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I am now blogging directly on my website. Please follow this link to read more about the Ashley Leith Equestrian Team: www.ashleyleithequestrian.com

Summer With The Horses

After Bromont, Jet took it easy for a few weeks. I like to give the horses a little R&R after big shows. The six weeks before an FEI show is very busy and the horses have a lot of mental as well as physical responsibility. It is good for them to have a break once or twice a year to just hang out with their friends in the field and be horses.

Of course, I also had an agenda while Jet was resting. First, we got him on a new supplement called E3Live. This is a blue green algae that is given to him daily in liquid form. It is 97% absorbable and it is great stuff! I have started taking the human form myself. In horses and in humans it aids in regeneration after physical exertion, and it also helps with mental clarity and focus. The product was brought to the equine industry by farrier Wayne Blevins after he started taking it himself and saw great results. After Wayne started using it on horses, he recorded amazing growth and recovery in horse's hooves. As soon as I learned about some of his results, I decided that this was the supplement for Jet! My two top priorities this summer for Jet are to get a better hoof on him and to get him stronger through his topline so that he can handle the all three days of a three day competition. You can find out more about E3Live by clicking on the link on my website.

Along with the new supplement, Jet has been on a "topline program." This includes bulking his weight up so that he has more meat on his bones that can be converted to muscle, putting him on an acupuncture program to keep the flow of his systems even, and taking him once a week to do the aqua tread at Kendalwood Farm. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you will remember that Doc did this regularly, especially after he injured the cartilage in his right front knee. Jet is doing beautifully with the aqua tread. It is great for coordination, topline strength and cardio. Tara and P.J., who own Kendalwood Farm, are true masters of their machine and it is a lot of fun to watch them take Jet through his 25 minute workout.

Monte has been going well at the preliminary level and continues to mature. He has a lovely temperament and I enjoy working with him. We competed at the Maryland Horse Trials last weekend and we have the NJ Horse Trials and Fair Hill coming up. At the end of August both Monte and Jet will go to "Princeton Show Jumping" at Hunter Farms.

In other farm news, we got new sand footing for the outdoor ring, which is WONDERFUL! However, I overestimated how much we would need. The ring went from being rock hard to way too deep in places. After some brainstorming, I decided to use the front end loader to move some of the sand into the indoor, so that the indoor would have some new footing too. This has been quite a project. I was out there this morning working on it some more. Unfortunately, I got a little too much wet sand in the bucket, and went over a bump that was a little too big. Here is a photo of the result! After I emptied the bucket, I was able to get the tractor "back on all four feet." Ah, farm life!

Bromont CCI*** 2010

Bromont CCI*** this year was a qualifier for the World Equestrian Games that will take place in Lexington, Kentucky this fall. The U.S. had several riders competing who were hoping to use this event to secure a spot on the WEG short list summer eventing squad that has two spots remaining. Mark Phillips, the U.S. Chef D'Equipe, as well as many of the U.S. selectors were wandering around all weekend watching us go. Some of the U.S. riders in contention for the two training spots were Will Coleman, Heidi White, Kim Severson, John Williams, and Buck Davidson. Other countries also had riders trying to qualify for the WEGs, including Ronald Zabala from Ecuador and Rebecca Howard and Jessica Phoenix from Canada. On the other end of the spectrum, this was Jet's first CCI***. Nevertheless, I know how consistent my boy is and my goal for Jet this weekend was to go out with a fire in my belly and have us placed in the ribbons on Sunday before show jumping. Show jumping has been an achilles heel this spring and I didn't want to promise myself anything in that phase.

Jet was the best I could have asked for right now in Friday's dressage test, scoring a 59.2 with our one lead change still not confirmed and the rest of the test steady and appropriate but not yet too flashy.

On cross country my thoughts were to give Jet a confidence building ride and to try to add nothing to our dressage score. On cross country day, Jet was the clever little spright that he is. This is his best phase. He was a little surprised by a few things, but he adjusted immediately. Corner jumps caused the most trouble on the course, including eliminating Heidi White and Buck Davidson. The first corner was jump 5B, which also was the jump that caused the most trouble all day. The combination was a big table (5A) with a four stride or five stride line to a decent sized corner (5B). What I thought made the combination difficult was that the straight route had us jumping directly at a big, bushy tree, and I wondered if that would back the horses off. What other riders worried about was the size of the table. I found that the line rode in a flowing four, but other riders who had trouble didn't get as deep to the corner and it opened the door for an early runout.

