Its a Wrap

Boyd & Neville, Phillip & Mystery Whisper
Lauren Hough, Capt. Mark Phillips
at USEF Team training sessions

Well, its taken me a while to sum up our time in Aiken this year, so I thought I would just begin by saying WE WERE BUSY!  I was fortunate to have one of my best friends, Mary McKeon, helping out on the weekends, and Haley Goodwill as our official groom for the month.  While the trip got off to a rocky start~ie: Haley's truck breaking down, my substitute stall cleaner getting sick, one colicking horse, and Haley's beautiful dog passing on at home, it finished with a much better swing of events! 

We enjoyed having several of my wonderful clients come down during the second and third weeks to catch some sun and outdoor riding, and the  horses were wonderful.  Sanae, Utako, Cathy, and Jessica all rode twice a day (Jessica even got to do a XC school with the infamous Boyd Martin)  and made the most of their time in Aiken.  It was such a joy to have them all with us, and made for a great time!  We also got to do a bit of horse shopping, and came home with a sweet new horse for Cindy Pordon, Hidden Promise. 

I did a fair bit of showing while we were there, taking Goodman and Tsjesse to Florida once, and also competing them with Sarotti in John's Island South Carolina.  They were all good boys, and it was great to get back into the show ring and shake out the cobwebs.  I also competed Z at the Full Gallop Horse Trials and he had a fabulous run with some time to finish 8th in the OT.  Unfortunately, he did not get to compete again while we were there due to getting kicked in the field, but I am excited for what will be an interesting season with him. 

Fortunately, Haley and I took some time out to watch the USEF Training sessions at Ilene Boormans gorgeous place Bridle Creek Farm, with Lauren Hough and Capt. Mark Phillips which was very educational.  We had the opportunity to see Lauren coach Boyd, Phillip, and Becky Holder, and she even took a ride on Can't Fire Me which was very interesting.  For someone like me who struggles a bit sometimes in the showjumping, I found it very helpful to watch a petite woman pilot a larger horse around some big jumps.  Of course, its always amazing to watch Boyd and Phillip ride; I learn so much by watching!!!  I also had the outstanding opportunity to catch a few lessons with Boyd and Silva, and I can't thank them enough for making time for me.  I get so much from their lessons, and it really ups my game at the start of the season.

I have to say one of the best parts of my trip was the friendships I was able to make, and others that I was able to rekindle.  I enjoyed getting to meet Michelle and Chris Adamson from England, and hear all about their homebred steeplechasers turned event horses, Emily Beshear and her adorable son Nicholas, and Jimmie and Dom Schramm and their "coyote dog" Willow (no she is not really a coyote) who Rose promptly dubbed as part of the family.  I would be remiss if I didnt mention Bubba Forrester and his girlfriend Janet who are the perfect hosts at Sandy Hills Farm, and I will be missing the glazed donuts on Sunday mornings.  Speaking of hosts, where do I begin in thanking Diane and Steve Toth my friends and hosts for not only welcoming me into their home, but also for all their help, support, and general sanity, not to mention chocolate cake, brownies, dinners, stall cleaning, truck fixing, and the hundred other things they did to make life easier during such a crazy time!  I OWE you a huge THANKS!

Lastly, thanks to everybody at home who held down the fort and enabled me to go this year...my husband Ivor and son Jake~ thank you guys for giving me the flexibility to be gone for such a long period of time.  My parents for helping out with Jake on weekends, and all their encouragement, and finally, all the people at White North (Mandy, Liz) for teaching and riding so many horses while I was away! 

And now, on to the show season!

Building the Bench

Well, I know that I am way behind in regaling you with the events in Aiken, and I have decided to impart the activities of the month in something less than chronological order. (Sorry)! 
As some of you may already know, I have quietly been on the hunt for a "special" eventing partner that is a serious upper level prospect for the future.  Who isn't, right?  I have had the amazing opportunity to ride several wonderful horses, some for extended periods of time, but never felt the proverbial "click". 

I like to think of Eventing like a professional sports team...think baseball, hockey... part of creating a team is to have some superstars on the first string, as well as DEPTH on the bench.  A good team has to have up and coming players learning the ropes from the big guys for the team to be consistently successful.  The Detroit Red Wings are amazing at this.  I would never purport to REally know anything about hockey, but thanks to my husband I have a distinct appreciation of the hard work, knowledge and attention to detail that they employ in their team building to have a group of athletes that dominate at the top level of their sport year after year. 

