NEWS

Enschede, Netherlands 
Oct 15, 2010

Competition is well underway and I have lots to be happy about.  Yesterday dressage got off to a dismal start with the judges giving stingy scores throughout most of the day.  Michael Jung (recently crowned world champion) got a blistering score of 37.8, but otherwise marks were being withheld even for those riders that usually have a bit of “star power” added to their score.  I guess in the Netherlands, you’d better be the world champion if you want to have any clout.  Mark Todd, William Fox Pitt… who are they?  Doug and Will rode yesterday and both had good, correct tests, without too much brilliance, but also no mistakes.  Doug was given a very harshly judged 62.6 which put him in 76th, and Will got a 57 for 51st place.  I didn’t get to watch Will’s test so I can’t say for sure, but the trend of the day was all test’s being about 10 points too high in the scores.

Finian has been getting closer and closer to show ring ready with each ride and we’ve been trying to put all the pieces into place without actually tipping the first domino.  Yesterday I had a good dressage lesson with Mark and I felt pretty good that I hadn’t used up all the good stuff in practice but that he was ready to pull it out when we went in the ring.  Today I had a pre-sunrise ride with Mark just getting all the slow, long and stretching part of my warm up out of the way so that when I brought him out for my test at 11:00 we could go straight to work.  In a strange way that can only be because Finn understands the meaning of “It’s Showtime”, he came out for our second warm up with a completely different posture all together.  He felt super through everything and I was finally confident that I had the horse I wanted for going into the ring.  When we did enter the grandstand for our test, he was relatively good about all the surroundings, but still he got a little tense.  When I picked up the canter to enter the ring however, he got to work and produced a typically lovely test.  I once again lost him in the halt, rein-back movement which is an irritating few scores to throw away, but most of the test was very good and the judges agreed.  We got a 46.2 which put us into 6th place out of 107 horses.

After my ride I walked the course again with Mark which was especially nice because he just walked along and watched which lines I was planning to ride and how I was planning to make my turns.  Often he walked behind me, pulling me slightly right or left to the perfect line.  It was really great to have such specific guidance about every aspect of the course, not just how to jump the jumps.  Sinead rode this afternoon and again I was not able to watch her test but she got a 55.4 for 39th place.  I believe she was pretty disappointed about her test, although she said she learned a lot about her horse and how to prepare him for a big competition next time.  With mine and her scores added in, our team moved up into 3rd place out of 11 teams.  Germany is in 1st and we’re only 1 point behind the Netherlands in 2^nd

This evening I took Finn out for a little gallop and to jump a few jumps and he was perfectly fresh and yet still attentive.  I couldn’t have asked for more… other than it maybe not have been pouring rain.  Tomorrow I have a later ride time, going at 2:00, so I will have most of the day to watch how the course is riding and see where the footing is deep, slick, or otherwise troublesome.  Hopefully none of that will be too much of a problem.

It’s past my bed time and the others are all asleep already, so that’s all for tonight.

Enschede, Netherlands, 
Oct 11, 2010

Well it seems like it’s been weeks since we left LA but it’s only been a couple days.  I’ve been having a terrible time with all things technological and I’m convinced it’s because I tried to be so organized before I left.  The European phone has been on and off working… a lot more of the off.  To add to that, internet has been surprisingly hard to find. 

