The New Vocations Charity Horse Show

I took my OTTB Vegas this weekend to do the Beginning Hunter 2' division. He was so good! :) We haven't been to a horse show in 3 years and we hadn't done much advance schooling over fences with the heat lately, so we went in with the 2' goal and were willing to downgrade as necessary. Fortunately for us, he was a complete rockstar (think Mick Jagger level) and jumped everything. We have some basics to work on, obviously, but over the course of 3 days he and I greatly improved.

We arrived Friday night with six other horses and went out to school, he was a tad distracted but worked out of it great. We then went in the show ring to hack around there and I said WTF, I'm just gonna pop over some of these and see how he's doing. He was awesome, went over everything... Slightly crooked over the lines, but hey he went over and he was distracted. :) Proud of him!

Saturday we just did the 2' warm up trip to get him in the ring and focused, he did really well. We had to circle at one point which wasn't in the course but I figured I'd rather get him going properly than rush anything.



We just hung out for the rest of the day after that, it was hoooooooot. Sunday we did the Thoroughbred In Hand first thing (3rd!) and then we had our Beginning Hunter division around midday. Our first trip was a little rough, I don't think I rode him correctly through it and I blame myself, we had a run out in the second portion of the first line :( Recovered well and went onward. Second trip same thing, only you can see clearly that I just stopped riding after we got a bad spot :( Sorry Vegas.



Our last trip was our best, did you know that if you keep your body up and back and a nice supporting leg on that your horse will actually jump nice? Damn, I didn't figure it out until too late! He was so good, we got a little speedy down the far outside line but he came back nicely and we rebalanced for the near line. Sorry about the lack of zoom and strange cut off points, my friend's fiancee wasn't well acquainted with this camera, lol.



Here are some pics... And another tip! Don't ride in your brand new tall boots for the first time at a horse show. #1, ouch. #2, my leg was swinging like a pendulum because they weren't broken in to where I could utilize my leg! Dang! This happens! He looks really awesome though.

Horse show puppy! This is Ella

I'd say our barn cleaned up fairly well! We only had 7 riders :)

That's all for now... Stepp and I are still aiming for South Farm if we can hitch a ride :( If not, I'm not sure what's up.

Stressed out!

Life has been hectic the past couple of months. I've made the decision to apply for and hopefully attend nursing school starting in October. GASP. I've been working my hind end off for the past couple months, the clinic has been so busy I haven't had time to do any of my administrative stuff. I've come to the realization that if I want to keep my horses, I have to find a practical job and unfortunately while I love my job it's not enough. :(

So keep your fingers crossed for me, please, that I get accepted. I take the entrance exam on Thursday.

Now, on to the important part! The horses. I'm frantically trying to find a leasee for Vegas, otherwise I'll have to sell him. :( I've been losing sleep over this entire situation, unfortunately (who'da thunk it?) school is expensive. STUPID FREAKING HORSES why didn't we all take up chess in the beginning???

We have all been riding in the field lately :) The horses have done great. Steppy and I are hoping to go XC schooling sometime soon... Got to wait for everyone's schedules to coincide though. Vegas and I are going to the New Vocations Charity horse show next weekend up at the Delaware Fairgrounds - unfortunately our trainer won't make it but we'll go to at least school and see how he is, then determine if he's going to show.

I will get pictures up soon - Right now I have to run out the door to work. :( Back to payin' those bills.

We're famous! Just kidding..

We were published as USEA Member Story #10! <-- Click the link. :)

Movie Maker.......... UPDATED. WEG XC.

Is very dangerous.

Saddle shopping!

Here we go... This was saddle #1, a 17" Beval  Gladstone. I really liked it sitting in the store, I liked it on my horse but when push came to shove it just wasn't a good fit for either of us, or both of us together.

Sent that one back... Test rode in a 17" Richard Spooner this morning in my lesson, I liked that one much better!! Some pics and videos...

And videos...









So... Now.... The question is, do I go ahead and buy the Spooner? Or do I wait until Rolex and sit in 500000000 saddles? The problem is, our first XC school of the season is the week before Rolex, and I wanted a saddle to ride that in. Our first event is hopefully going to be 3 weeks AFTER Rolex and I don't want to be breaking in a saddle..........

Pros, cons. BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  What to do?!?!?!?!?!

Killing time... Early spring, anyone??

So. Phil saw his shadow, and Columbus is under at least an inch of straight ice... Woohoo!

We had a photo shoot about a month ago at the barn... On a rare sunny day. Here are some pics, thank you to my friend Sara Bluntschly at Treasured Image Photography for taking the pics! She's fabulous :)

Yes, no helmet... I know... It was an impromptu decision to jump on. Every horse, every ride, but I'm as safe as I can possibly be with Stepp.

I know.. STUPIDITY. Okay done.

And then last week Stepp and I enjoyed the snow...

Happy Early Spring, everyone! The end of months of straight dressage is near...

Here we go! 2011!

Time to prepare for 2011... THANK GOD. Right now we are entirely focusing on dressage... Because, well, we suck. Stepp wil be 17 this April... I can't believe it. We're going to start him on Adequan come March, right now our schedule is:

1 day a week lesson, once a month a training ride instead of a lesson
2 days a week longing in side reins
2 days a week hacking
2 days a week convalescing

We've regressed horribly with our dressage... About 3 months back. So we'll get on track and aim for an event in May, hopefully either May Daze or the Winona H.T. at Stone Gate. I will try to get some videos and pictures soon so we can have visual aides on our (expected!) progress. I think my end goal is to try to get to AECs.... We'll see!

In the meantime... From December 19th...

Apologies!