During my time in Aiken, I continued this search and low and behold, found an outstanding prospect that I believe to be the future at Evans Eventing.   Blockbuster is a gorgeous, U.S. bred, 6 year old Dutch gelding by Sir Sinclair.  He is an outstanding mover, with a fantastic personality, and a great jump.  This young horse never looks at a fence~let's remember when I tried him he had only jumped a handful of times, and went straight through a bounce, one stride, and variable lines, not to mention spooky panels, liver pools and planks.  He never looked at a thing!  I even hacked him out, and he would rather trot or canter than walk.  He is curious about investigating his world, and shows the real quality and "thinking" properties possessed by top eventers.  After sitting on him the first time, (at the risk of sounding cliche) I knew this was the horse I had been trying to find.  The best part is that because he is by Sir Sinclair, he has about 25% or more Thoroughbred coursing through his veins!

I had the opportunity to ride him several times, (including with Boyd~thank you!) and really got to know his character and capabilities.  After some thought and some chance meetings of his breeder, I began trying to put a plan together to purchase this amazing horse.  I have secured one part owner, and one sponsor, not including myself to bring Blockbuster to Evans Eventing, but we need a few more people who want to be part of our exciting future to bring it to reality.  The sky is the limit with this horse, and he presents a fabulous way for someone to get involved in the sport of Eventing at the ground floor of an international prospect as we make our way up the levels.  Please contact me at evans.eventing@gmail.com or 440-622-4976 if you have any interest big or small in becoming part of the group to bring this developing horse to our  team.  In the meantime, enjoy the video!

Congratulations Cindy!

I am pleased to announce and welcome Cindy Pordon's purchase of her new Dressage horse, Hidden Promise!  Promise is a 10yr old TB, (yes you read that right, TB!) trained to 4th level, and schooling the FEI Prix St. George. Purchased from Silva and Boyd Martin, Promise was bred and previously owned by Nina Fout who competed him to the two star level in Eventing.  He is a very fancy mover with a fabulous temperment, and we are very excited for Cindy to continue her dressage career with such an amazing partner!  Cindy was one of my first dressage clients at White North, and it is a joy to see her purchase such an exceptional horse. I wish you all the best for the future! Congratulations!

Rest up "little chickens", rest up.



Myra and her new pal Mikey

2012 has made a quiet entrance but is quickly going to transform itself into a lion of a year at Evans Eventing.  We head to Aiken with a great group of horses this year including 3 dressage horses that will show twice in Florida, and 3 event horses that will show 3 times in Aiken.  Its going to be busy without my right hand girl Mary keeping me organized as she is in Chile on MATERNITY duty! I can use some more help while we are there, so let me know if you have any interest.

Zigzag decided to give us a little scare this past week when he took a gallop around the pasture and came up with a fussy leg the next day.  Seven days and one ultrasound later he is fine (Phew) and back in training for hopefully what will be his debut at Preliminary in Aiken.  We have a rigorous schedule set for him this spring and there is some one star whispering, but we are not going to get ahead of ourselves.  What I can tell you is that he is really happy in his work, and feeling good and quiet in his body so fingers crossed, and saying our nightly prayers!

We have a couple clients looking for new horses so we will also be doing some shopping in Aiken and the surrounding area.  Speaking of which, congrats to Myra Chudakoff on the purchase of Mikey (pictured above) a 10yr old Tb gelding that she is going to start eventing in the summer.

Our show schedule is going to be pretty demanding once we get back with two horse shows in March, and between the dressage circuit and events we are going to hit the ground running and never look back until about November.  My Mom has a great saying for this...she always refers to us as "little chickens" because we are always "cluck cluck clucking" around  and difficult to herd into an organized flock.  Nevertheless, wherever she tries to lead we eventually follow, except for that one little straggler (you know who you are!).  So, rest up little chickens. Its going to get busy!

Everyday is Thanksgiving...

 Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends!  Tim, Jamie and the kids,  Mary and Cristian, you will all be very much missed today.  Its hard being the only sibling in the U.S.! 

Evans Eventing and White North Stable has had a great year, and thank you to all my clients and coaches who have tirelessly supported me in all our endeavors!  We have lots of exciting new prospects and "good things" happening in the mix for 2012, and I hope to bring even more joy and success to our riders and horses in the coming year!

