Katchi Power! And a star sighting...

I think it's high time for a Katchi update!  But first, a RED BOOT update!  They are broken in, and I love them!  You just can't help but have a good ride when you're sporting red boots!  And, they are honestly the most comfortable paddock boots.  Dublin Boots, I am impressed.  They only made 500 pairs in red, but I saw Dover Saddlery has a few on hand, so you too can have a pair of fire engine red boots!  LOVE THEM!

Check out those RED BOOTS!

It has been just over 3 weeks since Katchi got approval from Dr. Allen to "return to play."  And this Saturday, he will officially be eventing again.  We're headed up to Plantation Field to run training level.  I didn't feel like I could get him Preliminary fit and polished in 4 weeks. But, we have really made great progress in 3 short weeks, and I am super excited to be back on the eventing scoreboard on Saturday!!!

This past weekend was my last big push to get us ready.  The big thing I felt we were missing was speed work.  Katchi doesn't need much, but I needed to make sure he still has his "go" button.  He does.  And I'm not sure who had more fun testing it.  Katchi was the happiest I've seen him in months.  And I was wearing a big fat grin.  We were so fortunate to get access to a local private race track on the most beautiful Saturday afternoon all year.  I wish I could do that day over and over and over again!  Kerry and Atticus came along too - neither of whom had ever been on a track!  Kerry had a grin as big as mine.  Atticus not so much.  He's got thoroughbred in him, and it came out in spurts.  But then his warmblood part would realize how much work he was doing, and he'd just frown.  Katchi and Atticus were like Tigger and Eeyore on the track.  Too funny.

Thanks to Kerry, sitting atop Atticus (stamping at flies, hence the unsteady camera), we got some fun videos.  I realized after I put together this montage that I probably should have cut out the first slow gallops.  It's sort of funny to see Katchi loping around a track set to music that says "he's going for speed".  Well, not really.  Don't worry, he gets faster, eventually.




And the big prep weekend continued on Sunday, the second most beautiful day of the year, when Kerry and I headed out to Middleburg, Virginia for a jumper show at Fox Chase Farm.  I didn't know what to expect of the show, but it certainly wasn't what we got.  We arrived to free croissants and a free espresso bar - with a barista at our service!  This show is awesome! We watched a few rounds, learned the first course, tacked up, and voila - it was time to warm up and ride!  They had a white board with all the rider numbers written down so you knew exactly what was happening, and there was no waiting around for 5 hours!!!  Love this show!

Beautiful Fox Chase Farm in Middleburg, VA

The arena was beautiful, the footing fabulous, the jumps bright, and the landscaping lush (landscaping around the jumps!) - all at a schooling show!  WOW.  Kerry and I both entered the two 3'3" classes.  Neither one of us made it to the jump off in the first class.  We're certain our horses must have heard there were 8 more jumps to do if they didn't screw anything up - so they each picked a "real scary looking" jump to embarrass us right out of the jump off.  Kerry picked up a ridiculous stop at a grey wall.  Katchi walked through a red/black plank fence projecting my butt right onto his neck, which somehow I managed to relocate onto the saddle to finish the course (I definitely won the award of the day for spectator entertainment! Oh, and there were spectators.  Lots of them.).  14 fences on course.  13 lovely jumps.  And 1 jump to humble us right out of Middleburg and back to Maryland.  Thankfully, we had that second class to go - I'm starting to like jumper shows.  They have a built in "do-over" (I do hate having to learn more than one course though!).  Katchi jumped a lovely clear round in our second class and came home with a 3rd place ribbon - his first ribbon of 2012!!!  Atticus is still figuring out how high to lift his toes, but he came home with a 6th place ribbon and a very happy rider!  Awesome day!  

Again, thanks to Kerry, sitting atop Atticus, for getting Katchi's second round on film:   

With our competitive day complete, Kerry and I sat down to enjoy macaroni and cheese from the caterer (this was NOT your average horse show food), and ice cream from the soft serve ice cream truck (did I mention this was a schooling jumper show?! These Middleburg people know how to do horse shows).  There I am, shoveling a hot fudge sundae into my mouth, when who should wander over to his "reserved" table at the front of the gazebo?  Robert Duvall.  Freaking Hollywood movie star Robert Duvall.  We had seen a trophy with his name on it in the show office that was to be awarded later for the "$5,000 Mini Prix" but I didn't expect to see the man there himself!  He was a bit incognito, but Kerry spotted him right away. And then it was all about the camera phone. In between wiping hot fudge off my face, trying to look interested in the horse in the arena and not laugh at Kerry, and appear totally NORMAL - there's me, swiping pictures of Robert Duvall on my cell phone.  Yea, he totally saw me.  He might have been horrified.  

