C-Horse Event Team

Full Moon Rising

2011-11-08T12:04:00.000-08:00

This last weekend, the eventers traveled East to go play dressage. The big P-Diddy was entered in the First Level NCDCTA Championships and my little black superstar, Dreamer was doing his first big-boy show, entered in the Intro B and Training 2.

So, let's first just say that P was his usual awesome self... but... how could he not be considering that horse can do no wrong. :) Minus a bit of spooking at the side of the arena, but really, those things are made for jumping over anyway, not trotting next to.

And Mr. Dream was the star of the show, however, his final ride did provide a bit of comic relief to the weekend. Let me give it to you via timeline so you can appreciate the humor.

Ridetime was scheduled for 10:39

9:45 - mount up to walk around, as he hadn't been out for a walk yet due to P's early ride.

9:46 - Re-mount after walking back to the barn to get something I forgot

9:47-9:55 - Dreamer, being the gansta that he is, feels the need to 'holla' at everyone as we make our way around the show grounds

10:00 - Since we are attempting to canter in the ring, and this involves keeping all 4 legs moving in the same general direction in some sort of rhythm, I decide to take a canter around the field next to warm-up (since his canter is LOVELY in the field - so what if he finds a dressage ring a bit confining. :)

10:01 - What is that noise - did I forget to take his bell boots off?

10:02 - Seriously, what's that noise

10:03 - Hop off to discover that BOTH of our front shoes are ever slightly so loose (farrier was due out the next day), but enough to make them knock a bit at the canter... decide to condense warm-up to reduce the chances of throwing off a shoe before we make it to the ring

10:10 - Sitting beside warm-up I discover that one of my bracelets has decided to free itself from the grasp of my wrist an cling to my glove by a thread. Shove the offending bracelet into my pocket.

10:15 - 10:25 - execute a lovely walk/trot warm up.

10:30 - Walk over to the warm-up steward to find out what rider was preceding me. Pop a button off my jacket along the way (damn you, bag of bit sized Snickers I'd consumed Saturday).

10:39 - Enter at A with 2 loose shoes, one less button, one less bracelet -- and pull off a halfway decent test.

10:45 - In an attempt to 'holla' at a distant horse during he walk back to the barn, Dream looses all concentration and trips over his own feet and nearly bites it....

11:00 - As we are throwing things into the trailer, Lisa, ever so secretly, goes up to check our score, which was a 64% for the win!!!!!!

All in all, it was a great weekend for everyone! A huge congrats to Nancy and her eventer, Shatzi, who braved the scary indoor - "ride it like you smoked (stole) it", right Nancy? :)

Baby Dreamer!

Prophet admiring his blue lights.... now all we need is the neon SeaHorse sign to make our decorations complete!

Harvest Moon Dressage Show

2011-11-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

P, Dreamer and I will be headed to play dressage with the big kids this weekend (along with Nancy and Shatzi!). Keep up on the live scores here: http://www.equestriansecretarialservices.com/LiveResultsRiders.php?id=12522011

Re-building the Bear

2011-11-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

Teddy and I competing back in the day.

Other then the main star of the show (Prophet, of course!), I own a couple of other awesome beasts, and of course ride some awesome beasts that I don't own.

Poor Teddy Bear falls into a category all his own. I don't own him, and don't ride him. I did ride him for two GLORIOUS seasons at the semi-upper levels, after it was decided I could take him in 'retirement'. I guess the semi-upper levels are retirement for a horse that's run around most of the ***s of the world, at the long format, plus Rolex **** (long format), and being apart of both the Irish and Canadian Teams. He was a dream, and I owe him so much for what he taught me.

He is stilled owned by EC. However, I have taken him as my own, that way I can dictate how he lives out his years.

One thing that's always been a struggle with Ted is his feet. He's had hospital-plates, glue ones, sigafoos, aluminum, pads, etc. etc. etc. Very low sole, very little heal. Luckily, for the past couple of years, he's been fairly well managed in the field by going barefoot. Recently however, he's been giving me a bit of a scare with a laminitis episode, brought on by a bit of Cushings. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

When you have a horse with sore feet, anyway, who's feet get even more sore, it's a bad combo. Really bad.

So, I've been doing what every good, responsible horse owner does.... researching, talking, researching, talking, and then having bouts of crying fits while hugging his leg, while John stands in front of him feeding treats.

When he first started having issues I figured it was the normal foot soreness that he experiences from time to time. Then I began to realize it was something more. Luckily, my wonderful vet, Dr. Kate Lombardi of Lombardi Mobile Equine (www.lombardiequine.com) helped get a plan together. I spent alot of time cutting and shaping pads and using my trusty Hoof Wraps (www.hoofwraps.com) to help make him more comfortable. Luckily, Bryan of HW was on the ball to send me more wraps as I needed them!

My mom was in town during the worst of it, which was a good thing and a bad thing -- we'd had a horse founder and rotate through all 4 feet (who, 20 years later, is still alive and healthy, thanks to the treatment and nursing by my dad), so although she could tell me tips to keep Teddy happy, she also had alot of horror stories, that I didn't really remember seeing as I was only about 6 or 7 at the time.

It became apparent that I needed more help with the hoof support then what I as able to structure with the Hoof Wraps. Teddy had busted open some subsolar abscesses in both front feet, and I was fearing we weren't seeing the worst of things yet. After some research, I decided on the Soft Ride Boots (www.softrideboots.com) as opposed to shoeing or anything. Although they weren't an instant fix, I kept them on him in the hopes that he would become more comfortable in the long run.

In the meantime, everyone was concerned about the fact that we'd tried Banimine and also Bute to cute through the pain and inflammation and nothing was having a major impact. He was having some good days, but also bad ones. 2grams of bute 2x day is ALOT, and I just was in all on panic mode that nothing was going to get him feeling better.

On a whim, I decided to start him on the Cur-OST product that I receive through a generous sponsorship (www.curost.com) . I'd used the product on a few of my performance horses and was pleased with the results, but I guess until I tried it in a nearly life-or-death situation, the effectiveness wasn't so noticed. Well, this time I noticed, and within a day or two.

Quickly, the 4 grams a day when down to 2 grams a day, and now to 1 gram a day. I will be taking him off the bute all together tomorrow, and expect that he will be absolutely fine.

I'm happy to say that Teddy is now back out on pasture, in his Soft Ride boots, on his Cur-Ost and Cushings management supplements, and the future is looking bright!

While Teddy was 'contained' in the small paddock, he befriended the baby donkey, Irene, with whom he shared many of his meals.

Teddy footprints in the pile of sand we had brought in to support his feet.

Teddy last year.

Teddy in the snow last year.

P's SJ round from Tryon

2011-10-28T04:29:00.000-07:00

so, They sent me in the ring without being ready, so to avoid watching me walk around and pet P for a while, skip ahead to 1:45.... Thank you Anna, for your awesome videographer skills!

OH, and if you want to skip my EPIC miss to fence 1, then move it ahead a bit further!

"Hey, Prophet!".... "yes?"

2011-10-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

It's not really a secret that for a while I was told that P wouldn't really make what I wanted. He fought a little too hard (but so do I), and he wasn't keen enough (aka, he tends to take his time). But the one thing that I've found with the cool little guy is that he always answers "yes" to the questions I ask him (although sometimes there is an eye-roll thrown in for good measure).

Well, last weekend, we answered the question "Can we make our way further into the ranks of upper-level-ville?" ... Answer? yes.

We participated in the Intermediate/Prelim division at Tryon Horse Trials at FENCE, where we did the Intermediate Dressage and SJ with the prelim XC. It's amazing how much smaller the prelim XC looks after the large Show Jumps!

P put in a respectable dressage test (equivalent of 2nd level), with a pretty major jig in the middle of our extended walk (which we usually score very well)... and of course that's the only coefficient in the test! We did get a 9(!) on our simple change through the walk. Yay!

Show jumping was awesome, and if only I hadn't had to stand in the ring for 5 minutes before they gave us the go-ahead to start, making one lazy pony to fence one, then we may have pulled off a clear ride! One rail on the board, and I was pretty much in love with my pony (if you ever doubted that before!).

XC day dawned with wicked sun glares, and we were the first one on the course. The gallop up the mountain took a bit of steam, and the pony was a bit fatigued on the way down.... but luckily for me, his TB blood pulled through and we completed with a handful of time penalties (or maybe two handfuls). We still scraped together a 2nd place finish and are on to do the regular Prelim this weekend at the Ark (which will *probably* be P's last run of the season!).

I also have to give some blog love to Anna Hamby, who rode the wonderful Sweet T to a 5th place finish in the large BN division. Sweet T came to spend 30 days with me in the Spring, and was pulled out of the field as Anna's reserve for this weekend. He blew us away with his williness (and minor silliness in dressage).... so happy for Anna!

geometry

triple bar

dunno why, but this jump looked HUGE!

A of the one stride

'A' of the angled brushes

'B' of the angled brushes

pop down into the water on the tired pony

'b' of the coffin

Cause we cannot ever have too many pads

2011-10-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

-An awesome contest for a hand-painted pad! http://lucysquest.blogspot.com/2011/10/win-hand-painted-saddle-pad.html?showComment=1317913687121#c107176408296397987

My former BSU riding teammate, Karen (http://finalchapter-karen.blogspot.com/), got a Phish one (cause she's a hippie like me) that's pretty cool, featured here....

Visit the Adventures of Lucy site to see how to enter!

Organizing Hat (or helmet)

2011-09-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

I wear a lot of hats on any given day.... there's the trainer hat (usually my trusty, too-old IRH skull cap), the instructor hat (some variation of worn-out sponsor's logo ball cap), the marketing professional (usually just brushed hair - maybe), my organizers hat (whatever makes me look less frazzled!), and the rest of the dressage helmets, show jumping helmets, etc, etc, etc. There are times I think that my organizer hat may need to be a helmet though -- for everyone's safety!

On September 18th, we kicked off the Fall season of events at the beautiful Five County Stables with the Derby - a team event that we scheduled to just have some fun! Competitors completed a course of mixed XC obstacles and show jumps and the top three scores for each team were tabulated to determine the team competition. It was great fun, and everyone seemed to have a blast competing, schooling the course afterwards, and at the trailers after the day was done!

We had some wonderful prizes donated by great companies like Royal Champion (www.royalchampion.com), and BonVivant Equine (www.bonvivantequine.com). It was so much fun to be involved with, and I hope more people make it out next time to join the party!

Fighting out of the left corner....

2011-08-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

So, here in North Carolina, we are experiencing quite the week. Beautiful weather so far (thankfully, a break from 95+ degree heat!), a little rumble of earthquake on Tuesday, and a hurricane by the weekend. Ah, just the kind of combination to get us in the mood for the Fall season.

I'm truly excited to sit down and write out a 'plan' for this Fall (and by plan, I mean I scratch and doodle some events on the calendar, most of which will change). I have the big man's name written with a tiny (whispers) "I" written next to it (meaning, if the stars align, we'll see ourselves with even bigger, big-boy pants on!), plus I have several other names to include in the schedule, besides my students of course!

The first name is a familiar one, Niki or Nik of Time who started competing with me last Spring, and has taken a bit of time off to hone the skills of eventing. She'll be back to her fighting weight soon (if only the grass would stop growing!), and be out and about at the Buckhorn Combined Test on September 10th.

The second name is one that I should have introduced last month, but my blogging upkeep has been dismal, and I'm a slacker. So, this post is introducing Ryan.

Ryan came to me the day after my wedding (cause I'm crazy and like to schedule training horses to arrive after a night of drinking and getting hitched), to see if we could make him 'normal'. He'd spent his 6 short years in the world of "paints" and "spur training", learning that if you kick, that means head down and slower. Nice. His new owner just wanted to be able to ride him with the kind of cues most of us are taught (aka, leg means go, more leg means go faster). I initially told her to give me 2 weeks with him to see where we could get.

Ryan didn't need 2 weeks - he needed 2 rides. Super smart, super cute, and super willing.

After a month of so, I popped him over a little row of fences set in the ring. He was so good! (albeit a little wiggly!).

In July, we decided to take him to a little dressage show. We were worried about him getting uptight, as the owner had seen him do in the past, but we neednot have worried! Ryan was cool as a cucumber, although a slight bit fatigued once we got in the ring. He scored a very respectable 63.2%, and went out for a cruise around the XC course. He had so much fun (and me too) that we decided to take him to the Starter HT the next weekend.

Well, once again, he ROCKED it! I don't think his little ears stopped being pricked the whole time we were there! He finished on his dressage score to place 2nd!

His wonderful owner has let me continue to show him, and is awesomely supportive. Here's to hoping for fun things from this guy this Fall!

He's back!

2011-08-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

When I get an email that I read and need to respond to but don't have time right then, I mark the little 'star' next to it. Right now, I'm starring at 100 little stars, that apparently I need to do something about, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

That's kind of how I feel about this blog. I have about 4 different posts that I REALLY need to do, but haven't seemed to find a few extra minutes to get them in. But I figured there was one really, really important one to do, and so here it is....

Prophet is back, baby!

I've actually started this entry 3 times now. First it was after a little dressage show in July where P went out and showed the dressage ponies how it's done, winning the First Level Test 3. Then it was after the rated dressage show (where we showed in the non-rated class), where P went in the ring with NO warm-up (what-so-ever) and pulled off a decent enough test, right before the rain gods blessed us with a downpour. But even though I was super happy with him at those two events, plus at the super-fun jump lessons we've had with MJS, I just couldn't bear to right "He's back" until we had an honest-to-goodness event under our belts.

Well now we do. River Glen has always been a favorite location of mine. I did my B-prep there about a million years ago, and have had a few runs around the mountain (or sometimes not quite getting to the mountain).

We (my student, Jen, working student/groom, Maggie, and I) had planned to stop for a quick XC school on the long drive up there, but after a small light malfunction (which meant taking my ancient little truck with two horses, three people, and all our stuff through the mountains), we headed straight there. This meant P was going to have to run the XC without stepping foot on a course (or into water, or over a ditch) since April. Great.

Luckily I had no need to worry.

P's dressage left a little to be desired (um, meaning I need to ride FORWARD), and I was happy to just have a rail and a few time (for a minor 'regrouping' session) after the carnage that was the Show Jumping. The XC course on Sunday had it's own set of problems. I thought it looked like a BLAST of a course, with not a lot of size, but plenty to look at. P felt a little bit taken-aback, but rocked in none-the-less, finishing over the time (a planned, slow canter around), but clear over the fences.

We brought home the green ribbon, which a very young student asked if it was 3rd place. When I replied "No, it's sixth" she said "Wow, you must have done really bad." hahahahaha.... nothing like a 6 year old to bring you down to reality.

Attached are a few pics that Bryan (owner of HoofWraps) took before XC (all photos credited to Rusted Digital Photography). I will try and get more photos/videos loaded sometime soon!

His goal was to make it look like the sun was rising!

It was a huge team effort just get get P to put one of his ears up.

Galloping up the hill to the Trekhener

P, me, my dad, Maggie, and my mom before the fun phase!

