To kick off the long weekend, I came home from work to a welcome surprise - my certificate and "patch" (what ARE you supposed to do with those??) from the USDF acknowledging my USDF Rider Performance Award at Second Level! Pretty cool, and a huge thank you to Katchi for earning me the scores for the award! While I'm taking it day by day with Katchi's eventing plans, I have a definite next dressage goal: the USDF Bronze Medal. I'm just a solid half pass and flying change away (plus a whole lot better quality of work and some serious sitting trot work- yes, I realize this won't be easy!)... but it actually feels within reach.
One of my big pet peeves is equestrians using technically correct language that implies something easily (purposefully) misinterpreted by other equestrians who perhaps do not have as much understanding of national and international training, competition, and award programs. So, by way of full disclosure - my bronze medal goal is NOT for a 2016 Olympic bronze medal! :) For now, I'll leave the Olympic medal goals to my trainers! But the USDF Bronze Medal is no less an achievement for the rest of us! For those curious, here are the official requirements:
6 scores of 60% or higher:
1st level: 2 scores, 2 different judges & 2 different rides (check, got it!)
2nd level: 2 scores, 2 different judges & 2 different rides (yay! got that too!)
3rd level: 2 scores, 2 different judges & 2 different rides (a half pass & flying change short!)
And for those wondering whether you might set your own rider performance award goal, those awards are available for Training, First, and Second levels for 4 scores of 60% or higher at the level, from 4 judges and 4 rides, at 2 different USDF recognized shows. Pretty solid goal... and when you reach it, then you too can have a patch that you don't know what to do with!!!
I've been a bit negligent of the blog the past few weeks - I often enjoy the blog as a place to share my excitement, disappointment, and plans... but the past few weeks, I've just been lost. I'm still a bit lost, but feeling hopeful again. So, it's time to write.
After Katchi's great run (and win!) in the scorching heat at Loch Moy, I let him take a few days to cool down! And I started to put together a plan for the fall season - I could barely stand the anticipation of Silva and Phillip returning from the Olympics. I'd put circles and stars all over August 1 in my calendar - the day Phillip said he would be flying back. I had a line-up of jumper shows leading up to a "peak" for Phillip's return. Everything this summer was about peaking for the return of Phillip lessons! And then Katchi did what horses do - they ruin plans. I took Katchi out to play with some students cross country schooling at Loch Moy. And he dumped my ass right on the ground when he hung a leg over a maybe 2'6" log. Talk about embarrassing. He was acting really weird and was quite convinced we should go around the log; I was half-heartedly saying 'ah, come on, jump the twig!' - we met in the middle with one front leg going around the log and one leg almost jumping it. I hadn't fallen off a horse in probably 3 years, so I was sort of relieved to have that out of the way and to have survived!
The next day, I packed him up and headed to Leesburg to continue on our path to show jumping perfection for Phillip. I was bruised up from my tumble, but riders have suffered through much worse! The day was a little drizzley and the footing was holding water - not slippery but lots of splashing water. We were scheduled for a 3'3" class followed by a 3'6" class. Katchi's canter didn't feel great, and he was being very spooky - I assumed it was the puddles. In the first round, we got around to fence 7, a one-stride, and Katchi stopped. Wow, okay, we haven't done that in a while. Jumped it the second try, but sticky. Jumped the vertical at 8, 5 strides to oxer at 9, stop. WHAT?? Came around again, stop. Eliminated. What the hell?!?! Asked if I could try the following 3'3" class instead of the 3'6" class and the show agreed (really am starting to love jumper shows!). Hoped over a few low fences in warm-up decently, though Katchi's canter still didn't feel great. Went back in the ring to pick up a stop at the 2nd fence. "Houston, we have a problem." Time to go home, tail tucked between our legs.