OMG! It's Robert Duvall - at a schooling jumper show!!

But, seriously, did Kerry and I have the coolest weekend ever or what???

Seriously, how big was it??

My mom loves to tell people how Mike Huber said to me over and over again, "Well, you found another way to get eliminated."  I know she's exaggerating, because I was only eliminated a few times (now I did find a lot of ways to lose out on a ribbon!).  Sadly, my eliminations had no plot twists - the same horse, at the same jump (water), that the Area V course designers so creatively always put in the same place on course (second to last).  But, at Fair Hill this weekend, I got to say to poor Kerry, "Well, you found another way to get eliminated - and it's a way I didn't even know was possible!".  So, this post is for Kerry - not to scold or humiliate - but to take at least 50% of the blame for her elimination!  Coach FAIL.  Rider WIN.

This was Kerry's third time running Training level, and it was meant to be redemption.  Her first run was at Fair Hill in April, and Atticus' eyes just about popped out of his head.  In bitter cold rain, Kerry was galloping him at the largest things he'd ever seen - not that he hadn't seen them before - but he hadn't seen so many of them, one after the other, and did I mention the rain?!  She rode her tail off, completing the course, but having 1 stop at 4 separate fences added up to elimination.  Right after, Atticus went to Lucinda Green boot camp and Kerry came home with a new pair of HUGE spurs.  Lucinda told Kerry she would have to be the brave one for a while.  And the spurs would help.  And they did - Kerry brought home a double clear XC at MCTA.  So now it was back to Fair Hill for a do-over.

But, this time, it was an absolutely brilliant moment in show jumping that created a total snafu in the day's plan.  Kerry and I walked show jumping prior to the start of Intermediate - I'm not sure there were any course maps posted at the time; neither of us saw them.  Near the end of the course, there was an in-and-out down the middle of the ring.  While the final line was a quick turn to the right, the course actually made a roll-back turn to the left to jump a Swedish Oxer before heading towards home and the final line.  Kerry and I discussed how easy it would be to forget that Swedish, and we both said over and over - don't forget the Swedish. Don't. Forget. The. Swedish.

Kerry was the second to show jump at Training level.  We weren't able to walk the course again after the re-set as she needed to be warming up.  We noted the triple was now a double.  Everything else looked the same.  I walked up the hill to be ready to video.  Kerry stood at the in-gate to watch the ride before her.  The girl jumps the first in-and-out, and turns right, skipping the Swedish and heading for the final line - OH CRAP - see, I knew it would be easy to...  Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.  That Swedish is still set at Intermediate height - it's off the course, it's off the course!  I run down the hill yelling at Kerry.
Kerry:  "I got it.  I know."
Me: "You know?"
Kerry: "Yea, I know.  I'm okay"
Me: "Okay, she's got it, she's okay"
Total. Miss. Communication.

Kerry comes out of the in-and-out, and turns left.  OH MY GOD.  All I could stammer out in a whisper was, "she's not okay, she's not okay, she's not okay."  And then Kerry York on Atticus the superstar jumped that Intermediate Swedish Oxer like they had wings.  It was magnificent.  And I didn't know whether to cheer, pass out, cry, yell...

And then the judge blew the whistle.  Elimination.  Deviation from course.  Jumping an obstacle not marked as part of the course.  I pleaded, I begged - I said, but didn't you see how nice the jump was?  Can't you just give her a refusal for crossing her path and forget it even happened?!  No such luck.

Kerry had no idea what happened.  Her mom had to break the news to her while I consulted with the judge and TD.  All she could say was - "I thought it felt big in the air".  When she asked me just how big it was, I refused to answer, but I said - "lets put it this way, if he even hints he's going to whine about one of those Training level galloping fences, you tell him to stuff it - he he just jumped that Intermediate Swedish Oxer and there will be no more whining at Training level!"  The TD graciously allowed Kerry to run XC, and run they did!!



