Doc and Rehab

Today is six weeks from Doc's surgery.  I have been tack-walking him for the past two weeks for about thirty minutes a day.  Today he went to The Sanctuary which is a no-expense-spared rehab facility that opened this past year in Ocala.  Conveniently, it is right around the corner from our farm.  At The Sanctuary, Doc did twenty minutes on the aqua-tread and his knee was then lasered with a deep tissue cold laser.  For the next six weeks we will be doing this routine twice a week.  My treating vet down here, Dr. Ted Oroski, has warned me of the severity of Doc's condition due to the damage to his knee cartilage during the infection.  Despite this, though, he is progressing well.  I am remaining optimistic.  What Doc would most like for Christmas this year is fresh grass!

The other boys are looking fabulous.  Rivi has a dressage show in a few weeks and Jet is just back in work again after his holiday.  My five-year-old Monte is going to show this winter for the first time.  I am excited about him.  He is a much bigger and more powerful horse than what I typically like, but he is very talented.  He will begin eventing this winter.  I am also working with my mom's five-year-old Gavin.  He is showing promise as an event horse too.  In just a few weeks Holley Russell will arrive with Ida and Towanda and the barn will be full for the winter!

On a more somber note, Bruce Davidson's wife Susie Tuckerman had a bad fall while schooling at home last week and broke several vertebrae in her neck area.  Brian and I spoke with her in the hospital last night and we are going to go to see her this weekend.  Her spirits seem up, but I know this must be a terribly difficult time for her.  Thinking of what she is going through saddens me a bit every day.   

I hope you all have a wonderful time with your loved ones, two legged and four, over the next ten days.

Ashley

Old Pony Club Friends

Last night I had dinner with my old Pony Club friends Susie and Sharon.  We spent many a hot and sweaty rally together!

Doc has progressed to paddock turn out.

This past Thursday, 28 days post surgery, we were able to start turning Doc out in a small paddock during the day.  This will be his turnout space for the next four weeks.  This week I will begin to tack walk him.  The critical idea for his knee recovery is to bring the joint back to full mobility in a slow progression.  The infection is gone.  We are now doing physical therapy. 

Doc's progress

These are pictures of Doc's knee taken 19 days post surgery (the indoor pictures), including a breakdown of the full-leg bandage that Doc had to wear for approximately three weeks, and then photos taken today (the outdoor pictures), 26 days post surgery.  Doc is still on stall rest, though he will be allowed turnout in a small paddock starting later this week.  In about ten days I will begin tack-walking him.  He is sound at the walk, but his joint still needs to be kept quiet for another six to eight weeks.  He will not be allowed back into a normal sized turnout until he is sound at the trot.  He is handling his malady pretty well.  He would really like to be able to run around in a field, but I know he realizes that he is hurt.  

Florida Sunrise

Taken out our back door, Sunday morning, November 30th.

Pictures from the trip to Florida

These were taken "on the road."  I took a couple of pictures of Mo's house where we stay overnight with the horses in South Carolina.  She has seven pugs.  I could only get three in the frame at once.  They absolutely love Jada because she is terrified of them and they torment her.  It was a long evening of holding a water spritzer in hand to fend them off!

Return to PA

Here are two pictures my mom took of Jet yesterday.  Today I am back in PA!  I apologize for not blogging yesterday.  I left the horse show and drove back to Pennsylvania and my computer battery died.  I had to wait until I got here today to plug it in.  

Jet jumped a really nice round yesterday in show jumping.  We had one rail which landed us in 16th place overall out of 33 starters.  I could feel him grow in maturity as the weekend progressed and I'm really looking forward to competing him this winter.  When I came out of the show jumping ring a spectator said to me, "He looks like he's been doing this his whole life!"  Amazingly, he has only been doing this for about a year and a half.  In fact, last year at this time he had never even competed in a recognized horse trials and he had only done two unrecognized horse trials -- one at beginner novice and one at novice.  It is a real testament to his sensibility and talent that he was able to easily move from green novice to one star level in less than a year.  He may not be the flashiest mover, but I definitely think Jet is a special horse. 

In other good news, Gina was able to pick Doc up today from Mid Atlantic.  His knee joint needs to be kept very quiet for a period so he will be on stall rest for about thirty days and then we will proceed to gradually bring him back to full work over a period of three months.  He looks perky and we can tell that he is very happy to be home, even though he's not terribly happy about the stall rest.  It was good to see him today.

Ashley

Dressage results and cross country today . . .