At the cost of waxing philosophical, it seems to me that we always take the occasion of the holidays and new year to be "thankful" for all the "things" in our lives and circumstances that enable us to live happily. (Obviously I am no exception) I wonder what the effect would be if we did the following two things...

• Give thanks for all the obstacles, mistakes, hardships, and crazy things that happen to us on a daily basis that help us learn a lesson, change our thinking, and make us better people.
• Celebrate "Thanksgiving" on Monday. Celebrate it in March.  Celebrate when it is your darkest day.  Celebrate when it is the brightest hour. 

Celebrate Thanksgiving Day.  Everyday.

Maryland Horse Trials at Loch Moy

Z laying down a 27.30 in dressage

 It was time for some Eventing after a month of dressage shows, and the Maryland Horse Trials did not disappoint!  Beautiful weather and fall beauty abounded with gorgeous horses galloping cross country over the exquisite course, outlined by the changing colors of the hills in the background. 

The weekend began and ended with excitement, starting with Rose locking me out of my friend Mary's truck as I attempted to pick up Mary's horse Vinny and make it to White North for my first lesson of the day at 9am.  Realizing that the keys AND my cell phone were in the truck with Rose, I resorted to stupid human tricks trying to get Rose to jump on the unlock button located on the arm rest.  While she can do lots of tricks, this apparently wasn't one of them, and she looked at me licking the window, saying, "Open the door dummy!"  After a few minutes, I decided to go into Mary's house and locate a phone (of course there was no LAND line) and instead woke/scared to death her sleeping college daughter Hilary.  Hilary had a phone, but unluckily for me no spare truck keys.  SO, the Kirtland Police were on the job and an officer was dispatched to unlock the truck.  This was no small feat as the handle does not open the door when locked and the only way to open it was to press the button.  Half an hour or so later, he finally got it, saving me from having to go to Mary's husband's work to get the extra keys.  An hour and a half later, I finally made it to work, and thank you to all my wonderful ladies who understood and went for a trail ride in my absence.
The morning continued to be harry scary with an unexpected delivery of 300 chairs and 20 tables for an event at the farm this weekend, horses to ride before leaving, lessons, and a sundry of other tasks that required my attention.  Mary (my friend, not my sister cuz she's in Chile with her new hubby)  arrived and helped me finish packing, and by 1:30 we loaded the horses and were on our way!  We arrived at Loch Moy about 7:30, and were greeted by Rex, the stable manager, who kindly showed us to our stalls, and commandeered us a prime trailer parking spot right next to the stable, and directly behind Buck Davidson!  Finally, with the horses settled in, some yummy food and a beer, we checked into the hotel, and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Z double clear stadium

The jump into the water

Saturday dawned crisp and bright, and I walked cross country before getting ready to do dressage.  Z warmed up great and we laid down a pretty good test.  There wasn't a whole lot of time, so we headed back to stabling where I put his studs in, took braids out, and got suited up for stadium and cross country which ran consecutively.   The stadium course looked nicely flowing, but was catching people with lots of rails.  I went in and buzzed him around the outer track, making sure he got a look at the liverpool and culvert fences.  He had a great forward rhythm throughout and jumped double clear so off we went to XC.

 After catching the roll top in the XC warm up a few times it was our turn in the start box.  I love this part, because Z always gets that "look of eagles" thing going on, and you can just feel him ramp himself up as we wait for the 10 second mark.  He lifts his neck and grows about 5 inches during the count down and off we go.  He ran around the course great with one sticky moment at the first water, incurring no jump or time penalties.  There is really nothing better than getting off cross country with a happy, blowing horse, and a double clear run. After arriving back at the stalls, Mary said to me, "Do you know where you are in the standings?" I said no, that I hadn't had time to look, and she said, "Well, I think YOU JUST WON!"  The beauty of LIVE SCORING!  I had been in first after dressage and with clear rounds stadium and cross country, we just waited for the official results.  Besting a field that included the likes of Sharon White, Stephen Bradley, and Phillip Dutton was crazy (it is only Training of course) and made for some fun phone calls.

