great going into the summer months! <br /><br />So now things are back in full swing. I competed at MCTA with the boys - Deacon had a fabulous go around preliminary and Willy placed 5th in Intermediate. Not too bad with a broken hand! Next we are headed to Seneca for a nice refresher course this Saturday! I also started serving at the Greene Turtle in Hunt Valley, so my schedule is very tight! I will try to give more updates shortly, but it is time for me to head to the barn! <br /><br />Until then!<br />CourtneyDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-34315549525293474822011-03-24T10:45:00.000-07:002011-03-24T10:46:04.175-07:00Aiken - the ultimate time warp<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxidrFJNnyjfARQwsy5gDDwwYjadCscE2ofk5J_j3nklccpXme-MjhLFgGTKxCVFl8kJV9PBtuw8wMlqXD1fxKGaYKvOk0NS2TcOLQlgufs-aJLqK85-tMJRLNSngCPhBjIaw6luMekw/s1600/1176884487_110202fg-01636.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxidrFJNnyjfARQwsy5gDDwwYjadCscE2ofk5J_j3nklccpXme-MjhLFgGTKxCVFl8kJV9PBtuw8wMlqXD1fxKGaYKvOk0NS2TcOLQlgufs-aJLqK85-tMJRLNSngCPhBjIaw6luMekw/s320/1176884487_110202fg-01636.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582292129748868962" /></a><br /> (No I can't stick my behind in the air any higher!) <br /><br />Thirty days literally flew by in the blink of an eye. I can't believe that I am once again back in my house, blogging with my dog passed out next to me... with the heat on. Here goes my recount of the wonderful experience that was Aiken...<br /><br />The hardest part about packing for Aiken was de-stinkbuging the trailer. Being the clever person that I am, I thought that keeping everything in closed containers in the trailer would eliminate the wretched creature’s ability to infest all of my saddle pads, wraps, blankets, boots, etc. I was very wrong. It seems that stinkbugs are sneakier than I thought, and somehow I found hundreds of stinkbug carcasses all over/in/around my trailer and dressing room. And when I say carcass, I mean that most of them were dead or hibernating, but there were definitely some of the hardier variety that tried to avoid my soapy water bucket of death. And in typical Courtney fashion, I started this entire process the day before our scheduled Aiken departure. So there were no breaks, no running away from the horrid smell these little suckers gave off when I picked them up. Instead my task was to go through every inch of the trailer and find these little creatures...this includes unwrapping ALL of my wraps, standing bandages, polos (they manage to get under each individual layer of the wrap), opening all the folding chairs (pretty sure that I found a nest of stinkbugs), looking in the pockets of my show jackets, inside the armpit of my shadbelly, and searching through each inch of blankets and towels I had foolishly left hanging up in the trailer. If I had a dime for every stinkbug I found, I'm pretty sure I would have been more than fine for gas money — at least for the way down to Aiken. But enough with the stinkbugs, I am sure that there will be another blog post about them when they come into full force during the warmer months...by the billions. Gross. <br /><br />On to Aiken... after making my "Aiken list" and checking it twice, I was pretty sure I had everything I could possibly need for our short stay. Everything from extra shoes, extra feed buckets, duct tape, and hairnets. Our trip down was pretty uneventful except that it was long and thank god for XM radio because that is the only way that I was able to stay alert and entertained all by my lonesome. <br /><br />I was fortunate enough to stay at the beautiful facility, Jumping Branch Farm. JBF has a full XC course from tadpole to preliminary, dressage rings, show jumping courses, lots of areas to hack, a racing track, and the best thing... a sand road! It was great because I could use the track for gallops, and the long, hilly Fox Pond Road for long trot sets. Our first order of business (after unpacking) was to get Deacon ready for his debut at Full Gallop Farm. This involved a full body clip, show clip, mane pulling, tail trimming, tack scrubbing — the whole nine yards. I somehow managed to pull this out in the POURING rain ... but no complaining from me because it was a warm pouring rain! Deacon's dressage was a bit lacking, we had two minor blowups — one when he was certain that I was having a blonde moment because we canter NOW. Oh well we cannot always be perfect. Friend and instructor Richard Lamb was running the show jumping, so after watching about 20 rounds, and having a beautiful warm-up, Richard called for us to enter the ring. Boy did Deacon feel fabulous! We hit every spot beautifully until I did a wonderful little rollback and promptly forgot that number 9 typically comes between 8 and 10. Fortunately I noticed this mistake before I jumped into the triple, but not before I was given a technical stop (for crossing my tracks) and time penalties. Oh well, this month is for dusting off cobwebs, right? Hopefully I will not have to do that again. Because of the downpour the day before cross-country was incredibly sloppy, and it became very clear very fast that I did not have the right size studs in. Deacon really showed his true colors by saving our behinds at several fences (it seemed that every combination was downhill). Unfortunately we have a blip early on and literally slid into the fourth fence, so I came back and represented... a disappointing day on paper but it was incredibly helpful to get back into the swing of things. <br /><br />Things really did not let up as Sporting Days was just four days later, where Deacon was running his first preliminary level horse trials. Our dressage scored better by eight or so points and one unlucky rail in show jumping. Deacon's entire schedule was centered on using Sporting Days as a move-up because it is one of the few events on the East coast that is generally very forgiving and you typically don't see anything too out of the ordinary. I guess it has been a while since I have had a preliminary horse because I was really taken aback by how difficult the "easy Area III" event was: you had to gallop past warm-up between fences two and three, fence 7 was a really tough downhill ABC ditch combination, a chevron, ABCD water combination, and a corner. Deacon started off great, it felt that with each fence he was getting more confident! Then we got to fence 7 the ditch combination. His jump over the maxed out table at A was a bit hairy, he scrambled over the B ditch, and just got too underneath the C element ... and just like that 20 points. But boy did this horse jump everything else like a champion! By the time we got to the corner (the third to last fence) he was on cruise control. I know that I still have a lot of work left to do with this horse, but we are definitely on the right track!<br /><br />So after a chaotic first week of prepping Deacon for his first events, getting Willy ridden, unpacking the horses, unpacking me, then frantically searching for other living arrangements for myself — the Aiken adventure began in complete disarray. But after Sporting Days and finding a new home thanks to Colleen and Richard this began to settle into a rhythm. At this point the Aiken learning curve began. I found out the best places to eat, grocery shop, rent movies, where to steal the best internet, and most importantly which laundry mat was horse friendly. I also began taking lessons from Sally Cousins to get in a solid jumping school on each horse, and Richard Lamb to do a bit of flatwork and gymnastics. It was incredibly fortunate that my coach while I was living in North Carolina, Holly Hudspeth, was also staying at JBF with several students (Holly is out of commission since she is very much pregnant!) So I had the opportunity to take a fabulous dressage lesson with her on Willy. <br /><br />After a very busy week of taking lessons, XC schooling, and fitness work, both horses were headed to Pine Top II Horse Trials. Willy was more than eager to get off the farm (he sulked every time Deacon got on the trailer without him), and Deacon needed to post a clean cross-country. The weekend started off very early with Willy's dressage, and HOLY COW did he warm up fabulously. I actually had people come over to me and congratulate me on how great he looked on the flat. Our wonderful supple and quiet way of going evaporated as soon as Willy took a step down centerline. But this time I could not really blame him — the rings were frozen! The footing was nothing better than concrete, and Willy was not happy about it. He immediately became short and choppy, and was not at all inclined to move forward and give me medium gaits. His dressage score showed exactly that — good but not great. Satisfactory but nothing special. Rats! We have been working so hard and go figure nothing to show for it! Isn't that always the way with horses? Willy's show jumping round was absolutely spectacular; he almost seemed bored over the tough course. He was fabulous on cross-country as well, until we had a bit of a cheeky moment coming out of the water over a corner. I saw the distance from about five strides out, and tilted my shoulders forward like a champ. DING DING DING that is the perfect way to ask the pony to stop. So after our "blonde moment" runout, I represented and off we went to finish the course in fine form. So well in fact that we still ended up in 8th place! <br /><br />Deacon's day started out very much like Willy's - not very fun. He was a bit excited (I think he is finally figuring out what his job is all about), and then was none too happy when he had to perform in a frozen arena. The show jumping at Pine Top is always difficult — the course is built in a small grassy area on the side of a hill, so terrain is always a factor. For Deacon's inexperience at this level I was really thrilled he handled the course as well as he did ... a rookie mistake at the maxed out downhill oxer, and two rails in the uphill triple (I will take some blame for those...I set him up a bit too much for the first element). But Deacon really earned his keep on the cross-country course...posting a clean round! And not only was his round clean, it was beautiful and really fun to ride! It turns out that Deacon is the easiest horse to ride cross-country because he does everything for you! All you have to do is keep your leg on and he does the rest, half-halts included! It really is fabulous. <br /><br />So not a great start out for team DGE. Back to the drawing board - this sport is so humbling! Just when I thought I did all of my homework, spent my dwindling dollars on top-notch lessons, and made sure my horses were in top form... the stars just do not align. Not to get discouraged... just time to up our game <br /><br />Our next outing was Paradise Farm. Paradise is a tricky event, not only because it spans over three days but also because the dressage rings are quite deep, the cross country is very challenging, and the show jumping (when on the grass hill) has taken victims left and right. After a week of hacking, dressage schooling, and lesson with Sally Cousins, Deacon was ready to go. His dressage test was definitely improved, but he was a bit fussy at times, although our dress was very much impressed with our leg yields. Earning eights! Cross-country looked TOUGH! The course started out with some seriously BIG fences, but designed to allow horses to establish a good pace. The first question on course was an ABC ditch combination. The ditch was followed closely by a downhill rolltop to corner combination, then a skinny to a HUGE drop, followed by a bounce bank to skinny telephone. These intense questions were followed by the water combination and then finally a very tight two stride offset combination. Boy, Deacon better have his "big boy pants" on for this course, because the questions really never let up - no time for green-bean moments. Thankfully all of my hard work and preparation finally paid off! Deacon had a foot perfect cross-country run. He was a bit fresh in warm-up and it took me the entire twenty minutes to really get him focusing on my aids (and not on the horses galloping around the course). But the moment he stepped into the box, he was all business. He exploded out of the box into a forward gallop, attacked the gallop fences and immediately set into a rhythm. The ditch combination was a bit of a squeak (Mental note - LEG after the 'A' element of ditch combinations, Courtney!) but after a little encouragement from my battle weapon, Deacon took the hint and stayed in front of my leg. The only other bobble on course was the massive drop, which was midway around the course. Deacon was really confident by this point, so my feeble attempts at half-halts were largely disregarded. He jumped boldly in over the skinny, and was great to the drop until he realized just how big it was! Our forward momentum over the "A" element kept us going down the drop, even though Deacon thought about backpedaling at the last minute... muhahaha. Deacon finished cross-country in fine form...clean and fast. The next day, I noticed some redness on the back of Deacon's pasterns. I tacked him up and started our show jumping warm-up, but he didn't feel 100% sounds so I decided to scratch. As I have said before... when my horses do not feel absolutely perfect, they do not run! <br /><br />So I came back to Jumping Branch thrilled that my horse performed so beautifully, but worried as to what was making Deacon uncomfortable. On Monday I noticed that Willy's legs were just like Deacon's! Warm and swollen from their pastern to about half way up their cannon! YIKES! After a frantic call into the vet, it appears that both of my horses have very sensitive skin, so sensitive that the constant exposure to sand caused this high level of irritation, go figure! The vet's solution - SMZs and tube socks! Both horses had to be turned out and ridden in tube socks to avoid extended exposure to the sand. And if you are wondering, men's size 6-12 works just fine for horses with small/medium-sized cannons, just remember to cut off the toe! <br /><br />After just two days, both boys were back to normal and we got the vet's ok to continue onward to the big Pine Top. But before our Pine Top adventure, we were scheduled to take lessons with the great Kim Severson- Olympic silver medalist, multiple Rolex winner, her list of accomplishments would make this blog post more ridiculously long. I begged and pleaded enlisted Kim’s help particularly for the pony’s dressage work, which has also been a “work in progress”, but I thought she could also provide some insight into pushing Deacon’s flatwork to the next level. I had no idea what I was in for. I was a bit nervous right off the back because well it is KIM SEVERSON and Willy especially is not known for his fabulous flatwork. After two hours of almost non-stop work, the boys and I were exhausted. But I came away from the lessons with a large bag of tools and higher expectations for my flatwork. After just one lesson on each horse I felt like I was on the brink of a huge breakthrough, so I made the decision to stay for three days following the big Pine Top to continue taking lessons with Kim. But I am getting ahead of myself…<br /><br />And here we are to the climax of my Aiken journey, Pine Top. The weekend itself was already somewhat of a letdown because Willy and I weren’t contesting our first advanced event, but rather another refresher intermediate outing. Of course my times were ridiculously close together and with no help it was going to be a challenging weekend! Willy warmed up beautifully and continued to be soft and relaxed through his trot work. Things were looking pretty good until I asked for the medium canter. The key there is “asked”, one does not “ask” the pony for medium canter but rather allows it to happen. Wrong button Courtney. So Willy dropped his back and went GALLOPING across the arena (in the double bridle no less), it was everything I could do to finish the test in some sense of control. The good news was that our trot work scored consistent 6’s and 7’s that is the makings of a solid test for Willy…the canter work, not so much (ironic because we normally score well at the canter). Deacon warmed up well, luckily Kim was in the warm-up so she helped me get him back on track, I was ready to go into the ring when the steward asked me to wait because they were changing the ring next to mine a small ring (rather than a standard). After an additional 10 minutes I was allowed to trot around my arena, and began my test. Solid movements earning 8’s. Awesome. Then as I was leg yielding over the judge to ask for my canter depart, THE GOLF CART used for hauling the extra letters and chains from the ring next to me went in-between my ring and the judge’s car…literally inches away from us. ARG! Our test from that point on was distracted and well, not very good. <br /><br />Show jumping was big and technical, which is to be expected from Pine Top. Willy was the last intermediate horse to jump, and boy did he feel great! He jumped fabulously and just had one unlucky rail in the triple combination. Deacon was up next and oh lord I was not sure what to expect. Boy did he surprise me. He jumped beautifully! I had been really working on his show jumping with Sally Cousins, riding him a bit slower and rounder to give him more time to pick up his toes! I was so very happy with both of my boys, but the cross-country was going to be very difficult for both horses. But both boys came through for me posting double clear cross-country rounds. Willy moved up to 9th place and Deacon moved up to 8th. Not a bad weekend to end on for my boys! <br /><br />Our last week in Aiken was filled with more lessons with Kim Severson, and I hope to team up with Kim again shortly after she returns from running at the Fork. The boys are enjoying a mini vacation, and will be back in action soon gearing up for runs at Plantation Field in mid-April. Until then!DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-49501532663425362722010-12-14T18:55:00.000-08:002010-12-14T19:36:43.373-08:00A Winter RutIt is that time of year. The time of year when you see just how many layers of Under Armour you can ride in. The time of year when you pick apart every piece of your riding, trying to improve and fill in the holes. The time of year when I am ever so thankful to have an indoor. <br /><br />This is my first winter as a professional, and it is a tough one. Already the interest in lessons has died down tremendously - the foxhunters are out hunting, my young kids are busy with school, and my adults busy with work! It is difficult to get all of the extra horses ridden as well because the ground is frozen! It is definitely a struggle to make ends meet right now, and it is only December! This is a tough business, and as Dhruva told me "life with horses is not easy. If it was, then everyone would do it." So true. It is a fabulous job - and I am very much blessed to be doing it, but not having a consistent paycheck is sure stressful! To offset expenses I am applying to jobs, both part and full time. Hopefully this will help cover the horse's expenses at least for the winter. <br /><br />I have been taking the extra time in the morning (when I am waiting for the ground to thaw) and starting on the P90X program. It is incredibly important for my fitness to match that of my horses. I have been ridiculously sore for the past couple of days so I will keep you posted on my progress! <br /><br />Willy and Deacon and I went to Scott Hassler's for dressage lessons today. They were fabulous! Deacon showed some very mature work, and I was really able to free-up his hind-end. Willy worked in the double bridle, and started to go over the Advanced test. The tough parts for us appear to be the extensions and flying changes. Surprisingly Scott was quite pleased with the progress I have made in my half-passes both at the trot and canter. I had the opportunity to ride in Scott's new ring...oh boy! It was absolutely beautiful! I will have to take some pictures next time I venture up there! <br /><br />I have also been organizing lessons with Sally Cousins at AOPF. Oh boy were they fun! Deacon was PERFECT, Willy was so enthusiastic, Havannah was a super star in her first stadium jumping school, and a client's horse Ella was fabulous as well. I post another update shortly. I have three really great sale horses right now!DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-23204719670895405832010-11-11T04:16:00.000-08:002010-11-11T04:58:11.411-08:00The End of Event SeasonHello everyone! <br /><br />After the fabulous weekend that was Waredaca, I decided to run the horses at one last outing before retiring for the winter to jumper and dressage shows. I have not had the pleasure of competing at Rubicon for several years (4+), because normally November means things at Wake Forest were in full swing. However what I remember of Rubicon: dressage arenas (yay), a crazy difficult show jumping, and a really great XC track. My memory served me fairly well, because that was exactly what we got. <br /><br />I entered the event late, so Zoe was the only horse to get in right off the bat. Her dressage has been getting consistent, which is a huge accomplishment for her. Because her flat work needed so much attention, I have not really gotten to address a great deal of her jumping problems. We had one jump school, gridwork, in-between Waredaca and Rubicon and it was not pretty. We had several "discussions" about how to properly jump, aka not launch ourselves over the fences. The problem with Zoe is that she is so athletic and intelligent, that once she goes through an exercise once or figures out a course, she becomes bored and unimpressed. While it would be great to raise the fences to training height, she does not use her hind-end well enough to warrant bigger fences. The problem with jumping green, talented horses too big is that they really don't comprehend how to use their body - and god forbid you get into a situation where you really need the horse to pull through for you (such as getting too close to a solid xc fence, or combination), they have to idea what to do and crash through the fence. So Zoe's jumping is in a bit of a catch-22 now, and unfortunately it showed at Rubicon. Her dressage, again, steadily improved. The ring was running a bit late - information I did not realize - so I was on her quite a bit longer than I would have liked. But Zoe held it together pretty well, and put in a steady test earning - another 36. While I would have liked better from her, the competition in that ring was ridiculous. Many of the novice horses I saw were steady in first level frames...i thought this was NOVICE! It just goes to show you how competitive our area is, and how imperative the dressage phase is these days. The show jumping was ridiculous. Rails were flying everywhere. It was really tough for the younger, inexperienced horses to deal with the hills that were in the middle of the course. In typical Zoe fashion, she started off quite alert and picking up her toes. When we got to fence four (a vertical set right at the edge of the downhill slope), she fumbled over that, then the next fence she didn't quite regain her balance in time. Two more rails came down after that - albeit these were not "green" mistakes, they were symptoms of her being completely unimpressed by the fences. That is one thing we need to work on - giving Zoe a conscience. She was completely unphased on her lackluster performance. After that dismal show jumping, I decided it would be a great learning experience if we went cross country in open fronts. A good wack on a solid fence is a great tool for the green-beans. As per usual, Zoe's cross country was spectacular. We had several not-so-pretty fences, where she deemed my half-halts not necessary. Her performance through the water was nothing less than spectacular. She had one of the best rides through there I had seem all day! After cooling out the little princess, it was time to run back home to see my best friend from elementary/middle school get married! The busy weekend was only getting started...