I must be horse crazy. September is the busiest month of the year for me, yet on my one weekend of free evenings this month what do I choose to do? Something horsey! Last night I went with a group of girlfriends for a soggy evening at Dressage at Devon to watch the freestyle competition. Low and behold, we sat right in front of the entire Monastery Stables crew! We tailgated in style with wine and delicious cheese and were somewhat protected from the steady drizzle by the overhang, but nonetheless came home damp and little chilly. Even with the less than ideal weather the grandstands were packed, which was wonderful to see. The competition had its highs and lows. Some of the horses were lovely. One of the rides was inspiring, some were good, and others were a little bit painful at times! This week I am taking music to my lessons. My adult amateurs will get a huge kick out of riding to a beat. Any suggestions on music?

On Friday afternoon I volunteered my time at Sebastian's, a therapeutic riding center located near Collegeville, PA (www.sebastianriding.org). My student Marti Gauvreau volunteers there every Tuesday afternoon as a horse handler, so I asked her this summer to put me in touch with them so that I could lend them some of my skills. At the beginning of September I went for an afternoon to help them work with three of their more difficult horses. On Friday I gave lessons to eight of their instructors. We focused on correct riding technique as well as how to deal with specific problems during a lesson. The weather was beautiful and I had a great time. I will go back to teach again in October.

I have also been driving to Unionville every day. Jet is stabled at Chesterland, Bruce Davidson's farm, until Fair Hill. I am using this time for intensive training under Bruce's knowledgeable eye. I do not lesson with him every day, but I am taking the opportunity to learn his program leading up to a three day. He has an amazing facility, with beautiful hills to trot and gallop on, an indoor ring with mirrors, and plenty of gymnastics and jumping exercises. I am very pleased with Jet. He has such a great mind. He is going to come out of this experience at a new level. He is not the most physically talented horse that I have ever ridden, but he loves the work and comes out every day wanting to learn. I have always been drawn to tricky horses, but I have to say that Jet is really winning me over. He is just a pleasure to work with. We do our final prep before Fair Hill at Morven Park in Leesburg, Virginia next weekend.

Speaking of tricky horses, Doc is doing phenomenally well in his recovery. He is doing basic dressage at the walk, trot, and canter. I have also let him jump a few small jumps. He doesn't feel quite like himself behind over the jumps yet, so I am mainly doing it to keep his brain happy. He gets very tired of dressage. It remains to be seen how much jumping he will be able to do in the long run, but I will know more in a few more months. In the mean time I am just letting the fibers of the damaged ligament fill in before we do anything too taxing on the flat or with jumps. For the most part he seems to be enjoying his time off. He is noticeably happier with Jet gone, because he is top dog again. Ah, sibling rivalry!

Ashley

Plantation Field CCI** Results

Thank you so much to my mom, Pam Johnson, for stepping in to blog for me on Saturday night. My computer went on the blink on Thursday, so I was stranded with nothing but my blackberry all weekend. The computer is going to the doctor today. My mom was the editor in chief of the Pennington Post while I was a teenager, so I asked her to do a little reporting for me!

Jet jumped clean yesterday in the last phase of the CIC**. He has rarely jumped clean at this level, but I tried a new technique in warm-up and it seemed to work. I made sure he knocked a jump down before we went in the ring. I was thrilled with his eager round.

With no points in show jumping, he moved up to 9th place overall. We were presented with a ribbon during the awards ceremony and we took a victory gallop, which Jet well deserved. I have three weeks to iron out some of the wrinkles in our dressage ride before Fair Hill. Today Jet is relaxing and looking fit, sound and happy.

Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Ashley

Plantation Field Event

Ashley is having fine rides at Plantation Field Event in Unionville, PA, this weekend. Monte Carlo has completed his very first preliminary level event in fine style with a score of 38.9. Ashley reported that Monte liked the bigger jumps and went clean in both stadium and on cross country in spite of a serious water jump at the end of cross country and a somewhat tricky stadium. Ashley took him on a sweeping track in stadium so he had significant time faults, and he had time faults on cross country as well. In spite of the time, he still finished with a 6th in the Preliminary Horse Futurity for horses 7 and under in their first year at prelim. Go Monte!

Ashley said Jet was a handful in dressage yesterday - different from his usual steady, quiet self - so he scored a 65.5 in the CIC **, his last qualifier before the Fair Hill CCI** in October. That put the pair in 14th out of 28 after the dressage phase. On cross country today Jet and Ashley made a fast clean effort finishing with only a few time faults.  Placings after cross country had not been posted when Ashley called to ask me to be a guest blogger for her tonight since she will not have a computer in her hands again until at least Monday.

Ashley noted that the weather is beautiful this weekend for the event and that Mr. Wetherill came to watch the horses on dressage day and that he and Babbie came today and enjoyed watching the two horses jump clean on cross country. Tomorrow Jet jumps stadium. Let's hope he lives up to his name!

Respectfully submitted by Pam Johnson

September has come and with it the distinct change in the weather that signals the onset of autumn. This time of year for me means that I am in countdown mode to my fall three day event. It used to be Morven Park CCI* and Radnor CCI**, then it was Fair Hill CCI***. Morven and Radnor have both shut down the three day events and are now just horse trials, but luckily Fair Hill took over the grand fall two star that Radnor used to host. This fall Jet and I will be preparing for the second annual CCI** at Fair Hill from October 16th to 18th. This will be Jet's first CCI**, and it will be a tough one, though he has run well at intermediate since April.

Last Thursday, September 3rd, I passed the teaching section of my Level II ICP certification. On Saturday Jet and Monte both had successful runs at Seneca Valley Pony Club Horse Trials. Jet ran in the intermediate section. Monte ran in the training level division in his final prep before moving up to prelim at Plantation Field in ten days. He felt more mature and focused in all three phases.

On September 18th, 19th, and 20th, Jet and Monte will be competing at Plantation Field Horse Trials on Rt. 82 in Unionville, PA. Jet will compete in the CIC** and Monte will compete in the preliminary young horse futurity. This is a wonderful venue for spectators. If the weather is kind on that Saturday or Sunday, come out and watch!