Weekend of Bitlessness

2011-07-12T13:25:00.000-07:00

So, I'm happy to report that Prophet's bout with Ulcers seems to have turned a corner in a very good way - weight is back up and he's spending his rides being cheeky and feeling like a million bucks (and throws a couple in for good measure!). If all goes as planned, he has a pretty busy Fall, so I thought it might be fun for a weekend of downtime with friends. Plus, i don't get to take many days off, so with many clients out of town for the 4th, I figured now was a good of time as any!

On Friday July 1st, my barn owner, Kim and I packed up the trailer (and I didn't even pack a bit - hackmore for us all weekend!) and horses, met friends, Trish and Rebecca, and on the road we headed to the mountains of Virginia for some good old trail riding. Now, I was picturing manicured trails of leisure riding, where one might enjoy a cold beverage while sauntering around. Well, at our final stop, about 10 miles from our destination, I was informed that there were several "train trestle crossing". Being afraid of heights as I am, I immediately picture a few shaky planks, perched precariously above a gorge with sharp rocks and river rapids below. I spend the next 10 miles of driving trying to talk myself into being brave in front of these trail riders - after all, I am the crazy eventer, right?

Arriving at camp, we were greeted by lovely lush paddocks, separated only by a few strands of un-electric wire. Luckily, P behaved himself, and didn't cause trouble with the neighbors, and was the only one standing quietly when the neighbors shot off fireworks on Sunday night, but I digress....

We went on a lovely short hack on Friday, where we were introduced to the dreaded trestle, which wasn't so bad afterall (and by the end of the weekend, I even RODE over them instead of dismounting and walking. :) The trail was leisurely, and I was worried that I might be slightly bored after 3 days of multi-hour rides on groomed trails, but I need not have worried. Saturday and Sunday we branched off the 'beaten path' and up the mountains we went, through rocks, creeks, banks, and even by one seriously TERRIFYING (random) stove the Prophet was sure wasn't supposed to be in the middle of woods -- sure glad his new girlfriend (and longtime pasture neighbor), Casey was there to catch us as we leaped away from the evil stove.

Even though Prophet and I were token 'eventers' (that's how I got introduced all weekend), I think we held our own pretty well with the trail riders -- although I'm pretty sure all four of us girls looked pretty out of place at the Ivanhoe, VA Dance (at, where else? -- the fairgrounds!).

We have better pics, that I will hopefully post here or the Facebook page shortly (including one of me and my hands-free beverage holder!). Plus, I took a pretty awful video of the ground while capturing the voice of the most interesting character we met the whole weekend - a Tennessee Peach Farmer who was pretty much awesome.

Kim with the peach farmers hound dog, Mabeline (sorry, tilt your head so the sun's on top and you'll see it!)

groomed trails

Prophet - not thrilled with me about making him stand in the creek water for a picture

P in his paddock, which was right beside our camp site... he ate dinner with us!

My engineering skills using baling twine - making it so Kim's sandals didn't fall off in the water

Fun with minions...

2011-06-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

Growing up I thought that all people got the summer off. My dad was a high school teacher, my mom was a stay-at-home mom, and my brother and I were in school - we were all home for the summer, so I assumed everyone was. Once I realized this was NOT the case, I then figured I'd have to be a teacher just so I could spend those three glorious months doing nothing but the things I wanted.

So, why on earth I have students who would rather spend their summers taking care of me, is totally beyond comprehension, but I love it!

This year, two of my students are working their way into the minion hall-of-fame. Maggie Brooks has been my tag-along from the week she got out of school and Sarah Edwards is wrapping up her social calendar so she can come hang out too! They are both great kids who do a super job of keeping me on track and everything running smoothly. But even though they work long, hot days, there is no shortage of fun (and no shortage of laughing at me!).

Maggie gets a bit wet

Larry, our wonderful farrier, teaching Maggie how to pull a shoe

And rasp off clinches - Prophet is helping!

Swim day!

Star really, really really likes the water

Incognito Diddy-Man

2011-06-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

After a wonderful weekend at Longleaf (which I didn't blog about, so I will explain here), Prophet's life has been a bit quiet.

At Longleaf, he raised the bar a bit for himself. One thing that always has me wondering with this horse is how he will handle things once they start going bad. In the past, one bad fence has been known to wreck his confidence and lead us to a downward spiral throughout the XC course. We haven't had to test that theory for a while (thankfully), until Longleaf. Approaching the Trekhener, I saw a perfect distance, with a lovely pace, and rode to it. A stride out, P peaked down and saw the ditch, scooting sideways. I'd already accepted the run-out in my head but yet, here my horse was pulling me to the other side, between the red and white flags. It was like he said, "hey mom, catch up, I just needed a little look!". Once I got my stirrup, we galloped on to the next fence (a corner), where some sapling trees, freshly planted gave us a lovely spook and missed line. Once again, I found myself re-gathering my stirrups and wits on the other side. We had one galloping table and then the water. Awesome. I tried to put the last two jumps out of my mind, but all I could think was many four letter words. My horse on the other hand, has grown up a bit and didn't miss a beat throughout the rest of the course. Could. Not. Love. Him. More. He ended up the weekend with a pretty pink ribbon, and thoroughly enjoyed his jaunt in the victory gallop.

Here's the helmet cam of our ride (notice my slight cursing at the fence 8 :)

Now, I'd decided that a good run at Longleaf would mean no Virginia Horse Trials, so I could focus on things like getting married. Thus Prophet got a light couple of weeks. Some hacks, some trots, but nothing serious. It soon became apparent to me though that something was amiss. P's a hard-keeper, very difficult on the management side, and I try everything in my power to keep that horse happy and feeling 100%. However, with my mind of wedding and clients and a new house and everything else, I found that my horse wasn't quite himself. A bit lethargic, and losing a bit of weight... and it wasn't coming back no matter what I tried. But he was happy to go back to work, his vitals were all good, his coat very shiny. All systems seemed go besides the weight and the general feeling I was getting from him.

After trying many things (change in feed, PowerPac, supplements, etc..) a quick call to my vet re-affirmed what I was thinking - ULCERS. So now after a small fortune in UlcerGuard, P is back in action... putting on weight, feeling great, and being his normal cheeky self (aka, has nearly dumped me twice on trot sets). And now I think I need UlcerGuard for myself after all the worry this horse causes me!

I've avoided traveling with him until I'm sure he's gotten a good several weeks of treatment, so our first lesson back won't be until next week. Then we plan on traveling up to the Maryland Horse Trials in July.

Other then all the P worry, things have been chugging right along around here. LOTS of baby horses to sit on, and some super nice sale horses. Busy busy busy - and so nice of summer to come blazing in with 100 temps, just as I'm getting to 12-14 hour days.

Long time... without time to blog!

2011-05-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

So, I'm apologizing for being MIA. I do have updates... lots of updates, but I promise that I have good reason for not keeping everyone in the loop - I got married! Not that many things changed for me, but it was a bit hectic to plan that big party. I promise some good updates shortly on all things C-Horse, but for now, here's some wedding photos!

Yes, I'm dancing in pink horsey mud boots. Things got a bit dirty once the rain poured!

Double Trouble

Love my Daddy!

It was a very narrow step to balance on in the first place... I'm glad John didn't drop me!

Our front porch

Yum, good cake. :)

Yes, we are classy and carrying Bud Lights into our reception. :)

At least I'm doing something right....

2011-04-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the Holiday Classic Horse Show at the Fairgrounds (we never did really figure out what Holiday we were celebrating, other than April Fools Day). I couldn't really take two days away from teaching, so Maggie Brooks went by herself on Saturday, and I was super excited to see a text come through from her mom saying that she'd placed 5th out of 16 horses in the Hunter Hack. A few hours later, Maggie called to say that Star had been very good, and she was done for the day. I was glad that Star had been good, but also thrilled that the phone call came in around 3 o'clock - maybe that would mean that Sunday's classes would be over early also!

Sunday morning, Maggie met me early so we could go load Story and Wiley and head to the fairgrounds (where Star had spent the night). A slight truck malfunction (thanks John, for waking up and jiggling the wire!), had us slightly late, but we got there in plenty of time for Maggie to pull off a 3rd in the Hunter Hack out of 14! She then went and had a LOVELY hunter round in the 2'3" except for being asleep at the first jump.

I then tacked up Story, who was lovely enough to make the cut out of 27 horses in the flat class, but not enough to place - Maggie did though! You know what's better then placing yourself - having your student place in front of you!!! Story was once again lovely in her second class, however she kindly informed the little pony running up our rear that it wasn't appropriate (a little cow hop, tail swish and ear pin), but did so right in front of the judge! Kim and John said the judge had really been watching us the whole class, so it's unfortunate that it happened about 3 strides before they called everyone to line up. Oh well... them's the breaks.

Best friends... Story snuggling up to Star in the line-up.
and we happen to be standing under the banner I designed!

While Maggie and I were showing in the big ring, Miss Yancie and crew were pulling into the fairgrounds just in time to make her showmanship debut with Wiley. I must thank Kim for running around like crazy to get Wiley and Yancie ready. I had to scratch one class to watch, but it was well worth it! Wiley didn't exactly want to jog in hand (a trend that continued to her Walk/Trot flat class), but Yancie did an awesome job.

Yancie and I after her showmanship class

We then began to wait... and wait... and wait. Apparently I'd gotten ahead of myself by being excited the show may move along quickly. I soon realized that making my 4pm lessons back in Z-town weren't happening, so I called to cancel, while we waited some more for Yancie's flat class. We really broke Yancie's dad in the right way, as at one point, he thought we'd all left him in the stands as some sort of cruel joke.

Finally it was time to go tack up Wiley and start schooling. We rode outside.... then sat around.... then rode in the covered..... then sat around.... then rode in the open schooling time in the big ring... then sat around. AND finally it was time for Yancie to go in the ring. She did awesome! Our saint of a school horse, Wiley, couldn't really feel Yancie's legs (they don't come off the flap), so he simply walked the entire first direction, but got they hint the second time around. They came home with a lovely red ribbon, a goody bag, and a HUGE cheer from the whole ground in the coliseum.

We finally wound up getting home around 8pm, with some tired ponies in tow. It was a long day, but well worth it!

I have a light schedule this weekend (wedding shower!!!!), and then we'll be back at it next weekend for the ReRun show (Saturday) and Whinstone Dressage (Sunday)!

warming up outside

trotting!

Kim, Wiley, Yancie and I after her class

Re-doing the pig-tails

walking down to the warm-up ring

Nikki's first try...

2011-03-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

Let's just get right down to it -- up until Saturday, I really think Nikki was under the assumption she was the only horse in the world brave enough to jump anything. She's kind of a diva like that. :)

But I guess I need to start at the beginning...

Nikki, Nancy and I all pulled out right on time Saturday morning for the trek to Mocksville (TTC). Nikki loaded like a champ by herself, and let everyone in downtown Zebulon know that she was headed to a big-girl horse show by herself. Once we got there, she stood on the trailer while we got checked in, and was a very good girl in general. She warmed up great for dressage, and made the long walk down the road to the arena, where we stood for a couple of rides. Once we started around the ring, she got a bit tight looking at the new surroundings, but I was pleased with her test - other then trying to stop and poop going down centerline (which earned an error on my part, because I clucked at her "use of voice"), a minor break from the canter for a stride, and a moment where she tried to scratch her face in the free walk. :) All moments that I can definitely laugh about now, but at the time I was quite made at myself for not riding her better!

Nancy and I then went to walk the XC course - which seemed huge! :) There wasn't anything I felt Nik wouldn't be up to, but it definitely was going to be a challenge. We headed back and tacked the pony up (but not before getting her some new pink Woof boots, so she could look like the diva she is!). Once we walked out to warm-up, Nikki began to stare in amazement at all the horses jumping. I literally could feel her exclaim "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, I'M NOT THE ONLY JUMPING HORSE!?!?!?!?".

When we attempted the very small cross-rail, Nikki's back turned into a 2 in long coiled spring that would unwind. Here's our first attempt! (the person saying "kick, kick" wasn't talking to us, although, maybe she should have been!) (One day, when she's a super successful eventer, I'm hoping we can look back and laugh at her very first jump at her very first event).

After that, things got better, but Nik sure wasn't her normal, confident self. At this point, I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be riding the course for placings, so I asked Nancy what we'd scored in dressage. She smiled and informed me we were sitting in 3rd on a 34! (that included my error for 'use of voice')

After a LONG hold in warm-up due to a fall on course, we made our way to the startbox. Nikki cantered out on to the course, and then needed to peak at most of the fences one time before jumping. Luckily, since it was a schooling show, we got to continue on, and by the end of the course she'd figured out her job, finishing strong and looking for some more jumps!

The Show Jump course was not an easy one for the BN, complete with colored poles, flowers, a two-stride (second jump oxer) and lots of bending lines. I told Nancy that the plan was to go in, and if Nikki started taking peaks again, I'd get a good confident jump and then call it a day. Nik was way more confident in warm-up this time around, and went in the ring and rocked it! She did have a peak at the first jump, and then again at the first oxer, but over all, she went around smoothly and confidently. We were SO proud of her!!!!

The plan is to take Nikki for a lesson with MJS and a couple of XC schools to see where she is, and MAYBE a trip to Longleaf HT at the end of April (to play with the big horses!).

Dreamer cont....

2011-03-24T20:27:00.000-07:00

Here's the video of Dreamer from back in February when I first went to ride him. Keep in mind that this is his first time in English tack, and that he really hadn't been in 'steady' work for a while! He's going to be super special I think!

Dream a little dream(er) for me....

2011-03-24T12:41:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday was my birthday. Aaaannnndddd, it's been rescheduled. At some point around the middle of the day, as I sat on the bags of feed by myself, crying because my bloodhound turned UFC fighter had tried her hardest to break my noise, while my very naughty horse (P) was trying his hardest to prove how much he did not approve of having the new horse join him and Ted, I just decided that this was not birthday material. I'd just *attempted* to take Prophet on a ride, in which he did some lovely moves that would have made the Spanish Riding School proud, and I got off mid-ride, and thought seriously for a moment there was a point that I would be run over by my suddenly 18.1 hand horse. Ugh.

But wait.... did I say new horse? Why yes, yes I did. 'Dreamer' is a 6 year old Quarter Horse that just got too big to be a reiner. He did the Futurity stuff a little bit when he was younger, but wasn't drilled to death, as he just kept growing! Now, apparently riding a spin on him is slightly like turning the Titanic. But he does try very hard. About a month ago, I went and rode him for the first time (his first time in English tack!), and he was a star. I have the video, and just need to find the time to post it, but really, I found myself cantering around and asked his (then) owner "Does he do changes?". She said "oh, yeah" and I made way across the diaganol, shifted my weight, and Ta-da! Flying change. Same thing the other way. What a cutie.

So, other then being a bit overweight at the moment, and in need of a new pair of Nike's, Dreamer has made his way to Cassidy-dressage land. He is for sale, and I think he will make someone a super fun horse. He's big and beautiful and black (until the NC sun gets ahold of him), and I'm excited to play with him until he finds a new home!

Here's some very poor camera-phone pics, but hopefully you can tell how stinkin' cut he is!!!

Notice Prophet in the background looking very angry and 'protecting' Ted

He's pretty darned cute!

Southern Pines Wrap Up

2011-03-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

Link to Prophet's pics from the weekend

Ah, the first event of the season always puts a few butterflies in my stomach. No matter how many jumps we jump, how many circles in the arena we do, how many times I tell myself things are fine - it's not until I actually cross that final finish line for show jumping that I know if I prepared enough after the winter.