<br /><br />Thankfully, I received a phone call from the secretary on Friday that there was a spot for Deacon in the training horse division! I really wanted to get Deacon in for a second run since completing his treatment to show that he really is back to being his wonderful self. The bad news...dressage ride at 7:54 am, two hours away. Ick. After my alarm went off at 2:30 am for the second day in a row, I was so relieved this was the last event of the year. Imagine sleeping until 6 on weekends. How lovely! So Deacon warmed up great, a little testy (he does not approve of early mornings) but nevertheless he was steady and consistent as per usual. He went in the ring and put forth a really nice effort - a little rusty, but a good effort. He was 5th after dressage with a 34! Not too shabby! After the fiasco in show jumping the day before I was quite worried. Since Deacon is for sale there are always people watching, or looking at his record so it becomes essential that he put in solid performances. We went into the ring and he gave me a FABULOUS round. So much so that I thought we had done it - the only clean round of the division. But I just didn't get enough of a half-halt in on the last combination and he pulled the top rail of the last fence! Darn-it! Oh well, I couldn't have been happier with my horse, he really gave me everything and managed the terrain quite well! It is so nice to have him back and game for anything! Cross country was really challenging. The course started out nicely with two gallop fences, but it was difficult to get into a rhymn because right off the back you had a sharp right turn, and two fences within 8 strides. Deacon was a bit sticky to those, but with a little smack of encouragement, took off down the hill into the woods after fence 2. Fence three was a skinny right out of the woods that Deacon took in stride, much straighter than the first two. Then came what I thought was the hardest question on course. A sharp right turn to a skinny, open bottomed roll-top type fence, two strides down a large drop, sharp turn right up the hill. I saw my distance 5 strides out, sat up, leg on, and smack of encouragement -- over and down we went. Perfectly done by my baby horse! The rest of the course was beautiful, with the exception of a little bobble at the ditch...it is called steering Courtney!! He finished the event clean and fast, in a tie for 3rd. Because I didn't know I was tied, i lost the tie and was deemed a 4th place finisher. Regardless, I am so happy that I have my horse back! I wish the season was just getting started for him, he is ready to move back up to prelim tomorrow! <br /><br />Once again the competition showed me just were my horses are progressing, and where their weaknesses still remain. I can't be disappointed because both horses really gave me their all on XC, which gave me a great big smile for the long drive home. It was really great to get Zoe competitive at this level, because her flatwork and perspective on life have come so far! She still has ways to go, but in three short months, anyone can see the dramatic progress she has made. Just look at the difference in her hind-end! <br /><br />Deacon was the most fun I have had on XC in a while. I was able to forget the pressures of having to have a clear round, and just enjoyed the experience with my horse, a horse I produced from his first competition. Having him be such an eager-beaver on XC and so honest in show jumping really emphasize to me how much this horse must have been hurting this past year. It was such a blow to my riding that I was not able to get Deacon around a course for so long, I was beginning to think there was some huge gap in my riding style. But the horse I had this past weekend showed me just what a great job I did bringing him along, correctly and slowly. There is a part of me that hopes he will not find a new home, so I can take him to a one-star this spring. <br /><br />Anyway, Deacon and Zoe will be joining Willy in a semi-vacation for the week, then back to work. We will be at the Green Spring Hounds jumper show at Shawan Downs or some extra show jumping practice. Willy is coming back into work this week as well, because I was able to schedule a dressage lesson with Scott Hassler for Nov. 24th - and we have to start learning how to do changes on demand for the Advanced tests! I think Willy will be much happier to have a job again, maybe he will even let me catch him! <br /><br />Until next post!<br />CourtneyDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-2125151938015461202010-11-02T06:51:00.000-07:002010-11-02T07:27:56.819-07:00Raise Your Glass!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-FH-knZVB10699YU2J54a17sy_uqE8O5thy7M1VUzGJdpySFXzyAZoeTimeeLaqhDNMrZQae3APapk9p7jTnT3XVHMRSs4AagtLm3FfRhtUbDzumILecUC1bgCPkEEjNxwW2CjMi3zpw/s1600/fairhilldown.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-FH-knZVB10699YU2J54a17sy_uqE8O5thy7M1VUzGJdpySFXzyAZoeTimeeLaqhDNMrZQae3APapk9p7jTnT3XVHMRSs4AagtLm3FfRhtUbDzumILecUC1bgCPkEEjNxwW2CjMi3zpw/s320/fairhilldown.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5534958994872660466" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT3K7ga9ooMGAj_sr6QNAW9KPbNDE-4QiOHLWdVQIaMSQO2R4TNIJHtugS9D7eWmleYPtyBnbX4xHTp3_937qTap1UGSwUAwDy_YMHkiBfKuygmSKve6-MYycgXZtA2YtyJ_8MihS_R74/s1600/cutefairhill.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT3K7ga9ooMGAj_sr6QNAW9KPbNDE-4QiOHLWdVQIaMSQO2R4TNIJHtugS9D7eWmleYPtyBnbX4xHTp3_937qTap1UGSwUAwDy_YMHkiBfKuygmSKve6-MYycgXZtA2YtyJ_8MihS_R74/s320/cutefairhill.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5534957488130076370" /></a><br /><br /><br />As the eventing season comes to a close and things are slowing down, I have precious moments of downtime where I can reflect on the past year. What I accomplished, and where I came up short. This year was a turning point for me, both riding wise and in my life out of the saddle. <br /><br />My initial goals this year were to complete a CCI** and successfully complete some advanced level horse trials with Willy, while campaigning Deacon at the preliminary/CCI* level. Unfortunately with injuries and minor setbacks I was only able to achieve some of these tremendous feats, but I am still overflowing with pride for my boys. <br /><br />Willy became a very competitive intermediate horse. Since I am no longer able to compete in young rider divisions, we really had to step up our game to be competitive in the open divisions against the country's best riders and horses. With the help of new trainers Scott Hassler (Hassler Dressage) and Colleen Rutledge we have produced scored consistently in the mid 30s. Another positive - intermediate doesn't look so big anymore! Even on a pony! Willy and I have consistently had very smooth cross country and show jumping rounds, and we are ready for more. While Fair Hill was a bust for the goal of completing a CCI**, we did cross the finish line on cross country day. And our mistakes were mine - which can be fixed! I let the words "Fair Hill" intimidate me along with the mental setback of hearing of my old coach Sharon White falling right as I entered warmup. Hearing of a horrible fall for a veteran rider such as Sharon, made me question my own qualifications. Thankfully it looks like Sharon is recovering well. <br /><br />While Fair Hill did not end as I would have liked, I have to focus on the perfect weekend that was Plantation CIC** where Willy placed 5th! He had his best dressage score to date in an FEI competition, 58.4, jumped clean and fast cross country, and clean in show jumping on Sunday. It was quite a surreal weekend, I had several long-time friends come and watch Willy and I on cross country day which made the experience all that more enjoyable. So as Willy goes into his month of trail riding and hacking (until Thanksgiving) I am still in disbelief on how far this little pony has come. We had numerous top placings at Intermediate, a top 5 finish at an FEI competition, a 6-page article in Chronicle of the Horse, winning the 2009 USEF McKenna trophy, achieving my HA rating, and overcoming yet another injury. <br /><br /><br />The hopes for Willy over the winter are to continue working on his flatwork with Scott, getting him ready for his Advanced level debut at the Pine Top Advanced HT in February! We haven't solidified plans for which FEI events we will run, at this point it is one day at a time. We will also continue to take lessons with Jimmy Wofford, and hoping to add the likes of Kim Severson and Sally Cousins in that mix as well. <br /><br />Poor Deacon. While I thought our problems would be solved with corrective shoeing, it turns out that Deacon tested off the charts positive for lymes! Poor thing! We finally began treating him in September, and just recently he competed in the Waredaca Horse Trials at Training Level and WON! We got to the event with very little warmup time - just enough to canter to warmup and trot around the dressage ring twice - and in we went! He gave me a workmanlike test, if not a WOW test - it was consistent, not fancy like he should be. Regardless he was 5th after dressage (can't complain there) in the open training division, and gave me a fabulous XC run. Sadly we were held for 35 minutes inbetween fences 5AB (the swale) and 6 (the drop). He was such a good boy, i just dropped my reins and kept walking him in a circle, and after our mini-break, he came right back to work over a very tough course! It was really really great to have my old horse back, I haven't had a XC run like that on Deacon since March! I don't think he will be able to get into Rubicon, so I think he will end on Waredaca and continue training through the winter (since he had so much time off during the summer). If he does not sell this winter, it is back up to prelim when the Aiken circuit comes around! And plans are to run a CIC* then a CCI*. <br /><br />My horse in training, Zoe, has come such a long way in just two short months. She is one of the most difficult horses I have ever ridden, but she is also one of the most talented. She like to curl and brace her neck in a seahorse frame, instead of reaching down to the contact. With each day she is getting more and more consistent in her flatwork...but boy has it been a trying couple of months! Her jumping form is quite good, although she really did not understand how to use her hindend properly, and was just relying on her athletic ability to coast over fences. By making her slow things down to a trot, she has learned the invaluable lesson of rocking back and pushing at the base of fences. She will still have an awkward jump every now and again, but on the whole she really is coming around. But the best thing about this horse is taking her XC. She is fabulous and quite fearless, almost to a fault. She is ready for training level xc, but her flatwork and show jumping need to be solidifed so she will end the season at novice at Rubicon...but coming off of a 3rd place finish at Waredaca! Not too shabby! Her dressage scores have become consistently in the low to mid 30s! We are making progress! <br /><br />Well it is getting on 10:30, and I haven't gotten on any horses yet...so more news will be coming soon! <br /><br />CourtneyDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-91311281217946315732010-07-29T12:44:00.000-07:002010-07-29T14:02:08.254-07:00Back in the Saddle<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtwK_ed3A6TbV0B6AFW76pYTimx_0EAwkgto78cwYYmGuX_TsKq1zM2m5eEiw8ke8Qvw5jPqculsPh3AqL3_0G512dPvlIFmShRlgfK2C0WcWleIypIVGNyTjThyLgnfislW2FS8UgBQU/s1600/dressage.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 211px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtwK_ed3A6TbV0B6AFW76pYTimx_0EAwkgto78cwYYmGuX_TsKq1zM2m5eEiw8ke8Qvw5jPqculsPh3AqL3_0G512dPvlIFmShRlgfK2C0WcWleIypIVGNyTjThyLgnfislW2FS8UgBQU/s320/dressage.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5499436355456537314" /></a><br />Hey everyone! I hope you are managing to stay hydrated, it has been really hot and humid there. <br /><br />I have been really fortunate to not be doing the summer circuit of events - not my favorite thing to do. Regardless of how much the organizer/crew works, footing is hard, the heat is brutal, and the humidity makes you want to take a dip into the water jump. I only entered one event this summer, and retired in the middle of show jumping. It just wasn't my day, and Deacon wasn't feeling too hot either. I think our new competition plan with Deacon is to leave him in the night before, lunge in the morning before shipping, then go to the event. I kept him out the night before, and I think it took too much of an edge off. While I like my horses quiet and respectful, event horses need that "sumthin sumthin" extra. Especially for horses like Deacon, who already like the slower, scenic route, that little extra piece can make you or break you. I am excited to see if I finally have this horse figured out! <br /><br />I don't want to talk too soon, but it seems like the root of all my problems was in my horses' feet. Their shoes were put on too forward, toes too long, and poor Deacon actually only had the shoe touching his tippy toes and heel. No wonder the poor thing didn't want to jump! We got his feet done right before Maryland Horse Trials II, and since then he has been an absolute star, no more bucking, no more stopping. The big test will be XC schooling at Maryland this Saturday, and Olney on Sunday. His flat work has been absolutely fabulous as well, so I'm steering him full throttle toward the Training Three Day. Willy's tendonitis also stemmed from his poor shoeing - his feet were actually crooked, being shaved down tremendously on the inside, throwing his entire support system off. After his new pedicure, Willy has been a champ. It goes take him a while to get back into the swing of things, but he is finally (mentally) coming around (and doesn't always think in terms of SPEED). <br /><br />Both horses jumped gymnastics today, and I was really pleased about their progress. Willy is working on his muscle/fitness. Plans are to start him out again at Loudoun at Intermediate, then head to the AECs. Deacon jumped better than ever. I have been really concentrating on allowing him to make some decisions. My problem has always been that I am a complete control freak - I LOVE to get the perfect spot every time. I have been establishing the correct balanced, forward canter - and allowing the horse to figure out footwork. <br /><br />So all is well on that front, now exciting news! NEW HORSE! A friend of mine is doing a semester in DC, and will be dropping off her horse this Sunday for me to train and compete through the fall. I've had my eyes on this horse for a year now, having first seen her when I taught a clinic up in Ithaca, NY. Her name is Zoe (aka Cover Girl), and her daddy is the famous Windfall. She is quite uptight on the flat, but has tremendous jumping ability. Her owner has done a wonderful job getting her though novice, now it is my job to get her to take the next step up. <br /><br />Until this weekend!