I've been awfully lax on this blog lately.. I went down to Breeders Cup last weekend, and I'm working overtime this week, so I've hardly been to the barn let alone able to post!

Check back for an update tonight :)

5 days, 3 hours, and 50 minutes.

Until ZENYATTA.


INGLEWOOD, Calif. – By dawn Sunday, Zenyatta had already been out of her stall at trainer John Shirreffs’s stable at Hollywood Park for a 45-minute walk. It was to be the theme of her Sunday, a day after she worked six furlongs in 1:11.80 for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

Zenyatta was scheduled to have three walking sessions Sunday. She was back out for another walk in the 9 o’clock hour on Sunday morning and was to be walked and grazed in the afternoon. The only unknown was how long Shirreffs and his team could delay the start of the afternoon session.

“In the afternoon, she’ll walk for another 45 minutes, but that depends on how she behaves all day,” Shirreffs said. “Around 2:30 or 3, if anyone walks down the shedrow that she knows could walk her, she starts pawing the ground. If we can keep it quiet, we can stretch it to 5 after 3. Otherwise, you’ll be out there for an hour and 20 minutes.”

In the afternoons, Zenyatta is walked both in the shedrow and in an outdoor walking ring that encircles a patch of grass about the size of a tennis court. That grass is an afternoon snack for Zenyatta.

“She’ll graze and walk down to the other end and graze and then drag you down to the other end again,” Shirreffs said.

The unbeaten winner of 19 races for owners Jerry and Ann Moss, Zenyatta, 6, is scheduled to be flown to Churchill Downs early Tuesday for Saturday’s race. She is scheduled to have a light exercise on Hollywood Park’s training track Monday.

DRF.com

Throwback

Since I unfortunately didn't get any videos of my lesson on Vegas on Wednesday, I'm just going to post a few videos of some old Rolex footage. If you squint really hard, you can make believe it's us. ;) Just kidding...

Our lesson was fantabulous, we did about 45m of trot work since he still likes to get piston OTTB feet when he sees jumps or we start cantering. Lots of working on rhythm & slowing up... But it paid off. We jumped about 10m towards the end of the lesson, mostly just little X's and a small vert (about 18"). He was great, we even got to canter the vert and on the last one he adjusted his own striding. :) Good boy!

Now for Rolex.......

Finally!

We had a cross country schooling day yesterday, and I took both of my boys :)

Stepp was kind of lazy at first, but I think he was still a tad bit sore because he worked out of it nicely. Our downhill ramp jumps are still the bane of our existence... It's funny because it's this ONE particular jump that we have problems with...

It's far more downhill than you see in this (old) picture. Yesterday we had 3 runouts in a row from it, then we continually circled LEFT (running out to the right) and took it about 5 times that way. So at our next event, basically, we'll just have to circle left and approach that way I suppose. It was awfully infuriating... I know it's my fault, because I have a mental block in my head about this fence, but I feel like he takes advantage just that TEENSY bit and game over. GAH. 

We did a mini sunken road type question, and he was absolutely fine with that. I have a video somewhere from earlier this summer...

We jumped in over a log, went down, up, and out over a log. He was a complete rockstar. We also did some down banks... Lord almighty, I cannot do down banks to save my life! He absolutely saved my ass. My trainer thinks the issue with a downhill ramp is that he can't see what's on the other side. We did the one at South Farm (wasn't a ramp, though) and it was alright... Sigh. Hopefully we can squeeze one more XC schooling in before winter. He's never been one to run out, so I'm just not sure how to handle it (I know how stupid that sounds...)

On the bright side, in the afternoon I took Vegas and he was very very good! We got off the trailer, hand walked around for a while just because it's been ages since he's traveled, and then hopped on. We spent about 20m just walking around, he spooked at one of the prelim fences but was great after that. Cantering up and down the hills was hilarious, uphill he was all manly and tough, then downhill you could see him go "Oh crap, I have to USE MY BUTT MUSCLES." It was a lot of fun and great exercise for him.  If he's feeling it half as much as I am today, I'll be giving him a massage later ;)

In fact, he was so good that my trainer suggested we try a few small fences. :) We haven't jumped in a long time, because he was on and off and on and off all summer. Every time we would get him fit and ready to get back O/F, he would pull something or twist something and have more time off. We started off over a small X (about 1 foot) and it was on a very slight incline, we trotted that twice and the first time I was preparing for a big launch... Yeah, he stepped over it. :) Yay! 

After that my trainer suggested we try the tiny (1 foot) coop, and unfortunately at this point our XC buddy was up on the hill in front of us, and a horse whinnied about 2 strides out so he kind of lost concentration, launched himself from a loooong spot, and I got left behind. I accidentally sat down on his back upon landing, which he DOES. NOT. LIKE. .... Cue bolt/bucking fit. I stayed on (yay! Saddle Tite!) and we halted. We then trotted some figure 8's and circles to get his brain back, and the second time over the coop was MUCH better. I had forgotten how round he is... He's not an easy horse to jump on, he easily jumps you loose. We also trotted an intro level rolltop twice, the first time we had another exuberant display of JUMPING. WOOHOO!!!!!!!!! and then we ended on a good note, a nice calm trot in, canter out, Mom stays off your back fence. :) He was so good, I was very proud of him. We also walked up and down the sunken road type question, not jumping of course but just a new challenge for him. He was an old pro :) 

I'm so excited! (knock on wood) On Tuesday we're going to have another lesson, I'll ride most of it but I'm going to have my trainer ride for some of the O/F portions. I just would hate to slam him and have HIM lose his confidence when we're just starting back. I will actually try to get some pictures this time :)

Kentucky 2010

WEG 2010 - create free slideshows

TVG Zenyatta Montage - All 19 Wins

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.