By way of the rulebook, I feel I need to speak out.  The TD was correct - the rulebook is clear - Kerry (and I as her coach) made a mistake; she deviated from the course and jumped an unmarked obstacle; this requires elimination.  He was also right - we should have checked the course map (is there EVER an accurate map at show jumping??) But, fair enough, it was our responsibility.  But, when I asked him why the jump wasn't crossed off (the judge and ring crew had already told me they tried to cross it off, but the TD had specifically told them to leave the jump in place, set for Intermediate, without crossing it off), he indicated that the rulebook did not call for unmarked jumps to be crossed off and that actually, recently, (and I can't remember his exact words), it's a trend or common or encouraged... to have obstacles (jumps) in the ring that are not on the course.  I asked if that was to make our show jumping more in line with jumper shows, where courses change every class and riders have to navigate between and around jumps, only jumping the ones designated for their course.  He agreed.  Interesting, I thought.  Until I came home and read the rulebook.

EV150.a.4.

"Obstacles not included in the course should be crossed but failure to do so by the arena party will not preclude the elimination of a competitor for jumping an obstacle not forming part of the course."

To me, this says that every effort should be made to cross them off - but if someone forgets, this does not become an excuse for a rider to protest their elimination - they still deviated from the course and will be eliminated.  But, this statement clearly DOES NOT encourage nor permit the willful, purposeful, and intentional inclusion of jumps in the arena that are not crossed off (especially when set for two levels above the competing class).  Had the jump been crossed off, Kerry would have come around to it, realized our mistake, ridden past it, received a refusal for crossing her path, and carried on to complete the event.  Instead, she was eliminated and told she could have received a citation for dangerous riding (which very thankfully, she did not - can a coach receive a "dangerous coaching" citation??).  Jeeze.

At the end of the day, Kerry said to me, "I've never had so much fun getting eliminated."  And the wonderful thing is that Atticus has no idea what the scoreboard said - to him, and to me, and most certainly to Kerry - that horse is a superstar!

Ignorance is Bliss. Knowledge is Power.

Mary Wanless.  Have you heard of her? Do you know her books?  I didn't either until about a year ago when a reader of this blog tuned me into her.  And I will be forever grateful.
http://www.mary-wanless.com/ 

In November, I audited a clinic with Mary - read my blog post here - and I was stunned.  In a turn of fate, with Katchi off the horse trial circuit for the moment, I had the tremendous good fortune to ride with Mary for three days this past weekend at Great Strides in Damascus, MD.  But, I'm sort of at a loss for words to describe the clinic.  Was it amazing?  Oh yes.  Was it shocking?  Oh yes.  Was it exhausting?  wait, what, I think I nodded off for a moment.  I actually think I'm a bit on sensory overload.  In the course of three days, I've felt it all:
Anticipation of a miracle.
Surprise at what I can't feel.
Pride at what I can feel.
Awkward in my reshaped body.
Grateful for the patience of those with wisdom.
Determined to make a change.
Pain in places I didn't know could hurt.
Confusion over what I might feel or don't think I can feel or ... can't someone just tell me the right answer?!
Elation.  Has a horse ever felt so amazing?  Now I know I've felt a glimmer of the centaur Denny Emerson says we should strive to become.

But how do I explain the magic of Mary?  I don't think I can.  It was that special.  No two people will ever have the same lesson with Mary.  It's not only about individual corrections and needs, it's also about the individual mind.  How I understand and perceive something may be entirely different from the way you understand and perceive what presumably is the exact same thing.  And Mary gets this.  Katchi and I (mostly I) have loads of homework to do, but if I can keep it together, we may well have some seriously stunning dressage scores in our future!  So, go buy a Mary Wanless book, seek her out on you tube - it won't be easy, it may even hurt, but if you want to be a centaur, she will change everything for you.

Rolex (Shopping!) Photo Recap

Finally!  The much awaited Rolex post!!!  Sorry for the delay - sometimes technology is not your friend.  Thank you Blogger for upgrading yourself right out of my technological capabilities.  Took me a few days to get the hamsters in my computer realigned.  But, nevertheless, I have pictures and a full Rolex shopping report to share!!!