<br />CourtneyDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-41765735608419266832010-07-13T11:34:00.000-07:002010-07-13T12:10:22.508-07:00AlmostI believe I win the worst blogger award. After forgetting my password, it has been a long time since I have kept all of you updated on the happenings at DGEventing! I apologize in advance, this seems to be one of the most scattered blogs to date...<br /><br />First off - the students<br />DGE students have done wonderfully over the past several months since I have returned home. The teaching/training portion of DGE has been in full swing since I moved back to Baltimore County. I had the privilege of teaching at the LHPC summer camp at Morvan Park (which was an absolute blast), the GSHPC camp (so much fun!), and next week I will be returning to Ithaca, NY to teach a two day clinic for Red jacket PC. Teaching clinics is really fun, but nothing beats having my students come over - there are about 20 students (adults, kids, and teenagers) who are taking regular lessons. In my next post I can give you more specifics as to their accomplishments! <br /><br />Now to DGE Horse Happenings<br /> Cody - Cody is progressing wonderfully after he re-injured his elbow. My mom has been taking regular lessons with me on him, and boy do they look great! It has been a long road for these two, but they really have formed a solid partnership. We have begun to jump him over little fences, and he seems to be holding up just fine! We are hoping to take him to some schooling shows in late August, and start back into competition mode this fall! <br />I have also been teaching a lot off of Cody, as he is such an accomplished veteran that he helps both beginners and advanced riders. He knows exactly when a 6 year old is on him, or when I throw the bigger kids on him (when we need to work on their position!). He is such a special pony!<br /><br />Willy - After brining Willy back from Jersey, I noticed a slight swelling peak up behind both knees. An ultrasound showed that while all ligaments/tendons are fine, he has developed some tendonitis. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done for this except time off. Willy has had the past month off, and we are carefully brining him back to work. He is an incredibly fit pony with very strong opinions, and has been left on his own for a month - you can imagine what we are dealing with! <br /><br />Deacon - Oh Deacon. We finally got his hip/back pain taken care of, but now we have to deal with the mental repercussions. I've dropped him down to training level to help boost his confidence - but I haven't quite gotten all of the pieces back together. I've taken him to several farms schooling, and he has been wonderful - but it does not seem to translate to the competition arena. Hopefully we can figure out exactly which button to push in the next couple of weeks! <br /><br />- ok - so that was the recap of what everyone has been doing. Now to get my 2cents (for what it is worth). <br /><br />This year has been a year of "almost". I "almost" finished Jersey Fresh. I "almost" took Deacon to a one star. I "almost" took Willy advanced. I "almost" made honors at Wake Forest (.01 away). I'm at a crossroads in my life, and these "almost" moments make it that much more uncertain. Right now I am sitting in the boarding station on my roller coaster ride. Do I risk everything, living penniless to follow my passion and pursue a career teaching/training/competing horses? Do I keep horses as a side hobby and follow a "real job"? If so what on earth should I do? Improve my arabic and work for the government? Follow journalism? Steer towards a law degree? <br /> <br />I've spent the past two months thinking about my next move, and still - nothing. Hopefully by the next post I will have at least some direction. <br /><br />As for the horses, we are aiming Deacon at the Training Level 3-day at Waredaca this fall and Willy at the CCI** Fair Hill International in October. (oh, i hope they are not on the same weekend - reminder to check on that!). Pending Willy's prognosis, a trip down to Georgia for the AECs may be in order. Deacon is qualified for prelim, but I'm not sure he is ready for that challenging of a course. Until next time! <br /><br />- CourtneyDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-59009770775144230842010-06-03T15:27:00.000-07:002010-06-03T15:44:28.024-07:00Spring RecapHello DGE followers!<br /><br />And thus ends our spring eventing season. If nothing else, horses are humbling creatures. They let us know - despite all of our time, money, work, and sacrifice - things will never go as planned. <br /><br />There were certainly highs and lows to our spring season. Willy is without a doubt a confirmed, competitive intermediate horse. He jumped around the hardest courses in the country with ease, and if we can just get his dressage consistent - he will be tough to beat! He jumped around the majority of Jersey Fresh with no difficulties whatsoever, and is looking to be in top shape for the summer season. His goals are to hit Stuart CIC** in July, then the Advanced at Millbrook in August. If we can raise enough funding we will travel to the AECs in Georgia in September, and finish with the Fair Hill CCI** in October. Big plans for a little pony! <br /><br />Deacon also had an up and down spring season. After some super performances at the toughest events in Area II and III, we had a bit of a mishap over a gallop fence at Longleaf. Long story short Deacon really hurt his back and hip, although he was never lame. He continued to jump for me but something was definitely not right, and he began to stop at the last minute. After an uncharacteristic showing at MCTA, I called the vet out. After a couple of acupuncture/chiropractor treatments Deacon was night-and-day different! He even jumped out of his field (away from his BFF Willy) to visit the girls. He is back in full swing and will be competing at training level the next couple of times out before moving back up to preliminary. His big goal is the P3D at Midsouth in October! <br /><br />I came home to all of my wonderful students who look better than ever! Lessons are underway and we've even had some great showings at pony club rallies, events, and horse shows! Look out for DGE students kicking some boot-tay at an event near you! So proud of all my kids. Specific updates will be posted soon! <br /><br />The newest project for DGE is forming a syndicate to purchase Teddy O'Connor's full brother, Theodore Al Coda. Coda is a 5 year old stallion currently owned by Christan Trainor. Christan has done a wonderful job with Coda, but is leaving the country. So I now have this wonderful opportunity! I strongly encourage you to tell everyone you know, we have an affordable syndicate set up! And would like to bring Coda home in the next couple of weeks. Please contact me directly 443 610 7221 for more information. <br /><br />Our next competition is Seneca! We are returning from some well deserved vacation time (well the boys are... I never get a vacation!) and look forward to a great weekend. Until then! <br /><br />Courtney Sendak<br /><br /><3 Yeardley LoveDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-79869254188601776932010-05-06T17:02:00.000-07:002010-06-03T15:26:51.592-07:00THE JERSEY THAT IS FRESH<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJm_wqu2TnteyZMsSRhZFZkVrdLiS99YDh4svG-6E_OFsF7Bv4A41gCO8JxALb0ODa8l2DM5GBrW2gZd1FJ67zybmQSZyIzxp2SybUG7mRHb48bTwndMeeVAoczjcyT1R_zrypGIn2CCA/s1600/jerseynew.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJm_wqu2TnteyZMsSRhZFZkVrdLiS99YDh4svG-6E_OFsF7Bv4A41gCO8JxALb0ODa8l2DM5GBrW2gZd1FJ67zybmQSZyIzxp2SybUG7mRHb48bTwndMeeVAoczjcyT1R_zrypGIn2CCA/s320/jerseynew.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478677399757043522" /></a><br />Wow. If you have never been to Jersey Fresh (like myself), this is a destination event! Driving in you get a sneak peak of the cross country course (which I am dying to walk...but little blonde me is focusing on one discipline at a time), beautiful arenas, and stabling. Willy has thoroughly enjoyed the acres and acres of clover/grass/dandelions and has been gracious enough to drag me to each destination patch on our many hand walks thus far. I arrived at the park late Tuesday afternoon, settled in and went on a long graze/hand walk before helping my coach settle her two horses in. After organizing everything and them some, we went on another hand walk, got a bath, and then watched Willy as he sulked for two hours in the corner (how dare you bathe super ponies!). Driving to the hotel (30 minutes away) was an adventure in itself. Do you know that you cannot make left turns here? It is very bizarre. Anyway, settled into the hotel room and tried to finish up some final papers/articles (which need to be done asap for me to graduate next week)! <br /><br />Wednesday = jog day. <br />We are stabled down the lane from some of the west coasters. Boy do they have this stabling business down. The horses have little welcome mats, tack stall has a carpet, they have music and beer. Now I know who to hang out with! Because I don't get to participate in the "big jogs" often, I wanted to go full out. After the riders meeting, I ran back to the barns to sew in braids on Willy. Now i remember why i use rubber bands most of the time! After frantically getting the pony all beautiful - which involved washing his tail not 3 or 4 times but 7 times (I am a wash rack whore!) I got to slip into my sister's beautiful sundress! A word to the wise - when there are tornado winds, do not wear light, flow-ey dresses! Anyway I survived the jog with my dress and heels, didn't expose myself to the ground jury and was accepted to continue the competition. <br /><br />I must admit that so much of this competition for us is psychological. I know that I have a tremendous partner, I know that I am a capable rider... but darn if those horses and riders aren't intimidating! Riding around the ring with Doug Payne, Phillip, Jennie, etc, etc. it really does a number to my confidence. Coach is telling me over and over again that we deserve to be here... and we have nothing more to prove! Sigh. Enough with the negative nancy! Watching the *** riders were the inspiration i needed to get on the pony and have a dressage school. He wasn't fabulous, but we pushed his buttons today - with the hopes that tomorrow he will be in a much better mood and remember the lessons we stressed today. <br /><br />All right, well I need to do some work for school. I will blog again tomorrow after dressage...hopefully with lots of praises for my little super pony!