Over the whole course Jet felt well within himself and he was very proud of himself at the end. At halfway, I was down on the clock so I opened up a little more for the back half of the course. There had been storms at Bromont and the footing was heavy in places. Although I went as fast as I could, I didn't make my goal of making the time and we came in seven seconds slow on the clock. I was depressed about it until later that afternoon. When Jet was between icings I went over to look at the scores. To my amazement, out of the thirty horses in the CCI***, only one horse had made time and Jet had the second best xc round of the day! We had added only 2.8 faults to our dressage and were sitting in fifth place. We were seated in the ribbons going into show jumping on Sunday!

Perhaps, though, I should have also created a more concrete goal for Sunday. After passing the second vet inspection Sunday morning, we went on to have a very disappointing show jumping round. We took eight rails down. Although Jet felt very fit and happy in his energy level on stadium day, he had pulled a shoe somewhere on course on Saturday (I never felt him do it, so I don't know where it happened) and he was quite sore on that foot. None of the downed rails were bad mistakes, Jet just kept tipping them. We dropped to 14th.

Jet only moved up to advanced this spring and he is still gaining muscle at this level. We are going to go back to the drawing board this summer and do a huge amount of body building work, because the cardio is easy for him. I'm sure the foot was an issue on Sunday, but having a topline that can handle three hard days in a row is critical too, and he obviously doesn't have that yet. Our next CCI*** will be at Fair Hill International in Maryland in October, and for that event, after a summer of show jumping, my goal will be to finish the weekend in the top six.

On Track

We are on track to leave tomorrow morning. Jet looks great. I am not sure if I will have internet in Canada. The Bromont website is http://www.bromont3dayevent.com/english_home.htm. They will have updated results. A bientot!

Preparation

We are five days from leaving for Bromont. The past two weeks I have had Jet at Bruce Davidson's Chesterland Farm in Unionville, PA. Unionville is still a small slice of heaven if you are a horse person. There are thousands of acres of interconnected farms, rolling hills, and lush green grass. The clover and honeysuckle are almost intoxicating. It is nice to know that a place like that still exists, and it is due to the very hard work of a small group of landowners who banded together to keep development out.

Jet is happy there. He started as a racehorse and he finds comfort in a routine of hard work. He is fit and muscular and the goal for the next five days is to maintain what we have.

Preparing for a major three day is a big endeavor. There are the logistics of entry forms and working through the national federation to gain permission to compete abroad. There are passports and health certificates and hotel reservations. There is the matter of coordinating help at the farms in Pennsylvania and Florida and help at the event, airplane tickets in this case, and more hotel reservations. Then plans change slightly and some things need to be reshuffled. There is also the necessity for Jet's "team" to see him in perfect timing with his pending schedule. The vet comes two weeks before leaving to go over him and make sure I am not missing any red flags in terms of his well being. The farrier comes in the same time frame so that the shoes are new, but not so new as to risk making him foot sore. The chiropractor and massage therapist have seen him several times this past month to aid in keeping him injury free as his fitness and work load increase. Jet's feed increases during this time frame and so does his risk of colicing or developing ulcers. He is on two types of ulcer prevention medicine daily. He is in a stall more to rest and to keep him from using his newfound fitness to hurt himself in the field, so I have to make sure he is eating his hay (a difficult feat for a thoroughbred) and not getting dehydrated in this heat. My own routine with Jet has intensified as well. He gets ridden seven days a week. Every day I have to give 100% during the hour or more that I am on his back, and so does he.

I have been through this process many times getting ready for three day events. The bigger the event, the more intense the process is. I also know that there are a hundred different things that can keep you from competing. It not only takes the skills of competing to get through a three day event, but good management skills as well. It also takes luck, as we saw when we got to Rolex four star last spring. At that event, perhaps luck was against us.

I was up at 5:30 am and it is now 6:25. It is going to be hot today, so I am leaving now to make the hour drive to Unionville to get Jet out on those hills early, before the heat of the day. Sitting on him I will feel a refined machine underneath me. We will do cardiovascular work first and then go right into working on our skills. Today it is going to be flying changes. We have five days to go, and I need to make sure that each one is a day like any other.

