On Tuesday, how bout a 6:30pm group Adult lesson? Any requests?
Also, planning a 4:30pm group junior lesson in the arena.
Gemwood HT Results! July 25, 2008
Heading off to Gemwood tomorrow! Taking Ziggy at P and at BN, riding Ryan, Sandy, & Visa. It’s going to be a whorlwind weekend!! More later!…
…THE RESULTS!!
Ziggy was stellar as always. A very good dressage test left him with a 38 (hmpfh…) and just a couple of points off the lead. Then to continue with the day on Saturday, all FOUR Team CEO Horses jumped a double clear show jumping round!!!! pretty stellar since many were stopping or being eliminated. Even more stellar since Ziggy was the second horse in after a 30 minute hold from which professional Area 8 rider Phillipa Richards was taken to the hospital by ambulance when her horse had a rotational fall in show jumping. The ground was like concrete, and she was very lucky to return to the show the next day with nothing more than a concussion. We were all tremendously happy to see her return unscathed, as the entire horse show was very concerned for her well being after her very nasty looking fall.
Anyway, back to Ziggy! He show jumped clean and was absolutely brilliant. Sitting 3rd after SJ in a field full of many nice horses and many advanced riders (just 2 pts off the lead). On XC, the goal was to prove that he could make time…. He is normally fast on XC, but we are able to cut off SO much distance because is so broke and obedient that I am able to cut off alot of time on the course. This was NOT an option at this even, as all of the jumps were in straight lines on paths in the brush, requiring sheer speed. He was brilliant! He had a gorgeous XC run, flying around the course with one of the fastest times of the day and easily making the time! That little pony can fly–at one point we were galloping along the highway on the course and the traffic was going the same speed–ha! He was brilliant at all of the harder questions, but as it was quite an easy course (no water, no coffin, no ditch/wall) I let my guard down on the easiest horse of my career. At one in and out that is more of a training level question, I was so relaxed and trusting that I didn’t manage to get ziggy to the “b” element in time, only to have him halt at the face when he finally did see it like “Where did that come from?” He proceeded to jump it basically from a stand still, but it was still awarded a stop. I was annoyed with myself for taking a nap on course, but ZIggy was so brilliant that I couldn’t fault his round… It was beautiful and fast!! So instead of finishing in 3rd he finished in 7th, still with one of the fastest rounds and still in the ribbons. (Just shows you how good he was all weekend that he could pick up 20 penalties to add to his dressage score and still finish in the ribbons!) He was really good, and we’ll take this lesson on with us for next time… What do I always tell my students–it is the easy fences that will get you! 
Fresh off his Young Event Horse win at the Maui Jim HT in July, Ryan rebounded to finish his first horse trial with Megan by tieing for 1st place in the OBN at Gemwood!!! There were over 20 horses in the division ridden by quite a few upper level riders, and he was absolutely brilliant. His dressage test was quite good, though the scoring for the entire class was quite high (ranged from 40 to 63, with multiple riders in the 60’s) so we felt like all of the scores were about 10pts above average. The show jumping was eating BN horses left and right, with dozens of eliminations and stops. Ryan sailed right around the course, not batting an eye at anything, to sit in a tie for 1st place after his clear/clean show jumping round! He was brilliant on XC, and made the course feel like I was riding an old packer… Amazing! We lost the tiebreaker for closest to optimum to break the tie by just a few seconds, so he finished 2nd at Gemwood (tied for first) in an absolutely brilliant weekend! And he’s qualified for the BN AEC’s now!
Sandy was really, really good. His dressage test was really good–especially the trot–as he is such a pretty, fancy horse. His first five movements on the dressage test were all 7’s. He was very green in SJ and thought the stone wall was a big, scary monster, but I managed to politely (and without a whip) win the debate that he was going to jump it, and so LOL we finished with a clean round. This left him just 0.5 points behind the lead!!! He learned a great lesson on Saturday in SJ, and by Sunday he realized that he LOVES to jump! His XC round was flawless and footperfect, and I was very proud of him. He finished on his dressage score and finished in 3rd place, just 0.5 off the lead in the division!! (Halfway qualified for AEC’s.)
Visa had the opportunity to compete two weekends in a row, from Champagne Run to Gemwood, and he managed to grow up immensely in the interim. He had excellent trot work in the dressage with some green canterwork, and chose to be very brave and careful in show jumping for a double clear round! He was really good on XC and galloped around pretty quickly with a clear (he has an enormous stride! It feels as if you are simply loping!) to finish in 7th.