<br /><br />FRIDAY<br /><br />After watching dressage all day yesterday (while pretending to finish final papers...hey at least I had my computer in front of me), I was beyond ready to try my hand at this ** dressage test. I had an intense dressage lesson in the morning with coach, working on Willy's responsiveness and relaxation. Our biggest challenge is relaxation - if I can get him to relax, he lifts his back, flexes at the base of his neck - and you would never know he is only 14.3 ish! <br /><br />Our real warm-up was great. We tried to keep him very "Zen", focusing on my breathing and using his hind end. His warm up was perfect! As we trotted towards the main arena, WAM! SPOOK! SNORT! Sigh. Willy has always had a crowd-phobia. And of course there was a significant number of people in the stands. Needless to say, Willy was more concerned about the judge's stands, people moving under the pavilion, and scary flower holders than listening to my cues during the test. Despite a rather lack-luster test, we received decent dressage scores from both dressage judges - and quite a beating from the eventing judge. After watching the tape, the test wasn't awful - but definitely not our best (or half best) effort. He did some lovely canter-pirouettes during the turn on the haunches. hehe. Oh well, naughtiness can we improved upon. I can look back on it and smile, but at the time it was such a disappointment! We worked so hard and sacrificed so much to get to this point, and I felt I let myself, my horse, and my supporters down. After a motivational speech from my coach, multiple head bumps from Willy (he thought he did brilliantly), and hugs from mom - the 5 minute dressage test was put into perspective. Anyway we still got to jump...which is the fun part! <br /><br />SATURDAY<br /><br />And it was finally here. I walked the course 3 times, and knew where i wanted to be every step of the way. The course was big, but flowed well. John did a great job, making improvements everywhere. Willy was the 10th horse to tackle the course, and while no one problem fence, mistakes were being made and time was definitely becoming a factor. And before I knew it we were out of the box, surging towards the first fence. Before I knew it, we were at the first question on course, two tables set on an extremely acute angle. If a rider missed the line coming out of the woods or allowed his horse to drift ever so slightly, you would have a glance off. Coach had told me to hold my line, but go the long way if Willy was too strong this early in the course. We came out of the woods, I saw my line and held it beautifully. Willy didn't even bat an eye...he knew his job about 5 strides out. Perfect pony! One combination down! From this difficult series, we continued down to a HUGE drop (which I totally underestimated and almost popped right off..thank you pony for planting me back into the tack!), to a vertical cannon (which jumped like a corner), and then to the first water complex. Willy came around the turn full steam ahead...we have to work on our half halts. I managed to get Willy to the base of the "A" element (our plan), jumped up the bank, three strides across, jump off the bank, galloped through the water and out over an angled skinny triple-brush. Willy was unphased and unimpressed. We continued our uphill gallop to what was believed to be the hardest element on course - the ditch combination. <br /><br />We hit the "A" element perfectly, enough push enough power. Down a stride, angled ditch, out over the "C" vertical. PERFECT. God I love this pony! We galloped on over several more fences, then approached the other difficult combination...the corners. And these were not just corners, but CORNERS. WIDE CORNERS. REALLY WIDE CORNERS. We galloped up to them, kept the perfect powerful gallop, and there we were...soaring over the "A" three forward strides over the "B". We galloped onward through the 7-minute marker. We then galloped to the second water, drop down, gallop across, chevron out. Done. Now onto the final gallop up the hill... a new addition to the course. Right before we entered the woods, we had a wide hay table. Willy was definitely tired at this point, and I did not see any way/shape/form of a distance to this fence. I sat up and pushed him onward. Willy chipped in, and wasn't able to clear the fence. He slammed his stifles into the back of the table. I could tell things were not 100%, so i left him finish the gallop up the hill to see if he just stung himself. We got to the top of the hill at our 8 minute marker and Willy let me know that he was not feeling perfect. So I pulled up. 5 fences, 1 minute from the finish flag. Many people have asked if this was a hard decision. It wasn't. The decision to pull up was easy. It may have stunk, well it sucked - but it wasn't really a decision. If your horse is hurt, you stop. Simple enough. <br /><br />So thus ends my quest for a Jersey finish, well until next year. The good news is, Willy jogged perfectly sound Sunday morning and is enjoying his short time off while I finish up exams and prepare Deacon for Virginia CCI*. Until then! <br /><br />Side note about Jersey:<br /><br />For those of you who have seen pictures or read about it on Eventing Nation, a dear friend from elementary/high school Yeardley Love was brutally murdered. I was called the morning they found her body, and I am still in a state of shock. Yeardley was not only physically beautiful, but she was truly a genuinely good person. She was an angel. I know it hasn't really sunk in yet that Yeardley was taken from us, my prayers are with her mother, sister, and best friend Catherine. Yeardley was a remarkable woman with a promising future, I just cannot believe she is gone. <br /><br />Hearing this news right before Jersey was incredibly difficult. I chose to dedicate my weekend in mjavascript:void(0)emory of Yeardley, wearing an orange armband (UVA's colors are orange and blue). If you would please say a prayer for the Love family this evening, it would mean the world to us. Stop the violence. <br /><br />Courtney <br /><3 you Yards!DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-82797925134077333682010-04-12T05:43:00.000-07:002010-04-12T06:24:17.640-07:00The Fork...Playing with the Big BoysWhat a weekend! The Fork always promises to be an exciting weekend, filled with top-notch competitors and freakishly amazing XC courses. For DGE the weekend started on Thursday, where I skipped classes (without an ounce of guilt), packed up, and drove an hour over to Norwood. Unfortunately my perfect planning was thwarted by the lack of grain in the barn's feed room, so I had to wait an extra couple of hours while the barn owner was out getting grain for the entire barn. So much for getting there early. I pulled into the Fork around 7 pm, threw tack on the boys and got quick mini-lessons on the boys (practically in the dark). Oh well, it was better than nothing. <br /><br />Dressage day dawned bright, early, and HOT HOT HOT. And when I say HOT i mean 90 degrees in April hot. Deacon was up first with a dressage time around 1 pm. He warmed up GREAT...his trot work was really great and he was incredibly obedient. Unfortunately he was peaked to go into the ring about 15 minutes before our actual time...by the time i went down centerline Deacon was DONE. We went for our first halt at"x" and...hi-ho silver. "Quite an exciting entrance" was the judge's comment. Unfortunately the rest of the test was off-and-on amazing...moments of greatness around moments where I wanted to jump into a pool and hide. Sigh. Next time. <br /><br />I was really excited for Willy's dressage test - he was been putting in some beautiful work lately and I couldn't wait to show it off. But there was a twist (like always). The intermediate dressage had the longest walk known to man - and it happens to be the same way as XC ( you actually walk past xc) and since we have been here before Willy was VERY excited about doing xc first - complete with nervous poops and lunges into the air. When i finally got down to the dressage arena, it took every second of warmup just to get Willy to half-way listen to my aids. Our test was only halfway decent, accurate but very tense...can you say tight pony back? We received a not-so-great score, leaving us in 12th place for the night. <br /><br />Saturday was cross-country day for Willy. The course was BIG, technical, and looked to be a great prep for Jersey. Willy shot out of the box like a little fireball, and never looked back. We were the last combination on course so I had the advantage of seeing just where the trouble spots were. The first water combination was causing a lot of trouble, but the pony jumped it perfectly. The announcer, Brian O'Connor kept commenting how smooth our round was - and how "you can't help but feel sentiment for this pair" (commenting on his show name "Wil'Ya Love Me"). We have it all on camera... it was a run that was just perfect. Willy never put a foot wrong, was an eager beaver to every fence, and .... FAST! We acquired only 2.4 time penalties, jumping from 12th to 5th. Willy's show jumping round on Sunday was also phenomenal. He jumped absolutely beautifully, but we had an unlucky rail...which kept us from moving to 2nd place. With the rail we ended up in 4th...not too shabby, but we definitely have our work cut out for us. <br /><br />Deacon show jumped on Saturday. He was jumping absolutely great in warm-up, so I was ready to attack the very technical course. Rails were flying everywhere, and the two riders before us went off course...not a good thing to have happen! We went in the ring, and I committed the cardinal sin...rode completely backwards to the 3rd fence..down. To the 7th fence...down. Finally i remembered to use my legs and relax my elbows...and he jumped the rest of the course beautifully, having a green-bean moment in the triple - another rail down. Certainly not our best performance, but it was a growing experience... changing the round midway is a difficult task, and we accomplished that. Now we need to practice our half-halts and go forward to the fences. <br /><br />The cross country was really big and technical for preliminary. The course started with fence 2 and 3 as maxed out tables...not much time to get a good gallop established. Deacon really surprised me this weekend. He galloped out of the box and really attacked these fences. We missed our distance to both max tables, and i just looked up, kept my leg on, and baby Deacon made it work. Not beautiful, but successful. This great momentum continued until the first water. I was really concerned about the "B" element...a skinny turtle out of the water. I got all up in his business, trying to establish a forward, bouncy canter (as planned) but forgot to say "jump" over the "A" element. Deacon very nicely came to a stop, turned his head and looked at me saying, "I don't understand you mom, but I did what you asked me." Darn. We came around again and he jumped the combination with ease. The rest of the course was great! Corners, drops, ditches, no problem! I was most concerned with the second water...a big drop in, 7 strides to a goose...all right next to the spectator tent. Deacon didn't hesitate for a second...did a huge leap into the water, almost sent me flying, and stayed completely straight as I pulled myself back into the saddle, and popped right over the goose. He got lots of carrots and cookies for that save! Despite our "opps" moments, I really feel Deacon is ready to tackle the CCI* at Virginia. We will be working really hard to increase his level of fitness and earn that final qualifying score. <br /><br />DGE will be heading to Longleaf with one horse (Deacon) in the preliminary, then both horses will be running at MCTA. After MCTA, Willy and I head up to Jersey Fresh! Until then, I have a LOT of homework to catch up with! <br /><br />Keep Kicking!<br />CourtneyDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-18878419488222232902010-04-05T17:51:00.000-07:002010-04-05T22:47:46.918-07:00Blonde Moments<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffKyvX8Mcyr1Zv4BMTeRQrCvrE8kOtOR_chzC5qJ7tg7yfJIaGAW9zZnQgTDqfUCZ0VAhZKlk5F3UMNO7MgpptuugdiganSqPzAdmB4E-kpPsYqqQOxVzge9YyPuJ_09AkIOkzbXl1LU/s1600/SP105.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 211px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffKyvX8Mcyr1Zv4BMTeRQrCvrE8kOtOR_chzC5qJ7tg7yfJIaGAW9zZnQgTDqfUCZ0VAhZKlk5F3UMNO7MgpptuugdiganSqPzAdmB4E-kpPsYqqQOxVzge9YyPuJ_09AkIOkzbXl1LU/s320/SP105.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456897088077896978" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKvCP7Y12VFasCPduGOhFNFq6ZRCOxkdwGaGk6skSC_DYp6My2MF9E97wQ6_q2qJgDo3vgHXXzCwZEltFt8xy4SNYYj2Ydj6bK_X8adDxpI8fa6zegv1OKKxrgcZpFwgpqbb1wVQ0N2Ew/s1600/SP103.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKvCP7Y12VFasCPduGOhFNFq6ZRCOxkdwGaGk6skSC_DYp6My2MF9E97wQ6_q2qJgDo3vgHXXzCwZEltFt8xy4SNYYj2Ydj6bK_X8adDxpI8fa6zegv1OKKxrgcZpFwgpqbb1wVQ0N2Ew/s320/SP103.