NEWS

Luhmuehlen, Germany 
Jun 9, 2011

We arrived Wednesday morning into Amsterdam after a very easy flight from New York.  Kelly, Nat, and I then spent the next 4 hours or so drinking coffee and telling stories to keep ourselves awake while we waited for the horses to be cleared through customs.  After a little mishap when a lorry tire met a curb, we joked that us girls would be happy to change it so that they didn’t have to call a repair man. They called the repair man, and then it took 3 men a lot of standing around scratching their heads.  Eventually they had a new tire on the lorry.  It was nearly noon when we set out for a “6 hour” drive across Holland and Germany.  I can’t say much about the drive as I was looking at the insides of my eyelids most of the time, but I can say that this country’s restrictions that require truck drivers to stop and rest every few hours was getting to be more than a bit tedious.  If we had that in America, it would take me a week to drive across the country!

We finally arrived in Luhmuehlen Wednesday night and got the horses settled into a nice stable where we’re staying until the event next week.  By the time we went to check in to the hotel and try to find dinner it was 10:00.  The hotel staff informed us they were closed and only agreed to give us a room after we begged a little.  Then we walked into town where the only food we could find was a Chinese restaurant.  In a scene that was a little like an I love Lucy episode, we attempted to crack a double language barrier to order some food.  As the proprietors barely spoke German and not a bit of English, they eventually brought a menu that had a few clip-art pictures of animals so we could figure what the words for beef, chicken, pork, and fish were.  We were still stumped with one, but through some demonstrations of animal sounds, we eventually figured it was duck.    It’s a good thing the place was empty because the quacking and flapping of arms at the table would have definitely turned some heads.  We ended up with an excellent dinner and headed to bed.

Today we took it really easy on the horses, hand grazing them and organizing our tack for most of the day.  We went to a tack store on site that was floor to ceiling, packed denser than anything I’ve ever been to.  It was really impressive, but I managed to leave without buying anything.  Kelly and I walked into town and found some real necessities; carrots and apples for the horses, and cookies and chocolate for ourselves.  Now we’re ready to take Germany by storm!  Jennie arrived in the afternoon and then we had a really nice dinner with a lot less gesturing and noise making.

Tomorrow we’ll give the horses an easy hacking day to stretch out their legs and then start to ramp things up later in the weekend.

JFK, New York
Jun 7, 2011    

A new chapter in our adventure called “life”.

As I write we’re sitting in the JFK airport watching the horses getting loaded on the plane and waiting to board so we can go join them. Kelly, who’s grooming for Jennie Brannigan’s Cambalda, and Nat who’s grooming for Will Faudree’s Pawlow and Andromaque are providing great comic relief and helping the many tedious hours of bureaucratic you know what pass a little quicker.  Kelly and I left from True Prospect Farm at 3:00 this morning with Ping and Finian, on our first leg of the trip to Luhmuehlen, Germany.  We arrived at JFK at 9:00 where we joined up with Nat, Will, and their two horses.  After weighing and tagging all the gear and sending it off on a truck, we sat around until 2:00 exhausting every form of time passing that we could.  After loading the horses up on another truck we said good bye to Will and headed off to the main terminal to check in ourselves.  After a 6 hour flight we’ll land in Amsterdam, go through the same bureaucratic you know what to get through customs there, and then be on our way, by truck, for a 6 hour drive to the event.  Once we arrive we’ll have a week to rest up before competition starts next Wednesday.

Here’s to a simple and non-eventful trip.  More news to follow from Germany.

Allentown, NJ 
May 12, 2011

A long overdue hello to everyone.

I apologize for being missing in action for so long.  Since I left California at the beginning of March, I’ve been in an emotional, physical, and even literal whirlwind and it is very evident that my solution to unease is to introvert into my shell.  I’m sorry to everyone for my lack of communication.

I spent March and April basing out of Will Faudree’s Gavilan Farm near Southern Pines, NC.  The hospitality and easy going feel of the barn were lovely.  Through rain, heat, and dodging several major tornadoes, we found our way to Rolex feeling quite a bit disheveled and like none of the pieces were quite where they should be.  Many of you know the outcome of our weekend, but to say the least, it was the highest of highs and then falling pretty low.  We led the dressage ahead of Mary King, Mark Todd, Oliver Townend, and many more best of the best’s.  Finian was very good to score a 40.6, but I can’t help feel that it was nowhere near what he is capable of.  Cross country had some really good parts and some other parts that just weren’t quite good enough.  Unfortunately at the 4* level, not quite good enough is not something you get away with and eventually we had a fall at the farmyard table at the very end of the course.  I take complete blame for all of our mistakes that day, and especially the fall.  I think Finian really stepped up to the plate and gave me his all, and ultimately my inexperience let us down.  I feel like we’re both better for the experience but it is of course hugely disappointing to feel like I let him and so many people down.  I came away from the weekend with more belief than ever in just how special my horse really is, and feeling an even deeper responsibility to make the right choices for his future.  He has so much more to show the world, I can’t help but look forward with enthusiasm to the future.

