Flora Lea Horse Trials

Today Jet finished his third of four qualifying national horse trials to enable him to compete at the CCI* level in November in Florida.  We competed at the preliminary level at Flora Lea Horse Trials in Medford, NJ.  Flora Lea is a horse trials that I have competed at on and off for over twenty years.  

It rained all of last night and into today, so the day was very soggy and Jet has never competed in such deep and slippery footing.  He behaved admirably in the dressage, though for a horse without a lot of suspension in his movement, like he is, the mud in the dressage warm-up and ring was completely disconcerting for him.  He was much happier in the jumping phases and cruised easily around both the cross country and the stadium jumping courses.  We finished with about eighteen time faults on cross country but as this is his third weekend in a row competing and he compromised part of his hoof last weekend by throwing a shoe, I decided that having four shoes on at the end of cross country was the better part of valor.  I didn't push him for speed.  In the end we finished with a score of 68.3 and in 8th place out of 18 entries.  I am very pleased with his bravery and his progress all around.  In terms of his mental game and his athletic ability he is a very promising horse.

Brian is also back up North for the week and it is lovely to see him.  He came to the show today, rain and all, and was an extra set of hands.  Tonight we went on our first real date in about a month!

Next week Doc does the advanced combined test at Morven Park and then from the 15th to the 19th of October we will be competing at the Fair Hill International CCI***.

      

Plantation Field Horse Trials

Today Jet finished his second qualifying run to compete at the CCI* in Ocala, FL in November.  He did a steady dressage test yesterday scoring a 36.6 and then jumped clean in the stadium.  Today he had great fun on cross country and jumped clean with 5.6 time faults.  At the end of the day he finished 4th with a score of 41.9.  There was a second place tie between Boyd Martin and Julia Steinberg with scores of 41.8.  The lesson there is go faster on cross country!  It was also a great show because Gina drove Mr. Wetherill down to watch both days so he got to watch Jet compete in all three phases.

In other news, Doc's breeder is visiting with us from Australia.  She came with me yesterday to watch him swim on the treadmill at Kendalwood Farm.  We are having a lot of fun and she is very pleased to see how happy Doc is.  She has just taken six ESB horses to England and is looking to promote her breeding program in this country.  Here is a picture of her with Doc before swimming!

Show jumping on Sunday was anticlimactic.  Both horses had eight jumping faults.  Both jumped well, though Doc did not feel as fresh as Jet.  We then made an exhaustive drive home and collapsed at midnight on the 14th.  Yesterday, Peter Blauner, my vet, came out to go over Doc.  We had scheduled the appointment ahead of time.  Doc came up slightly lame in his left front leg.  We are waiting a week to see if it resolves itself or not, but the gist of it is that he is sore in his tendon or suspensory.  If it is not clear in a week we will ultrasound his leg to see if there is a strain.

So, I hold my breath!  Doc's fall season hangs in the balance for a few days.

The great news is that I found a super lesson horse for my students at the Monastery.  I have been looking for an ultra-safe lesson horse so that even my nervous riders can canter and jump crossrails with confidence.  I hope he works out.  Just going to try him yesterday and seeing what a great horse he obviously is made me happy.  It is a testament to how much I love these beasts!

Doc's breeder will be visiting us this week from Australia and Jet will run in another Prelim at Plantation Field in Unionville this coming weekend.

-Ashley 

 

Earlier this summer, at Bromont, I was in a position where, barring elimination in show jumping, Doc and I were assured first place in the CIC** because we were that far ahead of the rest of the field.  Today the tables have been turned.  We are at Five Points Horse Trials this weekend in Aberdeen, NC.  Brian drove up from Florida to groom for me.  It is ungodly hot and humid here and the gnats and mosquitos are awful.  Both horses slogged through their dressage tests yesterday with scores that I would have gotten upset with my students for producing, and Brian and I both have terrible blisters from our feet being too wet all weekend.  

Nonetheless, I started today off with great optimism because both of these horses, Doc in the advanced division and Jet in the preliminary division, excel at jumping, not dressage.  But it was not to be.  Jet went first and had two run-outs at jump number five, which was a skinny jump in the shape of a mushroom.  Doc went in the heat of the day at 1:30 and also had a run out at a corner that was on a downhill bending distance from a maximum-sized oxer.  Jet's run outs were due to inexperience -- this is his second prelim and he has not been asked to jump very many skinnies.  Doc is generally as honest as the day is long about narrow jumps and corners and he did not run out, he refused the jump.  My conclusion is that I did not present the corner in his vision early enough and so he was surprised by it.  The rest of the course he jumped beautifully.

The entire day was spent sweaty, hot, dirty, and being attacked by bugs.  After the horses were cared for and poultaced, Brian and I took a drive over to the score board.  Both Jet and Doc are in last place in their respective divisions.  We are doing so badly that it actually made me laugh.  Probably, though, this is the best thing I could have done!  The gods of sport are fickle.  Some days you win, some days you loose, and most of the time it is not a very large increment that separates the two.  So, I grabbed a beer from the competitors party and Brian and I are back at the hotel getting ready to go out to dinner to celebrate his birthday.  If nothing else, days like today make me remember how much love I have in my life and to be grateful for all of the little things, for sometimes they are the biggest!  

     

Welcome!  If you are reading this it means that you have visited my new website!  I hope you enjoy it.

With Summer winding to an end Doc and I are gearing up for a strong finish at Fair Hill CCI*** in October.  In July we traveled to Maui Jim in Wayne, IL and finished fourth in the CIC***.  Doc and I were the first to go on cross country and he was fantastic.  For September we will be focusing on going faster and streamlining all three phases of our performance.  I have been getting great help this summer from my childhood dressage trainer Monica Sinks and I have also been regularly traveling to Chesterland to get all-around help from Bruce Davidson.

As for the other horses, Jet has moved up to Prelim and is loving it!  He eats up the cross country.  His dressage remains his weakest phase be he seems to be holding his own with it and I know he will continue to improve with mileage.  He will do the CCI* in Ocala in November.

Riviera just spent a day being a jumper at Ludwigs Corner Horse Show.  He jumped to second place out of thirty horses in the LCHS 4' Challenge jumper class.  We are also preparing to compete at fourth level with him this fall and winter. 

My fourth horse is my young horse Monte Carlo who is finally coming into his own.  He has started competing at jumper shows and is just this summer mentally growing into his large body.  He is a very talented, powerful horse and Brian and I have high hopes for him.  He will do a 3'6" class at the end of the month at the Cecil County Horse Show held in Elkton, MD.

With Summer winding to an end I would also like to say CONGRATULATIONS to all of my students who had a very successful time competing over the past few months.  To name a few, Carmella Clark on Tachyon achieved every score above 60% in all of her recognized training level dressage tests this summer and has qualified for a performance award.  Holley Russell on Ida competed at first level for the first time scoring a 63% and also won first place overall (AND second place overall on her own horse Lady Livengood) in the eventing tests category at the Tuesday Evening Dressage series held at the Bucks County Horse Park.  Finally, Christine Wilson on Queen's Treasure moved up to training level eventing in August at BCHP and finished with a second place ribbon!  Great job to everyone.      

Please check back next weekend for more updates!  Doc and Jet will be heading to Southern Pines, NC to compete and on September 17th we are welcoming Doc's breeder from Australia for a four day visit.

Cheers!

Ashley