NEWS

Allentown, NJ 
May 6, 2010

After a few days of blissfully unscheduled, uncommitted, free time, including a showing in the Andrew’s Bridge Hunt “Puppy Show” (not at all what one would think and, the horror, we have pictures image 1, image 2 ) and a little jump lesson with Phillip Dutton on Tuesday, I packed up my things and moved over to the New Jersey Horse Park yesterday.  My Parents arrived last night and it is such a treat to have them with me at an event, and I’m not just saying that because I found myself two grooms.  Every time I looked into the barn today they were scuddering around like little worker bees, cleaning, organizing, or polishing something.  While I’m sure they were mighty board most of the day, they did a fine job of pretending they were enjoying it, and I certainly enjoyed the help.  This morning we Jogged-out and then I didn’t do dressage until 4:00 which left me plenty of time for my prerequisite stress-out.  When 4:00 did finally roll around, Finian had a very steady, accurate, good test.  It was a touch short of the brilliance that he’s capable of, but it was still plenty good enough for a 36.8, well ahead of second place with a 53.6.  When we’d finished giving Finn his well earned hugs and kisses, I had a quick jog around the cross country course.  It looks very open and gallopy, with a few difficult combinations and a lot of bold single fences.  Tomorrow I’ll take Finn out for an easy jump school and walk around the cross country many more times.  With nothing else to do, I’ll try to keep my mind from wandering too far from home, and make sure that things are all set and ready for Saturday.

Coatesville, PA 
Apr 30, 2010

It’s been a long few months since I wrote in January.  To be honest, I sat down at my computer and starting typing at least 4 times, but never could bring myself to click send.  I have been finding it hard to shake off the storm clouds (literally and figuratively) and I’ve been sounding way too “dark and twisty” a la Meredith Grey (ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy).  I’m starting to understand why they picked Seattle to stage that show, because this winter, the rain has had an incredible ability to drown out any levity I could muster.  It was getting to the point that suiting up like a north-sea fisherman was standard garb to walk out the door, and after what seemed like weeks of trotting the driveway because there was nowhere else to ride, I have to admit, my enthusiasm was waning.  You all know I’m not one to spread the doom and gloom around, so what resulted from each of my previous attempts to write, was an unfortunate union of Pollyanna and Eeyore.  I kept trying to make lemonade out of all my lemons, but it always had a funny aftertaste.  I can finally say things are good without it feeling like a lie!  So here goes  –  My winter;  The good, bad, and ugly!

An excerpt from my March draft-
At the risk of whining about my life and all the things that are going wrong in it… now wait a minute, that’s exactly what I want to do.  Let me just indulge myself for a moment and then I’ll get a grip, move on, and look at all the good around me.  I consider myself a pretty optimistic person, and it’s not too often that I regard myself as unlucky.  In fact, I’ve had a lifetime of luck and good fortune come my way, but it is beginning to seem like my next load of jolly good anything is currently bobbing away somewhere in the Atlantic, caught in the equatorial doldrums. 
I had my lovely horse Kelso go wrong at the first event of the year, Galway Downs, and to add insult to injury, he had put in a beautiful dressage test and was leading the division.  I returned home to find McCool, a 2* horse that I get the pleasure of working with, swollen up with hives, rashes, and all other forms of skin conditions exacerbated by the unusually wet year we are having.  While I’ve managed to clear it up for the most part, his coat has been ravaged and he’s looking more like a leper than the strikingly beautiful guy he really is.  Perfect timing for his first outing of the year at Twin Rivers last weekend!  In preparation for the event, I choked down the fact that it was time to buy new breaks for my trailer, and took it in last week.  En route, my transmission went out in my truck, making a set of new breaks seem real cheap!!!  Now, to really make this sound like a country song, my mom called amidst it all to say the family dog was really sick and had to be put down.  Somebody said these things come in three’s, but I’m thinking they forgot the detail about multiples of three’s!

Since then things have definitely turned around, or at least I’ve been able to refocus my perspective.  Kelso’s initial tendon scan didn’t turn up any lesions and his second scan confirmed that everything looks perfectly fine.  It’s frustrating to miss a couple months of competing him, but I will take the conservative route any day when offered the prospect of a 6-9 month lay-up.  He’s very happy to be returning to full work and should be back out at an event before too long.  All the rain has also made the grass come in so I guess it was worth suffering through.
I had a great show at Three Day Ranch with McCool winning the Preliminary and Regan doing his first Intermediate.  It was not my original plan to move him up so soon in the season, but with a strange turn of circumstances, Wednesday night of the event I told him to put on his big boy shoes and he brilliantly obliged.  McCool reaffirmed his cool-ness by scoring three 9’s and a 10 in his dressage along with a healthy serving of 8’s and then followed that up by jumping well the next two days.  It was great to finally get to know him cross-country since we got rained out at Twin Rivers. 

