The New Albany Classic

The day was finally here! The 2010 New Albany Classic - 25 of the best horses and riders competing for over $100,000 in prize money. It is held about 20m from my house at Abigail Wexner's beautiful farm. It's escalated into a family fair day as well, so that's a nice draw for more people. This year David Archuleta was the performer, last year it was Jordin Sparks, and past performers include The Jonas Brothers.

This year the field included Beezie Madden, McLain Ward, Todd Minikus, Georgina Bloomberg, Margie Engle, Jeannie Hobbs, Charlie Jayne, Michael Morrissey, and more.

The course this year was very tricky. Some course designer had a field day, because it rode a lot harder than it looked. Only 4 riders made it clear to the jump off - Not including Beezie or McLain.

Now for the best part - Pictures!

CHARLIE JAYNE & ATHENA:

MCLAIN WARD & PJOTTER vsjldfjwogjsl:

GEORGINA BLOOMBERG: 

I got some unflattering pics, but check out her face paint!

MARGIE ENGLE & INDIGO:

TODD MINIKUS & PAVAROTTI:

MICHAEL MORRISSEY & CRELIDO:

Oh, hi Michael!

BEEZIE MADDEN & MADEMOISELLE:

THE JUMP OFF:

Kent Farrington & Up Chiqui:

The riders watching

MARGIE ENGLE & INDIGO:

I have more pictures, but can't flood too much :) It was a fantastic day, can't wait until next year! In the meantime, however, I'll be at WEG in 4 days! SO EXCITED!

After the Classic, I went to the barn to ride my pony and got slightly adventurous... :)

Our first 3'0 oxer in quite a while!

Stepp did it quite easily, here is the video. It starts off blurry but it gets a lot better once we hit the line. :)

'Til next time, Go USA! And, of course, RUN, HENNY, RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

South Farm Mini Trial 9/12/10

XC @ Redtail Ridge 8.22.10

8/8/10 - First XC school:

Here goes nothing!

After reading various blogs on here, I've decided to compile all of my progress in one place - That way I can share it with anybody who is interested, and see it all in one place!

My horse Stepp and I have been together for 8 years. We have dabbled in many things from 4H to hunters to eq to just hangin' out. I believe we have found his niche in the world - Eventing!

It all started when a new rider came to the barn and we decided (back in July) to aim towards the South Farm mini trial on September 12th. We had two sessions of cross country schooling beforehand, various dressage lessons, and some stadium work in our lessons. While all of this was fun, it had no comparison to the actual competition.

Our dressage lessons were decent, not spectacular, and we mostly focused on accuracy. Well, this paid off because I apparently missed the note in geometry class about circles being round... Thankfully it clicked after one lesson! ;)

Our cross country schooling was more for me than Stepp, I just needed to get out of the hunter mindframe and GET IT DONE. After our nemesis, the downhill ramp jump, was reasonably conquered, things improved. Stepp was a rockstar, and I was deemed competent by my trainer.

Stadium wasn't too much of a challenge, since we did so many eq courses back in the day it was the same basic concept with a faster, more efficient pace. After our cross country schooling sessions, our stadium greatly improved.

A few photos from our schooling sessions and some past over fences work... You can tell my eq days are far behind me ... Oops!

March 20th, 2010

May 23rd, 2010 - Following 6 weeks of lessons

Our first cross country session... August 8th, 2010

Cross country school #2, August 22nd, 2010

Our nemesis, the downhill ramp

And finally, our event! September 12th, 2010.

I know I got left behind here.

 

 

 

And now we're at present day! :) I will post some videos as well, so I can keep proper track of things.