Devon here we come!

As I mentioned in an earlier Blog post, Tsjesse and Goodman qualified and made the cut for Dressage at Devon this year!  It was exciting to find out that I would be doing my first CDI in Devon, but I must admit it felt somewhat surreal.  I thought after the summer we have had that there must have been some mistake.  Well, the ride times came out yesterday, and sure enough there we are....

I knew I was going to need some help getting the boys ready so I enlisted the help of trainer and friend Charlotte Bayley Schindelholtz to get us tuned up and prepared.  I knew I picked the right coach when we started working on the bending in halfpass in the first lesson with Tsjesse!  Charlotte really pegged both horses, and had me riding Goodman's "big boy" gaits (ahh my back!) right away.  We discussed a good plan, including body clipping both horses, "learning to run" with the horses in the jog (ahh my ankle!), not to mention all the things I need to do when I'm riding!

I am excited (and nervous) to compete these two horses for their owners Angela Hambrick, and Marian Shaughnessy, who have been two of my biggest sponsors over the past few years.  They have put their time, trust, faith and financial support in me for the last five or six years, and its so exciting to have the opportunity to bring their horses to such an amazing competition, and hopefully give them a special experience.

I have been trying to figure out my outfit for the jog, and found the most excellent shoes...there is a video of me practicing in them in a sweet outfit of brown breeches floating around out there (No blackmail please!) so now I just need an ensemble.  Or, I could just jog in the shoes, but I'm pretty sure no one wants to see that!  So much to do and only two days to go!

HOLD onto your hats folks,

WE ARE GOING TO DEVON!