The most exciting news by far was last month at Galway Downs.  Finian led the CIC3* from start to finish with a very commanding lead.  He was absolutely spectacular in all three phases, but I was most pleased with his cross country.  He was so honest and mature all the way around, and it was a real feeling of accomplishment to gallop past the place where last year I had pulled him up on course.  McCool was second after a very good dressage test and moved into first after a clean show jumping.  With both horses leading in their respective divisions, Friday night was a little surreal.  Unfortunately McCool’s winning weekend came to an end Saturday afternoon, when he had a run out early on course, and two more later on.  It was of course disappointing, but considering I had only gone cross country with him once before and that a preliminary horse trials, it’s easy to see how our depth of communication was lacking.  He’s a horse that wants know you inside and out before he’s comfortable performing for you, so I was able to look at Galway as a step in that process.  A very public and well documented step!

Following Galway, I took Regan in the CCI1* and McCool in the CCI2* at Twin Rivers.  McCool took an early lead with our best dressage test yet and Regan had the best test of his life to stand second.  Regan moved into first after cross country having had a casual canter around, and McCool moved down to fourth after a silly little bobble, but having been fantastic otherwise.  He was a different horse than I had had at Galway, and I can only guess what he’ll be like with a little more time.  Both horses finished fit and sound enough for another go around.  Sunday both horses trotted up sound and show jumped great as well.  McCool jumped an easy clear round, but with all the horses in front of him jumping clear as well, he stayed in 4th.  Regan jumped the best round of his life but had one silly rail right at the end.  With all the placings being very tight, he disappointingly slid all the way down to fourth.  Both are having some well deserved easy time now while Finian and I tackle the CCI3* at Jersey Fresh.

We left Monday to trek across the country and arrived safe and sound Thursday evening.  We are once again fortunate enough to be staying with Bea Cassou in Coatesville, Pennsylvania and spent today settling in, resting up, and catching up on everything that’s happened since our last visit for Fair Hill last October.  It’s great to see everyone again and pick up where we left off.  I feel like this is my second home and I’m so thankful to be here.

We’ll have lots of news in the coming week with competition starting Wednesday.  ’till then, have some lemonade.

California
Jan 15, 2010 

It’s been a while since I’ve written, and though we haven’t been eventing over the last couple of months, I have been as busy as ever.  It seems I never miss a chance to fill a spare moment of time with something to do.  Regardless of how many horses are on vacation, there’s a never ending list of other horses to fill that time with, and inevitably, I am picking my way through the pitch dark on my last horse of the day, trying to find our way back to the barn.  Amid my daily crunch to get everyone ridden before the sun set, we got the exciting news that I won the USEA Young Rider of the Year award again.  It took me a bit by surprise since I had withdrawn Finian from so many events during the year, thus not getting any points, but the events we did finish carried a heavy enough point load, it was enough to top the leaderboard.  It was even more exciting because it was my last year as a Young Rider, and a third time winning the award seemed like a nice way to go out on top.  It also meant I forced myself to take two days off and go to the USEA Annual Meeting in Virginia to receive the award.  It was a great chance to spend time with some of my sponsors, Dr Van Noy from APF and Sharon Gladski from Mountain Horse, and to generally just lay low without the temptation of something else to fill my time.  I even read a book cover to cover, something I’d forgotten could be so enjoyable.  I came home with a nice loot of prizes and products, and having spent quality time making new contacts.

Back home, and a bit re-energized about the upcoming season, I couldn’t help but feel behind the ball with getting the horses back to work after their time off.  I had an itch to get going right then and there, and couldn’t help but picture myself as Lewis Carroll’s rabbit exclaiming “I’m Late! I’m Late!”. That feeling didn’t last for long though, because as soon as January rolled around, I found plenty of ways to jump in full bore and fill up the time I didn’t yet have.  It’s been every day, every weekend, a schooling show, clinic, or x-country school, and with all the horses going better than ever, I’m feeling much more at ease with the calendar.  I’m excited for the upcoming training session with Mark Phillips in two weeks, as well as our first event of the year at Galway Downs at the end of the month.  In the mean time, I’ve got more x-country schooling and a combined test at Twin Rivers, as well as a barn full of horses to body clip, pull manes, and otherwise make look a little less feral.  Sooner or later I’m going to master time travel, of course with my exemplary ability, I’d still manage to overbook myself. Oh well, no time to get myself into trouble, or anything else for that matter.  I’m pretty sure diversity in life is overrated!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and that the new year brings great things to all.