Mike McNally Photography

When we were at The Fork in April I rented a golf cart for the first time ever. The weekend there becomes very long when you have to walk or mountain bike back and forth between stabling and the competition area every day. Having been a pedestrian plenty of times, I made sure that with my golf cart I picked up every person I could who was on foot. A few weeks ago at Jersey Fresh I was approached by a couple. The husband was Mike McNally the photographer. It turned out I had picked his wife up not once but twice as I buzzed along. Mike was so gracious, he had made many beautiful prints of Jet on cross country. As he said, "It pays to pick up the right people." After Jersey Fresh I emailed him about using his images on my website and on Facebook. He was great to work with and I am currently in the process of getting all of the pictures up. Please check out his work! He can be reached at mikejmcnally@aol.com.

Jersey Fresh CIC*** Cross Country Pictures of Jet

Here are two pictures of Jet on cross country on Saturday. One was featured on the Chronicle of the Horse website. The other was taken by a photographer working for the ReRun adoption organization. This non-profit thoroughbred adoption program tries to give horses coming from the race track a second career. Jet raced until he was five and we bought him off the track. Jet's photos are going to be featured on their website, which is www.rerun.org.

Sunday, Jersey Fresh CIC***

We had a 6th place finish today. Sadly, my wish for a good stadium round did not come true. We jumped by brail and had four rails down. The good news is that our score from this weekend qualifies us for the CCI*** level, and the plan is to take Jet to a CCI*** at Bromont in Quebec, Canada in June. We have five weeks to smooth out the flying changes and work on our stadium skills. Good boy Jet this weekend! We are all very proud of him. The Chronicle of the Horse has a picture of us in their Jersey Fresh photo gallery. Here is the link: http://www.chronofhorse.com/photos_videos?page=0&nid=19571

Day Three, Jersey Fresh CIC***

Holy cow! Who ordered this wind? Sustained gusts of up to 40 miles per hour? I just got inside for the first time today and I feel encrusted by dust and pollen.

Jet was a gem on cross country today and he knew it. We jumped clean. We did not make the time, but neither did anyone else. We posted the fifth fastest time in our division and moved into 6th place overall. Going into the wind on one or two of the jumps, with billows of dust coming straight at our face, I was more or less blinded. I don't know how Jet kept his eyes open, but he did. He jumped us safely around.

Our CIC*** course was partly shared with the harder CCI*** course. This morning I watched several riders in the CCI*** end their day at the water jump. Both divisions went through the same water complex twice, sharing the same track both times. The water was a little deeper than it sometimes is, and as such the combinations didn't ride in a designated striding. Some people got six strides where others got eight. I thought Jet was a champion in these two difficult combinations. As one of my friends said who was watching, "He didn't look like an old pro yet, but he was keen and he understood it and he got the job done." On our second trip through the water we took down the flag of the last element with my knee. Today was not the best cross country round I've ever had on Jet, but as the levels get harder the need for accuracy gets greater. Jet is still young at the advanced level, and this is his first three star competition. We had a few rough moments, but he easily left the hiccups behind him and came fresh to each new jump. Overall he did well.

The Wetherills were both able to come to watch today and we also had Holley Russell, Lynn Rzonca and Dr. Pat, who came to help with Jet's bodywork. I didn't realize how proud Jet was of himself until we got back to his stall where he wouldn't stand still because he was demanding attention from everyone! That is very unusual for Jet. It made me laugh, and it reminded me of a comment Holley made two summers ago. In July of 2008 we traveled out to Maui Jim in Wayne, IL with Jet and Doc. Jet was competing at training level and it was his first overnight competition. Doc was in the CIC***, the same division Jet is in this weekend, and wound up placing fourth. The whole weekend, both in the stable and out, Jet seemed tuned into Doc as a big brother. At the time Holley said that "Jet knows he is traveling with the big man and he wants to be just like him." Well, now he is and he loves it!

Congratulations to my friend Colin Davidson on Draco. Colin pulled up after a stop at Rolex a few weeks ago. Today he jumped into second place in the CCI*** division.

Everyone think good thoughts for us tomorrow around noon (just after brunch with your mothers). That is when we will be show jumping and unfortunately my little Jet likes to tip those rails!