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456896962654884594" /></a><br /><br />Southern Pines II <br /><br />Southern Pines is undoubtedly a destination event in North Carolina. The courses have always been very demanding, the competition fierce, and the hospitality very much representing southern comfort. My original plan was to arrive Thursday afternoon and have two flat lessons from coach. Of course homework/class obligations prevented this from happening so I arrived at the horse park in the early afternoon on Friday. <br /><br />Deacon was the first to go of the day. We are really working on improving our collection, steadiness, and obedience. Like many warmbloods, Deacon likes to have several seconds to contemplate the correct response to my aids...which can make transitions late and 10-meter circles egg-shaped. At home his work is steadily improving (without any outside help), but it is always a challenge to duplicate this work in the arena. I was very pleased with his performance, his trot work was excellent. Very smooth and supple, a vast improvement from Full Gallop. The canter work was obedient though not as remarkable as it could be...especially when compared to the other horses in open preliminary. Regardless I was incredibly pleased with his work! :) For Deacon, show jumping was on Saturday. It was a really tough course... BIG fences and interesting distances. The course required a positive, forward ride...and we delivered! Deacon jumped a beautiful clean round. We definitely have the "forward" part, now we have to conquer the forward with balance/half halting/finesse. Details, right? The cross country course was not up to the typical "Southern Pines" standards...attributed to the change in course designers. It was a great course and rode very smooth, but not many technical elements or max tables. Despite the lack of max fences, there were several "potential problems" on course. The first was a downhill turn to a sunken road, the second a turning combination through the barn, and finally the water combination. The pressure has been on Deacon and I as we need one more qualification to officially enter the CCI* at Virginia. Of course we had no problems at preliminary until i noticed we needed four not three clean runs. Anyway, the pressure was on for a clean clean clean clean round. We started the course great, Deacon was jumping boldly and confidently over everything...so much so that I took what I shall call a "blonde moment" at the sunken road... I mean, the horse was going great..no reason to ride all-out towards it? WRONG. Deacon very nicely came to a halt in front of the combination, wondering what on earth I was doing up there. Pilot error to the maximum! I came around again, somewhat bewildered that i had a spot, upset at myself that I allowed this to happen...all the while not thinking about the combination --- so we had a second stop. I decided to attempt the fence a third time, figuring that the rest of the course would be a great growing experience for us - if I could just ride over this small jump. With a cowboy-type method, we finished the combination and flew over the rest of the course, answering all the questions with ease and experience well beyond my baby horse's resume. Despite my pilot errors, I could not help but smile as we crossed the finish line. Sometimes half the battle is changing things mid-way. If you have a not-so-wonderful round, or a problem... the hardest part (in my opinion) is to change the momentum. Well, we managed to do that! It is too bad that the end result is on Deacon's resume...too bad we cannot put an asterisk saying "rider locked hands, spaced out, and took leg off so the horse listened and stopped very gentlemanly."<br /><br />Willy started out the weekend with a respectable dressage test. Nothing fancy, nothing horrible. We had a bit of a panic moment, when we realized that I had memorized the wrong intermediate test... two rides out. So scratch warming up, I stood next to the ring and memorized the test patterns, and somehow pulled it off! I have been getting steadily closer to relaxation in Willy's back...and it was noticeable in his canter work. Now to just translate that into his trot work...one day! Cross country was just odd. The course was very straight forward filled with gallop fences and one incredibly technical turning combination - the first question of the course. I saw the direct route immediately, confident that the pony and I could easily pull off the technical turn. To validate my decision I asked both Sharon White and Holly Hepp how they were jumping the combination...both were taking the direct route. As Willy and I galloped confidently to the combination, we took a huge jump over the A element, and both of us focused in on the advanced corner straight ahead rather than the intermediate "B" and "C" elements 90 degrees to our right. 20 penalty points right there. A reality check. The rest of the course rode smoothly and fairly easily, although I was kicking myself (again) for my blunder. A BEAUTIFUL, nearly perfect (and coach doesn't say that often) show jumping round on Sunday placed us in 13th. <br /><br />While Southern Pines was not the ideal event, it really was a learning experience. Coach reminded me of several key habits I need to break: (1) Blonde moments... I need to walk XC courses at least twice, really walking myself through each and every stride. Knowing exactly what I should be doing (2) Micro-Managing. I like to be in charge of everything - from bathing to braiding to tacking up. The same is true for my riding. I like to find all the distances and determine everything. This control freak syndrome needs to stop. I have to allow my horses to think for themselves and answer the course's questions with my supportive aids (3) Elastic elbows. I have a tendency to lock my elbows in place, which in turn locks my horse's shoulders and back. DUH! These three elements are so easily correctable on paper, and even in reviewing my rider... but darn are they hard to fix when remembering everything else in the middle of a course! It gives me plenty to practice before the Fork....DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-2206187029840146582010-03-17T09:09:00.000-07:002010-03-17T09:48:17.625-07:00Full Gallop Fiasco<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBV5xk8I9M2f6Wg8YK1wyWIkuJaL9yhRrE2H78iLPeVEXphousN_eD89JWxwpWfTfntZ-vLTs760DEwrLVLC91e-rkJmN7SgqT60M3KTArkoqLdC-7I53KLhHNVX09kVJ6hg7m0alB17E/s1600-h/4FullGallop.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBV5xk8I9M2f6Wg8YK1wyWIkuJaL9yhRrE2H78iLPeVEXphousN_eD89JWxwpWfTfntZ-vLTs760DEwrLVLC91e-rkJmN7SgqT60M3KTArkoqLdC-7I53KLhHNVX09kVJ6hg7m0alB17E/s320/4FullGallop.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449645584751605858" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwoyjWPPIovDL14dxyNtm-VwoJZWv1yrc8VGrPku81Js6tM7CekHJPN-xReLEtU_Axb9GAXILecLB3toNMennvdFgI_lIQCZxz8cGURg82gcVt86cSR_8Z_JdnMVtJMR5y6X_H2J5bXcs/s1600-h/3FullGallop.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwoyjWPPIovDL14dxyNtm-VwoJZWv1yrc8VGrPku81Js6tM7CekHJPN-xReLEtU_Axb9GAXILecLB3toNMennvdFgI_lIQCZxz8cGURg82gcVt86cSR_8Z_JdnMVtJMR5y6X_H2J5bXcs/s320/3FullGallop.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449645478565510994" /></a><br />Oh my goodness, where do I start. The boys have had a super season thus far! It seemed like everyone was on top of their game, and we had hardly any cobwebs to dust off! Deacon achieved his CCI* qualifications easily (3 competitions in a row), and Willy started off with a 2nd place (followed by a brief injury). We had a three week hiatus since the last competition... and my goodness we were all covered in cobwebs! <br /><br />The weekend started with an impromptu trip to Southern Pines. I left the boys at home and had to drive to meet Cherie Gaebel to retake two sections of my USPC HA Test. I've been trying to retake this test since last July, so it was imperative that I get it done NOW! Luckily Cherie was able to squeeze me in on Friday afternoon, so i dropped everything and headed down! Thankfully I was very much prepared for the sections this time, and passed. Yay, finally an HA! Now we have to look forward to the A Testing this summer. <br /><br />While it was awesome to finally achieve my rating, I stayed up all night studying and didn't have anything ready for the competition! Instead of driving down Thursday night with nothing ready, I opted to get everything done and leave at *gasp* 2 am from Lewisville, NC to Aiken, SC. It made sense at the time, but now I have to question the blonde-logic that went into such a decision. <br /><br />Wake up calls at 1 am are no fun. Especially when you are running on no sleep from studying the night before! Well i managed to wake the poor ponies up and get everyone on the road by 2:30, which put us at the competition at roughly 6:30 am. Not bad - especially when i had a 7:30 dressage ride. With a quick pit stop and some road work, i pulled into Full Gallop at 7:10. YIKES! Poor Deacon, I literally drove in threw tack on, cantered to the show office, got my number and cantered into the ring. No warmup, nothing. Poor Deacon tried very hard to give me a good test, but with my blood pressure sky-rocketing and him wondering what on earth was going on, we were given a less than desirable score in the low 40s (42 or 41 i think). Willy warmed up great. His trot work was average, his canter work was light and balanced. He was very responsive and right on the aides. I put in, what I thought was one of his best tests. At the end of my test the judge came out of her car and lectured me on how i made her entire ring late and how at this level i should know my times! YIKES. I checked my watch, went over to the ring steward - both of which assured me that I actually went into the ring 3 minutes before my posted time. I guess the judge was having a rotten day! It turns out that the girl in front of me went in the wrong ring, and was the culprit.. but I suffered from her mistake. The judge's score reflected her animosity towards me, giving Willy a 39, a score much higher than what he should have earned. Oh well. Some things are beyond a rider's control. <br /><br />Show Jumping, usually my best phase, was another disaster. Willy was a wild man, so excited to see big fences at a show, and wasn't very excited to listen to my half-halts. His over-exuberance led me to grip with my hands, forgetting the "release" of the half-halt. This made for an "interesting" first 5 fences. Thankfully I decided to ride and fix our course mid-way through, and the second half of our round was beautiful. Unfortunately the miscommunication on our first five fences cost us 2 rails...something we have not had for several years! While this stunk... the good news is we improved half way through, and seemed to be jumping in harmony yet again. Willy's cross country the next day was textbook. After he managed to get away from me in XC warm-up (I was greasing his hind-legs and he decided it was more productive to keep warming up), he went out of the box like a champ. He jumped fabulously, answered all the questions and had the fastest intermediate XC round of the day! This was a surprise as I still have never pushed for time! With his great xc round, Willy moved up to 4th place! Not bad considering our lackluster dressage and show jumping rounds! <br /><br />Poor Deacon didn't fare as well in the jumping phases. While he was very well behaved in both warm-ups, we had several miscommunications.. most of which were my fault. I started to pull backwards to the first show jumping fence... and he pulled the rail. I immediately corrected my error and we put forth a beautiful round, which a minor green pony moment at the triple. Not too shabby for this young horse! The prelim XC was technical but fair. The fourth fence was in a fence line, and poor Deacon galloped up to the fence and just stopped. I knew immediately he was confused. "Mom I am not supposed to jump the fence...are you crazy!?". I approached the fence again, and with a little encouragement from my whip, Deacon decided that jumping the fence may not be such a bad thing! Our next two problems came at turning combinations... where i decided to make rookie mistakes... trying to turn a horse using inside rein only instead of outside aides. DUH!!!! To two separate combinations i committed a cardinal sin, and poor Deacon's score and record suffered because of it. I have already set up the same question in our jumping ring at home.. we are going to practice it today! <br /><br />While our scores and individual performances were not up to par this weekend, it was a fabulous learning experience. As any event rider will tell you, our horse's mistakes reflect the mistakes his rider makes. Obviously I have some homework! The boys and I will be leaving for Southern Pines a day early (thursday) to get in a flat lesson with coach Colleen Rutledge. Hopefully Full Gallop dusted off all our cobwebs and we can put some great phases in this weekend at the Horse Park! It looks to be a very challenging weekend... Wish us luck! <br /><br />CourtneyDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-15649820072302912372010-03-05T07:20:00.000-08:002010-03-05T07:42:00.735-08:00What's Happening with DGE?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfIoV1yPPkxJ8q-uW-OAY_qO4-JsdC7RqO9YwvOuR4Qf9qHRu27u-L_2qz1KSBVRwEm-5Dwp6nG-iQv8dxRZ1XIslZzf3XzDbEnLQOo7OjPSL7J0juVUOTldeZB6WT_rUF8XAnT_c_NLY/s1600-h/pinetopdeac.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfIoV1yPPkxJ8q-uW-OAY_qO4-JsdC7RqO9YwvOuR4Qf9qHRu27u-L_2qz1KSBVRwEm-5Dwp6nG-iQv8dxRZ1XIslZzf3XzDbEnLQOo7OjPSL7J0juVUOTldeZB6WT_rUF8XAnT_c_NLY/s320/pinetopdeac.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445175450103654578" /></a> Photo by HoofClix!<br />Hello all!