Monday morning we loaded up and moved to Molly Rosin’s barn in Kirkwood, PA where I spent the night, and then left Finn to enjoy the turnout while McCool and I are at Jersey Fresh.  Yesterday we had jog outs and today we’re just puttering around as we don’t show until tomorrow.  The course looks good, and the weather is the nicest I’ve ever experienced here.  Hopefully we can have good news to report for the rest of the weekend.

Lexington, KY
Apr 28, 2011 

Hello to everyone from a very soggy Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event.  After months of holding my tongue and referring to the end of April as the “R” word, I will now come out with it… I’m going to Rolex!  Of course that’s easy to say when we’ve been here for 3 days and have already passed the horse inspection.  Finian is fit and fresh, relatively under control, and stealing the show everywhere he goes.  Hopefully the atmosphere in the big stadium will not affect us too badly and we can produce a dressage test that will live up to his abilities.  As for the cross country, one can only pray that it stops raining, and the ground miraculously starts to dry out.  Derek’s new course looks really great, but at present, there is standing water and flowing streams through most of the 3 miles of course.  Parts of the footing seem good, and most of it seems alright, until you look where a car has driven, or even where people have been walking, and you see how quickly the soft turf turns into bottomless mud.  As the 32^nd horse to leave the box, I’m pretty sure there won’t be any turf left for us.  I’m taking things one day at a time, and right now, that means going to bed and dreaming about circles and centerlines.  Lots more news to come.

California, 
Feb 15, 2011

It never fails that the seemingly long winter whirls past me and the show season is up and running before I can say Happy New Year.  Amidst the many grand plans to get ahead on some projects and training, I find myself right back where I left off, and no idea where the months of November and December apparently went.  I managed to attend the United States Equestrian Team Foundation reception in Wellington, Florida … barely.  While we have been enjoying 75 degree weather here in California, the rest of the country has been hit hard with the real grit of winter, and that played a big part in causing airport closures that nearly prevented my travels.  I managed to get there at the eleventh hour, arriving in Palm Beach one hour before I needed to be at the reception, which was in Wellington.  With a quick shower and some hastily applied makeup I arrived late to a very upscale affair.  The organizers introduced themselves and mentioned that they wanted me to speak after the presentation of the award.  I was not prepared for that, but I think I gave a half-way passable thank you speech for all the donors in the room.  It all worked out okay and we were out of there in 30 minutes.  A friend of mine, Honey Beeman, came along for moral support, and I was thankful for her outgoing personality in such an intimidating room.  Thanks to her friendly nature and willingness to introduce the both of us to strangers, we met some really neat people and real legends in equestrian high performance.   Afterwards we went to dinner, and then got a few hours sleep before a 4:00 am wake up to catch an early flight back to California.

From one whirlwind to the next, I arrived home and got very busy preparing the horses for the upcoming event at Galway.  The day I returned home, I spent several hours in a pelting hail and thunder storm trotting Finn up the big hill.  As unhappy as I was about that, he was ten times as miserable.  On our second time up, he lost his patience and bolted with me nearly to the very top.  I was equally worried about him hurting himself and impressed with his athleticism, and I couldn’t help but hear the Rocky theme song playing in my head.  Even at the height of fitness, we usually just do a slow canter to the top, so when the next day he seemed to have no ill effects, I stopped worrying and went back to humming the song.  The following day was spent schooling McCool at Twin Rivers where he was really excellent.  Then it was off to Galway for the Fri – Sun event where I ran both horses slowly and tried to just get their feet wet for the season.  Both protested being held back on cross country, and though very strong, ran well and seemed glad to be out.  After Galway, we were off to Thousand Oaks for a training session with Mark Phillips through Saturday.  I had some frustrating lessons, and some wonderful lessons, and at the end of it, came home feeling like we’d accomplished a lot.  If you want to read more about the training session, you can read the reports I wrote for Eventing Nation.

http://eventingnation.com/home/2011/02/tiana-coudray-day-1-at-the-california-training-sessions.html

http://eventingnation.com/home/2011/02/tiana-courday-reca-of-the-california-training-sessions.html 

I hope to have an exciting year ahead of us.

California,  
Oct 19, 2010

Well I didn’t have time to write Saturday night, and by Sunday night we were ready for a little celebration, so once again, e-mails got pushed aside.  Then I was busily packing for a 2:30 AM departure on Monday, so now I finally sit down to write in the fog of an emotional hangover.  The support from everyone has been incredible and I can’t thank everyone enough for all the nice messages, emails, and face book posts, not to mention everything it took to get us to Holland and back. 

Saturday morning started off a bit dreary and discouraging as the rain continued to be an annoyance and the course proved to be riding very difficultly.  I stood with Mike Huber at the first water complex to watch the first 5 horses come through and I saw every version of ugly unfold.  Most of the horses jumped the skinny A element well but then riders were kicking and smacking and yelling to get over B, the big ditch.  Then they were doing every version of lying on and crawling over C, the roll top, big drop into the water.  From there half the horses were pecking on landing or pulling off their shoes, or falling down, before the up bank turning to the other skinny chevron, D and E.  This was not exactly what I had wanted to see to boost my confidence!  Doug was the first to ride for us and as the 4th horse out, I was standing there to watch him have an unfortunate 2 run outs at the A element.  After that, however, he really got things going and his young horse matured years around the next 7 minutes of the course.  Will was next to go, and it was magic to watch.  His mare is also young and quite green, but she ate it all up, jumping clear and inside the time with the help of Will’s experience, moving all the way from 51st to 13th place.  I know he was absolutely delighted by Missie’s performance, and I felt lucky to get to witness it.  From there I watched a few more horses go, and had a talk with Mark.  We decided to take the long route at the water that was causing so many problems, which funny enough, was my first instinct for my horse.  Otherwise, it was just a “go get it” sort of talk. 