Our flight was mostly uneventful and I enjoyed the privilege of leaving my seat and going through the secret locked door to the back to hang out with Finn.  He, sadly, was the only horse on the flight so his only company was a crate of fine paintings and a classic car and I think it was a little dark and lonely back there for him.  I was greeted with a very sweet little nicker each time I visited, but otherwise he was very stoic about the whole thing.  Our KLM attendant informed me that while I was sleeping one time we had some pretty bad turbulence and that I must be a bad trailer driver because when she checked on him, he was not bothered by it at all!  Anyways, he traveled like a pro.  We landed in Amsterdam Saturday morning and Finn’s pallet was immediately offloaded and taken over to the horse version of customs.  We then had several hours of waiting for all the paperwork to be processed before we could leave the airport.  Much to the amusement of the KLM employee’s and customs agents, I kept falling asleep on the office table in the customs building!  My best manners were no match to jet-lag and a less than stimulating situation.  Eventually they woke me and we loaded Finn and all the gear into a Lorry that was waiting to take us to the Amstel Horse Hotel, 20 minutes from the airport.  We were there by mid afternoon and after fussing over my horse and reorganizing my things for the 3rd time, I went out running to explore the area a little.  After an hour or so of that, I went back to fussing over Finn.  This is the part where the non-working phone, no internet to be found, and no transportation, or socialization became a little bothersome.  Did I mention the Amsel Horse Hotel was like a ghost town on Saturday?  I really am not a social networker, but Saturday I wanted some contact with the outside world.  I had a little 6×8 room with nothing more than a bed, a light, and a door, all of which I was grateful for.  At some point early that evening, I went to bed, not really sure what time it was since the clock wouldn’t change in my phone since it didn’t have signal.

The next day I picked up a little bit of the same routine, although there were more people out to the barn playing with their horses.  Sarah, Sinead, Doug, and Will arrived in their rental car around 10:00 and it was great to have company.  They were thoroughly bored waiting for their horses to arrive, get through customs, and come to pick us up, but for me, the entertainment was rich.  The Lorry with the other three horses and Sinead and Will’s grooms arrived and we got on our way to Boekelo.  When we arrived at the event 2 hours later, we were met by the Organizer and a whole crew of helpers to unload our things and get set up.  They brought us coffee and cookies and made us feel thoroughly welcome.  After that, they took us to the on-site bar and bought us drinks.  Talk about hospitality!

Today we “hacked out” the horses in the morning (Finn and I mostly passaged) and then spent mid-day in town.  I took Finn out this afternoon again and tried to ride a little of the freshness out of him and I hope it had some effect.  He’s been in fine form causing havoc in the barn and I have been trying to convince everyone that he’s really not such a heathen child at his core.  They’re not buying it, and to be honest, they must think I’m a terrible trainer! Oh well, that’s one first impression we’ll be working hard to change, but what are you going to do?  Mark Phillips arrived this evening and we all went out for a riotous dinner and now we’re off to bed.  The event will start hopping tomorrow with everyone else arriving and then we jog Wednesday and competition really starts.

I’m working on getting a phone that has signal in the deep of the forest, and I’ve found the one place in the lobby of our hotel with internet.  I hope to have more contact now that we’re settled, but we’ll see.

Los Angeles International Airport, 
Oct 8, 2010

Just a quick note to mark the beginning of a voyage.  I’m sitting at LAX, killing most of the morning, waiting for our flight to Holland.  I left Carmel Valley at 1:00 this morning…well almost 1:00.  I did have a bit of a false start when I shredded a trailer tire before I ever left the driveway.  When Bea said “call if you need anything” I don’t think she had a tire changing pajama party in mind.  She’ll think twice before she offers next time!  Spare tire on, we set off for a 9:00am arrival at the airport for Finian’s USDA inspection.  After that we loaded and weighed all the gear (yikes), for which you pay by the kilo.  A couple hundred dollars just for hay and grain, that’s when you know the horse has it better than the human!  Now we’re just waiting. 

We load Finn at 2:00 and then I go through normal security and boarding and will join up with him on the plane.  I’m told I get a seat at the very back, right next to a door that goes straight to him.  Secret trap door into the mysterious innards of a Boeing 747?  It’s all new to me but I’ll try to take some photos. 

More news soon …..

California,
Aug 3, 2010  

Shame on me for not posting this sooner, but with the theory that later is better than never, I’ve finally gotten the time to tell you about Sunday at Rebecca Farm. 