It was clear that Katchi's back was really bothering him, but that's not necessarily news. But after a few more days of light work, Katchi was clearly in trouble - just running my hand over his back (flat with light pressure), he was dropping 4-5 inches away from me. It's sort of a bad feeling when you realize you could probably make your 1200 pound horse sit down if you just put a little strength into your finger. The day Phillip got on the plane to come back from London, we were in a bad state. Not only was Katchi's back in trouble, my farrier pulled off his pads to find a serious stone bruise on his front foot (probably from pulling his shoe off during XC at Loch Moy a few weeks before... and perhaps a cause of his silliness at the embarrassing 2'6" log). 10 days of stall rest, muscle relaxers, and tears (his and mine!), $700 in x-rays, and a scratched Waredaca entry later... we appear to be back on track. But on track to what?!?! Only 2 months left in the fall season, and we're no where near fit to event. As I try to bring Katchi back into full work with jumping and galloping, it's one day at a time... with no particular plan at all. A strange and bizarre, and generally unlikable, feeling for me! But I am so relieved to have my pony looking happy and healthy again. There's nothing worse than knowing your best friend is suffering and you don't understand why.
Katchi and me playing in Silva's sandbox!
Laughing after Katchi did a darn near perfect canter-halt transition (look at those hind feet!), but, oops, we were supposed to walk!
Meanwhile, my Golightly students have been just amazing the past few weeks!! With the return of rain, we've been getting out for quite a bit of XC schooling, and I'm really looking forward to having an awesome fall season with several students moving up a level or making it to their first big events! It is a great consolation that even if I'm sidelined, at least I have wonderful students who really make me smile!
Zoe & Rachel schooling the double banks at Fair Hill
Zoe & Rachel storming through Fair Hill's water - and there's Katchi in the background eating grass (he went up for a dressage lesson in the morning so had to tag along for XC schooling) - and Atticus looking longingly at all that grass Katchi got to eat!
I can hardly stand it!!! I feel like a kid at Christmas time, just dying to know what's under the tree! Anything could happen in the next 4 days - and oh wouldn't it just be grand if our Team USA Eventers could bring home a medal on Tuesday!!! While I've been suffering for the past 6 weeks with Phillip gone and Silva devoted to fine-tuning Boyd (and his horses!), and I cannot wait for them to return - more than anything, I want them to come home having put in the performance of a lifetime! So, to wish Boyd and Phillip, and all of Team USA good luck - I asked my mom to dig up some old photos from 1984. In 1984, the Olympics were in Los Angeles, and Team USA won the gold in Eventing, with Karen Stives winning the individual Silver (and my own childhood hero Ginny Leng winning Bronze for Great Britain - and oh, by the way, Mark Todd won Gold - amazing that he's back for yet another go in 2012!). And in 1984, I was touring the country winning trophy after trophy - in the costume class!!!! With our miniature horse stallion - all 27 1/4 inches of him!!!! My mom put together THE costume of the 1984 miniature horse world - Cardin was an Olympic runner, sporting infant tennis shoes (that he would try to shake off with each step - to roars of laughter from fair-goers and costume class competitors alike, not to mention the judge!). And I was the lovely (svelte, luscious, voluptuous) gold medal presenter! Apparently such medal presenters were quite the thing... until 1984... I guess women's lib finally kicked in. Oh well, how were we to know?! 1984 was quite the lucky year for Team USA Eventing and for me and my little track runner mini - may London 2012 be as lucky for Team USA!! Go Phillip! Go Boyd!! Go USA!
GRC posted photos from this weekend in record speed, so now it's time to decide... do we love the RED boots??? I'm certain I love them, and I was so happy to learn this morning that EN/HN's Wylie loves them - yay! For those who don't remember the story, at this year's Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event, I was the lucky raffle winner of a pair of "Dare to be Dublin" boots in RED - they're actually paddock boots and half chaps. And I love them!!! Turns out, they're super comfortable and oh so fun! You just can't help but smile when you're wearing fire engine red boots! I got them broken in, and have been venturing out more and more in them - becoming "that girl in those red boots." At the Eric Smiley clinic, Kate Chadderton (Australian) told me red boots are all the rage in Australia right now - AH HA! See, I'm on the cutting edge of North American fashion!! This past weekend, at Maryland Horse Trials I at Loch Moy - the RED boots debuted in competition. Take a look at GRC's photos - do we love the boots??