California
Oct 27, 2009 

We are safely home and finally able to write the conclusion to our Fair Hill 2009 story.

Saturday’s weather at Fair Hill could not have been less cooperative and the light showers that were meant to clear out Friday night were in fact torrential rain that dumped buckets all night and all morning.  Just driving to the event in the morning was precarious.  Meanwhile, in stabling, many of the horses found the circus tent style roof insufficient and had bath tubs for stalls, standing up to their ankles in water. (Don’t forget it was about 30 degrees overnight!) I was fortunate in that Finian was not one of those unlucky horses, but the constant dripping of ice cold water from the many leaks in the tent was still plenty enough to send a chill down your spine. All of this, unpleasant as it was, was nothing compared to the challenges of running an event on the water laden ground on cross country. 

The officials took an extra hour deciding what they could do. They debated canceling the event, weighing the risks of running, and racking their brains for ways to make the footing as safe as possible.  Ultimately they chose to run over a modified course where most of the technical fences had been removed and the speed had been reduced.  They were mindful that anything with a narrow face would have 150 horses jumping from the exact same spot, while a 16′ face would allow riders later in the day to pick a different place for take off and landing, and hopefully still have some turf to jump from.  With the choice to go ahead with the event, about half of the riders withdrew, particularly those whose horses had previous injuries.  This was my overwhelming instinct as well, but I was advised to give it a try and learn a thing or two about riding in the mud with the idea that I could always pull up if I didn’t like how it was going.  Since I went so late in the day, there was plenty of time for me mull over the situation, and plenty of horses to watch go.  Indeed, the first 10 horses went out and clipped around the now very straightforward course easily, but as each horse ran, the turf churned up to slop and the horses found less and less to push off of.  They began looking more tired from the exertion, and what was a very simplified course by modern standards, became a herculean effort within just a few horses.  While the crews tried to keep gravel at the base of the jumps, there was nothing they could do about all the galloping lanes and it was left to the riders to pick their way around the course, looking for the best path to slog through.

When I brought Finian out to jump I was impressed with how well he handled the mud, and while each jump was effectively 6″-8″ taller than it appeared because of the footing giving way, it didn’t feel like a slick mud, and he seemed to be jumping out of it wonderfully.  That gave me the confidence to set out on course with conviction and an attitude of “lets see what we can do”.  That’s not to say I wasn’t nervous.  He was pretty quiet out of the box, and settled in to a workmanlike rhythm very well.  He seemed to be very focused and rideable at the first few tables and through the sunken road at 5, so I was a little disappointed that he ran out at the 6th fence, a corner going downhill through the forest.  I think his attention was a bit too much on the forest and the crowd of people, and evidence that he is still green about those situations.  I felt like I gave him a good shot at it, so blame it more on a lack of training than on the particular ride I gave.  As I galloped on I had strike one in my mind for deciding if and when to pull him up, looking for the slightest indication that he was not right, or loosing his confidence.  He went on to power up the long hill the event is famous for, and to jump through the few technical questions on the course beautifully.  Even though he pulled a shoe at the top of the course, he was still powering along three quarters of the way around, when we had another right handed corner down a hill, off of a bend.  At this point he gave it a bit more of a legitimate effort than the first corner, but he was slipping and sliding down the hill, missing a shoe, and ended up putting his feet on the jump and sliding on past somehow.  For me, that was reason enough to call it a day and leave with what was left of his confidence intact.  He jumped the alternate corner very willingly and I pulled him up.

In the strange way that results often don’t reflect the reality, everyone, Mark Phillips and myself included, were very pleased with the ride.  Finian was galloping better than ever, and though I didn’t go quite to the finish, he was still full of running with only a little bit to go.  Many factors that are much harder to influence, such as rideability and frame of mind were greatly improved from the past, and as Mark said casually, “corners are easy to train”. So that’s our homework for the winter.  I feel like all the little pieces are falling into place, one by one, and oh so slowly, but none the less successfully.