We scored a 61.4 in dressage yesterday which put us in 23rd place out of 33 horses.  This was just about where I expected to place.  Jet is very obedient, but since he is only a year and a half off of the race track he is still very green in the dressage ring.  He needs to learn how to relax and perform, which he will.  I was pleased with his test.  His real forte, though, is the jumping.  Today he was excellent.  He jumped clean and confidently around the seven and a half minute course.  I can feel where he has gained skill over the past few months and I can also see where he still needs to practice.  Some of the jumps that come quickly off of turns still surprise him.  As he gets more experienced he will start to look for those jumps.  At the close of today Jet was feeling excellent and he was in 15th place.  Tomorrow we show jump.  Right now I am at the movies about to see the new Bond movie with my mom and Brian!  Can't keep them waiting!

Ashley

Hi Guys!  I have pictures!  Kind of.  My mom arrived and she has a cord to connect my camera to my computer, so I got some pictures on my computer, but I am currently at the horse show and the internet connection is really slow!  I'm going to try again later tonight.  Here are two pics.  One of me with Jet just before the trot up and one of Jet in his "cave."

Ashley

Getting Jet ready for the CCI*

Yesterday Jet did his final gallop to prepare for the CCI* next weekend.  Today he was very spoiled and had an hour and a half massage from Ellen Bachmeyer who is the massage therapist I use down here.  She is excellent and loves to get a sense of each horse individually.  I met Ellen several years ago when I needed some help with Aly Cat and last year she helped me a lot with Doc.  She could see right away how honest Jet is, but could also see that he is still in race horse mode in his mind.  He has not quite settled yet into thinking of himself as an event horse, so he is in transition.  He is also still holding a lot in his body from his racing days, so getting regular muscle work over the next year is going to be critical in helping him to become stronger in his dressage work.  The plan for him this week is to do one jump school but to mainly focus on preparing for our dressage test.  He will also get another massage from Ellen when he is at the competition next weekend.

Doc is on the mend.  Dr. Poulin at Mid Atlantic ran infection numbers on his knee on Friday and Saturday and they dropped both days.  It looks like he will not need to go under anesthesia again, which is wonderful, and that he will be able to come home towards the end of this week.  Gina and Mr. Wetherill went to visit him on Saturday and they took him some apples.  He hasn't been able to be turned out during any of this and I am sure he has dropped a lot of weight.  Grass is the best thing to keep his stomach happy and his belly plump!

We ship over to the Ocala Horse Park on Thursday with Jet and the competition begins on Friday.  I'll keep you posted!

Ashley 

Arrival

We arrived safely and both Jet and my mom's horse Gavin are very happy to be off the trailer and out in the pastures eating grass!  Jet gets two days off and then we will resume our normal work schedule before the show next week.

The weather here is beautiful.  I took a picture of the sunset over our front fields last night and then realized that I don't have the connector cord with me to get pictures onto the computer.  It will have to wait until I get back to PA.

Doc is doing better.  His infection numbers in the knee joint have improved but are still too high.  They may come into the normal range this weekend or they may not.  If they don't, he will have another surgery on Monday.  I am hoping that the numbers come down.  The surgery is fairly routine, but it is hard on him.

Cheers!

Ashley  

The trip is not getting any shorter . . .

No matter how many times I do it, the drive from Philadelphia to Ocala does not ever seem to get any shorter!  Brian is driving now and I am on the computer.  We are about three hours from where we will stop for the night in South Carolina.  We stop at a small horse and people bed and breakfast.  The horses have a stall and a paddock for the night and Mo, the proprietor, feeds us like there is no tomorrow.  Of the food that we can't finish, we give some to Jada and Mo's pugs, of which there are generally a varying number, and the rest we are "required" to take with us.  The punishment for leaving food behind, according to Mo, is that we will never be invited back.  We then get to sleep in a bedroom with a hand made afgan on the bed and an electric blanket to stay extra warm.  Mo puts the word eccentric horse person.  Her farm is always a most welcome stop on the eighteen hour trip to Florida.

On Monday we had a check up with Dr. Blauner for Doc.  We decided that he had developed an infection in his knee joint and Dr. Blauner sent us straight away to Mid Atlantic in Ringoes, NJ.  He is there now and has had one procedure done on his knee to scrape the infection out from between the joints.  His treating veterinarian there, Dr. Poulin, told me today that he will be there for at least a week longer and may need another procedure.  I am crossing my fingers that he won't.  Once the infection is brought under control Doc should be back to 100% pretty quickly, but in the mean time the situation could be slightly risky.  For one thing, every time they have to go into his knee joint they put him under general anesthesia.  This is dangerous in and of itself.  All in all, Doc will probably be perfectly fine in about two weeks, but if you are reading this, think good thoughts for him!  