Day Two, Jersey Fresh CIC***

Jet produced a steady test today, except for two exuberant flying changes. Other than the changes, he was very obedient in the ring. He has been suffering from a sore back for different reasons over the past few weeks. First, we decided that he needed his hocks injected. That helped the soreness in his low back. Then, when I returned to PA I left my County jumping saddle in Florida with Karla, the Hanoverian mare I was riding this winter. The horses love the County saddles and that one fit Karla better than the boys. Before I left, though, I ordered a new jumping saddle with a tree that will fit my thoroughbreds perfectly. It is being shipped from the UK and is not here yet. Last week I resorted to putting my old cross country saddle on Jet, thinking nothing of it. Boy was that a mistake. After two days in it, he would sit down when I pressed wrong on his back. In a minor panic, I called Kaity, my lovely County rep from Ocala, and explained my situation. She immediately shipped me a saddle to use in the mean time. This is one of the reasons I love County as a company. They work really hard to do the best thing for their clients and their horses. All of this is to say, I wasn't really sure what kind of horse I would have in the ring today for dressage. By yesterday, thankfully, my intense laser and massage treatments of the past week along with Dr. Pat's chiropractic adjustment on Tuesday had paid off. Jet was feeling much better. Today we scored a 62% and are in 11th place in the division.

Tomorrow is the big cross country day. When I walked around the course yesterday I thought it looked like great fun. Today, however, it looked harder. Usually it goes the other way around -- when you first walk a course it looks hard and then it gets easier looking the more you see it -- so I'm not sure what to make of this! I do know that I have come to grief at more than one of the fences on the Jersey Fresh course. I have also had years where I had great rounds. Tomorrow I will have to keep my head in gear and make sure I give Jet a smooth, confidant ride the whole way around.

In other news, my friend James Alliston has come all the way out from California to ride this weekend. After dressage he is in last place on his own off the track thoroughbred in the CCI*** division, but in first place on his girlfriend's horse in the CCI** division. That can't be too common! Also, four star rider Wendy Lewis has just had her second baby, a boy, and he is at the show with her this weekend spectating. He is six weeks old. Wendy trains with Buck Davidson and Buck is riding her horse right now.

There are several horses running this weekend that had mishaps at Rolex, so they are looking to make amends of their spring season with a solid finish at a CCI***. It will be interesting to see if that goes well for them.

Signing off for now!

Ashley

Snow Birds Fly North, Day One at Jersey Fresh CIC***

There is so much to catch up on! I have been on the road for much of the past few weeks. Brian and I drove his shoeing rig out to Rolex two weeks ago to watch and to help his clients there. As always, it was very inspiring to be in such a great venue with the opportunity to watch world class horses and riders. In particular it is wonderful to be able to watch riders from abroad who I do not get to see compete very often. Congratulations to William Fox Pitt on his first Rolex win!

From Kentucky, I hitched a ride back to Ocala while Brian drove on to Pennsylvania to leave his rig here for the summer. Once back in Ocala, I made a two day turn-around and then headed up the I-95 corridor to my summer station here in Plymouth Meeting with Doc, Monte, Jet, Jada, and a few of my plants. In the mean time, Brian flew back down to Florida.

This week, Jet and I are competing in the Jersey Fresh CIC***, held at the Horse Park of New Jersey. This event is always fun for me because I grew up about thirty five minutes from the Horse Park and many of the key players in organizing, hosting, and running this event have known me since I was a wee lass. Today was the trot up, and pictured at the top are Gina, Holley, Jet, and me. We will do dressage tomorrow morning and then cross country on Saturday. I will try to blog through the weekend, but I am making it short and sweet tonight. I need to be in bed by 10:00!

Mom has decided to start riding again.

My mom has decided that now that she is retired from Pony Club she is going to take up riding again. Before this month, I don't even remember the last time she was on a horse. She tells me that sixty-something muscles are not the same as thirty-something muscles. Here we are yesterday at her farm. I was doing a dressage ride on her horse Gavin who is doing his first training level this weekend and she was riding another one of her horses, Canny.

Rolex buzz is in the air. . .