This was only my second ever trip to Rolex.  My mom and I went to WEG in 2010, and I kept telling her - WEG is great, but Rolex is all about eventers!  My mom didn't quite understand, but when tickets went on sale for this year's Rolex, I convinced her we should make the trip.  About 4 hours into our first day there, I said to her "You pretty much LOVE Rolex, don't you?"  And what did she say??  "I SO LOVE Rolex!"  And as we left the KHP on Sunday afternoon, the truck full of goodies, she said "I hope I live long enough to come back to Rolex."  I think I'll have to be sure that happens!

Of course, everyone reading this already knows the results.  You know who sucked at dressage, you know who fell off in the water, and you know who won!  But, what you don't know that I'm sure you're all dying to know is....  what did I (my mom!) buy at Rolex?!?!  What were the best deals?  What was the most exciting new thing that I just had to have (for my horse's most basic needs, of course!!)?

Pretty much - my Rolex shopping was all about BOOTS!  I've had a really hard time with boots the past few years, so mom and I went with the mission of sorting out a long term boot solution.  And we may have gone a bit crazy.  In 3 months, I will have a lovely pair of black classic beautiful dress boots arrive from La Mundial Custom Boots.  With great luck, while my mom and I were agonizing over the details of said classic (read: should be very simple) boots - zippers, soles, spur rests, decorative details - my old coach from Texas, Mike Huber, turned up at the boot store and as if I was still a young rider carefully tucked under Mike's wing...  I said, Mike, HELP ME PICK OUT MY BOOTS!  And he did.  Bless him.  And then I said - wait, no girl can have just 1 pair of boots!  So we picked out another pair for home and lessons and clinics...  and, oh won't brown with black piping look so lovely!  Mike convinced me to get a fancy curvy zipper and I'm even having my initials stitched on the back.  Fun!!!  I'm in love with them already, and I won't get to meet them until the summer is almost over!

And then boot shopping got really really fun when I won a raffle!!!!   And now I'm the proud owner of RED - and this is serious shiny fire engine red - paddock boots and half chaps.  THANK YOU Dublin boots!  It will take me a bit to get them broken in, but then I am going to be THAT GIRL IN THOSE SHINY RED BOOTS!!!!  I'm imagining a red polo, black belt, white pants, and RED boots!!!  HOT!  But not at a lesson with Jim Wofford.  These are definitely not Jimmy-approved boots.  Although, he hasn't had a heart attack over Sharon White's ORANGE get-up yet... I don't want to tempt fate.  Although my mom already asked Phillip if he would send me away from a lesson if I showed up in RED boots - and he said no!  Yeah for Phillip!  Woo Hoo for RED boots!!  Check out the Dublin website here - you too could have a pair of RED boots and we could be twins!! :)

And the best t-shirt award goes to Bit of Britain.  I'm not sure whether #2 or #3 is my favorite. Maybe #2 is mine and #3 is Katchi's!

The best deal of the weekend had to go to the clearance store selling beautiful Anky designed shirts and jackets and even show shirts - all for $5.95 each.  Now that's a deal!  Katchi got himself a bucket of treats and a beautiful new leather show halter AND new super padded stall mats from Equilite Mats. My mom and I got them all set up in Katchi's stall and I think he loves them - he laid out flat to sleep last night, and he never does that!

Rolex is pretty much like going on the Hajj to Eventing Mecca.  Everyone is there.  And what good fun to run into an old pony club friend from Texas - who I must not have seen for 15 years!!!  Yet, so many years later, Joanne Cheville Redmond and I are still horse crazed little girls!!

Not only did I get help with my boot selection from Mike Huber, I also was so lucky to be able to walk the course with him and Heather Morris on Friday afternoon - along with a whole gang of Heather's fans from Texas and California.  Mike, being the head US Olympic Team selector, had some very interesting insights into the course, expectations, and the team selection process.  His key point: Rolex is only one of many selection trials, and the selectors have a very tough job ahead of them (which is very very exciting for Team USA)!

Heather's dog took quite a leap off the squirrel log!  Too bad I missed getting this into the Eventing Nation Rolex dog photo contest!!


And now a few cool XC pictures - Will Coleman and Twizzle up the bank, and William Foxpitt and Parklane Hawk bounce over the rail.