<br /><br />You all may be wondering why the pony has been MIA from events this month? Well, after running beautifully at Full Gallop he came home with a stump leg! His left front was swollen, extremely sensitive, and very hot! I was at a complete loss because he jogged sound after his great XC run... so I called the vet immediately. The diagnosis: severe rubs from his brand new Tri Zone XC boots (the no-rub ones!). Similar to a girth gull, the boots killed/rubbed off almost all layers of skin protecting his tendons. Luckily no tendons or ligaments were effected, but the skin was in such bad shape that poor pony had to stay in his stall with Surpass ointment everyday. No water, dirt, sand, soap, etc was to touch the skin. So after two weeks post- Full Gallop the pony is finally back in work. Needless to say this put a huge damper on our competition schedule. We were supposed to run Intermediate at Pine Top II, then advanced at Pine Top HT. Since we had to scratch from Pine Top II, our advanced debut needed to be pushed back... now it looks like we will wait until after Jersey Fresh CCI** for the big move up. Sigh. <br /><br />Anyway, the pony is feeling much better now! He is back in full training and being his naughty self. We were all set to go to Pine Top HT, but unfortunately i had three flat tires on the trailer... meaning its time to tighten my belt and get 5 new tires for our rig. So the pony missed his outing, yet again. Not to worry we have my favorite events coming up.. another run at Full Gallop, Southern Pines II, The Fork, then an advanced CT at Longleaf. <br /><br />Deacon and I braved the winter weather yet again for pine Top II. Georgia received over 4 inches of snow... and I almost decided to stay home! The Pine Top crew worked overtime to make the facility competition-ready and worked very hard to accommodate all of the competitors! Due to the storm and delayed ride times, Deacon and I had all three phases pushed back to Sunday. Deacon was PERFECT in dressage warm-up, really soft, supple, and obedient... ready to WIN! But other things were in store for us... Deacon reminded me that he is still a baby and will go silly baby things. Dressage was in a grass area...which was horribly deep and uneven, but worse... show jumping was on one side of the arena, and xc was just across the pond. Poor Deacon just froze, and wasn't sure which way to look. The good thing is... he is starting to understand his job! He say the horses running and jumping, and knew it was time to GO... unfortunately it made for a very tense, distracted, and B-A-D test. oh well, i guess I will allow the baby horse to have one bad test every two years. Despite our interesting version of prelim Test A, we managed to obtain a qualifying score from Brain Ross. Show Jumping was BIG and quite technical for Prelim, riders had to find the perfect canter and perfect spot or rails would fly! Deacon was jumping great in warm-up and posted another DOUBLE CLEAR round. YAY! XC was even more intimidating, especially for this early in the season... questions like a bounce bank (with a huge off), corners, offset lines, BIG gallop fences, Bounce bank water fence, jumps in the water, etc. Deacon had never seen half of these questions before so I wanted to go a bit slower to really give him the opportunity to understand the course. My plan paid off. Deacon grew more confident as the course went along, and was an absolute super star, with plenty of gas left in the tank! He moved all the way up to 6th. Not too bad for his 4th prelim, in a division filled with Intermediate Horses and Riders (who were using Pine Top as a 'dust the cobwebs off' event). All in all, I was very pleased with Deacon - he is now qualified for the Virginia CCI*! <br /><br />We have a short break before we head to Aiken for Full Gallop. See you all there! <br /><br />CourtneyDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-45008446385129719812010-02-19T09:49:00.000-08:002010-03-05T07:42:55.388-08:00Running in the RED!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSfB7XAlvconCwNNxQgBcMAvCKCqtUT3UuOgxyIitqCWTf-aVZi1OkGsbtlF5g0R2RvMkN7_1vIRS9iot9z8mDaS28t0H4Vnv2KNiAkoIkOeA8UveqMBP7CUPdeyWwTiJ3BLgcrnWTT_8/s1600-h/2010fg.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSfB7XAlvconCwNNxQgBcMAvCKCqtUT3UuOgxyIitqCWTf-aVZi1OkGsbtlF5g0R2RvMkN7_1vIRS9iot9z8mDaS28t0H4Vnv2KNiAkoIkOeA8UveqMBP7CUPdeyWwTiJ3BLgcrnWTT_8/s320/2010fg.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445175701890115266" /></a> Photo by HoofClix<br />Wow 23 blog followers... the pressure is on to keep these posts up-to-date. I want to let everyone know that this weekend the website will be updated. I apologize for the delay, horses and school have taken precedence! <br /><br />On to Sporting Days...<br />North Carolina is being hit by a never-ending series of snow storms. The weekend of Sporting Days was no exception. The predicted storm was so severe that I decided to go down to Aiken for the full weekend, instead of making the trip and competition in one day (oh darn, another day in Aiken). Deacon was a bit full of himself Sunday morning, whether it was the chilly morning weather, or lack of riding since Wednesday's full gallop (the ring in NC is frozen) I will never know. But boy was he naughty! However, in true Deacon style he collected himself around the ring and put in a MARVELOUS test. He was soft, supple, and very ride-able, which made the new test much easier! Show Jumping was quite big and was a long, twisty course - not the best thing for a baby horse's first prelim! Deacon, once again, proved me wrong and jumped a splendid round. His jumping style was a little flat, something I believe is attributed to running him Wednesday-Sunday. I am very much against running horses this frequently, but the scheduling really left me with no choice! I needed a solid training followed by a soft prelim...and Sporting Days is the only one around! (usually people use the spring as a warm-up, and then move up to the level they competed at the prior fall). Deacon's clear show jumping round led right into his clean xc round! I was very excited about this round - not because we could use it as a qualifying round for a spring *, but because his confidence level grew after each fence and he really is understanding the preliminary questions! <br /><br />With Deacon's wonderful performance he finished in 2nd place! in his 3rd prelim! Wow! The great performances the past week from my two horses has landed me in the 22nd spot on the USEA Top 50 rider leaderboard! This is a fabulous accomplishment, especially considering I only have two horses (which i started myself), and am a full time student in school, and have been battling this crazy winter weather! I am so proud of my boys, and look forward towards a great 2010!DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-88902088245040077652010-02-10T11:06:00.000-08:002010-02-19T09:49:21.251-08:00Beginning with a BANG!Hello everyone! I hope that this post finds everyone warm and well! Thankfully the boys and I managed to miss the historical 3+ feet of snow that hit the Mid-Atlantic this past week.. though North Carolina did see its fair share of nasty weather! <br /><br />DGE spent this winter tine-tuning everything. We took advantage of the beautiful indoor at An Otherwise Perfect Farm in Upperco, MD and really worked on finessing the new USEF dressage tests, building insane amounts of grids, and of course the endless/tedious trot sets around and around the indoor. While I was only able to squeeze in a couple of lessons with Colleen right before I left for NC, it was very helpful for pushing our work even further towards the edge. Colleen and I were also able to fine tune DGE's competition plans for this year - highlights of which include Jersey Fresh CCI**, Virginia CCI*, Fair Hill CCI**, Advanced at Millbrook, and taking the entire team down to the AECs. I am incredibly excited to see how the year pans out...<br /><br />I decided to start the year a bit earlier this season, beginning with the Wednesday event at Full Gallop. It is customary for most riders to enter their horses a level lower than they normally compete - this gives the horses a chance to re-acclimate to the competition environment and to shed all the winter cobwebs! Since the boys had an early winter vacation, I felt that they were ready to go back full force. My instincts were enforced with two perfect jump schools with Holly Hudspeth the Thursday before our first event. The horses were jumping great, looked happy, and were incredibly fit for the end of January. Willy was to begin the season running at Intermediate, while Deacon would begin at Training...though would run his first preliminary the following weekend. <br /><br />The boys and I shipped down to Aiken around 1 pm Tuesday morning, arriving just in time for me to run over to Full Gallop and walk the intermediate course. After a late night of bathing/braiding/cleaning tack/organizing the trailer/spoiling the ponies, everyone was tucked in for the chilly night. Thankfully, Wednesday promised to be in the 60s and sunny... a welcome change to the dismal, dreary weather we have seen all winter. <br /><br />Willy's dressage was first. I have not decided on my feelings towards the new tests, they will definitely take some getting used to! I am excited to perform in the large area, for it eliminates the claustrophobic feeling that can be associated with medium canters down the long sides (in a small arena). Despite two small errors, Willy performed a very nice test...and was rewarded by a high - but competitive score from Brian Ross. His comments were very spot-on, rewarding our obedient and work-man-like test, but suggesting that the envelope should be pushed more. This was an exciting change for Willy - He is finally relaxing in the ring, and I look forward towards really pushing ourselves in the area... hopefully our explosive moments are a thing of the past. Deacon's dressage was quite similar to that of his brother. Very correct, and obedient - although the judge challenged us for more. He received a 35 and was in 10th, although fractions of points separated the top 10 places. <br /><br />Show Jumping was scheduled before XC, which is both a blessing and a curse. Show Jumping before the XC gives the horse's a little more spunk and jump over the fences, which hopefully translates to a clean round. On the other hand - the horses are very excited and somewhat more difficult to ride b/c they know what comes next! But DGE proved that we were ready for the game! Willy really WOW-ed the crowd with his ridiculously athletic jumping style... I swear this horse is allergic to paint! He jumped a brilliant course to finish in 2nd. While Deacon performed his "bad-boy act" once again near the in-gate, once he got on course he jumped better than ever! He did not touch a rail and really rounded his back over every fence! I am very excited for this horse as he is developing into a real athlete! <br /><br />I was very excited to get back out on the cross-country, although I did not have an opportunity to school before the event... anyone on the East Coast could tell you why! Willy went out of the box like the true champion he is, and was a star from start to finish. He was a little over-zealous the entire day, and cross country was no exception. It always takes him several events before he realizes that jumping his mother out of the tack over every fence really isn't necessary. While I did not push Willy for time, he was eager through the finish flags - a tribute to our new trot-based conditioning program. Deacon was the real superstar of cross country. I was expecting at least a little rustiness on his part, as he is still new to the game, but I was quickly proven wrong! Deacon was bold and brilliant, finishing with a double clear round! <br /><br />The end result was Willy finishing in 2nd, and Deacon in 5th. Not too bad for our first time out! We look forward to Sporting Days, where Deacon will be competing at the preliminary level. Willy's next outing will be the big Pine Top, competing at Intermediate.DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-61958387397133988382009-12-22T15:50:00.000-08:002009-12-22T17:11:43.666-08:00Goodbye 2009I apologize yet again to all our followers about the delay in posting about Defying Gravity Eventing's wonderful end to the 2009 season. <br /><br />2009 has been a year of incredible highs and lows...but as we all know, this is the way with horses! The year started out perfectly, in hindsight probably too perfectly. Willy qualified for the NAYRC** team with a flawless performance at both Poplar CIC** and Fair Hill CIC**, and Deacon was one of the top 10 USEA training level horses. Not too shabby for a Young Rider, who is also enrolled full-time at Wake Forest University, and working on the side! <br /><br />The summer brought a near career ending injury for Willy, puncturing his knee at a local HT. Despite our best efforts, it was in Willy's interest to put our dreams of representing the U.S. again at Young Riders behind us. With wonderful help from our two vets, IRAP injections, and the aqua-tred facility at Normar Farm... Willy made a slow but stead recovery. After completing our rehab program, Willy felt better than ever. <br /><br />Returning to North Carolina, I had two very fit, restless horses ready to make their mark on the eventing scene. We started off with both horses competing at Training level at Five Points Horse Trials... and to my surprise Willy and Deacon went into show jumping in 1st and 2nd place. An unlucky rail dropped Deacon to 4th... but a clear but exuberant round from Willy allowed him to lead the victory gallop! Next the boys were off to Paradise