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.