Both Finn and McCool seemed to be in fine form when I arrived at the barn early Sunday morning (whew!) but even without having to go into crisis mode, I had a lot to do getting ready for an 8:00am jog.  Two horses to braid, eight legs to shampoo poultice off of, one white tail to quicksilver and then guard like the crown jewels for the subsequent hour and a half, two horses to ride out to get them loosened up, one shampoo and poultice covered barn slave to transform into a well turned out rider presenting two beautifully prepped horses…!   Turns out somewhere between the late night to bed and the sun’s not up yet morning, I left my “well turned out rider” garb hanging in the hotel!  That was a very unwelcome realization when I had exactly T-0 hours to be walking over to the jog area.  I managed to get dressed with a bit of this, a bit of that, and in a very fateful way, my friend, stylist extraordinaire, and lifesaver Susan Cummings had shipped me a gorgeous jacket and some equally gorgeous jewelry that I had with me at the event.  Thrown together as it was, I don’t think we did too bad.  Most importantly, both horses trotted up very well and passed without trouble.

   
On to the next thing.  The 2*’s show jumped first and since McCool was standing in 1st, I was last to go in the ring.  I knew I had 2 rails in hand to keep the lead and then I saw the 2nd placed rider have 3 rails to give me slightly more room.  McCool gave me the best ride I’ve ever had with him, and I think probably the best he’s ever jumped, ever.  I had one rail at a very difficult oxer and otherwise it was perfect.  I think I could had done a better job there and maybe kept it up but Mark Phillips was extremely pleased with the round and said the rail was just unlucky.  In any case, he won with a commanding lead having only used one of the rails we had in hand.  We did the awards ceremony and I jumped off McCool and straight onto Finian.  I had a 5 minute warm up while they were setting the 3* course, jumped off of him so that I could walk it, got back on to jump a few warm up fences, and went in the ring.  He was also jumping fantastically and being more rideable than sometimes.  I had a less than perfect round however which was topped off by going right past the 10th fence and therefore getting eliminated.  It was a jump that was not on the 2* course and got added only to the 3*.  I finished up the round and people looked grim as I exited the ring.  When they told me I’d missed a jump I looked around the ring and had no idea which one.  It was so not on my radar, they had to point it out to me before I had any clue what they were talking about.  It was disappointing to let my horse and everyone down with such a foolish mistake but the lesson learned is that no matter what chaos I have going on, I still have to get my head focused before going into the ring.  I sort of feel like the difference between 19th and Elimination is not as bad as the fact that my horse was trying hard and I didn’t give him the ride he deserved.  It sort of topped off the weekend that wasn’t meant to be for Finian, but hopefully we took home some good lessons and I can keep chipping away at that perfection I’m seeking.

 
On the plus side, the team vetted Finn that evening, so they aren’t too disappointed in me, and they were happy with what they saw.  Both horses came through the event and traveled home well.  McCool’s getting some long awaited and much deserved down time for the next few weeks while Finian is already back to work.  I am doing differed maintenance to my life and maybe completing a few tasks that have been hanging over me for months.   If you’re waiting on a call back or an email from January, you should be getting it sometime soon.

Kalispell, MT 
Jul 24, 2010

For the sake of my exhaustion and the early morning I have ahead of me, this will be brief.  McCool was excellent today with a very honest, relaxed, and speedy round. He jumped one of few double clears to hold his lead and even gain a little room between second place.  Finian had a pretty good round for the most part but unfortunately threw a shoe very early in the course and had to run the whole thing barefoot…ouch!  He jumped clear all the way to the sunken road, where I let him drift a little on the way out.  As far as I could tell, he jumped square at the flag, leaving the judgment of whether he had jumped clear or had a run out very difficult to make.  I yelled to the jump judge to see how they had judged it and they answered “what?!”.  I circled back to ask again because if I had a run out and kept going on the course I would have been eliminated, and conversely, if I had jumped it clear but jumped it again, I would also have been eliminated so I really needed to know what they had judged.  This time they answered “I don’t know”.  I circled back again and tried again to get an answer out of them.  I can’t remember how many times I had to circle before they said “no”, at which point I jumped the alternate and got on my way.  Finian jumped the last difficult combination well and finished up fine.  I believe I would have had minimal, if any, time penalties without all the confusion and I still don’t know if it really was or wasn’t a run out.  In any case I am kicking myself for not riding the whole combination better and I am very frustrated with the 38 total penalties between time and jumping.  I was sent to protest the time penalties and the officials apologized profusely for the situation but told me there was nothing they could do about it.  I have spent most of the evening icing poor Finian’s foot which surprisingly is not all that sore yet.  Got to love good feet and good footing!  He’s lying in a disappointing position with all the penalties, but it sure would be nice to redeem ourselves with a good show jumping round tomorrow.  McCool on the other hand will hopefully give it all he’s got because a lots riding on a good round for him.