Where's Waldo?  Er, I mean, my mom??  Wondering why fence 9 (the coffin) caused so much trouble?  While 9A and 9B had their fair share of victims, 9C was brutal.  We spent the better part of the day about 30 feet from it, and while it looked impressive, didn't look THAT impressive.  But, when we walked up to it - Holy Cats!!!  I don't think it could have gotten any skinnier, taller, or furrier!  When my mom walked around to the back side - she became nothing but a green hat and sunglasses rims (as documented in the picture below - can you find her in all that brush?!).  And we especially loved the teeny tiny single red flower at the base - I'm sure more than a few riders took a glance at that pretty red flower as their horse scooted right on past.  Wow.  Now that's a 4* question.

 And one final very exciting bit of news - yesterday, Katchi and I went up to Phillip Dutton's for our first jumping lesson with him since December!  WOO HOO!  Phillip kept everything to no more than 3' but Katchi was jumping like a star and we had SO MUCH FUN!  After our lesson, Katchi didn't feel too tired, so we went up and puddled through the water jump and went for a few spins around Phillip's gallop track.  SO SO happy to be playing again!

A Perpetual Trophy & A Pirate Ship

A Perpetual Trophy

Perpetual trophies are an interesting thing. You see them on display in award cabinets and at big headquarters - the names and years etched on them are testament to the history of sport and passion. But, I have to admit, I didn't appreciate how special it would feel to be entrusted with one for a year, to place my name next to 30 years of special names, and now to return it so it may be shared with yet another rider. I also didn't appreciate the logistical nightmare of keeping track of perpetual trophies until I read the recent article in the Chronicle of the Horse (which I can't find the link to because I seem to never be able to find articles online that I read in print!) - awarding, tracking, retrieving, polishing, awarding again... every year. It's no small order! So, this weekend, I will return the MCTA perpetual trophy that displayed proudly in my house for the past year - for Katchi's 27.3 dressage score last May. Returning the trophy comes with a twinge of defeat as I have no hope of winning it again in 2012. While Katchi is coming back into full work, he won't be ready to compete in time for this year's MCTA horse trials, one of my favorites! So, I'll just have to say good luck to everyone, and I hope the winner this year enjoys the history of this award as much as I have.

MCTA Perpetual Trophy for Dressage Proficiency
In Memory of John Thomas Barthel (Donor and Sculptress F. Leigh Aldrick, her daughter)
1982 - Peter Green
1983 - Peter Green
1984 - Holly Mitten
1985 - Barbara Foose
1986 - Holly Mitten
1987 - Chris Wadman
1988 - Chris Wadman
1989 - Linda Dean
1990 - Lisa Evans
1991 - Debbie Bearsch
1991 - Jean Prescott
1992 - Tiffany Hill
1993 - Gayle Molander
1994 - Patricia Smith
1995 - Gayle Molander
1996 - Phillip Dutton
1997 - Jessica Heard & Steuart Pittman
1998 - Barbara Foose
1999 - Sherlock Gillet
2000 - Lisa Reid
2001 - Michael Hillman
2002 - Alison Haase
2003 -Elizabeth Ricklefs
2004 - Catherine Frederick
2005 - Jamie Striley
2006 - Jamie Striley
2007 - Jamie Furtado
2008 - Elizabeth Green
2010 - Lauren Drenning
2011 - Cherie Chauvin

To everyone who was with me when I picked up this award, who might have feared that I went ahead with the plan to place a large stall plate with my name across the entire blank area of the award - I behaved and opted for the traditional matching name plate. But if I ever win this thing again...!

A Pirate Ship

I've often had the conversation with friends and students... how can it be that we walk our horses' fields regularly checking for trash, broken boards, sharp edges; we time their gallops perfectly and moderate their speed exactly; we practically house them in padded cells; if we could bubble wrap them, we would. Yet they still find something (never discovered) to cut their frog in half, all the way to the bone. They come in from the field 3 legged lame after taunting their friends all afternoon (their friends are fine, by the way). They go into the padded stall healthy and come out with a knot on their face which requires $1,000 of head x-rays to determine they have not actually cracked their skull in half. And yet, you have the horse down the road that lives with a pirate ship (and various other brightly painted playground treasures) that is probably the soundest, most uninjured, sanest horse in the world. How? Can I have one of those please (the sound sane horse, not the pirate ship).