WE DID IT! Katchi's an event horse again! Despite the wicked heat, we had the most wonderful day at Maryland Horse Trials I at Loch Moy yesterday - Katchi got to run XC for the first time since October and he's never been so happy!!! Ears pricked and full of running the entire way around XC! I went out of the start box with the plan to let Katchi go the pace he chose, and if it wasn't enough for the jumps, then we'd walk home. When Katchi flew out of the start box, I knew we were golden! I don't think I put my leg on him once, and he came home 45 seconds under optimum time, and I even convinced him to slow down a bit at the end of the course. Katchi just took me everywhere I pointed him, and I didn't see any point in fighting him to slow down if he felt great. With the help of Kerry at the finish line, we had him cool and back to normal in about 5 minutes. Love that thoroughbred blood! And at the end of it all, Katchi came home with a very well deserved first place ribbon! What a great way to finally make our return to eventing in 2012! AND - my RED boots made their competitive debut too!!!! If you were at the event - you might have thought I was having a seriously patriotic weekend (my normal XC colors are royal blue and white, so I was an extreme American flag!) CANNOT wait to see how the photos came out - the red boots may have to become part of my regular XC attire! I got lots of compliments on them - or comments at least, hummmm, maybe they weren't really compliments! Either way, I made some new friends thanks to my RED boots, so it's all good.
A huge thank you to everyone at Loch Moy who were so helpful to all the horses and riders! They had water troughs everywhere (which Katchi wisely made good use of) with ice bags floating inside to keep the water cool. Loch Moy's owner, Carolyn, was everywhere holding buckets of water for drinking horses, refilling water troughs, and checking in on the volunteers to be sure everyone was hanging in there okay. The worst part of the day was actually dressage - between the warm up, circling the ring, and a 4 minute test in the Sun, Katchi and I were about done for - that was the one point in the day I wasn't sure if we'd make it all 3 phases. But as our show jumping time got closer, I was feeling pretty okay. Two jumps in warm up, and it was straight into the ring for 1 minute. Nothing like a little heat to keep you moving! The XC course ran great with the first 2 fences in the Sun, then a long stretch in the woods, through the water and 2 more fences in the Sun, followed by another long stretch in the shade - 3 more fences, through the second water - and one final fence, across the finish, and pulling up straight into the cooling tent with fans, shade, and ice! They also had a couple of vets on hand just to be sure everyone was doing okay. Some of the horses took quite a bit of time to recover, but it seemed like all the riders were very sensible in what they asked them to do considering their body type and fitness level - and everyone looked to come home in good shape.
But Katchi wasn't the only star of the day - Kerry and Atticus came home with a pretty red second place ribbon in their Training level class - WOO HOO! It's taken Atticus a bit of time to adjust to the demands of Training level, so it was very exciting to see all 3 phases come together for him - as we all know, that ain't easy!
Katchi and Atticus were stars - but the smartest horse of the day award goes to the horse who dumped his rider between fences and then headed straight to the pond! I guess he'd just had enough. He caused about a 10 minute hold on course while they literally fished him out. He went in the pond and was having no part of coming back out. I had a good laugh this morning when I saw Eventing Nation linked to a blog post with photographic evidence of the incident. EEEWWWW!!!! Check out that slime they had to wade into to get the pony out - I'm sure swimming in the water had its cooling off appeal - but the winner of that prize got to be sweaty, hot, pond water wet, and slimy. I hope they didn't have any passengers in their car on the way home!!! EEEEWWWW!
Sometimes you just get lucky. You happen to cross paths with the right person at the right time. That's how I felt two years ago when I went against my hard-and-fast policy of only riding with clinicians after auditing - on a whim, I signed up for a clinic with Eric Smiley. Luck of the Irish! Eric must be one of the most under-rated clinicians in the U.S. Bet you haven't even heard of him, have you?! Eric's an FEI international dressage judge - been around Badminton and Burghley more than a few times - took home a few medals to Ireland from a couple European Championships - made the fighting Irish proud at a few World Championships and Olympics - and he's now coaching the Belgium event team. He's got a resume that most people only dream of. And, oh by the way, he's incredibly kind, has a discriminating eye, is absolutely adamant about precision, and is a tremendously fantastic instructor!