We are doing one more show at the Ocala Horse Park this weekend before heading up to Pennsylvania at the end of April. My mom's horse Gavin is doing his first training level. He is pictured here. I also signed Jet up for the advanced combined test thinking it would be a great opportunity to get him in the dressage and show jumping rings, since he seems to be an ace at cross country.

As my student Holley Russell would say, "the joke was on me" yesterday morning when I decided to pull out the dressage test for Jet to practice. The horse park hosts this combined test as a final prep for any Ocala horses that are going to Rolex next weekend. When I sat down at breakfast to bring the test up on my computer I realized for the first time that we had to ride one of the four star eventing tests! This is a lot to ask of a horse who is still learning his changes and who only moved up to advanced two weeks ago! The test includes half pass at the trot and canter, shoulder in on center line, a rein back, a walk pirouette, counter canter, and four flying changes. I quickly made an emergency phone call to my neighbors (and dressage aficionados) Bill and Susan Woods to see if I could come over and run through the test in their dressage ring. They happily obliged, so with the test in hand I headed over there to practice.

Today, Jet came out relaxed and focused. He put in a very respectable test except for his changes. He did one change clean, meaning that the hind and front legs switched leads at the same time, two that were late behind, and one he missed all together and I had to do a simple change. All of the other work in the test he did admirably. Our score was a 62.7, and we placed 12th in the division out of 18, including beating a few horses going to that sacred Kentucky place next weekend. I have to say my little redhead really put a smile on my face today. He didn't get a bit flustered about the awkward changes, and I know he won a few good points at other places in the test for his accuracy and consistency. Once those changes become automatic we are going to be on a roll.

I have to smile at the irony in all of this. Even last spring I felt that Jet would never be a competitive horse in dressage because he doesn't have a lovely flowing gait, any natural suspension to speak of, and is in fact a very short mover in his trot. He is, however, very obedient and always shows up to work. I am making note here of how I misjudged him. We have worked very hard since last winter on his dressage, and last fall at Fair Hill he definitely moved to a new level where I had a personal best CCI** dressage score on him. Today, with his score of 62.7, he beat my dressage score from one year ago on Doc in this same combined test by six points. Doc has all the movement and suspension in the world, but he has a very hard time keeping his mind calm during a dressage test. Even though I would still like to knock another ten points off of our test, Jet, it appears, is the better competitor.

I am reminded of something I read in an article last year after Lucinda Fredericks won Rolex on Headley Britannia. Marilyn Payne, a leading international judge, wrote that you wouldn't recognize Headley Britannia in the dressage ring after seeing her jog up in hand. Apparently when the mare trots in hand she looks something like a short strided pony. In the dressage ring last year at Rolex, however, she put in one of the top placing tests, which I witnessed, and it was beautiful. In another article Lucinda was quoted as saying that she is very lucky because her mare wants to win as much as she does. These, I believe, are my new words to live by.

Saturday Update at The Fork

Jet jumped clean around his first advanced cross country! He was absolutely wonderful. There were two moments where I wasn't 100% right on my distance, and he just stepped up to the plate and took care of things like a pro. He was a little tired this afternoon, but very pleased with himself. He kept looking at me and asking me to scratch his face, which he loves. He is currently in 17th place out of 41 starters in a tough division.

Monte too was a good boy. We had one rail down in stadium, but other than that he jumped well. He does cross country tomorrow. I am back at the hotel with Brian and it is time to hit the hay.

The Fork Wrap Up

It was a wonderful weekend to be at a horse show! The weather was sunny and clear from Wednesday all the way through the weekend in Norwood, NC. Yesterday Jet wrapped up his first advanced competition with the show jumping phase. The course rode well, but the cups were shallow and rails were coming down for many riders. Jet tipped a few jumps with his toes and had three rails down. I was pleased with his round, though. His show jumping abilities are still developing. He made a good effort throughout the round and was confident. At the end of the day we finished 21st out of 41 competitors in our division.

Monte ran cross country yesterday in the preliminary division. The first part of the course rode beautifully and Monte was having fun, but our day came to an abrupt end at jump number eight, a deep trakehner. This type of jump consists of a log elevated over a ditch. Monte has jumped trakehners before, but nothing with a ditch as deep as the one at The Fork. The deeper ditch creates an optical illusion that makes the jump look a lot more imposing, and Monte virtually slid to a stop in front of it! He didn't want anything to do with it, so we walked home from there. Back to the drawing board with him!