On a very sad note, a good friend of mine had a heart breaking weekend when her phenomenal young horse severed a tendon.  He underwent surgery to try to repair it, and has had subsequent surgeries since.  She is also on the Developing Rider list and her horse is the same age as Finian, making the whole situation hit home even harder.  I can only imagine the devastation of such an abrupt end to such a promising career, and it is a fear never far from my mind.  These situations make me that much more grateful to have a healthy, sound horse on the trailer home, and serve as my reminders to ere on the side of caution, pull up when it seems like the right choice, and to take my time with Finian.  It is disappointing to end his season having not finished what we started, but given the opportunity, I’d do it the same again… with maybe a little less driving across the country.

Elkton, MD
Oct 16, 2009 

A quick look at the news and you will hear about the drenching nor’easter dumping rain and snow all over the east coast.  Add to that the barely above freezing temperatures and you can pretty well guess what Fair Hill is like.  The whole place is mud, the cross country, the arenas, the stabling, and even the roads.  There is a scattering of stranded trucks waiting for the tractors to pull them out and I have completely given up on keeping Finn’s tail white.  To say it’s uncomfortable is a understatement.  My rain coat was soaked through by mid-morning and, believe you me, when it’s only in the high 30’s, that is most unpleasant.

On a more positive note, the coarse is very nice although plenty tough, and Finn is feeling well and ready to go.  We had a very good dressage test today, with just a few minor mistakes.  Finn was moving so well and being so obedient it could have easily been a winning test, but with our little errors we’re in 6th on a 45.8.  With this nasty weather the footing, or lack there of, on cross country tomorrow will surely be influential.  I’m hoping for a conservative, clean go but anything could happen.

Coatesville, PA 
Oct 10, 2009

After a grueling 3 day trip across the country we’ve arrived at our home away from home, Bea Cassou’s farm in Coatesville, Pa.  Though I was driving by myself, I was able to caravan with Kristi and Randy Nunnink.  This didn’t make the trip any easier, but at least I had company if something were to go wrong… but that would never happen to me!  All kidding aside, I can actually say (now that we’ve safely landed) that for once I didn’t win the award for worst luck while traveling.  All in all, I really didn’t have much trouble.  Kristi and Randy, on the other hand, blew out a front tire on their truck which sent them careening across the road in a horrifying shower of sparks and smoke.  They were behind me and I saw the whole thing in my mirrors.  Fortunately it was sometime around midnight in the middle of Iowa so the interstate was relatively free of other cars.  Randy managed to make it safely onto the shoulder where he proved his worth as husband and hero.  He changed the tire and we were back on our way in 15 minutes.  I hate to think what would have happened if there had been other traffic on the road, but as it was, everyone was ok other than a few gray hairs for the Nunninks. 

We got in late Thursday night and I quickly situated the horses before collapsing in my bed from complete exhaustion.  I set my alarm for 6:00 AM so that I could finish unpacking and clean up my trailer before Bea was out and about.  At about 10:30 AM I was lifted from my coma by Bea’s beautiful daughter Marina and her friend at the foot of my bed.  I guess I overslept a little!  My poor horse was staring at me through the apartment window, wondering what was going on.  Luckily he had the same hung-over look that I did, and I don’t think his appetite was near as ravenous as usual.  If it had been, I imagine he would have seen to it that I got up earlier.  When I put him out in the field yesterday afternoon, he was a swirling, snorting, ball of excitement and I barely made it inside the gate before he was off like a rubber ball.  Bounding about in an artistic show of bucking, kicking, leaping, and his favorite, jump in the air and kick all four feet out in opposite directions.  For about five minutes he spent more time in the air than he did on the ground. When he was finished stretching his legs, he meandered around and ate grass for the rest of the day.

Today we’re going for a nice long relaxing hack through the country side…or, considering his display yesterday, an adrenaline pumping, crash-hat and seat-belt required, ride at your own risk, adventure that’ll rival any theme park roller coaster.  I’ll try my best not to make a scene, but we are infinitely good at doing that.  They’re already blaming me for bringing yesterday and today’s unpredicted rain, we really don’t need to do anything else to announce our arrival in town!

We have a few more days to get settled and organized before we move down to the event at Fair Hill on Tuesday.  It’s not nearly enough time for everything, not to mention time to catch up with the many friends I made here this spring.

For now, I’m off to the rodeo, I mean, my nice peaceful hack! 🙂