Onward and Upward. I hope...

After a tumultuous month of "stuff" we look to be slowly getting back on track. Due to several deaths in the family we unfortunately had to scratch the WPDA show in order to spend most of the week going to funerals. More on that later. Much to my behest, Goodman will have to man up and go to regionals without a "primer"...I know he is just the horse to do it. He is all tuned up and ready to show his stuff in Michigan next week. We are all very excited for him and his owner Angela Hambrick!

As for "Z" he thought it might be a good idea to kick out and get his leg caught in the stall at the Erie Pa Horse Trial, while I was walking Cross Country. He scraped himself up pretty good but appears to be sound. He really does not like being on stall rest though, and is starting to become a handful to hand graze. He is getting a 12 day check up from the vet tomorrow, so hopefully she will have good news, although I am not convinced. I had to scratch the rest of Erie after being in 2nd in my division, as well as not entering at South Farm.

I was thrilled to get a call from my old trainer and mentor Kathy Henry to see if I would like to catch ride a fantastic horse for her. We took him to Erie and he had a lovely dressage and stadium, but needs a little confidence in the cross country. As this is a new horse for me and I have only ridden him a handful of times, I am sure he will come along just fine. A neat side note is that I helped to break this one in with her and Alison Kroviak when he was just a baby, and he was always my favorite! I even had an email at one time that was his name! He unfortunately also decided to sabotage himself and cut his leg so had to also be scratched from the South Farm horse Trial. Unbelievable!

Before he so timely hurt himself however, we were able to participate in some PR for South Farm's Horse Trial this weekend. Kenny Crumpton from Fox 8 News came to South Farm and did an informational piece on three day eventing and what would be going on at the Horse Trial. Sarah and Chris had the place looking amazing, and gave a great interview! Holly Shine was the demo rider over fences and did a spectacular job over the Weldon's wall and Stadium, and I was the dressage demo rider. It aired Thurs 9/2 at 5pm and was a great piece! I hope that it generates some public interest for South Farm, the horse trial and eventing throughout our community, and I thank Sarah and Chris for letting me and Kathy be a part of it with such a wonderful horse.

Go check out the horse trial at South Farm this weekend beginning Saturday...they have picnic baskets pre-made, so take the family and have fun watching some real athletes at work!

Goodman Takes on NODA at Grand Haven!

This weekend I was fortunate to have three horses go to the NODA show at Grand Haven. Marian Shaughnessy went and took her horses Panglossian and Linguarde's Limbo and rode at Training Level and First. She persevered through the rain and not being able to ride Limbo the week before the show, and showed great fortitude and commitment throughout the weekend. She was Third with "Leggs" at First 1 on Sat., and rode a nicely forward test on Sun.

Goodman was second on Saturday at 3rd 3 with a 62, and 3rd on Sunday with a 65.8! He came home qualified for Regionals and Reserve Champion at Third Level! Congratulations to Angela Hambrick on the success of this horse, and thanks to Nancy Smith for the expert coaching, and Mary Anne Milleman for reading!

Onward to WPDA August 14 & 15th!

Mini Trial at South Farm

Zigzag and I went to the South Farm Mini Event this past Sunday and competed in the Training Horse Division for the first time since last year. He posted a fabulous dressage score of 28.5 and was absolutely wonderful. Even the judge made a comment that he looked very happy to be back in the competition arena! We were second after dressage and he did a great job jumping right around the stadium. His canter and balance is so much improved, (thanks to all the hard work this spring at Boyd's) and he felt like he skated right around. I made a few mistakes that cost us some time, but I was really happy that we jumped around with no major glitches. Cross country was fabulous and he was so strong that I actually had to circle before going to the bank! He was very honest and definitely having lots of fun on course!

While doing all three phases in one day is alot, he handled it well and still had some gallop left at the end of cross country. We ended up fourth (due to our handful of time penalties) and I was very happy that we had a great first outing. It was a great confidence boost, and gage to where we need to go next. With a little more tuning up we should be fit to run Training at Erie and Richland Park at the end of August, and then make our Preliminary debut. Thanks to my lil' sis for coming along and being our cheerleader/groom and official photographer! Fingers Crossed!

Welcome back old friends!

I am pleased to say that an old friend and client Beth Lose has rejoined our ranks with her two lovely horses Haven and Westy. Haven is a beautiful Oldenburg mare that Beth bred herself out of a Tb mare by Bacardi. She sold her as a 4 year old to be a broodmare at a top notch breeding operation in the area several years ago, and has recently had the good fortune to have her back. We will be breaking her out this month and I look forward to starting this talented young horses's competitive career. Beth also has acquired a gorgeous Westphalian gelding that has retired from his career as a hunter, and will be lessoning in the hopes of doing some dressage. Welcome back!

NEW DATE FOR BOYD MARTIN CLINIC!

Due to a change in Boyd's eventing schedule leading up to the WEG, we unfortunately had to postpone our Clinic. We are happy to announce the new date will be October 18th & 19th. Monday at White North and Tuesday XC schooling at South Farm, weather permitting. We will have a fun Q & A on Tuesday morning, as well as several vendors to check out. Don't miss out on some great training tips from one of eventing's finest!
See you there!

Four hooves forward…

Today Angela and I took Goodman for a lesson with Nancy Smith. We have been working with her for over a year now, and always enjoy her expert advice. We began in trot and she was very pleased to see Goodman moving consistently to the bit, and having a stronger outline and greater self carriage. We worked the shoulder in to half-pass to haunches in, and got some better quality half pass. In the canter we also worked on the half pass and walk canter transitions. Its amazing how a simple walk canter walk can show you how lacking your horse’s hind leg is! Goodman was a real star though, and quickly upped his game and began doing lovely transitions. We finished with some double steps, and a renewed sense of where to focus in his daily work. I am so proud of this horse because he continues to get better every day. His focus and confidence are building all the time, and he is more and more dynamic (is that possible?!) the stronger he becomes. Thanks to Angela for giving me the ride on this awesome horse! What a gift!

FOCUS.....

Focus is a funny thing...its hard to get right and easy to lose. Even in cameras with an "auto focus" the picture can sometimes look blurry when our hand moves or if it thinks there is not an "appropriate" subject to focus on. As I am sure all of you have experienced, this can really be maddening, as you hold the button down and the camera will not take a picture.

I recently came to the realization that I have "lost focus" on my personal goals as a professional. Not purposely or intentionally, but because other goals seemingly got in the way or began taking up my time. Its not like they disappeared from view or I forgot about what I want to do and where I want to go, but they just faded out and got a little blurry. Time to press the "refocus" button and re-evaluate the goals I had put in place at the beginning of the year.

There are so many little goals and steps to the larger ones it seems easy to lose track of everything, so I have decided to make myself a roadmap of each smaller thing to lead to the end result. I actually had to start from my goal at the end of the year (running Z Prelim) and trace it backwards in order to make sure that I dont miss anything. This seems to be very beneficial and is keeping me from getting distracted by the small day to day occurances that take up so much time. I also have come to the realization that having several areas with goals for clients/horses/career makes this a bit more daunting! It is going to be quite the juggling act, but I know with all the awesome support from my family, friends, and clients that we will all get there.

Time is ticking......