The Fork 2010

We are here in Norwood, NC for a beautiful weekend at The Fork Stables. The competition has both an advanced class and a CIC*** class, which makes it the last prep run for many riders before Rolex CCI**** in three weeks. I have Jet and Monte here. Jet is moving up to advanced this weekend. Monte is running preliminary. Jet's division is large and very strong, and it really is a pleasure to see so many beautiful horse and rider combinations. Yesterday we did our dressage test and scored a 40.7. Jet is not confirmed yet in his flying changes, and there are four in the test. He did all four, though they were somewhat exuberant. I was pleased with his test for his first attempt. He was rideable and as he gets stronger in his half pass and flying changes his scores will improve. We are looking forward to cross country day on Saturday! Monte does dressage today. He was a little nervous when we arrived on Wednesday. I realized that although he has traveled up and down the coast to Florida a few times, he has never been to an overnight show. We settled him in and yesterday he was fine, but by late afternoon the nerves had caught up to him. You see him here finally relaxing in his stall. He was snoring when I took this picture. Jet also took a snooze after his ride yesterday. More later!

Holley Sporting new AL Eventing Wear

Rocking Horse Spring Horse Trials

This past weekend I ran four horses at the Rocking Horse Spring Horse Trials -- Jet, Doc, Gavin, and Monte. On our first outing together since the CCI** at Fair Hill in October, Jet placed fourth in the open intermediate division. We had a strong weekend from start to finish. He scored a 38.4 in dressage putting him in eight place. On Saturday we were the first horse on cross country. Jet jumped one of his signature rounds. He was clever, tidy, and confident. Even though I felt we were moving at a good speed, we were ten seconds slow on the clock which added four faults. At the end of the day, however, only two horses made the time and our round was still one of the fastest ones. We moved up to fifth. On Sunday we show jumped. Show jumping is Jet's weakest phase right now and we have been working on it all winter. He can be a little too tight in his back which causes him to take rails behind. At Fair Hill in the fall we had three rails on Sunday and it cost us several places. This weekend Jet felt better overall, but he still had one rail down. Other riders had rails as well, though, so even with one rail down we moved up to fourth place. It felt great to be back in the irons with Jet. He felt so good, in fact, that I plan to move him up to advanced in a few weeks at The Fork.

Doc and my mom's horse Gavin both had solid weekends. I took Doc to the show for fun and to keep him in the game, even though he is now in semi-retirement. We competed in the preliminary division. He scored a 37 in dressage and jumped clean cross country and in stadium. If we hadn't had any time faults on cross country he would have finished third. I went out on cross country on Saturday, however, with the intention of taking it easy. Doc has a certain amount of mileage on him now and my main goal is to have fun with him. I don't want him to sustain another injury. With that in mind, I did not go terribly fast and we had time faults. In the end we finished in the middle of the pack. Doc's quirks need constant management, but it really is a great pleasure to still be able to compete this fantastic little horse.

Gavin ran in the novice horse division. He scored a 34.5 in dressage, was double clear on cross country and had one rail in stadium leaving him in 11th place in a very competitive division. His placing betrays what a good boy he was all weekend. He felt good both physically and mentally in all three phases and I was very pleased with him. We plan to move him up to training level at his next show.

Last but not least there was Monte. Jimmy Wofford has this saying, "Don't be a statistic." What he means is that at any event there will be a certain percentage of riders who have refusals on cross country and a certain percentage of riders who do not finish. If you are one of these riders you become "a statistic." This weekend Monte was my statistic. Cross country day was very windy. Monte was my last ride of the day. He spent the day on the trailer waiting as his stable mates one by one left him. I could tell when I got on him that his brain was not engaged. On the hack to cross country he stopped and spooked many times at the blowing tents and other wind demons. In the warm up he was very strong and he also tried to buck me off. I almost withdrew him right then and there, but I decided to go slowly and try to give him experience. We made it through a couple of spooky jump combinations, but our day ended at jump ten. It was a combination where you jump up onto a bank, take one stride, and then jump across a ditch to another bank. Monte has never seen anything like this. As he jumped up onto the bank his head was low and he looked right into the ditch. He didn't like what he saw! He stopped. I jumped him off the bank and represented and he stopped again. At that point I retired him. That bank is the type of exercise that, with Monte, will go one of two ways. I could make a big deal out of it and fight with him about jumping it, or I could school it with less pressure and let him figure out for himself that it is no big deal to hop across to the other bank. Especially with his brain where it was on Saturday, I chose option two. We will be back at Rocking Horse this week to master it! In the mean time, I have been reminded that as mature at Monte seems at times, he still needs a lot of mileage.