Ashley     

First Wedding Anniversary, Chicago, IL

My dad turned 70 yesterday and it was Brian's and my first wedding anniversary.  On top of this, my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in October.  My dad was speaking in Chicago this past weekend on his birthday.  We decided about two months ago to give him a really good surprise.  My mom, my brother, Brian and I all showed up in Chicago at the conference where he was speaking!  The conference was taking place in The Palmer House, which is the oldest continuously operating hotel in the United States.  It was built over 130 years ago.  Needless to say, it is a beautiful hotel.  

Brian and I arrived on Saturday and in the afternoon we met one of my high school friends and her husband for drinks in the bar at Palmer House.  My mom showed up at about 4:00 and my dad walked by about ten minutes later.  Mom called him over.  You should have seen the look on his face!  My brother arrived about fifteen minutes after that.  Dad was so tickled!  Mom had also put together this awesome slideshow of over 100 photos of Dad from childhood to the present.  It was really well done.  My brother and I hadn't even seen many of the photos before.  After the slideshow we took my dad to dinner in The Palmer House restaurant.

At the end of the evening my brother, Brian and I went to Second City for a show.  Second City was where Saturday Night Live got its start.  The show was fantastic!  The ensemble group was so talented!  The show was based around comedic skits and there was a lot of improv.  I was so impressed by the talent of the actors. 

The jaunt was a great way to spend the weekend of our first anniversary.  We flew back yesterday and Brian and I cooked a delicious dinner for ourselves.  Today we are going to finish packing the horse trailer and on Wednesday we head down to Florida with Jet for the Ocala CCI* next week.

Talk to you soon!

Ashley

 

Check-up on Doc

Hi All,

Doc gave us all a little scare over the weekend.  By Wednesday of last week he was more or less sound on the left front leg -- the one we had all been so worried about.  By the weekend, however, he was dead lame on his OTHER front leg!  He also had swelling running up from his knee.  I knew he had hit a jump with that knee at Fair Hill because he came off course with a half inch piece of brush sticking out from it.  At the time, we pulled the splinter out, it bled a lot, we iced it, and we didn't think much more of it.  It turns out the inside had gotten infected and that small infection turned into lymphangitis by late last week.  This type of infection likes to climb upwards and, according to Doc, it is very painful!  After two days he wouldn't even put weight on his leg.  

Dr. Blauner came right out.  He has been fantastic with Doc and I am lucky for his expertise.  He knows how important every detail is with upper level horses, especially when you are coming into a big competition.  Dr. Blauner has been helping me keep Doc on track all summer.  When this development with Doc cropped up, Dr. Blauner came right out.  He put Doc on a heavy duty antibiotic and he is now looking much more comfortable.  I am hoping that by Monday Doc will be 95% well and he will actually be able to start enjoying his time off!  We shall see.  At the moment he is fairly indignant that he is not getting ridden.  Every time I am in the barn he has his head out of his stall watching me.  He even bangs on his stall door sometimes.  Apparently he is a workaholic just like me!  Vacation is important, though.  We have a lot of work in front of us this Spring.  

Rivi was a good dressage horse last weekend.  We scored a 60% in our third level test at the BCHP recognized show.  I know he can put in a better performance than that, but I need to get him stronger physically and get his flying changes more confirmed.  That will be our goal for the winter.  Carmella Clark and Tachyon also competed at the show in training level.  I think she was aiming for better scores than what she got, but I was pleased with her improvements over last year. 

On Sunday I decided to skip the horse trials with Jet and instead go and gallop at Valley Forge Park.  Next week Jet and I go to Florida for ten days for the Ocala CCI*.  It will be his first FEI competition.  Until then, dressage, dressage, dressage!

Ashley

Pics from the Lucinda clinic

Pictures and youtube of Fair Hill

Good Morning!

There are some great pictures on the internet of everyone at Fair Hill.  One website with a lot of pictures is www.photoreflect.com.  They have each horse and rider separated by number, so you can compare everyone's riding style over similar jumps.  The link to our pictures is below.  Doc looked so stylish on the cross country!  I am very proud of our boy.  

Another link to Fair Hill footage comes from my student Diane Garvey.  She found an eight minute video on youtube of clips of about twenty riders as they jumped around the course.  I had a great time watching it.  We are the third horse on the youtube link below.