All in all a great weekend! Thanks to Ashley W and Jacquie for their great groomin this weekend!
Team CEO Horse Trials Coming Up! July 25, 2008
The entry form for the Team CEO Horse Trials are now posted online. You can get to the link for the horse trial page by clicking on the link at the bottom of the front page of the website, or by clicking on the August 17 date on the calendar.
I’m very excited that we are running an entirely new course design for this show! Thanks to Austin and Howard and their hard work on the new property, we’ll be featuring the majority of the course on the new property. The footing should be GREAT and the land lies in a gently rolling fashion that should allow for some great galloping! The course will be VERY different from courses past, as we’ll have a full coffin instead of a ditch and wall and there will only be one loop in the XC field. Also, nearly every portable we have is being moved! It’ll be great fun… New jumps, new questions, and a bounce at novice!!!!
Vic’s Pics will be at the event taking photos, and we are working on a very special concession for the event. We are also offering CT’s and Dressage Tests, so it should be great fun for all!! Entries are now open, and we’re very excited about the upcoming event!
Champagne Run Wrap Up July 21, 2008
A very successful weekend at Champagne Run HT!!
Nikki and Oliver were brilliant this weekend… At their first training, they had a great dressage test followed by a beautiful 4-fault round in show jumping!!! It was gorgeous and very well ridden. They were most of the way around the course and on their way to having their XC run of a lifetime–beautiful jumping!–when an accidental Technical Elimination was awarded by a volunteer jump judge incorrectly, and were sadly excused from the course accidently. Not their faults…. They got to return on Sunday to school the course, and started from the start box like at a competition…. And had the most fabulous XC run!!! Really beautiful…. That’s luck for you…
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Vaughn and Jane had a great weekend at their second Training outing. They had a gorgeous dressage test–quiet, accurate, and submissive, and followed it up by a gorgeous, cadenced show jumping round with just a single rail. Then the pair jumped CLEAN around the very, very hard Training XC with just 6 time penalties (one of the faster rounds of the day). All weekend long, their jumping was forward and balanced, and really lovely. They made light work of the challenging XC! They finished the weekend in 9th place out of 21 horses!!! WITH A 9th PLACE RIBBON!
Ashley and Paddy ran their third training this weekend…. Ashley suffered from an unfortunate case of forgetfullness in Dressage, and thus two errors of course really hurt her dressage score. Like a true fighter, she battled back for the weekend (and why the triathlon sport of eventing is so special) with a foot-perfect Show Jumping round to jump double clean! Then their courage was really tested…. The horse before them out of the box on XC, ridden by four star rider Jonathon Holling, fell at fence 3, causing a hold on course. Jon was removed from the course by ambulance. (Our thoughts & best wishes are with the Holling family–we have not heard how he is doing yet.) It takes a tremendous amount of tenacity for a young Training rider to be sent next out of the box after a veteran falls… Ashley showed great poise and rocketed around the course brilliantly, jumping everything in style. Their course was really lovely, and they jumped CLEAN with just 3 time penalties, the fourth fastest round of the division. They finished 7th in their big division of 21 horses…Talk about battling back! WITH A 7TH PLACE RIBBON!!
Jacquie is one of our newest working students, and she admitted to us that she’s been struggling to complete her novices at home with her horse BJ. She has only been here for 2 weeks, but has worked REALLY hard to improve it…. And she has succeeded! She took the “hoping to complete” BJ to Champagne Run, one of the biggest horse trials in the country by number of starters, and did a bit more than complete… Her dressage test was GORGEOUS and scored a 33!!! Then she jumped a beautiful, forward clear round in show jumping… Now the pressure was really on! Just 3 points out of the lead, Jacquie held it together to tackle the very challenging XC course and jumped clean! She finished on her dressage score of 33 in a very impressive result in a division of 23 horses… WITH A 4th PLACE RIBBON!!
Jane rode Basil this weekend as well…. They are a new partnership, but he’s really going to be a neat horse and had some breathtaking moments in dressage. He was a little fussy after the canter which cost him a score in the 30’s, so he finished just outside of that with a 41 in dressage (not bad for a baby!). He finished on his dressage score with two great jumping rounds, and in a class of twenty one horses finished WITH A 7th PLACE RIBBON!
Megan rode Visa this weekend, and absolutely fell in love with him. Ashley has been brilliant with his prep, and he’s a star in the making. He scored a 43 in dressage, with brilliant trot work but the canter is still very green. Then he jumped with just a single rail in SJ, and double clean on XC! In fact, he was so good on XC that he was nearly too efficient and almost earned speed faults… haha…He was in a big class, and still managed to come home WITH A 7th PLACE RIBBON!