Until the next time!

Ashley

Horse Updates

Sheila Wickstrom and I took a trip this week to Rocking Horse to play at the fabulous facility. Sheila owns Karla, a.k.a. Farelka, pictured here. Karla is a seven-year-old Hanoverian mare by Feiner Stern out of Wakajama. She began her training in straight dressage in Wellington, but I have been working with her since November. This year we plan to take Karla to her mare inspection hosted by the American Hanoverian Society. She needs to show correct conformation, rideability, quality of gaits, and versatility on the flat as well as over jumps. To this end I have been introducing her to cross country jumping, which she seems to enjoy! Mares generally only get tested once in their life, and that is the score that they keep. The goal is to achieve a score over 7.0, which would rank Karla as an elite mare candidate. She would then become an elite mare, like her mother, when she produces her first papered Hanoverian foal.

Monte has continued to compete at the preliminary level this winter and is conditioning for the Ocala CCI* in April. Our achilles heel currently seems to be show jumping. Monte is seven this year and continues to develop. He still shows the young horse quality of inconsistency in his work. Some days he is fabulous and other days he struggles both mentally and physically. As he becomes stronger and more experienced, though, I have confidence that he will be solid in all three phases. He certainly has the talent to do it all!

After the Ocala CCI*, we will come north for Jet, who will compete in the Jersey Fresh CCI** in May. Jet is nine this year and almost ready to move up to advanced. He had a heroic finish at the Fair Hill CCI** last fall. In very difficult conditions, he finished 14th out of 73 starters. He is a very eager horse and an amazingly hard worker, but I would like for him to do one more CCI** to solidify his confidence at the intermediate level. He will need that confidence when he moves up to advanced. Jet is not the best mover or the biggest jumper, but he has amazing heart. Jet came off the track in 2006 and has been with me since 2007. I have had him through the whole process of his eventing career. It is very exciting for me as his trainer to see him prepping for advanced level. He is truly a special horse.

I have also been bringing along my mom's horse Gavin's Glory, another off the track thoroughbred. I rode and competed Gavin a little bit last winter, including placing third in his first horse trials at the beginner novice level. He then had the summer off in Florida while I went to Pennsylvania. This year Gavin placed second in his first outing at the beginner novice level. We then moved him up to novice where he has been steadily improving. I hope to finish his winter season at training level before heading back north to Pennsylvania.

Last but not least there is Doc. Doc is happily back in work, and even more happily not having to work too hard. We have done one preliminary competition already this winter and plan to do a second one next weekend. These are more or less a walk in the park for Doc. After the show next weekend I have somewhat evil plans of taking Doc to Pennsylvania in May and competing him in straight dressage shows. If he would ever get over his intense disdain for the white rectangle, he would be a lovely third and fourth level horse. Aly Cat helped me get my USDF Bronze Medal. I have a thought that Doc might start me on my way to the Silver Medal. Time will tell!

Until the next time!

Ashley

Some Pictures From Florida

Photo One: This week I am hosting a Level III/IV Instructors' Certification Program workshop at my parents' farm and the Florida Horse Park. This workshop is run through the USEA and focuses on teaching intermediate and advanced level riders. In this picture Karen O'Connor, our mentor for the week, is demonstrating the teaching of a dressage lesson at my parents' farm, which is across the street from our farm!

Photos Two and Three: We were subject to some pretty cold weather just after the holidays. My student Holley Russell arrived in Ocala on January 2nd from Pennsylvania and I teased her that she brought the cold air with her! At the Ocala I horse trials they were scraping ice off of the water jump and the temperatures during the day were only in the 30's. Brrr!

Photo Four: On New Year's Eve we attended a surprise 60th birthday party for Bruce Davidson. Here is a picture of his custom birthday cake with a picture of him jumping his favorite mare Jam over a ditch and brush.