Doc will spend the next week in a smaller turn-out space so that he can't go any faster than a few steps of trot.  We will continue to ice and laser his fetlock until he comes sound.  After that he will get a few weeks of well deserved vacation time!

The Lucinda Green clinic with Jet was fabulous.  She is such an inspiring teacher and Jet learned so much in two days.  She works a lot on cross country position for the rider and footwork for the horses.  She comes over from England about twice a year to do clinics and I try to ride in them whenever I can.  Her style is very refreshing.  Gina took some pictures which I will post as soon as I get them.  

This weekend Riviera and I will be competing at third level at the Bucks County Horse Park dressage show on Saturday and Jet and I will be competing at preliminary at a horse trials on Sunday in Maryland.

Talk to you soon!

Ashley             

Good News

Hi All,

Good news.  Doc's has not injured any of the major tendons or ligaments in his pastern.  Basically, during our vet visit this afternoon with Dr. Blauner, we couldn't find anything wrong.  This is great news.  It means he probably just hit his fetlock/pastern very hard on the jump or with another foot and bruised the joint.  He will now get a few weeks of rest and we will see how quickly he comes sound.  He was scheduled to have a month long vacation after Fair Hill anyway, so this is entirely time for him to relax.

Thanks for checking in!  I'm off to teach!  

Ashley

Great Adventure!

After the sudden change in plans yesterday, Brian and I decided to take a non-horse day and we spent the afternoon riding roller coasters at Great Adventure.  It was quite a re-introduction to mainstream American culture!  I have been so immersed in competing all summer I have hardly been anywhere aside from the barn and horse shows.  First of all, the demographics were much more cosmopolitan than the predominantly white horse world.  Secondly, I had forgotten how most normal girls actually make an effort to do their hair and wear cute clothes even if it is completely impractical.  I saw a lot of high heeled boots as well as skirts while waiting in line for roller coasters!  Plus, when the sun started to go down and it got chilly everyone started to shiver but I just pulled out my crazy fleece teaching hat.  I got some funny looks, but I was warm!  The Superman ride gets a good review from me, though it is too short.  Brian and I both really enjoyed El Toro which is a huge wooden roller coaster.  Our lesson for next time is that Flash Pass is the way to go.  We spent way too long in lines!

Doc looked better yesterday and pretty comfortable today, though still too lame to ride.  Unfortunately, it was the right choice to withdraw him.  Peter Blauner is going to come ultrasound him on Wednesday.  He could have strained a ligament in his pastern, but from his symptoms and the lack of significant swelling, I am keeping my fingers crossed that he just cracked his fetlock and has a bone bruise.

This afternoon Jet and I are off to ride in a cross country clinic with Lucinda Green at the New Jersey Horse Park.  I am looking ahead to a strong finish from him at the Ocala CCI*.

Ashley  

Success and Disappointment

Hi All!  Doc jumped around the cross country course today like a million bucks.  He was fantastic and accurate the whole way around and he loved the crowd.  Fair Hill was really spectacular today.  We were the third horse out of 53 to go on course and being at the beginning is always a challenge.  You don't get the benefit of learning where other horses are having trouble.  Luckily, I like being a trailblazer at horse shows because then it gives me less of a chance to get nervous.  I just ride the way I planned to ride in my head and I don't over-think it.  Not only were we clear, going all of the direct routes, but I had the fastest three star cross country round that I have ever had.  I finished with sixteen time faults and our placing moved into the 20's.  Normally I ride cautiously and will go more slowly.  Today I knew Doc was fit and that he felt great and I pressed him on.  

The great disappointment of the day, though, was that when we pulled up at the end of the course Doc was completely lame.  He was so lame, in fact, that we worried he had fractured his pastern somehow.  When we took him back to the barn I had the treating vet palpate him.  We wound up doing x-rays right there at the show.  The x-rays were clean, so we had no answers.  I decided that no matter what it was, I was going to withdraw him from the rest of the competition.  Under FEI rules a horse is not allowed to have any drugs that reduce inflammation like banamine or bute.  I felt that Doc really needed drugs to ease his discomfort, so I decided to withdraw him so that we could medicate him.  With no answers as of yet, my vet is going to come to the farm tomorrow to further asses Doc.  Sometimes the day after diagnoses are more accurate than the ones given on the day.  Strangely enough, when we got him home Doc was almost perfectly sound.  Brian's theory is that he hit his leg hard on the third to last jump (where I know he hit the jump) and stung his leg pretty badly.  Let's hope that's all it is.  The alternative at this point is a strain or tear to a tendon or ligament.  