Farm where Deacon placed 3rd in the T/P division, and Willy was 7th in a very competitive preliminary division. Tryon was another big event for the boys, Willy repeated his win of the I/P division, and Deacon gave the prelim a good go! Both boys had disappointing dressage tests, but stellar show jumping rounds. Unfortunately with the incredibly difficult preliminary questions, Deacon was a little too overfaced and I pulled him up at the 2nd to last fence. Regardless he learned much at Tryon, and really showed how he has grownup in his last event at Virginia. <br /><br />Halloween weekend was spent at Virginia Horse Center. Willy competed in his first intermediate post-accident, and what a performance indeed! We went into the dressage ring with a purpose, and came out in first place! Willy never looked back posting a clean and fast cross country, and a fabulous show jumping round. Brian O'Connor - the announcer at Virginia - said over the PA system "you show those bay TBs and Warmbloods who owns THIS arena." During Willy's victory gallop "I Believe I can Fly" was playing over the PA system... it was a moment which I will forever cherish. To have come this far and accomplish this much with Willy, despite all the odds against us, is a miracle. Willy has added so much to my life, he is such a blessing to be around...even in his grumpy pony moods. <br /><br />Deacon was not to be outdone by his older brother. He was 7th out of all the starters in the preliminary division after dressage. The cross country was incredibly challenging, but Deacon showed his courage and jumped all the jumps and answered all of the technical questions right away! Since it was his second attempt at prelim, i did not ask him for a big gallop - instead we settled into a comfortable pace. Even with our time penalties, Deacon moved up to 6th place after XC. Another unfortunate rail at the last combination in show jumping dropped him to 7th place... but despite the groans from the crowd, i couldn't have been happier! <br /><br />With Willy winning 3/4 of his event's after his injury, and Deacon completing his first preliminary horse trial the boys had some well-deserved let-down time. I will post another update soon as to our winter 'boot camp'! <br /><br />Happy Holidays!<br />CourtneyDefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-51549698756577893532009-09-16T08:21:00.001-07:002009-09-16T11:15:39.986-07:00Student Success!Luckily I have many positive things to report since my last entry....<br /><br />Student Christine Lonsdale performed beautifully at the East Coast Pony Club Championships in the Beginner Novice division. Christine and her adorable pony Magic had a respectable dressage test, and finished the event on their dressage score! I've only been working with Christine for the month prior to championships, and it was incredibly rewarding to hear all of her hard work (both on jumping, conditioning, and on the flat) pay off. I have high aspirations for this pair, I can't wait to see just how far they will be able to go... both horse and rider have so much untapped potential. Hopefully I can get them to do some recognized novice and training events in 2010. <br /><br />The clinic in Ithaca, NY was absolutely lovely. A friend of mine, Brittnie Chidsey organized the clinic as part of her pony club's summer camp (Red Jacket PC). I had actually met Brittnie last year when we were on the winning team for Show Jumping at the 2008 USPC Champs, and we have stayed in contact ever since (for further information about Champs, see the Chronicle of the Horse article which highlight's Willy's 5 perfect rounds). The days were long, but all of the students were wonderful, and everyone learned something that weekend - I know that I saw a HUGE improvement in everyone. The club was incredibly generous, even taking me out on my first tubing adventure... something I loved doing, but I'm not sure if I could ever do again. I'll stick to jumping 4' solid fences. <br /><br />I also had the pleasure of teaching for my own club, Green Spring Hounds, all summer. We have such a phenomenal group of both kids, ponies, and parents that Tuesday morning lessons were very much anticipated. As a young instructor, it was incredibly rewarding to see the progress made by each and every student week to week, from the walk-trot-ers to the "big kids" doing double bounce gymnastics. <br /><br />At the end of the summer, I was able to help long time friend Tammie Monaco with her adorable new pony. Though he has a bit of a lazy streak, with quite a few ground poles and some interesting jump designs, he really started looking like a top notch hunter pony! Can't wait to hear how he is doing! <br /><br />Throughout the summer I captured the ride on Betsy Hochstein's beautiful young Hanovarian mare, Callie, who has remarkable potential. She is a top-notch mare, and though green, shows much promise for great things. It was incredibly unfortunate that I had to give up the ride to come back down to North Carolina, but Callie is in great hands and I look forward to hearing lots of success stories!DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-46053692701563746172009-08-10T10:35:00.000-07:002009-08-10T11:23:49.353-07:00Sweet SummertimeHope that this posting is finding everyone well! Though we haven't competed since May, somehow the team has still been quite busy. I've chosen to spend this summer primarily training and working on the finer details - hopefully this will pay off for the fall season! Let me recap..<br /><br />Willy has been doing lots of trail riding, trotting, and dressage work, and we are awaiting the results of the 2nd IRAP injection, hoping that this is the golden ticket for getting him back up to the top levels. Until then, Willy's having a summer vacation - which he is not altogether happy about. He LOVES jumping, and he doesn't understand why - all of a sudden - he isn't allowed to do what he loves. Until then, I am trying to take him to the river once a week and let him paw/roll/swim - which he thinks is the greatest thing a pony can do b/c it gets his rider soaking wet (if nothing else, all that pawing in the water is a great way to open up his shoulders). But I can confidently say that his dressage is improving, and that he is finally beginning to use his back, and have "horse strides" as opposed to "pony strides". Hopefully he can continue this progress into the competition arena, whenever we get the "clear"<br /><br />This summer Deacon has truly matured into a top-notch athlete... his flat work and jumping have improved tremendously. I am quite confident that he will be a force to be recon with at the Training 3-day this November, but in October I hope to compete him in two preliminary level horse trials. His flat work is really quite solid for the preliminary level, and with a few more schooling opportunities I believe he will be able to move up easily. I'm quite excited to see how far this horse will go! On a side note - I've discovered that not much fazes Deacon - every single time I take him out hacking or trotting we come across a HUGE black snake (I'm convinced that it is some mutated form of an anaconda) and - despite my shrieks of terror - he doesn't care... simply continues on his way. How often do you find that in any horse, let alone a young one! (Willy and I are more than willing to run away in the opposite direction) <br /><br />I've been kept quite busy preparing for my pony club ratings, teaching, and training horses. In fact, I have just been flown up to Genoa, NY to teach a two day clinic ending Wednesday! I can't believe how fast this summer has flown by, but I am very excited for the upcoming fall season and my final year at Wake Forest. <br />Our first competition back will be Five Points at the Carolina Horse Park where Deacon will be competing at Training and *hopefully* Willy will be coming back at preliminary. Stay tuned for more updates!DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7952310555833979165.post-45021124108137854942009-07-05T18:50:00.000-07:002009-07-05T20:06:34.505-07:00We never said it was easy...The past week has been very hard for me. Let me see if I can get everyone up to date....<br /><br />After the nightmare at Waredaca, we were on edge with Willy's recovery. I was incredible careful... making sure he received the aqua-therapy, 'Ok' from the vet every other day, new supplements, etc, etc and was ecstatic to receive the 'go-ahead' that I could continue intense training in preparation for the upcoming NAYRC ** championship in Kentucky. With the 10 day set-back, we were cutting it close (fitness wise) for the competition, but Willy was rearing (literally) to go and showed every sign of being up to the challenge.<br /> <br />I competed in the NAYRCs in 2006, and thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie of the area teams and competing against peers instead of well-seasoned veterans. For the past three years I have been chomping on the bit to compete again in this competition, though age restrictions and minor problems (aka COLLEGE!) kept holding us back. This year, my last year as a young rider, I was determined to qualify and compete to the best of my ability in the 2009 Young Rider Championships. Though it does not happen very often in the horse world, competitions this spring went to plan - the pony did not have a single XC jump penalty, pulled only 1 rail all spring, and was steadily improving in the dressage arena - he's only slightly convinced that dressage is all evil now :) . So for May-June we were scheduled to do smaller events, just to keep tuned up. So far, so good. Then Waredaca happened. And everything changed...<br /><br />A setback, but a "full recovery" was the verdict from New Bolton... so it was crunch time for fitness, still not too much of a panic - just another twist to our story. However, after our first gallop post-accident the pony's knee filled. After a frantic call to the vet, the question became not 'When can I leave for training camp' but "Will Willy be able to jump again?". Willy has been my partner for 10 years. 10 years that I look back on with the fondest of memories (despite all the times when I couldn't get Willy past 'x' in the dressage because the judge's car doors were open!). He is a pony of a lifetime. And I consider myself blessed to have trained him. <br /><br />After ultrasounds, sweat wraps, and cold hosing we had two options. A) Inject everything we had in the knee and take our chances ( of developing additional adhesions of the tendon to the tendon sheath) at the competition or B) Give the tendon/tendon sheath time to heal, inject, and slowly bring him back. While Young Riders meant the world to me, as the climax of our eventing career - this was not a question for me. I do not take chances with my horses, they come first and foremost to me... so now I play the waiting game. We are going to inject his knee with IRAP which we hope will prevent any further adhesions, and then slowly bring him back into work... seeing just how much work he will be able to do now. If all goes according to plan - vets are assuring me that he should make a full recovery by this fall, and we are very tentatively looking forward towards the Ocala CCI**/Training Level 3-day. <br /><br />--> Try telling the pony that he is not fully recovered now.... (he is most disgusted by my attempts of walking him around the property) <br /><br />Deacon has had to step up to #1 horse for the finale of the spring season. Unfortunately Seneca was a bit of a disappointment. I thought I was quite smart to leave him out the night before competing - hoping to take the edge off of him - but to my dismay, I was riding the grumpiest of horses! Someone desperately needed a nap! After an under-par dressage (he was til top 5 though!), I was popped out of the tack at the last show jumping fence. <br /><br />I wanted to quickly redeem ourselves, so off Deacon and I went to the Maryland Region eventing rally at Difficult Run. He had a lovely dressage of 28, which put him far in the lead, clean show jumping, and clean cross country. Unfortunately a small child (spectator) was standing in front of a cross country fence - so I circled to avoid a collision and incurred time penalties. No harm done, I was incredibly pleased with his performance and manners the entire weekend! Then it was off to Surefire, where Deacon put in an obedient dressage, lovely show jumping, and flawless XC to finish in 6th.... in a division filled with past and present Olympians! Not bad for baby Deacon! <br /><br />As things die down now for Defying Gravity Eventing (no events are scheduled for July) I can start studying for my HA and A pony club ratings (YIKES are they really only 3 weeks away!), enjoying the weather, teaching, and get several young horses going.DefyingGravityEventinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03238584446251603339noreply@blogger.com0