I have several lessons I teach which take me past this horse regularly. And I always look at him in wonder. Why do I have a horse that needs a padded cell? Seeing this horse today was especially traumatizing, so I stopped to take a few pictures. For today was the day I TRIED to let Katchi quietly back into his big SAFE field, all booted up, all drugged up - exhausted from JUMPING (yeah! Katchi's second day back to jumping!)... but, apparently I under-did the Ace significantly. CAN YOU IMAGINE IF I RELEASED HIM WITH A PIRATE SHIP? He'd be in the pirate ship. Tap dancing on the deck. Until he fell through. And wouldn't that be fun. Next time I try to put Katchi in the field, I think I'll Ace myself too.

XC, Dressage, and XC in Dressage!

Spring is here (but where is the rain???) and it has been a busy week with lots to report - but I'll save the best news for last, so keep on reading...

Last Tuesday, I headed out to Morven Park with a whole gang of riders to knock off some winter dust - the horses definitely reminded us how important it is to take a spin around XC before hitting the first shows of the season - amazing how everything looks a little bigger and scarier after 5 months of riding in the ring!

Friday was my big debut as a "course designer" ... sort of! Over the winter, I joined the board of the Marlborough Horse Trials (I may or may not have been conned into this over a free beer after a long day or riding and teaching!) and as such, I somehow ended up the "responsible party" for the April 7 Jumper Derby course. It actually was a lot of fun, but more work than I expected! Thankfully Diane, and several others from the Board and MHT volunteers, were on hand to help with all the details - I couldn't have done it without them and the TRACTOR! Key lesson learned - moving cross country jumps definitely requires a tractor! So, 5 hours later, Diane and I declared the course ready (see picture above)... and I raced back to the barn to polish up Katchi into a dressage horse.

Saturday morning, Kerry and I were off to play dressage queens at the VADA/NoVA dressage show at Morven Park. Now, recall that Katchi hasn't been properly turned out since January. I haven't had a dressage lesson since early December. And since January, Katchi and I have been walking and walking and walking - with only about 10-15 minutes of trot and canter each day. And there I was, warming up for Second Level Test 1 ... walking and walking and walking. And wouldn't you know it, Katchi pulled off a 60.571 on Saturday!!!! I couldn't have been more thrilled with him! We made a big mistake in the first counter canter, and 3 smaller mistakes - yet still just squeaked into the 60's. Not too shabby for an OTTB. Makes me very excited for what we will do later in the year when we actually have the right preparation!

Unfortunately, late Saturday afternoon, walking Katchi around to eat grass, we ventured a bit too close to the cross country field. And that was it. He saw those jumps. And apparently he hadn't forgotten about them on Sunday morning. When I didn't take Katchi to those jumps, he decided to bring XC to the dressage show. So, there we were, all fancy and polished, standing at the top of the hill overlooking 5 dressage rings, with Katchi threatening to do his best impression of the Lone Ranger's Silver - just what you want to see in the distance of a dressage show - a horse standing on his back legs pawing the air! Luckily, I kept his enthusiasm just in check and we made it down the hill without becoming a full spectacle. He settled down a bit after walking in the warm-up ring for an hour!!!!! And then it was into the ring... with turbo power enthusiasm. Katchi earned a 6 on his first Medium Trot (uuummm, wow! I don't think he's ever gotten above a 5 on a trot lengthening... he was covering some serious ground!). Unfortunatley, his enthusiasm got the best of him in the canter-walk-canter transitions when Katchi channelled his inner Easter Bunny and started bunny hopping across the ring. Fun. And the judge said 3. And the test said coefficient of 2. Ugh. Score sucked. Totally embarrassing. But, really, all things considered, it could have been a whole lot worse! And he pulled out quite a few 6's and even a 7 mixed in with those 3's, so it wasn't all bad!

Meanwhile, Kerry and Atticus had quite a fabulous weekend finishing out their last Training Level tests and endeavoring to take on First Level - coming home with 3 ribbons and some great scores! It was a great set-up for their Training level eventing debut at Fair Hill in just one week!

And now for the best news of the week... Katchi returned to Dr. Allen's on Wednesday for a re-check and Dr. Allen told Katchi to update his facebook status to "sound"!!!! We got permission to progress to more work, including jumping and increasing fitness work. Yeah! It's still a long road until we hit our first horse trial for 2012, but this was a huge step in the right direction! Fingers crossed that he takes well to increased work... we go back in 30 days for another re-check and hopefully approval to RUN KATCHI RUN!