For this event, I figured it was now or never with the Diddy - I went ahead and entered in the Prelim, as we've done training so many times, and had several successful Prelim runs last year. We did our gallops, we did our lessons, and he felt good to go.

First off, can I say how much fun it is to go spend the weekend with my best friend? Although I had a student there competing (more on her in a second!), for the most part it was just me and my main P-man. He tried very hard in the dressage, although he and I are still trying to figure out some new tools we've acquired through our lessons with Becky Blikslager, so we had a few notable bobbles, landing us around the middle of the pack.

Cross Country was a blast. It was a fairly gallop-y course, with a few good questions (and lots of BIG tables in typical CHP style). 5ab was a bank bounce to a roll top, and 7abc was a skinny, HUGE downbank, hard left to another skinny. There was also a sizable trekhener at 19 that was new. Enough to make me a little jittery once we were in the box, hearing the familiar 10, 9, 8....... but not enough to think that my horse wasn't up to the task at hand. Prophet seriously rocked the course, and finished feeling like he'd just gotten warmed up. I on the other hand need to do some serious P90x or something, ugh....

We did come away with several time faults, but really more because I was taking a few extra tugs before everything, making sure we came away with a confident, clean run.

Sunday morning came (after night two of sleeping in my trailer - this time with a thermal sleeping bag so I wouldn't freeze again), and Prophet was jumping out of his skin! Last year, he always felt a bit flat and tired when we Show Jumped after XC, but this time he was full of bounce! He jumped a fantastic course for me, smooth, out of rhythm, and I think Melissa Jones-Sarle would have been proud. What she wouldn't have been so proud of was me opening up too early over a sizeable square oxer, cause P to graze the back rail with a hind.

Oh well, I'll take my time penalties (XC), and 4 jump faults (SJ) and improve upon them next time.... but for now I have a CCI* qualified pony who is awfully proud of himself! He had a bit of a light week following the event (his next event isn't until the end of April), and I sure do wish school was out so I could put some students up to hack him out - it's not very fun when he's this fit!

My student who also ran at the event, Jennifer Lewis, had a fantastic weekend, finishing her first recognized Beginner Novice on her dressage score!!!!!! I'm so impressed with the progress Jenn's made with this mare (Jane) and can't wait to watch them grow together!

This weekend is Nik's first event (the Beginner Novice at TTC!), and the rest of the guys get to have a bit of down time from traveling.

Until next time - Kick on!

Nik of Time

2011-03-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, yes, Southern Pines Horse Trials was last weekend, and yes, Prophet went out and rocked it in his usually super/rock-star manner. However I'm waiting for the photographer to load the pics, since I was there by myself and thus don't have any of my own photographic evidence.

So, until then, I'd like to introduce a very promising new ride who's going to be joining Mr. P in the trailer. Nik of Time, or Nikki, has been part of the C-Horse crew for some time as a dressage pony with owner, Nancy Calhoun. Nik's decided she doesn't want to play dressage anymore and Nancy found herself a LOVELY mare to partner her in the sandbox. Thus, I started jumping Nik, and she's quite fond of it! She's got loads of jump, and super keen, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for her!

Nikki will be making her eventing debut next weekend in the TTC Horse Trials (unrecognized) and if all goes well, she's be doing the BN at Longleaf in April!

Here's Nik's video from her very first time schooling cross country (she's just been jumping since mid-January).

Nikki is for sale, and if she finds her new home, I'll be super sad to see her go, but until then I'm ecstatic to get to be her jockey!

On a side note, Nikki has been on the CurOst supplement for the last month and is doing wonderful on it! CurOst is a new sponsor to the C-Horse Crew, and I've really liked the results I've seen. Look for Nikki to be sporting the CurOST logo at all her big-girl shows!!

Belly flop...

2011-03-10T13:28:00.000-08:00

I think it's pretty funny how I always pull up other people's blogs and am highly disappointed when there's not a current update, however I have no problem leaving all my readers (hi mom!) in suspense. :) Once again, things have been a bit crazy in Cassidy-land, moving houses, moving horses, planning a wedding, starting the season... you know, the normal things.

Last I wrote, the cold weather was getting ready to make a break for it. Now we are being blessed with mostly warm days, albeit a bit breezy at times. Prophet didn't get his XC run at the Ark as he decided the 4th warm-up fence was a awesome time to pull the left front shoe - with no farrier on grounds. Ugh. We did put in a decent enough dressage test (although I went OC twice!). The video of the dressage test is one of about 6 that I need to upload, so that may take me a bit. :)

We are headed to Southern Pines tomorrow for the first recognized event of the season. Prophet's prep has been good and he's jumping out of his skin! We dressaged last weekend at a schooling show (again, videos will be uploaded) and went straight out for a XC school - both of which he handled quite well.

This post is going to be a bit short, but I promise a timely follow up with posts regarding Prophet, Story, and Nikki, plus other fun things. :)

There's hope on the horizon!

2011-02-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

When I went out to feed this morning, there was a familiar white covering all over everything - yes, once again the snow fairy had come to 'bless' us. Luckily, it was only a light covering, and has now been dissipated by the sun - 43degrees today!!!! :)

But the REALLY good news is that its supposed to be above 60, for like, several days in a row!!! Yahoo! Watch out ponies! You better be getting your work ethic on!

This weekend will be P's first outing on a XC course in 2011 - The Ark's Frostbite Event, where we will be running the Prelim Combined Test and the Training XC. We are going to play the XC by ear considering we haven't been on a course since November, and have only jumped twice in the same amount of time. Bring it on!!!

And finally, I'm super excited to announce the newest C-Horse Sponsors - CurOST. CurOST is an all-natural anti-inflammatory supplement that I'm very excited about incorporating into the program. Miss Story (aka, my hunter princess!) definitely enjoys it's benefits, and I'm looking forward to using it on the others! Plus, it's really cool that the company based in North Carolina. As with all the C-Horse Sponsors, I am so appreciative of their help and encourage anyone interested to give me ring to ask about how it's worked for me and my horses!

The weekend in which Miss Story rocks my socks

2011-02-01T09:28:00.000-08:00

Story and I back in June 2010 at her first show.

This weekend was the Fuzzy and Fun ECOSC Show at the Bob Martin Ag Center (aka - big scary coliseum), over in Williamston. Seeing it was a fairly low-key show with a 'big show' feel, I decided to take Miss Story over there with a couple other clients to get in the ring for the Field Hunter classes. Now Story hadn't been off the farm since her first show last June (where she was the Long Stirrup Champ!), and only recently (after her chiro miracle) have I really begun to understand this mare a bit more. After being such a good girl at home, I was worried a bit about how she'd handle the show, the horses, and the uber, uber, uber scary coliseum.

Story was all-business from the beginning, standing quietly for her quick clip job before loading onto the trailer like a champ. She walked the grounds like she'd been there her whole life, and stood quite nicely to be tacked. She did have a slight "deer in the headlights" moment when she first got in the ring, and was a bit nervous about facing the crowds in the first class (which I'm fairly certain cost us a ribbon). For the next two classes she was pretty much perfect, completing both classes with the BLUE! These were fairly large classes - 20+ entries, and she was a star!

Story is for sale, and as much as she's growing on me, she does need to find a new home. I think she's going to make someone an awesome horse though! She's such a fancy, good girl!!!!

And we're off.....

2011-01-25T12:28:00.000-08:00

This season is going to be busy... and we like to be busy! We've been filling in the calendar with all sorts of things to do (cause that's what one does when stuck inside for days on end!), and right now, things are looking good.... if we could ever put together a string of decent weather around here.

Last weekend was the first show I had on the calendar - a schooling dressage show at Whinstone Farm. At first, we had a sizable group interested in showing, however after the treacherous weather of the last couple weeks, everyone's enthusiasm has waned a bit. I did however feel bad emailing Patti (show organizer and Whinstone owner) to let her know that none of us from C-Horse would be attending, so I went ahead and signed up the P monster.... never mind that we had only been doing walk and trot sets for the last month. I sent in my entry, and popped outside to see if we remembered how to canter.

And of course I can't help but to schedule things on top of one-another, so I had very limited time to enjoy the actual show. I pulled into the grounds, furry/dusty pony in tow, a mere 13 minutes before my ride time (thank you frozen trailer hitch, you're a big help!). Prophet warmed up fairly respectable, and put in a decent enough test. One of my goals for the next month or two is to get P in lots of dressage arenas so I can really figure out how to RIDE him thru a test rather than winning the warm-up and then blowing it in the box. I figured now was as good of time as any, and booted him through a couple of movements to really try and get him to keep trying in there. I had a couple of wonderful clients come watch, and they were wonderful enough to video my rusty first go, so I will get to watch our test and see how it looked.... it didn't feel the best, but not the worst.

It must have not been too bad, as P scored a 69 and change, earning a win in the First Test 1 division and the high score of the day!!!! AND we actually got an 8 on gaits (which I owe totally to the careful addition of weighted boots to our program). Since I don't have the video or pics of P yet, I'm posting pics of our test for proof!

Can you tell I booted him a bit too much in our free walk? (6th movement)

An 8! An 8 on GAITS!!!!!

69.310! Good boy Diddy man.

So, I do feel like maybe the judge was a bit generous, but I am proud of my little man for being such a trooper with a 7 min warm-up.

The cool thing about Diddy is that he is multi-talented... As I had MANY lessons scheduled after the show, I threw him in a field at a client's place, and drove around to 'my' barns for a couple of hours, before returning to my boy. I had one lesson left for the day... one of my younger clients, Ms. Yancie, who has a deep love for all things pink, so I figured she'd like a lesson on the Diddy, complete with his Pink Blingy Dressage Bridle (BonVivant Equine). So Diddy pulled another shift as walk/trot lesson pony before getting to go home.

Her legs barely reached the bottom of my jump saddle!

Just because he was such a good boy Sunday, P got treated to the first canter/gallop of the 2011 season on Monday, and man, did it feel awesome. He felt strong... really strong, and was moving SSSOOO well. I'm so excited about this season!

Ciao, ciao!

Thank you Hoof Wraps!

2011-01-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

This time of year, combined with this kind of weather (the nasty miserable kind), usually translates into problematic shoeing issues. Soft feet, sucking mud, snow-balled snow, slippery ice, icy footing... it's all so much fun to deal with (especially for farriers, I'm sure!). I'm very lucky in that I have a fantastic farrier, Larry Revels, who keeps Prophet's feet looking and feeling fantastic. Seriously, the improvement in gait and quality of hoof has been amazing since Larry started working on Prophet. The seriously good farrier work, combined with great added nutrition (thanks to Prophet's supplements provided by Royal Champion) have meant limited "oops" moments when it comes to thrown/sucked-off/just-plain-missing shoes.

But... P always likes to make life a bit more interesting.

Sunday I had quite a busy day planned teaching lessons and felt pretty lucky to squeeze in a lovely ride on the boy just before I had to leave. I turned him out, shut the gate and ran up the hill to grab their breakfast. In the *maybe* 2 minutes I was gone, P managed to catch his shoe on the edge of the insulated wire that is buried under the gate (for the hot wire that we don't turn on) and cleanly pull of the shoe. When I walked down the hill, grain buckets in tow, I opened the gate to find a perfectly pulled shoe and one very sheepish looking boy.

Luckily I had my handing Hoof Wraps handy, so slapped one of those on and was out the driveway minutes later (no fussing with vetwrap, sticking ducttape, etc....).

The true test came today - 48 hours after the initial application - when the farrier came, I pulled off the wrap to a clean, protected, lovely bare foot.... not too shabby considering Prophet is turned out 24 hours a day, and we had rain all last night.

I've used Hoof Wraps for several years now, and am lucky enough to have had them as a sponsor for much of that time, but I'm always amazed at the job that they do -- thank you Hoof Wraps!!!!

Prophet with his Hoof Wrap that lasted him 2 days (until the farrier came)! I meant to get a pic of how lovely his hoof was underneath it, but didn't. But you can use your imagination!

Hibernation? Is it a viable option?

2011-01-13T13:08:00.000-08:00

Hello from the arctic north. I mean... what? North..... Carolina.

This is the place where wind seems to find the smallest areas of exposed skin, the temps regularly don't reach about 35 and the ponies are all crazy since they haven't been able to run and play for weeks due to the ice and snow -- that sounds about right, right? UGH.

I think it's safe to say that we are all about over this weather, humans and ponies alike. And I'm thinking that I have some awesome timing regarding the time of year I decided to really give this 'riding thing' a go (read sarcasm). Thankfully, I'm a bit creative, and have kept myself and my horse's busy during this 'winter event' (this is the term the media actually used for the last ice storm). On several occasions, however, I've seriously considered hibernation (obviously, I've practiced it when it comes to this blog - which I've been horrible about updating!). Think about it though... Get a bit fat, sleep for a long time, avoid Holiday shopping - works for me!

But since I'm already half way through this mess, I figured I might as well stay awake, keep working and update my blog!

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to be escorted to the NCDCTA Gala by Jonathon (yes, John is my fiance, Jonathon is his alter-ego where he decides to become "one of my people" and act as 'horsey' as he can -- good laughs all night!). Anyway, Prophet was a good boy this year, earning 5th place in the training division and 3rd place in the Preliminary and Above class. Next weekend, I'm looking forward to the Fenridge Farm Banquet with friend and client, Dana Sanders and her husband - Mexican dinner and open bar! I have a feeling that John and Adam are looking forward to it for completely different reasons then Dana and I!

NCDCTA Preliminary and Above Division. Brittany Bridges, 1st; Amanda Miller, 2nd; Cassidy Sitton, 3rd.
Photo by Sandra Bridges

I'm running out of time for this update (I know, I know - equine updates coming shortly!!!!), but for now, I figured I'd leave you with some images of our activities over the last couple of weeks.

Stay warm!!!

The Sitton's are serious about the Paintball War!

Teddy in the snow! Photo by Dawn Borden

Prophet in the snow - with his headband on!
Photo by Dawn Borden

Awe - True love. :) Thank hon!
Photo by Dawn Borden

When we can't ride horses - these are the activities that go on around the farm!
Photo by Dawn Borden

Back....back in tack! and other ramblings

2010-12-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

Last week P went back to work...

I'm using the term 'work' lightly here as the rides have not so much resembled 'work' as they have some sort of weird impressionistic painting - all jumbled up, a bit chaotic, and leaving you a bit uneasy feeling. I figured he was ready for a job as he'd taken to running poor Ted all around the field - some sort of weird new hobby. Seeing as P is normally a fairly mellow guy, I ventured out on the fuzzy thing in 30 degree weather with hefty wind gusts sans a neckstrap and with a quartersheet over my dressage saddle (wouldn't want my little honey-bear to get cold!). We spent the first half of the ride cantering in place, doing these weird leap/twist/turn things. Once I herded the cats underneath me back into the field nearest our house I was able to re-locate the walk, and have an ok ride.

Since then, Prophet has dramatically chilled out, and reduced his craziness to one or two spook/bolts per hack - SUCCESS! He will be hacking till the end of the year and then we'll start back into some 'real' work.

