In mid-June, we said 'happy trails' to Adrianne & Tori who relocated to beautiful Colorado!! Adrianne and her husband have been itching to try out life without DC traffic and the pieces finally fell into place for their escape - it was absolutely painful to get an update from her that she's riding her bike from her new home to Tori's new barn, in less time than it would take her to battle DC traffic driving her car from Virginia to Baywood to ride. Adrianne says they're going to try the Colorado life out for a year and then decide whether they'll come back - based on the beautiful pictures I've seen so far, I think Tori has a new permanent life as a Colorado mountain horse! Adrianne is at a primarily dressage barn now, and said the eventing scene is pretty few-and-far-between. She's even invited me to come out to give her a jumping lesson sometime - tempting!! It was such a pleasure to help Adrianne get through her first adventures in eventing, culminating in winning the Novice division at Full Moon Farm last fall. Sad to see her go, but wishing Adrianne and Tori all the best in Colorado- and hoping we might see them back here again some day!
Erik, Vader, Adrianne & Tori at their last cross-country drive stop - Kansas.
Right after I came back from my week at Phillip Dutton's, I headed out to Seneca Valley Pony Club's Horse Trial with two students - Diane & Kerry. My new student Diane, and her super cool BIG pony "Mr. President" aka Lincoln, ate up the Novice cross country course, finishing 2nd in their division! This was the first time I'd seen Diane & Lincoln in action at a competition, and I think it's really so helpful to see how horses and riders perform at home versus a competition. Rarely are we the same rider sitting on the same horse! Kerry & Atticus were also out at Seneca, making their second Novice appearance - Kerry had a bit rougher day with a stop on XC, but she came home having learned some valuable lessons about her partnership with Atticus that I expect will really help her at her next outing.
Me, Lincoln & Diane
And I'd also like to introduce Karrie, another new student who I hope we'll see out and about at some starter stuff this fall. Karrie and her super fabulous Baggio comes to us from the hunter world, and she's conquering all kinds of demons out in fields - grass, hills, trees - oh my! But look at that smile on her face in the picture below - this girl is lovin' it! And I think if horses could smile, Baggio'd have a big old grin on his face too!
Karrie & Baggio (photo by Samantha Daley)
Looking forward to seeing everyone at Loch Moy this weekend and next weekend! My mom flies back in tonight to groom for me at both Loch Moys - she loves Loch Moy (but not quite as much as she loves going to Phillip Dutton's!). I'm pretty lucky to have a mom who will travel all the way from California just to be my groom - she definitely deserves some kind of a prize for that!
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