When we left the box I was immediately encouraged that the sea of 40,000 spectators might be less of a hindrance and more of a help.  We went all the way to Holland so our horses could experience the spectators, tents, and atmosphere of an international event.  For Finn however, I felt like we had tunnel vision down the galloping lanes, with nothing but the jump ahead of us.  He was absolutely fantastic in his gallop, and actually on the first, second, and third minute markers.  He really was taking it all as it came to us, each jump revealing itself as we twisted through the forest, and breaking out into the clearing at the water.  I am thrilled that the long route there suited him really well, and he was able to carry on, with his confidence in place, all of his shoes, and having not taken a dunking.  I found myself having to press harder for the time as we continued on, but he was still jumping boldly and straight as an arrow through the accuracy questions.  I had a dicey moment at the second water when he kicked up hard and stuck on landing, throwing me up his neck and face to face with the forces of physics that suggested I take a bath.  Fortunately I stayed on, and short of a few seconds wasted removing myself from his ears and climbing back into the tack, we were able to continue on unscathed.  We finished up adding just 7.6 time faults to our score and moving into 7th place.  Finn cooled out well and looked good back in the barn. 

4th to ride for our team was Sinead and she had a fabulous go, adding just 1.6 time penalties to move up into 14th place.  The team moved into 2nd place, knocking on the door for first with just a rail and a half separating us from the Germans.  All the horses looked pretty good Saturday night and we had the expert help of PJ, our vet extraordinaire, should anything arise.

Sunday we all got through the jog and then busied ourselves with getting ready for show jumping.  Doug jumped right after we walked the course and had a lovely round with just one rail.  While he may not have had exactly the weekend he had been hoping for, he and Skinny will be a better team for their experiences on this trip and have lots to be proud of.  After that, everything turned into a blur as Will and Sinead jumped back to back (14th and 13th places) and I was in warm up thinking about myself at that point.  Sinead had 3 rails unfortunately, but said she thought Tate was just tired.  They finished in 21st place.  Will was unlucky to have the last rail at the end of a supposedly great round.  They finished up in 12th.  My goal with Finn in warm up was to get him settled and polite to the jumps so that I didn’t have to do too much fighting with him in the ring.  Fortunately he was feeling light and springy, and right on the button.  I jumped just a few fences and Mark and I agreed we were ready to go.  When we went in the ring, he grew another few inches in height and took in his surroundings, but in proud sort of way.  I think he took a look around and said “darn right you should be applauding me, I belong here!”  He jumped a flawless round from start to finished, and out of 78 horses, was 1 of only 14 clear rounds.  We finished up 6th and our team finished 2nd, just 2.2 points behind Germany. 

I’m happy to report that I survived (and stayed in the tack for) not one, but two victory gallops as we had both team and individual awards.  The only real casualty of the day was when all the officials came through to shake each of our hands.  Mind you we were holding trophies, silver plates, wooden boxes, and oh yeah, the reins!  As Ciska van Meggelen came to shake my hand, Finian thought her fur coat looked like a really nice tissue, and reached around behind her, taking the liberty of wiping his mouth on her back.  That green slime was making his nose itch!  My eyes popped out, her eyes popped out, and Dr. Ernst Topp, another member of the ground jury, hurriedly attempted to wipe her clean.  Hopefully in time she will look back on it and see the humor.  I for one, am still mortified!  Leave it to the Americans, or this American to be more exact!

That night we enjoyed a bit of well earned celebration and packed up all our things.  Finn and I got picked up at 2:30 AM by a lorry driver that looked like he’d overslept his alarm, and arrived at Amsterdam airport by 4:30.  We spend the next few hours doing paperwork.  Finn had the pleasure (or not) of flying home with a 2 year old race horse filly who thought she was going kick her way out of the pallet and back to her field in Ireland.  By the time we got in the plane and ready for take-off, she had sufficiently worn herself out, and remained pretty quiet for the rest of the flight.  It turns out Finn was quite the celebrity on-board as several of the flight attendants had been at Boekelo and watched us go.  They had to come back into cargo and visit with him.

So that’s it, a whirlwind trip that couldn’t have gone better.  I’m so thankful for the USEF grant that allowed us our first trip to Europe, and for everything and everyone that helped us along the way.  It’s just 10 more hours of quarantine and then Finn and I will drive home for a real vacation.  Finn gets to kick up his feet and relax now for the rest of the fall and part of the winter.  I have one more, big event with McCool doing the CCI2* at Galway Downs in two weeks and then the season’s over.