I have also realized that most of these blogs are about the amazing Mr. P, however I am getting more and more nice horses on as sale horses, some of which will be kicking off competition seasons in 2011. One horse that you all have been introduced to before, but who took a bit of a hiatus is our diva - Ms. Story. (For Story's formal introduction, click here: http://chorseeventing.blogspot.com/2010/06/now-introducing.html) Story had been coming along quite nicely, but I just kept feeling like some of the issues we were experiencing were not her fault. I finally got her scheduled with my wonderful Chiro, Dr. Libby Engel, and we found out she definitely had reason to be holding back! Her hind end was all wacked out, and she felt MUCH better after the adjustment. Story is now much happier, and has a new outlook in 2011 with her debut as a JUMPER planned!

Story and I getting ready to go lunge in the coldness... bbbrrrrr

Recently I've also been approached about a couple of horses who look to be joining the 'team' in one roll or another (sale horses, competition horses, etc...) so I'll be excited to get pics and video of all of them updated just as soon as this darned weather gives us a break!

Speaking of bad weather, things have been just a bit slower then the past couple of months, which means I got to spend some quality time with friends. My very, very good friend (who also happens to be one of my "North Carolina moms") Kristin Edwards, allowed me to come by and assist in the 'cookie baking afternoon' along with her daughter, and my student, Sarah. We definitely had some 'special' cookies, don't ya think?

Kristin's Pony

Sarah's 'artistic' polar bear (which was supposed to also be a horse - see the tail? :)

Under the C.....

2010-12-07T14:12:00.000-08:00

Right about now, I'm feeling like the worst blogger in the world. For some reason, everytime I open a new window to start typing, I get overwhelmed with all that I need to update, and simply close the screen and go on doing something else! Figuring as the list isn't getting any smaller -- here's a very scattered, unorganized update.

At last post, I'd just come off organizing the events at 5-County Stables, both of which ended up successful, and I'm looking forward to meeting with Greg this week to finalize dates for next year.

Prophet is happily hacking around after his end-of-season vacation. He came down with a bit of a virus for a couple of days after Thanksgiving, and has successfully recovered to his normal naughty state. The plan for be includes hacking for the next couple of weeks (while it's dreadfully cold) and then ramping back up with lessons with Melissa J-S and Karyn B. January will hopefully be mild enough that we can get around for some of the schooling shows in the area with recognized events (and P's road to the *) beginning in February!

The whole "horse-professional" gig is working out nicely, although the unseasonable cold temps we've had here in NC for the last couple of days have left me with some seriously numb appendages! (I said BRR!, it's cold in here... there must be some Toros in the atmosphere....o e o e o. ice ice ice -- Not a Bring It On fan? Then you won't get it)....

Moving on...

It's really amazing how close-knit the horse world is, and the amazing people that you meet along the way. Several months ago I introduced myself to Dressage Rider Claudia Coombs, as a couple of my clients were friends of hers. Now, I find myself in the lucky situation of teaching out of her barn in Eastern North Carolina. She did a lovely little write up introducing me on her blog, and I'm so happy to say that she's offered the use of her facility as an 'Eastern NC Base' for me! Anyone who is interested in scheduling lessons at Her farm (Green Ridge), please Contact Claudia!

It's because of the generosity of people like Claudia (and Kim and Greg and Dave and everyone else!) who support me, that I've gotten to transition into doing this riding thing for a living and I'm forever in debt to their kindness!

I promise to give more frequent updates as Christmas approaches, but at least I got this first one out of the way! Ciao ciao and stay warm!

Organizing machine...

2010-11-16T17:49:00.000-08:00

If only I could be talking about my house...

But no, I am referring to my new hobby of organizing events out at Five County Stables!

Five County is a wonderful facility that I began teaching at last Spring. With a wide variety of boarders and wonderful amenities, it's a really cool place to be around. The owner, Greg Hartrich, is a trail rider at heart, with a wonderful desire to provide a place for people to enjoy their horses, no matter what the discipline.

The events held at Five County had been previously organized by another professional, and when that relationship ended (between her and the barn), the events were at risk of being lost. I offered to help out, and thus we scheduled at Combined Test and a Hunter Pace for this Fall.

The Combined Test was held on Halloween, and we had participants in Green-As-Grass, Maiden and Beginner Novice levels in addition to straight dressage tests. Although the turnout was small, we had a great time with beautiful weather.

Sarah and Cocoa both look good in blue! Shartra Sylivant Photo

In addition to organizing, there were also C-Horse Event Team members competing and volunteering - what a family event! Shartra Sylivant and Draco won the Low Score Award, and Sarah Edwards with Cocoa won the Green-as-Grass division. Kim G. placed second to Sarah in her first competition after a "hiatus" -- Happy Birthday Kim!!!!

Shartra and Draco on their way to receiving the Low Score Award. Jim Sylivant Photo

Two weeks later, we hosted the Hunter Pace, and the turnout was quite different then the CT... we had over 100 horses competing!!!! If you would have told me how time consuming it would be to set up for a Hunter Pace, I would have told you that you were crazy. But alas, Greg and I got it set up, and got all the chili cooked (for the free chili lunch). Everyone had safe rides, and once again we were blessed with absolutely amazing weather. It was a pleasure to see people of all disciplines enjoying their horses.

Now I'm back to 'regular' living, teaching and riding and still reeling a bit from the rush that was the Hunter Pace. Next week I head to Illinois for family Thanksgiving... can't wait to see my 'Rockstar' (Rockie) and the rest of the ponies (and eat a lot of stuffing!!!!!)

And in the left corner, we have ROYAL CHAMPION!

2010-11-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

One of the awesome things about being involved with the growing business that is C-Horse Eventing, is the great group of products that I get the pleasure of using in my everyday program, and get to promote as sponsors of C-Horse! The newest one of these companies is Royal Champion Supplements.

A few months ago, my friend Risa Flamm contacted me to see if I'd be interested in giving Royal Champion Supplements a try in Prophet's program. Now, I'm particular when it comes to my horse, and I want to be sure that he's getting everything he possibly can to perform at optimal levels, so I did a bit of research and gave the sample bag a try.

I do also like to think that I supplement my horse adequately, but not OVER supplement. I'd like to have more then just very expensive fertilizer when all is said and done. What I like about the Premium Plus product is that it provides vitamin and mineral support for all the systems of the horse, in a lovely all-around additive, and leave P looking and feeling great!

If you're interested in including Royal Champion in your program, feel free to use coupon code "Cassidy10" and receive 10% off your order!

See P and I's introduction on their blog here.

The 100 year drought....

2010-11-02T12:39:00.000-07:00

Right now I feel like the world's worst blogger. Nearly a month and no actual updates? How does that happen?!

I'll tell you how that happens... stress/confusion/frustration/lack-of-sleep

Basically for the last year or so I've been running around like a headless chicken, scaring small children and making in-audible screeching noises (ok, maybe not the last two things). Now, I LOVE being busy, and working hard for a goal, however I was losing more and more time with the two things I love most in this world - J-Bomb and P-Diddy.

I've been very lucky that P is as good as he is, and was able to rock his move up to Preliminary, qualifying for a CIC*, all the while, improving in a program that consisted of scattered jump schools and midnight trot sets/dressage schools.... what a good boy.

J-bomb became resigned to the fact that his fiancé may not clean, cook, or ever be home, yet he would call during the day to make sure I was ok and we'd talk and fill eachother in on what's going on, since the only times we'd see eachother face to face, one of us was usually asleep.

Recently I've become quite busy with the horse stuff, with more training horses and more lesson clients. I even took up a new 'organizing' hobby, tackling a Combined Test (which happened last weekend) and a Hunter Pace (coming up next weekend). I've also picked up some more freelance marketing/design/website business. I love the direction all my personal business is going, however, I was still running out of hours in the day and most of my hours were being spent at ThinLine, doing things that weren't being productive towards my personal goals.

Do you know how hard it is to try and quit a job, especially in this economy? It's kind of like jumping off a cliff, into the deep end, in the dark, without telling anyone where you're going (hence the "how to fall" post from last week -- that was the day of the quitting). For the last year, I've been pondering this move, telling myself that the time would come. Well, in the last week, two things happened which made me realize it was time...

First off, I took P down to Aiken for the Paradise Horse Trials. I won't go into crazy amounts of details, but the whole trip was a bust, from a crazy bit check person on a power-trip, to retiring on XC (and not realizing they marked me as an E until way later). P did jump one of only two double clears in SJ, and will live to fight another day (another day that I've actually prepared appropriately for!).

P had done the CT at Fenridge the weekend before, winning easily, and although that was the only jumping we'd done since AECs, I felt semi-prepared for Paradise, which wasn't good enough, since neither P nor I were seeing our spots very well. Lesson learned. P's fine, I'm fine, now we school for the winter, and come out in February ready to fight hard!!!!!

The second thing that made me realize that it was time was the fact that when J-bomb and I did get to see eachother, it usually involved me having a minor mental meltdown about something stupid. John finally asked me if he could schedule some "non-crazy-Cassidy-time", and told me to write it in my calendar. I think that's a sign that things need to be better, eh?

So I went and gave my notice last week, and luckily (for my bank account), ThinLine is going to let me continue on at 2 days a week and I can spend the rest of the time growing my business! It's a huge relief... one that hasn't really hit me yet, I think. I did get to clean out my fridge yesterday morning (and in the process, I became painfully aware of just how long it had been since I'd done housework), and have a pretty loaded schedule still, but I'm thinking I'll be having way less meltdowns on John.

Prophet has a dressage show this weekend with a light XC school. We then will have a dressage lesson next week, and continue chipping away at our dressage and show jumping throughout the winter.

I do have some very exciting news about new sponsors and more updates, but it just took me a while to work up the courage to announce that "I quit!" so those posts will be coming soon!

Here's to hoping that the riding/marketing/teaching/etc... business that is C-Horse keeps growing and growing... Ciao, ciao!

How to Fall...

2010-10-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

So, I'll have a whole lot of information to update everyone on, but I really need to make it through this afternoon (tomorrow you will understand why)....

Until then, I think this concept is something that's really important. We shouldn't be affraid to fall off, really. (which is why I I bake people cakes when the fall off in my lessons).

http://eventingnation.com/home/2010/10/learning-how-to-fall.html

What could have been...

2010-10-06T11:12:00.000-07:00

By now, many of my fellow bloggers who attended WEG are back home, writing about their WEG experience, and how they are getting back to real life. My Facebook Feed is filled with much of the same, with friends going back to work, school, riding, life in general.

I, on the other hand, am still up here in Kentucky (I really have to refrain from using the work 'stuck'), happy to still be surrounded by such quality horse flesh, but DYING to get back home. Ok, so maybe 'dying' is a strong word... but I'd really, really, really, really like to be back in North Carolina. But since I can't be, I'm adding a belated update to my blog...

In a nutshell, here's the things that have happened here at WEG over the last couple of weeks.

Trade Fair Shopping - Dismal.
I'm highly disappointed with the shopping experience, although my bank account is happy. Everyone else must be too, because we've had a few good days, but other then that, I've been wandering more then actually selling product - just LOOKING for stuff to spend money on, but still no dice. We did have one exciting night which featured a photo session with the mannequin next door though....

Alltech - Big Brother?
So come to find out that title sponsor, Alltech, kind of has their hand in everything... from Dip-N-Dots Ice Cream to horse supplements. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? (The even make the beer being sold here -- it's bad beer, but at least it's beer)

Alltech Chandelier and Shell Horse - AMAZING
House warming present anyone? Actually, anything I've found this week that I've liked, I've inquired about 'registering' for (wedding registry that is -- no dice on that either).

Fuego's Dressage Freestyle - no words to describe
I'm glad that I got to see Totilas in person (3 TIMES!), but even more impressive was that I got to watch Fuego's freestyle from the 5th row... Fuego rocks my socks. 'Nuff said.

Main Stadium and floating Land Rover - Pretty darned impressive
So the main stadium is wrapped in this huge banner, and being a marketing person who regularly orders banners, my first thought was "That must have cost a FORTUNE!" The floating Land Rover is held within limited distance by a simple rope... and don't think for a minute that Tara and I haven't contemplated pulling the floating dock close to the bank just to see if the keys were in it... perhaps there will be an update on this before the end of the week. Keep an eye our in the police reports

Tending to a pony who took a spill... luckily no riders or horses were seriously injured the whole day -- SUCCESS!

Eventing - Ah, what could have been....
Come on USA -- we've brought in show jumping people and dressage people to coach and the event in on home turf, and we still can't get our S*&^ together? And a stop in Show Jumping? AND one in XC? Really? My heart is broken for Becky, who I think deserved to have luck on her side and stand on a podium, but apparently the shoe that Comet threw at fence 7 landed facing upside down... boo. The Canadians surely impressed though, and since I know several members of that team personally, I can't help but be happy for them - and inspired by their tenacity, drive and down-right get-it-done grit.

That's all I've got for now... more to update later in the week. We plan on taking in the Show Jumping Team finals tonight, and I definitely plan on experiencing the marathon day of Combined Driving... who knows, maybe I'll pick up a new sport when I get home!

PS... only 5 more days until I'm driving back to North Carolina!

My Old Kentucky Home

2010-09-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my old home may not have been Kentucky, it was a state that borders Kentucky, so close enough. I have had the opportunity to be here many times. As an 'east-coaster' now, I forget the times when a six hour trip to the Kentucky Horse Park was considered a 'close' event, but it was, so we made the trip many times. I have many fond memories from this area, and a few not so fond (but educational, I'm sure!).

Anyway, there's a special feeling around Kentucky. Perhaps it is the 'blue' grass, the field of drafts that greets you as you exit off I-75, the KHP sign with the mare and foal... I dunno, it's just special.

I'm here working for my 'day job' but am super excited to see Rebecca rock the XC on little Ruppie. I've also been inspired... I'll explain the inspiration later, but for now, I'm just being motivated to make improvements.

I'm also very excited about my boys at home... although I'm missing them terribly. I plan to call Karyn tomorrow for a P update, but last word was very positive. Ted has taken on the roll of local celebrity at Kim Griswold's WynnScott Farm, with several photoshoots scheduled, and girlfriend's galore!

More in a few days, but until then... stay motivated! :)

2010-09-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

Cabin on the lake -- absolutely stunning

Prophet getting pumped for his hack in his BonVivant Equine Browband (www.bonvivantequine.com)

REALLY snazzy in his Animals to Wear saddle pad (www.animalstowear.com)

Amanda at the log on the mound before the water

Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee...

2010-09-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

It gets hotter than a ........

Oh, you know the rest.

Anyway, before I start telling the tale of the AECs, I will first tell the tale of the competitors (after) party. First, my readers, understand that I did work at the Fork, which not only throws killer competitor parties, but even more killer after-parties, complete with beer hidden in the bushes, naked people in the river, shacking up in the apartment above the barn, etc... (all of those events actually happened the year before I was employed there, shame).

Anyway, little did I know the shinnanigans that would be had from 11pm-2am when I jumped on the back of a gator with my friends. Nothing bad, mind you, except we did have several cases of Barefoot Wine (sponsor of the AECs), and tour guides who happened to know every inch of the 9,000 acres we were on. We viewed the location of the video shoot for the Alan Jackson song (of which this post is named after), we drove around to see Troy Glaus's cabin, nearly went for a swim in a lake, and in general had a GREAT time, that lead to a very LONG drive home Saturday morning. Did I mention we had a AWESOME time? We did.