Off to bed now, finally, and up again way too soon tomorrow.

Kalispell, MT
Jul 23, 2010 
 
Today was dressage day for me with both Finian and McCool, and though the week so far has been anything but going to plan, we managed to make it through our tests with minimal collateral damage.

Since Monday I’ve been working to get the horses settled in, rested up, and ready to compete.  Unfortunately, that is not the program they’ve been on.  Finian has been outdoing himself with high strung, ultra naughty, antics and not showing much intent to come back down to earth.  I’ve been riding two or three times a day, with at least one of them being a gallop, and we’ve been spending more time spinning, bucking, and bolting than we’ve spent going the direction I requested.  McCool is far too gentlemanly to pull any of Finian’s tricks, but he’s been just as high and tense and hardly dressage ring ready.  He too has been going out two times a day to try to take the edge off and it didn’t seem to be making a dent in either of them.  I on the other hand, feel like I’ve expended the last twitch of every last muscle fiber in my body from trying to outdo them, and could use about a week just to get rid of this rag doll feeling.  In any case, I guess the horses traveled well and are feeling fit which is always a good start to an event.

When McCool came out to warm up he was completely wired by the fact that the lower levels were running cross country at the same time and right outside the arena we were trying to warm up in.  It didn’t start off well, and it definitely didn’t get any better.  Somehow, when we went in the competition arena with every bit as much tension and nervousness as in warm up, we managed a very good, mistake free, test.  I wasn’t able to push for any of the brilliance I know he can have, but on this day, I believe a correct and accurate test was a huge accomplishment.  He was good enough for 1st with a 49.6 which I’m thrilled with, since moments earlier I would have said forget it!

Finian put on his work hat today (Finally!!!!) and came out beautifully both this morning and again when I came out to warm up.  He was certainly not lazy or super relaxed, but he was there to do his job in his usual brilliant fashion.  I went into the competition ring very happy with him and he didn’t let me down.  His trot work I thought was his best yet with more strength and movement than I’ve ever gotten and his canter was very good except for two bobbles.  He ended up in 4th behind Karen O’Connor, Mara Dean, and Phillip Dutton with a 49.2.  He is very well placed in an impressive field of horses and riders that make up some of the best in America presently.  I really can’t complain since just yesterday I couldn’t get from point A to B without at least two explosive detours.

The cross country courses are challenging but look do-able and there is lots of nice room to gallop along.  I’m hoping to get the horses to settle in early and be rideable.  In Finian’s case, that was our undoing last year so I have a clear feeling of how I want to right our wrongs this time out.  McCool should be well up to the task if I can get him to settle in to his job early enough in the course.  We’re all hoping the predictions of 90* humidity holds off as it has yesterday and today, especially with the 3* horses going around 12:00. We’ll see what tomorrow brings, but for today at least, a week’s worth of work has seemed to pay off.

More news tomorrow…

Kalispell, MT 
Jul 19, 2010

After a fairly uneventful two days of driving and a short layover in Kennewick, WA, we’ve arrived in Kalispell, MT for the event at Rebecca Farms.  The horses all traveled well and, short of a blown tire on one of the other trailer’s, we didn’t have any trouble.  Even the tire wasn’t much of a hardship; the girls hooked themselves some cute boys to change it and we were back on the road in 20 minutes.  I need to start working on my “helpless girl on the side of the road” look.  One of these days I think it will come in handy!