Megan also rode Sandy this weekend…. He is going to be really fancy! He had a good dressage test (but my oh my there is still so much talent to be tapped!) and scored a 37.5 in dressage, just 3 pts off the lead! His SJ round came in the late afternoon on Saturday, just moments after Megan’s XC on Beef. Megan developed quite a lot of heat sickness and by the time Sandy needed to show jump, she was beginning to black out from the heat. Sandy was a star and clocked them around SJ while Megan faded in and out of consciousness…. His greenness was very honest, but without much guidance he could only manage a 2-rail round. It was so kind of him to take care of his rider! Sunday was much better, with a fast and clear XC round to end him WITH AN 8th PLACE RIBBON!
Megan also rode Beef this weekend… He was good in the dressage, though my oh my there is still so much room for growth! Still, he earned a 38 in dressage. For XC, Megan was starting to get sick and didn’t contribute much to the situation. Being the great XC horse that he is, he carted them around clean regardless of how his rider felt, and he was a truly honest boy. All Megan could think was “I have to go fast to make the time on a haflinger.” Ha!! Before the final fence, we learned that the haflinger is indeed quite fast when need be, as there was a bit of time scrubbing to be done to avoid speed faults… Now we know Beef can gallop! SJ was hilarious… After fence 5, the training/prelim turned right but Novice turned left. They jumped fence 5 and prepared for a right rollback to fence 6 (after a long weekend of judging many riders at T/P and trying to take care of them) when they realized that the numbers had changed! Ooops! Carefully, they turned left without crossing paths, but now several seconds had been lost and the optimum time was very tight as is. Without further ado, Beef speedily galloped at top speed across the arena down to the triple bar to make up time! He has such rhythmic gaits that it was easy to find a distance at that speed, and he neatly and tidily cleared the fence in beautiful form. No time faults! Just one rail, so he finished WITH A 9th PLACE RIBBON!
Hannah and Pongo had a stellar weekend…. Hannah is all grown up! She had brilliant control over her very special little pony, and they had a great time with a 0/0 show jumping round and the most beautiful rhythmical cross country round. Their speed was just right, and each fence was smooth and easy. All around her, other kids on their ponies were stopping, falling, and being eliminated, and she simply cruised through course. Their division had 28 riders in it! She kept climbing up and up the ladder all weekend with excellent jumping rounds, and they finished WITH A 7th PLACE RIBBON!!
So are you sensing a theme for the weekend? Ribbons, ribbons, ribbons! Thank goodness, ’cause I’m thinking we need some wallpaper for the new apartment walls…… haha….
This Week’s Plans July 15, 2008
Schooling opportunities before Champagne Run HT….
- Tuesday July 15, 9am: Megan teaching BN & Novice XC at Masterson
- Tuesday July 15, 6:30pm group show jumping lesson at CEO
- Wednesday July 16, 9am: Megan teaching Training and Preliminary XC at Masterson
- Wednesday July 16, 4pm: Summerbird Dressage Ride a Tests at Masterson, Megan available for warm-ups
Let us know if you need anything this week!
Megan
Champagne Run HT This Weekend! July 15, 2008
We have quite a few horses and riders heading to Champagne Run HT this weekend! I’d like to aim to do the coursewalks on Thursday if at all possible, as the Prelim & Training horses do dressage and show jumping on Friday.
Preliminary Coursewalk 4:30pm Thursday
Training Coursewalk 6:00pm Thursday
Novice COursewalk 5:15pm Thursday
Beg Novice Coursewalk 5:15pm Friday
I’m so excited for a great weekend!!
Megan
Maui Jim Updates and Ongoing Results July 11, 2008
WHEEE!!! A great day at Maui Jim HT on Thursday… Today was the day for the Young Event Horse competition! Ryan scored an outstanding 8+ on his conformation! Then he continued to perform a quiet, relaxed, connected, through dressage test…. He was gorgeous! He LOVED the big time atmosphere and he was absolutely stellar. He was very brave and easy in the showjumping, though mildly unimpressed by 
the 3′ course, which he thought was tiny. He was amazing, and I was so thrilled with him…. The quality of the YEH here was amazing, with a large quantity of world class youngsters that would make any event rider drool… And yet, even with the impressive quality of the company, Ryan WON!!!! He scored over the 70 mark, which is the “exceptional” mark required to earn a qualifier for the AEC’s!