But now allow me to tell the tale of how we got from Wednesday to Friday night....

Amanda Miller (www.millereventing.com), her groom Ali, and I all were riding down together, so after getting a late start (1.5 hours!), we headed down many many miles of interstate to arrive at (near) our destination. We then spent a bit thinking we'd read the directions wrong, until we finally saw a little bitty sign with an arrow for 'Chat. hills event'. We pulled up, got our map to the stabling and began the trek up the road. About 20 minutes later (seriously), we arrived at our barn. This is after passing hundreds and hundreds of trailers, horses, people, farriers, vendors, wash racks, etc... Of course to fit over 700 horses onto one facility, the stalls would have to be pretty tight. Luckily our event horses are used to stepping over buckets, tubs, fans, small children, dogs, etc...

The boys got settled and we went to walk our course. It looked like so much fun! Quite a bit smaller in size then what P has been jumping, but some tough, tough (did I say tough?) questions that would definitely keep him thinking!

I got up Thursday morning to bathe and braid as my ride time wasn't until 11 or so. P was a bit naughty in the warm-up to begin with, but really came out of it nicely. I was super stoked with the horse I was sitting on. I was earnestly watching the horse before me and just as she turned down center line, I stuck off across the walk way between warm-up and the competition area, only to be stopped by a volunteer who said I needed to wait until that horse made it's final 4 strides and halted (it was halfway across the arena before I'd be reaching my competition ring anyway). Well, during those 4 strides, P had an epiphany that this was no normal competition, and that there were people, and flags, and tents and all sorts of scary things. Thus I rode my test a bit conservatively.

After watching the video, I was very pleased with my boy! And THEN I looked at online scoring and was NOT pleased with my score, but oh, well... nothing I could do about it now!

On we went to XC where P ROCKED the course.

Everything seemed easy, and I'd like to think P and I BOTH had a blast! Plus we made time!!! Something we don't do very often! Back to stabling we went with a happy grin, and a good pony! A couple rounds of ice, and a walk or two lead us to the wine and cheese party... where we needed WAY more food with our wine!

Luckily that night my parents had gotten a hotel room so we didn't need to tent it. Man a shower and Taco Bell seemed like the two most awesome things at that moment!

But we were back at the show early the next morning to take P our on a hack with Connor (and whoever thought it would be a good idea to put a hack trail THRU cross country, was not thinking clearly. Both ponies would have liked to tackle the XC again! Amanda and I both survived, and then I got to spend a bit of time test driving Land Rover's and browsing the trade fair before our 4:30pm stadium ride.

P warmed up for stadium nicely, although he was rubbing the front rail of the oxer just a bit. I stuffed him into a short spot right before we went down to the ring, just so he'd have to jump up and around and I guess the plan paid off since he went in and pulled off a double clear for me! YEAH FOR FINISHING ON OUR DRESSAGE SCORE!!!! We moved up 18 places after our dressage to finish in 26th place. Not too bad in a division full of professionals from around the country!

(check out the awesome change at :44 and my over half halt at 1:09)

Then it was on to the competitor's party, which you already know about.

I was a bit crazy and taught a full day of lessons Sunday, plus rode a couple of client horses in a dressage show. Needless to say, I was a bit beat come Sunday night!

This weekend I head to Indiana to teach a clinic and be in a wedding, then it's off to WEG next week! Speaking of WEG, a HUGE congrats is due to RebHow (Rebecca Howard), my former employer, who had made the Canadian Team with Rupert (a little horse that I said was going to the Olympics when Rebec said "he'd make a nice Young Rider's horse"... see Rebec?)

Ciao, ciao!

North Carolina, come on and raise up!

2010-09-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

aka.... 5-Points Horse Trials

So, I've been a total slacker about the blog, yet again. Sorry! Here's several updates coming at you at warp speed... are you ready? Ok then, here we go.

Two weeks ago, the Diddy and I headed, once again, down ol' #1 to the Carolina Horse Park. Yes, this would be the third time this year. I think P now simply steps off the trailer and goes "oh ok, here we go AGAIN".

The arrival couldn't be without a bit of drama of course. I made a last minute decision to leave at O-dark-thirty Friday morning rather then drive down Thursday night for a couple of reasons. 1- I hadn't packed yet. 2 - I wanted to go to the used tack sale happening at the fairgrounds. 3- that would be one less night of Diddy crammed into a stall and me sleeping in the tack room of my trailer.

So off I went to the tack sale after work, where of course I gabbed it up with people I hadn't seen forever, and upon leaving the building, I realized that the feed store closed in 15 minutes, and I was probably 25 minutes from it's location. I called them, and begged the kid on the end of the line to please stay open 5 extra minutes, while I zoomed at breakneck speeds around the beltline of Raleigh. I arrived at exactly 8:02 and the kind people of TSC simply starred at me as I stood in front of the door with my best pout going on. Not gonna work on them! They simply walked to the back of the store without even opening the doors to say "sorry, we're closed". UGH.

So I hopped back in my car, made a teary phone call to J-bomb, after which I got my s*&t together and found a client that fed the same kind of feed as me who would let me buy half a bag. Off to her barn to scoop feed, back home to feed, pack, and go to sleep so I could pull out at 5am.

The rest of the trip went completely fine, and once I got there, and got Diddy ready (touched-up clipped, bathed and braided in less then 45 min!), I realized that I was sitting on a seriously good horse that morning! He was awesome in warm-up, listening but very forward and springy. Once we got into the ring, We had a bit of an issue... see, there's these really scary things called shadows that CANNOT be stepped on as they may very well swallow horses whole. Over all, Diddy was actually really good, just a few bobbles screwed up our score (and a BAD score it was!). Oh well, the fun stuff was to come!!!!

Seeing as we only rode one phase on each day, and that I was done with dressage at 9:30, I had a long day ahead of me! I got to go out and walk the course a couple of times, and warm-up a friend/client for her first recognized dressage test (she came over to the dark side from hunter-land). P seemed relaxed and a bit less cranky about the whole stall thing then usual, so I was feeling pretty confident about Saturday.

Once again, I rode really early (which meant only a few of my friends from Raleigh made the trip down in time to watch), but with the warm temps, I was happen to have the XC done before the heat of the day. P made fairly easy work of the course, and I let him coast around as he had to run at the AECs in just 4 days. He got a bit slow footed in the water, but other then that, I could not have been happier with my run. He made everything seem super easy! I just can't believe how much he's matured and grown over the last year... I LOVE him!

He cooled out well, and I, once again, got to spend the day lounging with friends, warming Amy up for her ride, and just enjoying myself in general (in between the wrapping and icing and walking of course... Oh, I forgot to mention that Amy (who is now my hero), offered me half her bed in the Microtel in exchange for coaching... pretty darned good trade if you ask me!!

When Sunday morning finally showed it's face, I was super excited to get in the SJ arena. My pony was a bit on the tired side and even threw in a bit of a stop in warm-up when I put him at a nasty spot. Being careful not to pick (Amy, the really experienced hunter/jumper, coached me in warm-up), I went in the ring with the goal of having a forward positive ride. P didn't disappoint, although we did have some rails, I am super confident that they were due to pilot error/horse fatigue, and both of those issues I can work on! He came out in super form and wound up in 9th place. 3rd qualification down and one to go!

Can I get a "heck yeah" for little, local shows?

2010-08-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

I grew up with a small local circuit of shows. They were perfect for young riders, green horses, a few scary rounds, and a good hot dog. The local show scene around the Triangle is just a bit different, but not lacking the good experience and good hot dogs!

Saturday Maggie Brooks and Sarah Edwards headed down to Pine Level, NC for one such local show.

Maggie was riding her new horse, Star, who I have seen be very naughty in the past (once when Maggie was showing her as a favor to me before the Brooks decided to by her). Since then, Maggie has shown her once while I was out of town and Star had been MUCH better behaved. after watching the videos from that show, I could see that now that we had the behavior issue under control, Maggie needed to push the envelop a bit more to get the best out of the mare. We worked on it during her lesson Friday, and it transferred over to the show Saturday, with Maggie winning one class and receiving a 2nd, two 3rds, and a 5th. Not a bad color scheme!

Sarah was riding her semi-new horse, Cocoa. Cocoa came to the Edwards' family back in April, I think. He has loads of talent, but is just a bit uneducated, and is a MUCH different ride then Sarah's last horse. Because of all those factors, we've taken things a bit slow so that way Sarah can be confident and Cocoa can learn to CHILL. And chill he did! She jumped her over fences course exactly as we'd planned (trotting), and rode well in all the flat classes (once she found her way to the rail!!!!). She ended up with a 3rd, a 4th, and I think a couple of other ribbons.

WELL DONE LADIES!!!!!

Good boy Snake Killer, and excellent riding, Sarah!

Star and Maggie's first Win!

Maggie and Star

Now it's off to Southern Pines for P and I this weekend for the 5-Points Horse Trials. More to report after then!

Not so Difficult Run, but a difficult drive!

2010-08-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Ugh, I know I've been horrible about updating... just something about being apprehensive makes me dread putting things 'down on paper', or I guess it's 'out in cyberspace'.

Anyway, there really anything specific to be apprehensive about, just the fact that I was worried that P's success at his first Prelim might have been a fluke and that we weren't prepared or ready or whatever to tackle it again. Thanks mom, for making me a worry wart about anything and everything! :)

I've also been so busy though, that I didn't really have time to A) worry as much as I probably could have and B) I did have time to worry that with my busy schedule, that there was probably no way in heck that I'd properly prepared my horse to start off the Fall season yet.

So with all the worrying going on, I headed up the road last Friday to spend the night with a long-time friend in Middleburg, VA. Prophet settled nicely in his paddock while Dana and I enjoyed good company and a glass of wine on her beautiful cabin porch. It was amazingly peaceful, but I knew that 5:30 wake-up call was going to come wicked early.

Now, although I would never want to live in Northern Virginia again, I do think that it's one of the most beautiful places to visit. As I made my way from Middleburg toward Frying Pan Park down 50, I was treated to fog-kissed scenery, which made waking up so early manageable.

I'd made the decision to change Prophet's bit for Dressage as he sometimes just needs a bit of a change to stay fresh. Usually a change is a good thing... this time, not so much. With his rubber mullen mouth in place, he proceeded to drag me places rather then staying soft and rideable. Even so, we managed an OK test with everything from a 4 (leg yield) to an 8 (free walk). A score of 36 and change landed us mid-pack in a field of about 17.

Shortly after dressage, my great friend, and soon to be leaving the US for her home country of 'Canaydea', Mel, arrived and we went out to trek around the XC. The first part of the course was over dreadfully terrible gravel footing, and seeing as I hadn't even made up my mind whether to not go out on course, or maybe just pull up after P got a few good fences in, I honestly felt like there was no need to walk the rest of it. But we did, and the footing did get better from there on out. It wasn't a difficult course, but had a couple of questions that I was keen to know how P would handle.

Show Jumping was in the indoor and P put in a stellar round - saving by butt twice - and being an all around professional through the entire course. He pulled off a double clear round, and was one of only two horses to do so! Thanks to his wonderful efforts, we moved up to 3rd place!

Immediately we headed out to wait our turn in the start box.... and here's where the apprehension kicked in. What was he going to be like? Was he going to be timid after the BIG course at Carolina Horse Park, or was he going to be a bigger, better horse because of it? Didn't really have time to think about it to much since before to long we were being told "have a nice ride!".

P and I picked our way around that course like an old married couple at Kroger. We were a bit slow most of the time, VERY slow sometimes, had a few familiar discussions, but all together, we knew each other so well that it felt easy. Once I got about 3/4 of the way thru, I knew I could pull up, but figured I might as well canter across the finish line and get in our second qualifying score. As we cooled him out, I slowly came to the realization that my baby had literally just loped his way around a Preliminary course and made it feel easy!!!! Pretty darned cool feeling!

I also slowly came to the realization that I'd completely ripped out the knee patch on my oldest and fondest pair of show breeches.... a pair that my mom showed in when I was about 10 years old, and I inherited when I was in high school. Definitely made me a bit sad!

Once we got P cooled, and everything packed, I jumped in the truck, ready to tackle the 5 hour trip home. Figuring I was leaving at 1 pm, I estimated my arrival back in Raleigh at 6pm -- just in time to get everything settled and enjoy dinner with J-Bomb. Did I say 5 hour drive? Apparently I meant 7.5 hour drive with wicked traffic everywhere I turned.

P and I both unloaded back at Raleigh a bit stiff, but by Sunday morning he looked much better (although I was still a bit stiff). He's had two well-deserved days off now and will go on a stretching hack this evening.

Put your leg on, stupid....

2010-08-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, my busy schedule as of late has led to o-dark-thirty rides with the Diddy. The last two nights I've focused on Dressage, where he's been actually really good! .... or fairly good for P anyway. The thing I've been struggling with is keeping his back moving and keeping a soft even contact as we canter down hill (the only spot of the field that even has faint light is on a hill. For some reason, we get a bit jack-hammery which usually ends in a bit of a fight.

But the thing is, is that I feel like he wants to stay round and be good. I've been a bit paranoid that it means that there's something wrong with him physically, but other then being scheduled for his chiro follow-up, there's nothing that anyone can find.

Well, last night I finally had my ah-ha moment. And now I feel a bit blond. Apparently what my horse needed was for me to ride him forward down the hill, while keeping my thighs and seat open and moving with a soft contact and calf on.

Hmmmm.... worked like a charm, and I actually had a canter to work with at the bottom of the hill -- amazing how that works eh?

Pony will get a little flat/trot tonight, and a small jump school tomorrow before we head up to Middleburg in the afternoon. Pondering putting him back in the rubber mullen mouth for flatting -- might have to play with that idea tonight.

Whirlwind like a tornado, explosion like a volcano

2010-08-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

P says 'hello!'

So, I've been looking at my calendar.... I've been flipping through it everyday, just hoping that more days and hours will magically appear. Let's just say that my Fall is filling up fast - really fast. But you know, the funny thing is, is that no matter how much I stress about it now, I will manage to fit everything in, even if that does mean 10pm trot sets on Diddy and some creative scheduling.

I always manage to fit it all in. :)

For example, I have 5 recognized Horse Trials scheduled, several schooling shows, a combined test to organize, a hunter pace to organize, a wedding to attend, WEG to work, new freelance marking opportunities coming in, a day job, and my lessons/training rides (which are also increasing!).

But I love being busy! Bring it on Fall!!! :)

Plus, all this work really is making this brutally hot summer fly by!

The boy is back in town...

2010-08-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

As a horse owner, I pretty much understand that I am one step from disaster. One slip, one spin, one twist, and everything that I've spent years, and months and weeks and days and hours and minutes striving to perfect could change. I mean, have you ever seen horses as they prep for a jog at a 3-day? Pretty much the closest thing to bubblewrap that you'll find.

When Prophet slid a couple of weeks ago, it wasn't that it was dramatic or raised any red flags right then, it was the nagging feeling that I'd lost a bit of my horse's giddy-up. Teddy's situation was burning a hole in the back of my mind, and I just couldn't help but worry... and worry... and worry. See, Ted was on course for the World Games (not with me of course) when he started stopping a bit. He transferred riders and kept stopping, and stopping more, and was a little off, but nothing that was apparent. Finally it was discovered that the injury was in his stifle and that he'd never make a full recovery (to run at the advanced level)... a situation I hate for him, but loved for me since it meant I got to 'play' at the upper levels for a bit on a horse where prelim was like a Sunday stroll.