Thank you to all of my friends and clients who came to support us and cheer us on today.  In particular thank you to the Wetherills, Lynn and Craig Rzonca, Dr. Patricia Bona, and Tara and PJ from Kendalwood farm where I regularly take Doc to swim for conditioning.  We really had a support team there!  And of course thank you to Brian for being my number one and Gina for all of her help this weekend.  Tomorrow we will see if I made the right decision.

Ashley    

The Cross Country Course

Here is a sampling of some of our cross country jumps for tomorrow.  The course has twenty six numbered jumps with about forty jumping efforts.  The optimum time is just over ten minutes.  It will be a course with a lot of galloping and traditionally the long, slow hills at Fair Hill take a toll on the horses.  

The weather looks beautiful for the weekend and I am looking forward to the cross country with Doc.  He has been jumping really well.  

Today we already did an equisage (equine massage) treatment on Doc to help relax him and we will go hacking around the show grounds.  We will also try to get Doc to eat as much grass as possible on the lead line!  When he gets to big shows he doesn't like his hay anymore and he needs a tummy with something in it.

 Note on the brush jump below that it is shaped like a Maryland Crab.  

Dressage today was productive but disappointing.  Although I felt I had a much better ride and a much more correct horse than last year, we only scored one point higher.  I was really excited by the fact that Doc did all of his counter canter work and both of his flying changes quietly, but other moments of tension in the test kept our score in the bottom third of the pack.  

Tomorrow I will walk my cross country course and plan my mental ride.  We will go Saturday around 12:30.  Brian got in last night and will be here the rest of the weekend.

More tomorrow!

Dressage Today

Fair Hill Trot Up

Hi All,

We just finished the CCI*** trot up at Fair Hill.  It was a close call.  For some reason on the hard surface Doc looked slightly off up front.  They called me into the holding area, which is a bad sign on the first day, and had a vet go over Doc.  He looked fine and so they had me represent.  On the second presentation they passed us.  Hopefully the rest of the weekend will get better from here!

Mr. Wetherill came to watch and Carmella and Gina came today to groom.  Doc looked very fancy all turned out.  We do dressage tomorrow at about 11:00.

Ashley

Jet Finishes Qualifications for CCI*

Jet had a fantastic day yesterday at the Maryland Horse Trials near Frederick, MD and is now fully qualified to compete at the Ocala CCI* in November.  We were the second ride of the day in dressage and the first ride of the day in both of the jumping phases.  Jet continues to find relaxing in the dressage problematical, but he tried very hard and put in an obedient, if underpowered, test.  In the jumping phases, however, he really shone.  He jumped double clean in both the stadium and the cross country phases to finish the day on his dressage score alone.  This is the first time at preliminary level that he has done this.  He literally ate up the cross country course and when he crossed the finish line he was barely winded.  

My students Holley Russell and Sandra Stocks also had brilliant days yesterday at the more local Bucks County Horse Park.  Holley jumped double clear jumping rounds to finish first in the beginner novice devision on Towanda.  Sandra had clean jumping rounds at starter level on Dakota but incurred a few time faults in stadium and finished in third place.  Wonderful job girls!

Tomorrow Doc and I ship to Fair Hill.  You can find out more about Fair Hill on the website, www.fairhillinternational.com.  Come and watch us compete this week or this weekend!  

-Ashley   

Getting no sleep is the answer for dressage?

I know everyone tells me that I am a morning person, but getting up at 3:30 AM like I did today is just not my cup of tea!  

Doc and I made the wee hour drive to Leesburg, VA today to compete in the Morven Park advanced combined test.  The critical element to the day was being able to practice our Fair Hill FEI dressage test in a competition.  Our horse trials dressage tests are different than the FEI tests, so we usually only get to ride the FEI tests once or twice a season.  Morven Park offered this dressage and show jumping combo specifically for riders prepping for Fair Hill.

My conclusion from the day is that Doc needs to get up at 3:30 AM every time it is dressage day.  He was the calmest he's ever been in dressage and he bested his previous score on the same test by nine points.

We did have rails in stadium, but we finished sixth and all in all Doc felt very good.  We have two more gallops, one more jump school, and one more dressage lesson and then we are off to Fair Hill next Tuesday.  Between now and then, Jet and I will compete in an open preliminary horse trials on the 12th in Maryland.   

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   

Welcome to Ashley Leith Eventing blogspot.  We have just returned from a great weekend in Bromont, Canada where Doc and I placed first in the CIC**.  Next month we will be traveling to Wayne, IL to compete in the Maui Jim CIC***.  Please check back soon for more posts.