Dolce was great at his first big outing… He thought that the speaker system was sending him back to the track, though, so the dressage test was a mix of gorgeous and highly athletic bucking…haha! He is still very green, so the 3′ course to him was big and scary, with lots of walls and planks and without ground lines. But he tried very hard, and scored an excellent jump score of 7.5, an exceptionally good score and the highest jump score of all the 4yo’s…. He has an AMAZING, extravagent form over fences!!! He was excellent, and also managaged a qualifying score for the AEC’s! (And hoping by then we’ll be a little less green….
Excellent day! Dressage for the big boys tomorrow….
Eventing USA Blog—- a must-read! July 11, 2008
Also be sure to check out the USEA Blog at www.eventingusa.com for the latest postings!!!
Antebellum CT Wrap Up July 7, 2008
It was a day for babies at the Antebellum CT on July 7, 2008! We decided to take all of the youngest and the greenest out for some well deserved mileage, and picked up alot of laughs in the process…. We had great fun!
Visa had his first off-farm show, where he was a really good boy. While competing in the BN CT, he was all humor when he elected to knock down the dressage arena–while circling outside of it! He found the swans holding up the arena entry at A to be a little scary, but after that he elected to perform a very settled, well behaved test! He scored an excellent 38 in dressage! His first SJ round ever was a little green, and he thought perhaps the BN course was very spooky. Ashley Sager did a terrific job of gentle, kind persuasion and convinced him to jump everything, but the spooking cost them two rails. All in all, it was a very well ridden but wiggly round. He then came back to perform in the Novice CT, where his dressage was very good! One flying change in the canter cost him a point or two, and all in all he pulled off a very respectable 39 for an excellent test for a baby. His Novice jumping was far improved, and he cantered the whole course much more confidently. You could see the little baby grow up before your eyes! He was very mature and jumped around the Novice course really well, having only one simple rail in an otherwise very nice course!
Dolce was amazing… He also competed in his first off-farm show today, where he was ridden by Ali Zeitlin. He was incredibly good all day, except for a moment in dressage warmup where he had a racing flashback and was quite convinced that Ali was the tallest jockey he’d ever known! He settled very nicely and was gorgeous in the ring, where he received a 38 in dressage! He jumped clean in his Starter Beginnner Novice class to finish an excellent 5th place in a very big class of horses.
Sommolier is becoming all grown up as well… Jane did an excellent job all day with him. In the first test, Intro B has the rider halt going into the arena, something eventing tests no longer perform at the lower levels. So Sandy thought the test was complete as soon as it started and halted at X nicely, but refused to move forward afterwards! hahahaa They recovered nicely for a respectable 43. Their Starter show jumping round was great, and Sandy was quite the quiet little hunter with his lead changes and all, placing him a good 8th in the big division. They returned to the dressage arena for their BN test, where the test was absolutely gorgeous and he looked very, very fancy. Jane received two 8’s (which are always something to be proud of!) for a 30’s something score (I can’t remember the exact #…. Too many of our riders in the 30’s today! ha It was beautiful! They had a great SJ round and Sandy has this all figured out! Just one rail and he was quite excellent and all grown up!
Kim Branscom and Trooper came down for the weekend to join us… The have joined us for both summer clinics, and have been working very hard on their dressage skills…. I would be willing to go out on a limb and say they achieved great things in the dressage today…. This pair scored 32 in dressage!!!!!!!! Well done! They achieved a beautiful, forward show jumping round for a double clean and 6th place in a HUGE division of very, very nice horses (maybe 25 in the class?).
Ryan was a good boy today… It is such a good experience to take a baby out to a show atmosphere and ride him for 5 hours…. You pass through stages of good, tired, whiney, and then you finally reach the penultimate…. BROKE. I can soundly say that each of our babies is well broken now! They learn rapidly to behave well and conserve their energy!! Ryan was terrific in his first test of the day at BN for a 36 in dressage… He is an amazing horse to ride!!! The second test made him a little tired, though, and when horses decided to run in the next field over, we experienced some bunny hopping in our test. I elected that, since hopefully my TK stallion will do more important things in the future than a novice CT, it would be smarter to school him in the ring and learn the lesson. I added a circle to the middle of my test to teach him to be 100% workmanlike. Unfortunately the judge elected to call this 2 errors (????) and penalized him by 6 points. To Ryan’s benefit, though, I won the discussion and he returned to being workmanlike and excellent. His first SJ round was good… He was brave and bold and honest. He had two rails as we learned about each other in the first round, but it was a great learning experience. In the Novice class, he far prefferred the larger fences, and he jumped really well to have just one rail at the downhill vertical. He was excellent and I am very, very pumped about his future!!