One of my best friends also had a similar situation with a stifle injury where the horse was 'just not right'. This time the injury was more severe and resulted in a full retirement at age 8 for a VERY promising horse.

UGH... erase. memory. please.

The thing that was nagging at me was that although I'd gotten P checked out thoroughly, and that he was sound and jumping and everything, he just didn't have the same fire. The same 'jump' off my leg when it was time to school a line or gallop up a hill. The same lightness and jazz in his dressage work.

I sort of put my plans for what to do over the next month on hold and scheduled myself a show jump lesson with Melissa and a cross country lesson with Betsy Freedman who I'd never ridden with before. I planned to just listen to my horse and see how these two things went. If he said he needed a bit more time, then it would be back to the drawing board with more diagnostics. If he said "yeehaw! Now this is what I'm talking about!" then I'd beg my way into a late entry at Difficult Run in Virginia to run an abbreviated course, and then full tilt to 5-points.

Thursday's lesson with Melissa went really well. We worked alot of footwork exercises and some oxers at width. We did a trot in line of 3 X bounces, canter poles, and a line of trot in to an X one stride to a big, honkin oxer. P jumped better and better, although he did get a bit bored and heavy. I was very pleased with his jump and his desire to be there.

Sunday's Cross country lesson was JUST what we needed. Betsy definitely takes no prisoners and was perfect to whip us into gear. Lots of footwork again, and Prophet ATE IT UP. Apparently a jaunt around the cross country was all we needed. I GOT MY PONY BACK! He was a bit strong (which I was super happy about), yet really rideable when it came to the fences. All in all, it was fantastic for us. I can't wait to take from her again.

Below is a short video from Melissa's. You can't really see much of what's going on, but you can see how bored the Diddy is! :)

I will post lots of videos from the XC lesson later tonight.

Why it's hard to ride my own horse - Part 1

2010-07-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

I always tell my clients that it truly is harder to ride your own horse then it is to ride someone else's. (In fact, I keep threatening to right a book about it). There's just so much more emotion involved, and they know all your dirty little secrets, and you know theirs.

Which is why I haven't written in a while (but that is about to change... hello blog writing frenzy!). P just hasn't felt 100% since he slipped doing a trot and lost his hind end. I had the chiro look at him (which he was out in his pelvis), and he's been getting steadily better, BUT I finally feel like I have my horse back, and the cloud of "blah" that's been following me around is beginning to lift.

Here's the thing. I know P like the back of my hand, and I ride him differently then I do other horses. The other night, I had to play a bit of a mental game with myself, riding every stride like I would if it were NOT a horse I'd sat on everyday for so many years. And guess what? He was so much better.

I've also realized that right now, P needs me to ride him different. A couple days before his 'slip' I had an amazing Dressage ride on him, but it was probably amazing because I wasn't expecting for it to be so. Since then I've been a little too demanding, rather then listening. Finally on Tuesday night I listened to him, and had a fantastic ride. So what if he needs to be a little longer and forward at the canter to take the contact evenly in both hands... there's over 3 weeks until our next competition, so plenty of time to bring him back up. So what if I need to walk, and walk, and walk, and walk until he's really marching and coming through. So what if I need to ride Every. Single. Step of the upward transition and restart half way through it for a few tries.

By the end of the ride, I had my soft, free(er) moving, rideable horse and it was wonderful!

Prophet got a shiner

2010-07-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

You know when something dumb happens and you get hurt, and you think "man I wish I had a better story about what happened"... well here's my better story, so that Prophet can maintain his reputation as being nothing short than bad-ass....

There were these huge cougars roaming the woods behind Ted and Prophet's pasture, just waiting on a perfect time to creep out through the fence and pounce on the unsuspecting dogs of the neighborhood. Prophet could sense the cougars and the dogs could not, because, according to him, dogs are way more underdeveloped beings, not capable of such keen instincts. After waiting all day for the cougars to make their move, Prophet decided that he was going in to get them (not to save the dogs, of course, but rather so he could have one more bad-ass-ness point then Ted -- Prophet keeps count, Ted does not care). He put up a good fight, but in the process, got wacked in the face, making for one seriously swollen eye (like, HUGE swollen eye), and some other facial swellings. Not wanting to worry anyone, he casually continued about his day. As he sauntered towards the water trough (that his mom was filling) to get a refreshing drink of cool water, his mother spotted his elephantiasis face and begin to worry. "Don't worry mom, all in a day's work here at 'A Stone's Throw Farm'".

Good enough story to keep his ego intact, you think?

Really, Prophet must have royally pissed of some bees or other stinging creatures. His face looks much better this morning, but last night looked RIDICULOUS. He's on 2 more days of Benadryl, and has forgiven me for icing his face last night with frozen vegetables in a *gasp* plastic bag (if you didn't know, plastic bags are probably going to be what one days brings an end to the world, according to Diddy).

Unfortunately, the whole incident occurred just as the sun went down, so no good blackmail photos could be taken.

2010-07-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

"Somewhere behind the rider you've become,

the hours of practice you've put in,

& the coaches who have pushed you,

is the little girl who fell in love with the sport and never looked back.

Ride for her."

When I was a bit younger, I was always intrigued by quotes. I had them clipped out and written and pasted all over the room I happened to be calling home at the time. I could find a quote that pretty much summed up anything in my life, and choose to rely on other people's words to describe was I was experiencing.

I still like quotes, but maybe not to the fanatical level that I did in the past. The above quote though, I think is pretty much amazing.

When I was a working student, I made the decision that I didn't want to be a professional in this crazy horse industry. I saw first hand how the pressure changes the relationship between horse and rider, and I didn't want that strain on my horses. I wanted a career that would support them so riding could be fun!

But now, thanks to my wonderful friends and clients, and AMAZING little horse, I'm realizing I can have my cake and eat it too. Each day, I love that I can help horses be more confident in their jobs, and that I can enjoy my horse just as if he weren't a big, bad eventer.

Last night, I had the words of that quote echoing in my head as I contemplated what to do with Prophet. I wasn't feeling the greatest, and it was getting quite late (I'd had a lesson and grocery shopping to do after work). I needed to do something with the Diddy as he'd had Sunday off, so decided to hop on for a bareback ride around the farm.

As my pony and I wandered around, I realized that all the dandelions had turned and now P and I had a bit of a white fog following us as the seeds floated in the air. We trotted and cantered around, in the near dark, making our own smoke show for a bit, and I got to simply enjoy sitting on this great horse, kind of thankful I can still have those "little girl" moments of happiness.

Now introducing....

2010-06-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

Over the winter, I got a phone call from a good friend of mine (from my Middleburg days) who said her sister had this nice mare that needed someone to put some time on her. I got some pics of the mare and got to visit her at her home in Pennsylvania while I was there for the AETA trade show in February.

Finally at the end of April, the stars aligned and she was shipped down here for me to have a go at her. She arrived jet black, full of spunk, and in need of a bit of a program to settle into. She's been a pleasure to work with, because she's smart, witty and always lets me know what's on her mind.

Unfortunately, the North Carolina sun had taken a toll on her blackness, and she is a lovely shade of faded brown. She's also had to learn to come to terms with the bugs, heat and humidity - but she's done so with dignity and class (just as any lady should!).

Last weekend I decided to enter Story in a local hunter show. Never mind that we aren't totally balanced yet with our cantering or jumping... I figured it would just be for the experience. I had a bunch of clients showing (who all did fantastic!), so I was slightly worried Story would get frazzled being my puppy dog, running around with me from trailer to ring to warm-up, etc... but she held it together well, jumped all the jumps the first time, and wound up Champion of the Long Stirrup Division (and it was her first time jumping a course, second time jumping more then one jump in a row!!!!). What a good pony!

So now, without further Ado, I present Huntin' for a Story. More information on story can be found on the "Horses for Sale" page at http://www.chorseeventing.com/.

The beautiful photos were taken by Terre Wrenn.

How do we get there from here?

2010-06-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

It's been brutally hot here in NC. Not hot enough to keep me from standing in the middle of the ring (aka, making a living), but hot enough that I want to be a little creative in the time I get to spend with my own pony -- enter twilight bareback rides. Even if I ride him during the day, I think I'm going to keep incorporating these into the day as it's kind of like therapy for both of us.

Now, it's not totally bareback... see, I have this rediculously boney butt that likes to make horses buck me off, so for safety sake, I use a bareback pad, but I digress...

One would think I'm not being very safe anyway -- out there riding a spook of a TB in the dark, sans saddle. In fact, John shakes his head disapprovingly at the mere idea of it, but I feel perfectly fine... but once again, I digress.

My nighttime bareback jaunts and several conversations with friends while laying on the cool cement of the cross ties (trying to cool off), have me thinking about all the crazy things I did as a kid on a horse, and how those things helped shape the rider I am today. To be honest, we did some seriously crazy things... things that would have definitely been no-nos had the adults known we were doing them. BUT we were fearless, and learned from it.

I now don't have a fear of falling off (maybe I should!)... in fact, we had falling off contests. We had buckers that we'd make buck harder, twisty turny horses that jumped out of the ring, naughty ponies, naughty horses and did things like enter the high-bar class and jump over 4' when we were 8 years old riding a pony the barn had in for training (yes, my parents knew about that one). But one thing that came from our stupidity, was a healthy fear... not the bad kind, but the kind that taught us when to call it a day, and what horses wouldn't be able to get us out of certain situations... things that are important to know doing the sport that I do!

But now as an instructor, I have the dire need for my kids to be safe while they are under my jurisdiction. I like for everything to stay controlled, for their sake, as well as mine (Ask anyone who stands beside me while one of 'my kids' is in the ring... I leave bruises). BUT, I feel like they need to have some of those wild and crazy times, to learn from them. I think you need to fall off into a bush, and get stuck trying to swim your way out through the leaves (laughing the whole time). I think that you have to be around other people who have rough days, and know that NO MATTER what happens, there is a bystander standing there thinking "Man, I've been there", because everyone's been there (my favorite quote is the one that says "There are two kinds of eventers, those who have fallen in the water jump and those who are going to fall in the water jump"). I think you need to learn that horses are comics and the best way to get along with them is to laugh at their antics, even if it's thru tears.

So... now I wonder how to push my kids to that level of 'fun'. Do we send them out and turn our heads a bit while they figure some of that out? How do we teach that to the kids to only ride during a lesson once a week or once a month? We can 'teach' the emergency dismount and tuck and roll, but how do we know that they will do that when the pony is carening for the barn gate at mock-10, spooked by some bird, or blade of grass?

All things that I fear will take me a LONG time to figure out.

Until then, I guess we'll all just keep on kickin!

C-Horse, Seabuck -- Sounds like the perfect match, eh?

2010-06-21T19:03:00.001-07:00

A little over a month ago, I was approached by a guy named Dusty about trying a product out and seeing the effects it had on Prophet. Well, first off, my very first pony's name was Dusty, so I figured this guy couldn't be all that bad, but secondly, I'm pretty particular about what my horse ingests (ask anyone who's had to feed while I'm away - you nearly need a chemistry degree!). As soon as I got the email, I went to researching, and liked what I saw...

His product, Seabuck Complete, is a liquid made from the seabuckthorn plant that offers anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant functions. It's supposed to be a good, over-all supplement, helping with digestion, skin and coat health, etc... etc... One thing I was curious about was would it help with P's little habit of not eating all that well away from home... I agreed to try it out, as I really didn't see a downside.

So for the last 30 days I've been feeding Seabuck Complete, and I really like the results. First of all, Prophet actually ATE while we were at Lumber River Horse Trials (his prelim move-up). He's also been handling travel very well... not that he's ever been a BAD traveler, but I could definitely feel the difference after a couple hour trailer ride, which now he seems to unload as the same old P, just as he should! He does seem overall happier and more agreeable. I've made a couple of other dietary changes, and I think the combination of everything has led him to be less spooky and more chill. One thing that I wonder about is also the fact that his feet grew over 3/8th of an inch in one month (awesome for him!), and although they've been growing fairly well this year, that's definitely an increase! Don't know if I can thank Seabuck for that, but it does seem likely!

Seabuck Complete has a very informative website. check it out at http://www.seabuck.com/, and read up! Seabuck is offering a special discount, just to C-Horse readers. If you order through the Seabuck website, use the coupon code SBCS2010 and receive 25% off each gallon!

I'm definitely going to be keeping P on it!

It takes one to know one...

2010-06-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

You know, in the past I've read these articles about how animals and there owners begin to resemble eachother, and I've seen the same comparison done for those couples who've been together for a long time. The theory behind two humans is that after years of being together, you begin to mimic one-another's mannerisms, thus morphing into a similar appearance (or something).

Now, I don't think P and I resemble eachother, although we do both have rediculously large melons (better to hold our rediculously large brains!), and tend to get a bit of a potbelly when we gorge, but other then that, we are fairly distanced in the appearance department. BUT, I've said it for years now, P and I are pretty much the same personality, just one of us is in a human form and the other equine. I'm pretty sure that's why we get along so well. He likes to argue, I like to argue. He is slightly lazy, I aspire to be slightly lazy. He's obstinate, I'm obstinate. He can turn it on in front of a crowd, and well, I'm driven by a desire to not make a fool of myself. :)

You get the picture...

One thing that I have come to realize is how to personalize P's work schedule. I guess for a long time I've fought what I felt like I was "supposed" to do, and what he really needs. This spring I've kind of been forced to figure that out - I guess they say everything happens for a reason? Well it just seems EVERYTHING has happened. Period. Which means that I've had to get creative in the P-man department.

Before I was forced into this grown up world, I thought it was difficult enough to have one upper-level horse to keep up, with a small full-time job or school, or whatever else I was doing. Now, with a full time job, 15-20 students, 4 or so rides on the side and a wedding to plan, I realize that I had it pretty darned easy before!

So now, Prophet's been getting specialized attention at night, going on nighttime hacks, adding in lunging, and taking more long breaks after an event, more hacks during the week, and less days off when he's in work. And it seems to be working for him! After his first run at prelim, I realized that I do need to add in some more serious gallops on the hills for fitness, but other then that this low-stress, listening to my horse things seems to be working out for the both of us! What an odd concept, eh? :)

So, I guess the long rambling post above was all just to say that I've had a couple of fantastic rides on my P-dizzle and sure do enjoy having him as my main (four-legged) man. :)

P is famous!

2010-06-15T08:26:00.000-07:00

Just don't tell him that... he already thinks highly enough of himself.

About 6 months ago, I was introduced to a company called Skode's Horse Treats. Owned and run by an amazing woman, Lori, (a true one woman whirlwind!), the company revolves around producing great products that make horses happy and healthy.

The cool thing is that Skode's offers stuff you really can't find anywhere else. They have these awesome Trail Mixes that my horses are absolutely in LOFF with, brownies you can bake at home, mineral support products (Prophet never goes a day without his dose of Magnesium!), and of course the cookies! All of Skode's products are either low-sugar or no-sugar products, meaning that even the sensitive horses can join in the fun of treats without health risks.