Cavalor Champagne & Chocolates in California!

Sometimes "real" work gets in the way of horses. Other times, the unexpected happens and they blend wonderfully! Last week, bitter and disgruntled, I boarded a plane to California for a 4-day business trip. When I left my job with the Department of Defense (with lots of travel to some great places!), I just wanted to stay home. I miss the cat. I miss the horse. I miss training, practicing, and teaching. I miss home. This being only my second business trip in almost 4 years, I guess I really can't complain, but ugh, I didn't want to go.

And so when I finished up with work mid-afternoon on Friday, I collected my mom from the hotel (she'd come up from San Diego to enjoy a free resort hotel stay!) - did we head to the beach? to the mall? out on a boat to see dolphins? NOPE! We hit the nearest horse show we could find!! Unfortunately, Galway Downs CIC was just a bit too far away, so we settled on a dressage show. Which turned out to be quite a dressage show... and hunter show... and jumper show... and SHOPPING!

We arrived just a few minutes late to catch the Dressage Olympic Trials, but we got to see the awards ceremony - Steffen Peters, Jan Ebling, and Guenter Siedel - and lets just say those horses were acting more like crazy event horses than dressage horses, so that was fun to watch!

Steffen & Legolas accept the award for winning the first day of the Olympic Trials class.

And then we stumbled upon even more fun - Cavalor Champagne and Chocolates - and a free sample feed bag for Katchi. It just so happened to be his 11th birthday on Friday, so I enjoyed a glass of champagne in his honor! My mom enjoyed the chocolates - imported from Belgium. And I snagged a mini-bag of grain for the birthday boy! Thank you Cavalor - we love you!!!

There must have been at least 7 show rings and shopping that almost rivaled Rolex - what a perfect warm-up for the end of April!! Although the weather was less than California lovely, the grass was green and the mountains beautiful - and the horses stunning! Not a bad business trip after all!

We enjoyed our quick trip to the show on Friday afternoon so much that I made my poor mother get up at the crack of dawn so that we could go back for a few more hours Saturday morning before I had to catch my flight back to the East Coast. If for no other reason, it was worth it to meet this little pink snorting creature in sparkles who belonged to one of the vendors! And, oh by the way, that pink sweater... it has a skull embroidered on the back. Wow.

As a side note, on Saturday morning - March 31 - one day before the new USEF helmet rule went into place on April 1 for all hunter/jumper shows... I was pretty stunned to see so many folks schooling horses without helmets on. Long blond pony tails flapping in the wind above immaculately groomed horses in the schooling rings - it just looked weird. I do wonder how it all went down on April 1. Was there a fuss? Did everyone know about the new rule? Was Saturday a final hurrah to no helmets?!

Anyhow, I'm back home now and the horses are in full swing this week! Tomorrow, I've got 7 riders schooling XC at Morven Park. Friday, I was "voluntold" to design and set the course for the Marlborough Horse Trials 2nd and final Jumper Derby for 2012 on Saturday April 7 - are you going??? And on Saturday and Sunday - Katchi and I are headed to Morven Park for the VADA/NOVA dressage show. I entered with Dr. Allen's blessing, so long as Katchi keeps looking good - and by the way he was bucking and bolting on the lunge today, I'd say he's doing good. Unfortunately, we're still limited to about 15 minutes of trot/canter, and a dressage test is about 5 minutes. So, that leaves 8 minutes for warm-up, 2 minutes outside the ring, and 5 minutes in the test. And I haven't had a lesson since December. Oh yea, and I couldn't bring myself to enter a lower level, so Katchi is making his second attempt at Second Level (after a very successful debut last June!). Perhaps I didn't fully think through this plan when I sent in the entries! If you're in the neighborhood, here are out ride times (Katchi and I will be the ones WALKING AND WALKING AND WALKING in the warm-up ring with all those dressage horses cantering circles around us!):

Saturday 11:37 (Indoor ring) - Second Level 1

Sunday 10:06 (Davis ring) - Second Level 2

Kerry will also be making her First Level debut with Atticus - so wish us both luck this weekend!