My little bit of excitement was less than two hours out from arriving when a baby black bear went lumbering across the road in front of me with not the slightest care in the world.  When I say in front of me, I mean “screeching tires, horses plastered against the front of the trailer, white knuckles on the steering wheel” in front of me.  The little fellow had the consideration to at least turn his head a little to look at me and ponder what my problem was.  He really was cute, though he wouldn’t have been near as cute if he had been half a second slower.

Everyone’s thoroughly exhausted and looking forward to catching up on some sleep.  All the horses get to go out hacking today and will do a little work tomorrow.  Competition starts up on Thursday.  Hopefully there will not be anything exciting between now and then. 

California  
May 24, 2010

I’m sure by now that everyone has seen the final results from Jersey Fresh, but since people keep asking for the commentary, here goes…..  With our dressage all done on Thursday, Friday was a day for mental fortitude, with very little to do all day and obscene amounts of time to sit and think.  If you could ever spend half a minute in my head you’d know that second guessing is my specialty.   You can only walk the course so many times before even that becomes over-analyzed, over-strategized, and generally, over-done.  I resigned myself to do a lot of hand grazing, a lot of sitting around talking, and when all else failed, a little nap in the barn.

Saturday started off a bit the same way since I didn’t ride until 1:30.  After another walk around the course, a bit of solitary time to “think” my way around the course, and a big lunch, and I was ready to give it a go.  Finn came out feeling good and opinionated as always which gave me a bit of work to do in the warm up and when we set out on course.  The first 10 fences were basically simple galloping fences.  That didn’t really help my cause since he was running down to them with little regard for my suggestions of how to do it.  As we went along, the course became more demanding and technical and Finn got down to business and became more rideable.  Our only hiccup came at about the halfway mark where there was a two stride combination of corners on a fairly difficult line.  I arrived at the first corner poorly and opted to go the long route rather than risk a run out.  Still a bit out of sync with each other, I got him to the alternative corner poorly as well.  At both jumps he ballooned himself up and over them like he hadn’t a care in the world, straight and honest, and no question where he was planning to go.  I’m still angry with myself over the ride I gave him there, but I can find a little bit of comfort in the way Finn took them on even without my help.  Following that we had a long pull from the very bottom of the course all the way to the highest point, a good two minutes uphill with some more big galloping type fences along the way.  I let Finn pick his pace and to my utter delight, half way up he took a big breath and kicked into another whole gear.  He was running stronger at the top than he had been after the double corners at the bottom.  From there we had a run all the way back down that hill, and a few more technical combinations put in the way.  We finished up with 4.8 time penalties for taking the long route at the corners, but otherwise clear, and still leaving us plenty of margin for going into show jumping.  Finn seemed thoroughly spent at the finish and I started to wonder if I would be needing all of that margin on Sunday, but couldn’t dwell on that thought because I had plenty to do looking after him that afternoon. 

Sunday morning it became evident that my concerns were misguided because he was fresher and acting-out more than he had been all weekend.  At the jog he wanted to bolt off, and in the show jumping warm up he was leaping around when all I wanted was to walk.  Other than his expressive show of health and soundness, his warm up was near perfect, and I was feeling somewhat “cool” riding into the ring with 4 rails in hand.  We had a major show of amateurism when we spend the entire 6 strides between fence one to two brawling and arguing, with his mouth open, tongue out, yanking his head left and right, all of which resulted in a really ugly jump at #2.  From there I kicked myself into shape a bit and got my point across to him a bit more effectively as well.  The remainder of the course rode really well and though he had one rail at a big square oxer, I was happy with the go.  We finished up with more than 12 points of a lead, and Finn continued to carry on with the bucking and acting out all the way through the victory gallop and back to the barn.  I found it hard to scold him for feeling so well and proud of himself, and considering what a feat he had pulled off, I think he was entitled to a little bit of conceited celebration. 

The drive home was relatively easy and uneventful, and Finn seems to be well rested up and feeling good.  I can’t say the same about me, but then again, rested up isn’t really something I would know anything about!  We’re off to Woodside Horse Trials next weekend with the other horses, and after that, I don’t yet know.