So, when I heard there were still a few spaces available at last week's Eric Smiley clinic at Waredaca - and with Phillip being sort of unavailable for lessons what with that Olympic team prep thing - I jumped on the chance to ride with Eric again. He was just as fabulous as I remembered. So here are 5 reasons to love Eric Smiley:
1. Eric is a discriminating dressage judge and everything about his jumping teaching is grounded in solid dressage basics. His most used phrase... "Is the canter good enough? Good enough for what? To jump that over there? What about that over there?" If the canter is right, the jump will be too (gee, sounds an awful lot like Phillip!).
2. If you know you have the right canter for what you're approaching, believe it. Stay still and be ready to support him if he needs it. Don't chase the horse down to a jump, just hold the right canter every step of the way. Eric also commented that when riders raise their hands on the take off, it's their way of trying to protect the horse from the poles. Don't protect him! Let him learn to come in deep and round up to take care of himself - or hit a pole - so what! He'll learn to take better care of himself next time!
3. Treat every XC jump like it's just a log in the middle of a field. If you tell your horse it has ghosts and goblins under it - he'll believe you!
4. When you warm up over small XC jumps, keep your leg soft and quiet. It's tempting to over-ride everything, but the horses must learn to jump anything you point them at. Save the strong aids for a time you really need it - in general, keep it quiet and expect the horse to do it himself.
5. If you're putting in an effort of 7, and your horse is giving you back an effort of 3, that's just bad economics. It's a bad investment and a terrible return on your money. The horse must always give you back at least as much effort as you give him.
If you ever have the chance to ride with Eric, jump on it! You won't be disappointed! And if you happen to have any red boots laying around, be sure to wear those in your lesson! He'll think you're very funny! :)
As for the rest of the past week... Katchi I have been on the road and on the road and on the road! We picked up one more quick XC school last weekend, giving Katchi some more time walking ditches, while I coached 3 super cool ponies over some big boy fences. July 4, Katchi and I celebrated American style by partaking in Colbert's Sport of the Summer - Dressage show!! I was so thrilled with Katchi for picking up two more scores over 60% at Second Level - which finished all my scores for the USDF Performance Award at Second Level - THANK YOU my wonderful OTTB!!!! And tomorrow... tomorrow... hello 100 degrees and Loch Moy tomorrow. I walked the course this afternoon, and they've done a great job of keeping it short with lots of time in the shade. It was also 8 degrees cooler there than at my house, so I'm very hopeful we will make it through all three phases! But it's definitely a day to take one step at a time - with lots of ice!
This weekend was packed with dressage and pink!!! Pink shirts, hats, ribbons, flowers - and even pink glitter on horses! Because this wasn't just any dressage show - this was the PVDA Ride for Life, to benefit the Johns Hopkins Avon Breast Center. This was my 6th year participating in the event, and it was bigger and better than ever before. And this year was extra special, as I joined up with 3 great friends - Kimber, Kerry, and Erica - to form Team April, riding and collecting donations in the spirit of "The Fierce Cancer Slayer, April" - a 35 year old friend-of-a-friend in California who is fighting stage 3 breast cancer. Our team (horses and riders!) were out in full force all weekend wearing our very very lovely Team April sashes - which, begged several questions of whether we were Team Aprils or Miss Aprils!!!! Certainly wasn't expecting that one!
Katchi & me sporting our Team April gear
Erica, Monty & Me
Even Kerry's Atticus and Kimber's Eise got into the Team April sash wearing spirit!
High Pledge
On Saturday afternoon, I received the very exciting news that I had won the high pledge award for the "open division" (which means that I was competing in "open" classes, rather than as a junior/young rider or amateur). Every year, I am just stunned by the generosity of my friends, students, colleagues, and family in supporting this event - THANK YOU! I don't have a final amount raised yet, but it was over $2,000. And for my work, Katchi took home the most beautiful Ride for Life embroidered gear - a stunning wool cooler, saddle pad, polo wraps (which, as Erica pointed out, I will need to mark "this side up" on the end where you start wrapping - otherwise, Katchi might look pretty silly sporting up-side-down and backwards R4L logos on all four legs!). THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU to everyone who made a donation in my name!