Now, I'm not going to lie... P was slightly skeptical of the treats at first. He seriously wanted to know how I'd wronged the tack store for them to send me home with these treats without sugar, but he quickly warmed up to the idea that Skode's were awesome, and he would survive without his sugar-fix. I really enjoy the magnesium, because that, combined with a better nutritional plan for him, has allowed us to have nearly spook-free rides!

Enough blabbing -- on to the exciting part!

Lori and I have been in conversation for some time about different aspects of nutrition, Prophet, showing, business, etc... and she approaching me a few weeks ago about P becoming an "Equine Ambassador" for Skode's (aka... making P famous!)! I told her that I was sure he wouldn't mind people looking at his picture all day, as he likes to look at his own reflection all day (or at least while I'm tacking him up next to the trailer window).

So, check out P being famous on Lori's blog, and visit the Skode's site for all your cookie needs!

Ciao, ciao!

Snap, bang, boom... and just like that, it's over

2010-06-08T07:02:00.000-07:00

I knew it would go fast, but I didn't realize how fast...

With the craziness that has been the life of Cassidy Sitton I've had a tough time absorbing the fact that my big baby horse was going to his first prelim. I did all the trots, all the flats, all the jump lessons and gallops, but I'd also thrown in in the pasture sweaty a couple of times and spent hours in the dark, hanging out with him by the light of the yard pole, because that was the only time I had during the day.

About a week ago, a fellow eventer (who also was moving a horse up at the same show), asked "so, do you think you're ready?". All I could say was that my horse was flatting well, jumping well, and felt like he was handling the heat pretty darned well... I guess you really don't know other then that until you cross the finish line.

The weekend started great, with Momma Sitton coming out to keep me company and be an amazing groom. We arrived on grounds fairly late Friday (after a morning of riding other horses, of course), and mom was given the job of settling in the star of the show while I took a look at the cross country course.

And I thought it looked very big, but very doable, especially with the new-found Prophet I've been sitting on this year! Did I say that the course looked big? It looked big.

P was fairly workmanlike for the dressage the next morning. I was a bit disappointed with how we were scored, but we ended up 4th behind 3 horses that moved better then P will EVER move! :) I was ok with that.

With suprisingly little nerves, I readed my boy for the XC phase, and began the walk over. I had a brief teary moment, all alone, walking through the field where P and I had a little discussion about how he was the only horse I wanted to be sitting on that very moment, and how proud I was of him. After the mushiness subsided, we got down to work warming up. Our favorite start-box man reminded me for the 100th time that because I was blonde, I needed to remember that the "red was on my other right" and off Prophet exploded out of the box. He jumped number one and was looking for the next flags. Over fence 2, he realized that this was a whole 'nother ball game, and did a quick double pump in the air. I didn't realize the line I'd planned for 3 took me straight into a branch over the fence, so after a mid-air collision, we landed and proceeded to jump HUGE tables. P continued to grow up and learn something at every question. His confidence kept growing and he just blew me away! I really let him slow down about 1/2 way thru as the heat was getting to both of us, and my priority was to come some clean and safe, so we ended with about 14 time penalties.

I was so happy crossing the last fence that I ended up trotting over the finish line and taking an easy jump off... about half way down I realized that my air vest was still attached to my saddle! Picture me hanging onto my saddle and walking on my tip toes saying "whoa Prophet, whoa Prophet" while trying to undo my buckle before the darned thing exploded. Mission completed, I lead my perfect pony back to the barn for a long day of pampering!

Sunday morning broke after a night of pouring rain. He jumped fantastic in warm-up, and really actually jumped fantastic in the ring, but a combination of the footing and fatigue led to us giving 3 rails rubs and those 3 came down. He really was spectacular though, all weekend, and I'm very fortunate to be the monkey who gets to sit on his back everyday.

I do have to thank everyone who made this happen. All my supporters, sponsors, clients and friends - hang on, cause it's going to be a crazy ride thru the next couple of seasons!!!

Please place your seats in the full upright position

2010-05-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

We are preparing for landing!

Lumber River is just four short days away! Momma Sitton arrives today to spend some time with all of us in North Carolina, and Friday we leave for Southern Pines. I've been so crazy-busy, I haven't really had time to think about the fact that my baby is running his first Prelim this weekend! AH!

In preparation, we traveled over to the beautiful Fenridge Farm to run the Combined Test on Sunday. P was stellar for warm-up, but just got a bit clostiphobic in the ring. I was disappointed enough to take him back to warm-up for some reminding on what it means to stay in front of my leg. Apparently the judge forgot her glasses, as P was awarded a 33.2 to win the dressage against all levels of the CT. We warmed up for show jumping and he was feeling really good, until they started running late and we took a 20 minute siesta. Then, with no 5 minute warning or anything, they blew the whistle for me to begin! Needless to say, we started off with no rhythm, and pulled rail on the #2. He was pretty stellar for everything else and finished in 2nd place. Not too shabby!

This week is filled full with teaching/riding/and getting the Diddy his last canter sets/dressage schools/and a final jump lesson. I'm sure next Monday will be here before I know it... Cross your fingers for us (especially around 11:08 on Saturday)!

And now a word from our sponsors....

2010-05-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- I have some of the best sponsors in the world! I'm very picky about the things that get used in my program, and strive to find companies that I can whole heartedly promote. I encourage everyone to visit the Sponsor's Page on my site, and considering using these great companies next time you need something!

I would like to give special shout-outs to two of these supporters. First off, BonVivant Equine (C-Horse's newest sponsor), just sent their box of wonderful products for P and I. BEAUTIFUL stuff. If you ever thought about blinging up your look, they are definitely the people to go to!

They also did a lovely page for C-Horse on their site. Be sure to stop by their site and check it out!

The other company I'd love to encourage you to check out is Pony Potions. This rain/humid/dry thing that NC has going on right now makes me cringe a little bit when thinking about Prophet's feet. The farrier noticed a slight patch of what looked to be some bateria/fungus under an area of his shoe. We went through the products I had on hand, and it was decided the Hoof Spray by Pony Potions was the best. I used this spray the last time I had a minor issue with some foot fungus and it works great! I've started to use it again, and even with all the wet, gross weather, the bottom's of Prophet's feet are looking better then ever! I'll have to post pictures later because you really wouldn't believe it!

PP also makes some other killer products including an AWESOME helmet spray that's sure to come in handy now that the weather is getting warmer. I've pretty much fell in love with every single product I've tried of theirs.

Prophet is gearing up for the CT this weekend at Fenridge Farm. We have a lesson with Melissa scheduled tonight and then a make-over day for Saturday (poor P's mane is in much need of some TLC). Then the really exciting week starts, as my mom arrives Tuesday!!!! (just in time for Tuesday night Wine and Ride at the Bobbit Road Farm). Very exciting stuff!

Ever feel like you're jumping off a cliff?

2010-05-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

... and not just jumping, but leaping with all your belongings in tow?

Ok, so I'm being a bit dramatic, but I kind of feel like although I'm diving head first into a new chapter, I'm at least doing it with a neat little row of ducks lined up to watch.

There's a lot of exciting things going on with C-Horse, and just in general in the world of Cassidy Sitton. I've got a LOT of new clients coming on board, which is awesome! I have some freelance work picking up with the marketing/design stuff, and what I've found is I actually am running out of hours in the day! Which leads me to my big announcement -- I am making more hours in the week by cutting back on my time at ThinLine!!! This is a big jump for me, albeit not even as big as I want it to be, but still a jump. Or maybe more of a repell then a jump, but you get the picture.

So, although I have these grand thoughts that I will have loads of free time, in all reality, it just means that I will probably find more stuff to fill the hours, but it's a start!

Prophet is cruising full-steam ahead towards Lumber River. He's so funny in that the more fit he gets, the more calm his is to handle. He did the Prelim Test B test at Fenridge last weekend, and was a star! (even though he only had a 5 minute warm-up). He also rocked the XC school, minus a bit of a miscommunication over an 18" log and the Novice ditch. :)

He doesn't compete this weekend, and will be running the CT at Fendridge next weekend before the big move-up!

Grandpa's girl

2010-05-06T09:04:00.000-07:00

So, I've taken some time to give props to my maternal side of my family -- actually, I'm pretty sure I mention my mom in nearly every post. I've also given my dad a shout out for all he's done.

Yesterday morning, as I smelled the sent of bacon drifting into my bedroom, I was reminded I really haven't mentioned anything about the man who quite possibly is my biggest supporter and largest influence in what kind of rider I've become... my grandpa Tom.

Now first of all I'll clear a couple things up... Yes, John was making breakfast for us to eat together -- and I helped (said in the way of the shake-and-bake girl from the 90's). And secondly, yes, I know that it's Mother's Day week, but I figured since I talk about her so much that she'd be ok with a shout out to my grandpa.

Anyway... Grandpa Tom is actually my step-grandfather, but you'd never in a million years guess that. Him and my dad actually even look alike, even though they're not blood-related. When I was very young, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house due to my mom's back surgery, and as the first grandchild, grandpa spoiled me right! He loves to tell the story about how I had to sit on every horse in the barn, every time we went to feed. I also had to lead the horses around (even though I was probably on 2 or 3 at the time) and was quite adamant (i.e. a brat) about doing it "by. my. self."

As I grew up, and more grandchildren were born, my grandpa still tended to spoil me pretty much rotten. I bought my very first pony from him with my bag full of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters -- savvy horse buyer, even at the ripe old age of 4.

I also 'took' my second horse from him. At the time, I was 8 years old and leasing a lovely young quarter horse mare. I was on my way home from a horse show in Springfield, IL and we stopped in to Grandma's and Grandpa's for the night and I sat on about 3 horses, riding them up and down the dirt road with horses running on one side and 6 foot corn blowing on the other. I thought 'Robbie' was the prettiest horse I'd ever seen and even though he was only half my age (4), I HAD to have him -- so in the trailer he went, with the agreement that I would ride him and then we'd sell him and split the profit. I really can't understand what my parents were thinking letting their 8 year old daughter get an unbroke 4 year old but I learned a lot, and two years later I got his papers in the mail, with the owner signed over to my name. The note simply said something like "I don't believe this is my horse anymore." I rode that pony for 8 years before selling him to another young rider.

I wasn't just equine spoiled by grandpa. As a teenager, I could be staying with them and sleep until 10, waking up to the smell of pancakes and bacon (even though everyone else had eaten several hours earlier). He'd make some comment about a growing girl needing to eat, and I'd happily take my pancakes.

One of the problems was that my grandpa has always thought I could ride anything (hence letting his 8 year old grand daughter get on an unbroke 4 year old in the first place). I clearly remember landing on my rear on at least one occasion due to this (random horse he pulled out of the barn turned out to be the wrong one of the pair - I think I've failed to mention up until now that my grandfather was involved with driving horses). I admit though, it's always nice to have someone have that much faith in me!!

My grandpa has since sold all his horses to live the retired life, and I definitely don't get to visit him as much as I'd like to. When I call him, he still has such faith that I can do anything I put my mind to (probably because I was such a brat when I was younger). I guess there's just something about that unconditional positivity that makes me hope that I continue to make him proud!

Love you grandpa Tom!

Clockwise from top left: Me sitting on my parents Morgan, who I'm sure was connected to my grandpa somehow; Me and Dusty, my nickel and dime pony; my friend Meghan on her Arab Dragon, and me on my Morgan, Robbie, the 'unbroke 4 year old', doing a costume class as vaulters; Robbie and I warming up at the 'Cookie Classic'; me sitting on 'Cassidy's Lad'. My mom is holding me and my grandpa' arm is on the left hand side of the picture -- see he even named horses after me!

Lightening the Load

2010-05-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

From the time we begin schooling dressage, there's this thing called "self carriage" that is preached almost as much as 'inside leg to outside rein'. I preach it to all of my clients, and we have long, tedious discussions about the proper connection for their horse's level of work. I was my horses to be light and through and all that good stuff that comes with proper self carriage.

Therefore, for the life of me, I can't figure out why I let my own horse lean on me as if his head has been somehow removed from his neck, and I am the last hope for him keeping everything held together in one piece.

Ok, so maybe that's being slightly dramatic, but really... why is it that we end up letting those everyday issues slide on the horses that we ride consistently? It's really not that hard to make P soft again. A good half halt from leg to seat to hand, and suddenly his head becomes re-attached to his neck and we can continue on with our working trot as if the slight dismemberment never happened.

I've also decided this also stems from a control issue. I have this idea that I need a heavy feel with him in order to feel and ward off those spooks, spins, glances, and sideways heaves he likes to throw into most perfectly good rides.

So my goal now is to go ahead and let myself feel a bit vulnerable on a lighter contact, and gosh-darn-it, I'm GOING to expect my own horse to have the same qualities that I demand of my clients and my horses in training.

Luck of the four leaf clover kind...

2010-04-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

This spring I came out with a new sort of drive. I want to commit myself to improving my horse and my riding, and become a bit more competitive in natural -- it's an ongoing quest, but so far, I've been pretty good at upping the standards for myself.

And I've also taken on a new tactic that I'm a bit apprehensive to share (secrets of success, ya know!). I've taken to only grazing Prophet on patches of clover, hoping he'll ingest as many of the four leaf plants as possible. My mom got the orders at the three-day when she took him to graze too, and so far it's been working-- I've had a pretty darned good run this spring!

Now with P coming back into work, he gets to spend some quality time in the backyard with his brother, Ted as they graze themselves (leadropes dragging). He seems especially drawn to the clover patches, and I've convinced myself it's because he wants good luck too, and not because clover just plain tastes good. :)

I'm pretty sure Diddy is excited to have a job again. He also likes having his after ride pampering sessions. His new favorite thing is this little hand-held vibrating back massager that lights up to glow bright pink. He must REALLY like it because he doesn't even spook from the glowing when I mess with him at night. :) Now I just need to find a massaging blanket for him that doens't cost $1000... any suggestions?

Back on the straight and narrow...

2010-04-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

So, it really is time for P and I to get serious again -- Our Preliminary debut is scheduled for 6 shorts weeks away, and we need to get busy between now and then!

But first we apparently need to get our steering and stopping in order! Apparently during P's short vacation, he forgot how to turn and brake, but really, aren't those minor details?

Here's what the plan is going to be...

Week of 26th - 2nd = "Back in Black" - trot sets / hacks / light flat work
Week of 3rd - 9th = jump lesson / flat work / gallop / trot sets / hack / dressage show on 8th
Week of 10th - 16th = flat work / gallop / trot sets / hack / Dressage Show-XC school on 15th
Week of 17th - 23rd - jump lesson / flat work / gallop / trot sets / hacks
Week of 24th - 30th - flat work / gallop / trot sets / hack / CT
Week of 31st - 6th - hack / trot sets / flat work / gallop early in week / LUMBER RIVER PRELIM!!!

AH!

Back in action...

2010-04-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

So, P's had a lovely amount of time off (except for his hard-working day as a movie star), and now it's time to get back to the grind as we prepare for our move up to preliminary. Yesterday I took him out for our first ride in our new dressage saddle from Jaguar! Other then being slightly wide for him, it's wicked nice. To be honest, it's a bit difficult for me to sit properly in a saddle that actually fits my legs! It may take some getting used to.

