Spring Trip to Valley Forge National Park

Valley Forge National Park is about a twenty minute trailer ride from Ardfuar Farm here in Pennsylvania.  For the past ten years I have used it weekly to condition the event horses and for pleasure hacks.  It is a beautiful park.  Yesterday, Gina, Mr. Wetherill and I went for a ride there on a perfect Spring day.

Featured horses are Cody, Eddie, and Monte. 

Ashley's Show Schedule for the Summer

Hi All,

Here is the current schedule for the summer.  The goals are to get Jet to the Fair Hill ** in October, to get Monte to a * in Ocala in November, to play around with my new young horse Jasper, and to do some fun stuff along the way.  I have a few "Ashley" races scheduled as well as working on my USDF Bronze Medal.  By September I should also be certified by the USEF as a level II instructor (preliminary level) in their ICP program.  If you are local for any of this, come and watch or come and compete!

May 31st:  Bucks County Horse Park Dressage (PA), Jet 1st and 2nd level

June 3rd and 4th:  Lucinda Green Clinic at Fair Hill (MD), Monte 

June 6th:  Plantation Field Horse Trials (PA), Monte novice

June 9th:  Ashley coaching at BCHP Tuesday Evening Dressage

June 13th:  Seneca Valley Horse Trials (VA), Jet intermediate, Monte training level

June 24th:  Ashley 5K Tex Mex run to benefit the Wissahickon Valley Watershed

June 27th:  Surefire Horse Trials (VA), Jet intermediate, Monte training level

June 29th and 30th:  Ashley participating in the USEA Instructor's Certification Program jumping workshop (MA)

July 5th:  Fair Hill Starter Trials (MD), Russian GoGo, a.k.a. Jasper at his first event

July 18th and 19th:  Maryland Horse Trials (MD), Jet intermediate, Monte training level

July 28th to 30th:  Ashley participating in the USEA Instructor's Certification Program dressage workshop (CA)

August 2nd:  Ashley's 2nd annual attempt at the SheRox tri in Philly?

August 8th and 9th:  Fair Hill International Horse Trials (MD), Monte preliminary

August 21st to the 23rd:  Richland Park Horse Trials (MI), Jet CIC**, Monte preliminary

September 3rd:  Ashley's ICP assessment

Check back later in the summer for more updates!

-Ashley

Fair Hill Weekend

Jet moved up to intermediate this weekend at the Fair Hill Horse Trials in Elkton, MD and Monte continued gaining mileage at novice.  

On Saturday Jet's division ran.  He had a very mediocre dressage followed by a very mediocre show jumping.  His nerves were getting the best of him and when that happens he tightens his back and goes badly.  I was a bit discouraged with him and with myself for not being able to ride him through it.  He made up for it on cross country, though.  He jumped around beautifully over the straightforward jumps on the course and was a little bit surprised by the more difficult combinations that you find at intermediate, but was still honest and jumped right through them.  I felt it was an educational run for him.  He will run next at Plantation Field in early June and we will aim for a CCI** in the fall. 

Today Monte went at novice level.  With a steady test he was in the ribbons after dressage.  After show jumping I was jumping for joy.  He jumped clean and he was actually clever with his feet!  Monte has so much power but it is taking him awhile to get it all coordinated.  This was his first clean show jumping round in competition.  On cross country I gave him a 50%/50% chance of jumping clean, and the bad 50% won.  He stopped dead in front of two jumps and spun away, both because they were funny looking jumps.  One was a bench and the other was a log on top of a hill with no sight of the landing.  In both cases he jumped the second time, once he got a look at them.  On the rest of the course he seemed to be having fun.  This winter I tried to move him up to training level when he wasn't quite ready and I am paying for it now by having to spend more time building his confidence and showing him different types of jumps.  It looks like he will do another novice at Plantation Field and then perhaps we will look for a training level. 

In other news, my student Holley Russell won her division of Elementary at the Bucks County Horse Park today.  Congratulations Holley!  We are also all getting geared up for the Bucks County Horse Park schooling shows this summer as well as other schooling horse trials.  Please join us!

Ashley  

Back to Pennsylvania

I am back in PA and all it has done this week is RAIN!!  Was that the sun I saw today?  It looks so foreign.  

Next weekend Jet does his first intermediate at Fair Hill and Monte does his last novice before the big move up to training level.  Doc is annoyed at the bugs, but actually enjoying being on vacation.  The winter was intense.

Allison's ride on Weston

On Monday night Allison Ross came down to Ocala with her friend Lee to pick up her horse Weston who I have had in training all winter.  Wes is a beautiful six-year-old Dutch warmblood.  Just as Wes was imported last year Allison found out she was pregnant with her third baby.  These photos are of her and Wes together on Tuesday and it was only her third ride on him.  Wes grew up a lot while he was here this winter and I hope they will have a great summer together in St. Simon's Island, GA where Allison lives.

I leave to drive back to Pennsylvania tomorrow with Jet and Monte.

Some pictures from last weekend. . .

In the pictures, in no particular order, are me, Holley, Gina, Brian, Mr. and Mrs. Wetherill, Odie, Jada, and a commemorative bronze statue of Bruce Davidson jumping into the head of the lake water jump at Rolex.   

Rolex, April 25th. Doc's diagnosis.

We picked Doc up from the clinic this afternoon after he had been gone over and x-rayed and ultrasounded.  He has injured his meniscal ligament on the inside of his left stifle.  Apparently he probably had a chronic injury at this site that is due to his age and choice of profession (many upper level event horses have chronic wear and tear in certain ligaments and you never know about them until they "break.").  When he took the spook that he did on the pavement on Wednesday before the trot up it was like the straw that broke the camel's back and he tore it.  From what we know right now, the prognosis is that he will never return to upper level eventing.  There are several ligaments in the same site, like the collateral ligament and the ACL, and we have to wait a few more days to fully asses the damage as the clearest ultrasound pictures are best taken after the swelling has left an injury site.  In essence, the stifle is like our human knee.  I'm sure many of you can relate to the idea of a knee injury that could be career ending for a top level human athlete.  That is, in essence, what we are dealing with.

Gina and Holley are driving Doc back to Pennsylvania tomorrow.  He is not in a great deal of pain and his spirits are doing OK.  He will be able to relax and graze once he is back at Ardfuar.  We will give him the best treatment possible and as time passes we will see how much he will recover.  It is my hope that he will still be able to event at a lower level.  My student Lynn and I were morosely laughing today over the thought of having another Aly Cat at the farm.  Aly should be thrilled that he has hit retirement age after ten years of competing at the FEI level.  Instead he sulks about us going to shows without him and the fact that he doesn't get to run cross country anymore.  If Doc can't run and jump, he will be the same way.

All of this is quite a blow, but I really do believe that life has a way of working out.  It looks like a door is closing, but we will keep a window open and see what comes of all of this.  As I said to Mr. Wetherill earlier, "Poor Doc." and then a few seconds later I added, "And poor Mr. Wetherill and poor Ashley!"  There are so many people who would have been thrilled to see Doc and I attack a four star, but it was not meant to be this year.  

Brian and I left Doc in Holley and Gina's hands and we are driving back to Ocala for me to pick up the other horses.  The cross country today was fantastic to watch.  It was a beautiful course and a beautiful day.  I am sorry to be missing the nail-biting ending tomorrow, but I was ready to get out of the Lexington Horse Park.

Speak to many of you soon!

Ashley