The Dressage Show
Not to be overlooked is that Ride for Life is also a dressage show and Katchi and I, along with a couple of students, were not only sporting pink all weekend - but we were also sporting our game faces! I rode Katchi in Second Level test 1 on Saturday and Test 2 on Sunday - these tests are still quite hard for both of us, but I think we're really making progress in understanding what is needed to perform at this level. I was super thrilled that Katchi kept his counter canter through both serpentines in Test 1 - for the very first time in competition! He also got a 7 on his backing, which was quite a bit stiffer than the reinback we did just before entering the ring - so that's a huge improvement from the 4 or so he earned the first time competing at this level!!! Unfortunately, even with some very high marks the first day, the judge issued harsh penalties for the lack of crispness in every one of our walk-to-canter and canter-to-walk transitions, and there are a lot in that test. It was one of those days that I just couldn't seem to get Katchi to come through, and without his hind end attached to his front end - those transitions were impossible. But, day two was a new day with the same judge - I changed my warm up quite a bit (including going to a different arena with more space and better footing) and I really got him put together for a much improved test, scoring just over 60%. The judge still nailed us for a few tiny mistakes, but I could not have been more thrilled with my pony!
Katchi showing off his new R4L saddle pad.
I'm also thrilled to report that Kerry and Atticus had a stellar weekend riding First Level 1 and First Level 2 (for the first time) scoring mid- and high- 60s on both tests! Kerry even scored 7s on her leg yields! AND I'd like to announce Erica and Monty as the undefeated winners of Intro test B (walk-trot!) on both days of Ride for Life!!! Erica, my hunter rider friend from Baywood, took the plunge into Dressage land last year at Ride for Life - while she had a good show, she did not win. So, the game face came out this year and we did some serious practicing the last few weeks - she put her stirrups down many holes, learned to keep her butt in the saddle in the canter, and even restrained herself (almost completely) from clucking at her horse! Erica improved her scores by more than 10 points and won 3 out of 4 classes - finishing 2nd in the 4th class! All on her 22 year old off the track thoroughbred - The Full Monty!!! You just gotta love it! Watch out next year, I'm pretty sure she's already set her eyes on earning an 80% in the walk-trot intro class!
Katchi had pink ribbon spirit.
Silent Auction
This year, I had the best idea - I volunteered for a few hours on Friday afternoon during the silent auction set-up. Brilliant! Double use of my time - help the show AND scope out all the auction items! This year was the biggest auction yet - with almost 250 donated items ranging in estimated values from $3 - $6,500. There was something for everyone! At the end of the night, I came home with two bracelets and Katchi won a massage with the love of his life, Courtney, from Hands on Horses.
A huge thank you to Cavalor Feeds and the National Research Council who donated items to the auction on my behalf.
Dancing Horse Challenge
Of course, after last year's Lady Gaga performance, everyone was waiting to see what Bent Jensen would pull off this year! It was really a treat to see him riding in leopard print spandex and an Afro wig - but I admit, I was a bit disappointed that his routine was a repeat of one he did in Florida earlier this year which has been quite a youtube sensation for months. Even still, to see the spectacle up close and personal - Bent Jensen did not disappoint!
But my personal favorite of the night had to be my own dressage trainer, Silva Martin, riding the beautiful Aesthete (Stately), fully decked out in War Horse costume. Stately took to all the show's pizzazz and seemed to really be showing off - until he seemed to take a bit of exception to his blanket straps and let out a serious buck. Silva, of course, was unphased. She must have had some practice riding a good buck on Neville! And Silva looked the model of dressage history in her military uniform - absolutely stunning.
Here are some more clips of several of my favorite rides in the Dancing Horse Challenge
I never even asked for a pony! And then I got one - uh oh! Then there was school, a job, yada yada - and now I'm back! I have a "real" job that pays the bills for a REAL horse! I guess that's about the best life a horse crazy girl in her 30s could ask for.