Tiffany and Cisco in dressage

Tiffany and Cisco Cross Country

Tiffany arrived with Cisco later that afternoon, and we helped her get settled and I gave her a dressage lesson.  She had some light bulb moments so we were pretty pumped for Sunday.  Mary was first to go and after some wild moments in the warm-up (Vinny thought he should race the Prelim horses from their gallop lane that was located next to the dressage show ring) she kept him together and put in a great test all things considered.  Tiffany was next and rode a brilliant test putting her in sixth out of 17. Mary jumped clear stadium and cross country, moving her up to second in her division!  Tiffany had an unlucky draw being the second last ride of the day, but cruised around the stadium leaving all the rails in the cups, and staying within the time.  She caught a couple fences in the xc warm-up, and went out and had an awesome XC round, jumping all the jumps right out of stride.  I was so proud of her and Cisco because they have been working very hard in all aspects and its great to see the results pay off with a move up to third place.  They also got their last qualifying score for the AEC's NEXT YEAR, and I am sure we will see them topping the leader board at Novice next year! 

Mary and Vintage Stadium

Mary and Vintage XC

By 6:30 we were packed up and headed home, arriving at the farm by 1am.  I gave "Z" a kiss goodnight, and was home by 2, finishing the weekend the same way it started...with a sigh and a smile.

GAIG Region 2 Championships

The beautiful thing about attending a Regional Championship is the opportunity to watch some of the best trainers in the area compete their best horses, and witness the stellar riding and development from the warm-up to the show ring.  I always find it fascinating to observe people like George Williams, Jochen Hippenstiel, Kathy Priest, and others start the horses in the warm up and see how each progresses as they prepare to go in the ring.  To have the ability to see the "system" they employ and how it develops to competition level is very valuable in one's own skill set.  I should say that this also carries over to several AA I watched, as well as coaching by trainers such as Charlotte Bayley-Schindelholz, who I had the pleasure to work with over the course of the weekend.

Mary and I were lucky enough to have two horses with us; Buenos Noches (aka Goodman) competing at Fourth Level owned by Angela Hambrick, and Tsjesse owned by Marian Shaughnessy competing in the Prix St. George.  I really owe both of these ladies a huge heartfelt thank you, as they have been long time supporters of mine, and have given me the opportunity to ride fabulous horses.  They constantly help me add to my training arsenal through sending their horses to clinics with me, training in Aiken, and the countless other things that make competing on a regular basis possible.  Thank you for being stewards of the sport!

Goodman did a good test on Thursday in the 4th 3, garnering himself a 5th place in the Majestic Farm Championship, and then an even better test on Fri to earn a 7th place finish in the Region Final.  The class on Friday was extremely competetive, with just 4.25 points seperating first to seventh.  I am so proud of this little horse who has overcome so many obstacles and is becoming a true blue competitor.  He had his game face on the whole weekend and never gave a spook or startle in the show ring, and was very rideable.  We unfortunately had technical difficulties with our video camera, so I should have a video of his final ride posting soon from "Another Point of View" the videographer once I get the disk.  We did post some cute pictures of him being very proud during the awards ceremony to Facebook.

Tsjesse, despite some shoeing problems, was also very competitive, finishing fourth and fifth on the first two days, and then a respectable 11th in the final.  I must give a big thank you to Charlotte, who helped me develop the horse through the weekend, enabling us to put in our best test on Sunday.  Unfortunately I was a bit late in asking for the first change in the line of fours, and subsequently had two counting mistakes due to bad timing.  We nailed our threes though, and had we not had the previous mistake, probably would have been in the ribbons in a super tough class of 19 top professionals. 

While I would have liked to finish in the top five on both horses, I am going home with a good sense of where to go in our training so that we come out closer to the top.  Mary and I had a great time watching and hanging out with our friends Cindy Bank (Reserve CH Training Level), Marlene Knopsnider (Champion AA I1), Jennifer Kick, Holly & Jeff Taylor, and Jamie Gunyula, who had top finishes with their horses as well. 

This picture was taken by Mary... As I was coming out of the indoor, this little one was carrying her stuffed horse and with big eyes told me "Congratulations, I like your horse!"  It was so sweet I asked her if she would like to pat Tsjesse.  With huge eyes and a wider smile she reached up and gently touched his shoulder.  She stepped back and said, "I have a horse shoe at home from a Clydedale that's almost as big as his."  It was so cute, and made me think of when I was a little girl.
So now its a little vacation for the dressage boys, and time to switch gears as we have two horse trials left for the event horses, and also need to start firming up our plans in Aiken.  Off to do some trot sets, jump schools, and set our sights on the Maryland at Loch Moy HT the second weekend in October, hopefully giving these eventers a good last couple runs of the season! Until then....

Aiken anyone?