But anyway, I was supposed to just take P for a hack, but I couldn't resist burning out some dressage work in the dressage saddle. It was fun, although I think P was less then thrilled. He got over it though. :)

What a good pony I have!

Oh, Rolex - how I'll miss thee....

2010-04-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've missed the Rolex Kentucky 3-Day event since I was about 8. Once for my senior prom, once because I was at the Fork and too poor to find my way out of a paper bag, let alone up the interstate to Kentucky, and honestly I can't remember any other times I've not been able to be there... Ok, so I can count it on 2 fingers.

I can still remember the feeling of pulling into the Kentucky Horse Park though... it's a sensation that I call the "Kentucky Stomach" (which I elaborate on starting on page 46 here - http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODE/EventingUSA/), and I do miss it dearly.

Now what is even more crazy is I know so many people competing... Even John's ex is there (I say he's got a lot to live up to if I got him and she's going to Rolex. :) ).

I also get a bit nostalgic with Ted around this time of year. The other night, while he was eating his dinner, happy feeding that every growing tummy of his while I was scratching his itchy-shedding coat, I asked him if he realized that 5 short years ago, he was one lean- mean- fighting machine, getting ready to run around the last of the 4* long-formats. He said that those days seems like a lifetime ago, and that he thoroughly enjoys his feral lifestyle now... actually, he didn't say anything, but I know that's what he was thinking.

So, in rememberance of what Ted once once, here's some of the images from Ted's trip around Rolex... the images are linked back to their original sources.

Welcome to the team....

2010-04-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been really blessed -- apparently my master plan of forcing P to eat where clover is in the hopes he eats ALOT of the 4 leaf variety is paying off.

As an extension of my good fortune, I'm lucky enough to welcome a new sponsor to the C-Horse line up -- BonVivant Equine. BVE imports and distributes the Pink Equine and DT Saddlery line of bridle-wear and other English Tack.

There. Stuff. Is. Gorgeous.

P and are very lucky to be sporting their equipment, and it makes us (or at least me) feel oh-so-fancy.

Visit www.bonvivantequine.com to see all their wonderful equipment. Be sure to use coupon code SUPPORT985 to receive 10% off and give C-HOrse credit for your purchase!!

Tardy for the Party...

2010-04-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

So, I'm a bit overdue on my updates... and with 27 followers, I feel like I have alot of pressure to live up to! Things have been so crazy lately, and remain so, for the time being, that everyday has just been flying by!

Here's a quick rundown of what's been going on at C-Horse Eventing...

The Training Level Three Day came and went all too quickly. P rocked my socks, and brought home the red ribbon (if only his mother could learn to properly time XC, ugh)... oh well.

I taught my first full-on clinic at the beautiful 5-County Stables. We had around 20 participants, all of who did AWESOME. LOTS of nice horse flesh, and I was really happy with how the days went (however long they may have been!).

Shortly after the clinic, P and I spent the day being movie stars during a promotional shoot. It was a fun, VERY LONG day, but I think a good time was had by all!

P and I have a little bit of downtime, but that just means more work for me! We've had some really exciting sponsors join the 'team' which I will single out over the next couple of days.

And I promise, I will be more diligent about updating!

Endurance Day

2010-04-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

The funny thing about Saturday afternoons/evenings in the three-day barns is the collective sigh of relief that's completely audible throughout the entire structure. Especially on a day like today where everyone finished safely, the weather was cool and the overwhelming majority of competitors came across the finish line with smiles and pats.

But I'll get to today in a moment.

Yesterday, Prophet put his game face on. And to tell you the truth... I was just so surprised that I couldn't even blog about it.

Yes, over his star, snip and scarred nostril (a rather rugged face, really), he slipped on some sort of "competition" mask. He let the crew of us make him beautiful for the jogs -- a process about which he usually objects completely -- trotted up like a star, and got the nod from the officials. He then went out and simply preformed in the sandbox. And by preformed, I mean he blew a trot transition ("Leg means canter, right?"), and never really was able to show off that lengthened trot we've worked so hard to perfect ("Again, with the canter? Ok then!"... UGH). But he really let me ride him throughout the rest of the movements and scrapped his way into a first place position. See why I couldn't really blog about it?

So, pretty much I've never been in the lead after dressage, like, ever. Talk about pressure!

Today, my boy was a rock star, but for those of you who get bored with my writing -- we are no longer in the lead, but instead a respectable 4th.

For those of you still with me -- Roads and tracks were awesome -- save for my horse being a bit forward at times. Steeplechase was a blast, simple as that. I'm pretty sure my next house/barn is going to have a steeplechase track installed just so I can go for a breeze every now and again. Pony finished A, B and C bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, much to my relief. He cooled down appropriately in the 10-minute-box and felt great heading to the D start box.

We rocked around XC and the hills definitely took a bit of the edge off the pony... too bad the major hill was AFTER a very enthusiast jump off a down bank early in the course, which led to a minor discussion about who was in charge of our directional controls. He hit most things right out of stride (save for a left out stride coming out of the water where I *may* have entertained the crowd with a colorful explicative, followed by a "thank you for almost - but not actually - killing us" pat on the neck). He finished a bit tired, but still chugging right along. I was smiling, he was sound... all was right in the world.

BUT there's this thing with three-days where numbers are important -- something about time, and stopwatches, and keeping up with them for the entire 45-ish minutes you're out there. I am a bit what some might refer to as "watch challenged". I've embraced it, and learned from it, so when I accidentally stopped my phase C timer just a minute in I was able to do some math and estimate where I was. Not willing to bank completely on my math (where I initially figured I should hit Gate 3 at a time that was before my Phase A start) I also figured I'd be fine if I just kept trotting -- so that's what I did.

Apparently I am also a bit challenged in the brain-to-hand-to-paper department, as I wrote 5:42 instead of 5:24 on my arm for my XC optimum. No wonder I was thinking I was so far up on time at the half mark! So, the time penalties on D are responsible for my demise (or just the fall from 1st to 4th).

BUT, my pony finished the endurance phase of his first full-format with gas in the tank and a sparkle in his eye -- and I do believe he had some serious 'swagger' as he jigged back to the barn, quite pleased with himself. He can't read the scoreboard, so I'm just not telling him about my mistake -- he was definitely my champ today!

As posted on useventing.com

2010-04-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

We've arrived!

All the midnight trot sets, sandbox lessons, jumper shows and time spent with my pony are now culminating with this weekend. What a whirlwind to get to a spring three-day by the first weekend of April -- especially with not making a trip down South -- but P and I made it, amongst engagements and employment and all that good stuff that comes with life.

Luckily, with just one horse going here, so far things have been like a vacation. P and I made the quick 5 hour trip, only to find out we were the first to arrive on grounds! We had a lovely solo hack around the property, where we marveled at the beautiful landscape. Having never been to FENCE before, I'm quite amazing at the gorgeousness of the facility -- what a treat doing steeplechase around the course is going to be on Saturday!

The great thing about the long-format program that the USEA has going on is the wonderful educational aspect tied into the event. Today we had the in-barn process, followed by a steeplechase clinic and then jog-up demo. Even for those of us who have competed and groomed at several of these "little long-format things", there is always something to learn!

P made quick work of the pace exercise that the steeplechase clinician, Beth Perkins, put us through, and then quickly jumped the entire brush on the fence she had us schooling over. It only took him one sailing adventure though to realize that he could 'brush' through. Everyone's horses did quite well and we are all enjoying learning about each other's horses and their personalities. There are also several very cool canine companions in the barn area... and they are sure to make sure everyone is greeted accordingly!

Tomorrow morning we start off with a 10am jog, and dressage at 1pm. For those of you who may be concerned, I have yet to decide what I'll be wearing for jogs. After doing more shopping over the weekend then I have in the last 5 years (which totaled about 35 minutes between teaching lessons), I promptly returned everything I bought (except for a pair of skinny jeans - which last time I went clothes shopping, those weren't even in style!), and therefore I'm at a loss. I pretty much packed my entire closet so although it was a pain to lug my suitcase up the hotel steps, I should at least be able to be outfitted appropriately in the morning.

Ciao, ciao for now!

small tangent

2010-03-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

So you'd think that 2 days before I'm scheduled to leave for my biggest competition of the season (actually, biggest competition to-date with this horse), I'd be all abuzz with news about training and nerves and everything... and I will get to all that, but I just have to go on a small tangent about something.

Actually, before that even, I have to offer my apologies for not updating here like a should. I am also doing the USEA blog entries, but I don't want anyone to think that I'm neglecting all you readers here (afterall, I do have a whopping 22 followers -- that's a lot of pressure!).

Anyway, because I love you all, and feel like I can talk a bit more personally then I can with the USEA membership at large -- I just have to tell you how excited I am to be engaged! For some of you who have been around John and I for some time, this may seem like mute news, considering we live together, fight like we're married, and in general seem fairly comfortable around each other. BUT, for me, there were definitely times where I thought I'd never get to celebrate this time... all that joking about 'common law' was hitting a bit too close to home.

So now, I'm packing things up for our departure on Wednesday. The last week has been filled with teaching and riding and Prophet has done nothing but put a smile on my face. I've taken a new road of not putting a bit in his mouth unless I absolutely have to and it seems to be working thus far (he was getting to a point where he was fussy about it). I went back to the trusty rubber mullen mouth for a dressage school last night, and he was wonderful -- glorious even. :) I've been shopping for clothes for the jogs and buying last minute things I know I'll need (such as a million pairs of rubber gloves), all the while stealing glances as my shiny new ring sitting on the all-important finger. Never did I think I'd be so stoked about this whole thing, but never did I ever see myself wearing a pink bling-bling belt in dressage either.

There's a first time for everything. :)

On to Tryon we go!!!

Some fun pics...

2010-03-24T07:22:00.000-07:00

Ponies in the morning and.....

MY ENGAGEMENT RING!!!!

Pretty much I just wanted an excuse to show pics of my rock! :)

Changing things up...

2010-03-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

Prophet annoying Chrissy's boyfriend

Coolest dog to have as a neighbor -- Annibell

When I was growing up, there was this great little area show circuit called Heart of America Horse Show Assocation (HAHSA). About twice or three times a month, there would be a show within an hours drive where you could go run classes all day long that were something like $8. There were eventers, Hunter/Jumpers, backyard pets and everything in between. The venues all had their own twist (outdoor/indoor/field/etc...) but the classlist stayed virtually the same (minus some 'special' classes at some of the shows), and it was awesome. Horses hung out all day and were just immersed in the process. If you had a problem, you entered the next class and fixed it. If you had a great ride, you entered the next class and hoped you'd hold it all together again. The competition was good, the classes were large and the experience gained was priceless.

Now that I'm an "East Coast Eventer", I feel like I've lost that "just go hang out all day and jump and jump and jump" quality in my horses. With our disastrous Show Jump round at Preliminary in the Fall, I was super stoked to head to the beautiful Virginia Horse Center last weekend for the Thoroughbred Celebration hunter/jumper show. Plan was to play it by ear, but to get at least a couple 3'7" jumper classes in over the 2 days. P started off a star in the hunters, placing in a very competitive class (he's versatile!). We then got to sit, and sit, and sit, and sit and wait for the jumper classes. We did the two 3'1" jumpers, and placed reasonably well (scored a qualifying placing for the Stakes class), and I definitely didn't push him for any 'speed'. The jumps weren't backing him off at all, and he was LOVING this new rollback and jump thing. It was great for him!

We then started warming up over some rather large looking single hanging rails, prepping for the 3'7" classes (which looked huge from outside the ring). Not gonna lie -- I had more then one thought about just calling it a day... but once I got in the ring and was cantering around, I realized they did not look bad at all, and we were OFF! He flew around the course, making it all feel quite easy, but once again, he was just a bit strong -- very rideable though! He took the blue in the second class -- the only clean round in the jump-off! I was quite proud of him.

Day two brought one more round in the 3'1" and 3'7" before the $1000 stakes class. Prophet felt just a bit tired from the night before, and he and I put in quite a lack-luster round for the first go, pulling two rails, and just not being impressive in general. He rocked the higher class, waking up a bit, and putting in a stellar round -- coming in 2nd to a VERY nice horse... and completing the division as Reserve Champ!!! What a star.

Since he had qualified for the Stakes class at both levels, I opted for the lower fences so I could go faster. He put in a lovely double clear on his first go -- even with my biff of the last fence where he proceeded to turn himself inside out in order to keep the rails up. He was fantastic for the jump-off, although I was having to keep his interest as the lower fences were definitely not holding him. We took a dramatic inside turn, and coming to the same last fence as the long course, I knew 4 strides out we were right where we needed to be... and what does he do? He figured with a couple hundred dollars on the line, that now was the time to drop a two and pay me back for the biffed spot during the previous round. UGH! But I love him anyway, and he's just a bit vengeful, just like me, so I can't blame him.

All in all, he was a super star, and I feel like his show jumping will definitely benefit from the weekend. Plus, the lady from Riders Up! Outfitters said she loved my horse, and that it looked like we were both having so much fun... I think that's better then any ribbon! :)

Southern Pines Wrap-up

2010-03-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

Photos by C-Horse Student, Shartra Sylivant

As posted on useventing.com...

Southern Pines Horse Trials

After having last weekend off, I once again found myself traveling down the very familiar US Hwy #1 to the Southern Pines Horse Trials (I). There's just something about competing at Southern Pines that makes you think the people running the event really know what they are doing. The stalls are wonderful, the footing is awesome, the facility is beautiful and they are constantly evolving with cool new tracks and improvements.

For me, this is my "hometown" event. I use hometown loosely here, as really it's nearly 2 hours away from Raleigh, but close enough that I had a gaggle of friends/clients there for support. I'm not going to lie... it was a bit nerve racking knowing that I had someone I knew at nearly every section of cross-country. I mean, if I make a mistake in front of a jump judge, they'll just write my number on a piece of paper and that'll be the end of it. Now, to biff it in front of people who know my name and probably is carrying a camera for photographic evidence!? That's a whole 'nother story!

The plan on Saturday was to get there nice and early, go for a quick ride, get everything settled in, make Diddy pretty, walk the course, and then head to the warm-up ring at 1:30. In the past, I've never really had time to get P out for a pre-showing ride, but it worked well with my previous horse (the Big Ted) -- it would help him settle a bit so we didn't spend half of warm-up working off the stall buggers -- figured it would work well for P too.

You know, I think horses are way smarter then we give them credit for.

The day was sailing right along, each element falling into place. P and I got in a really good dressage school in the morning (just a bit 'on the muscle' but he was listening), had some lovely alone time before the groups of friends showed up, got everything ready... things were looking up! Then I got on to go warm-up for some sandbox playing, and Diddy was pretty darned sure we'd already done dressage, and that his dressage time is limited to once a day -- time to go jump!

We struggled a bit through the test, a momentary canter down centerline, a brief romp in the lengthened canter, me saluting with the whip in my hand... we got through it, and after watching video of it last night, I realized it wasn't all that bad. We ended up with a 37.3, putting us if 15th place -- 2nd place was sitting on a 30.9, so the way I say it, we were less then 2 rails from second!

Time crunch was the name of the game, as I only had a little over an hour between dressage and cross-country, however, I guess I'm not used to having helpers, because we got Diddy back to the stall, tack changed, studs done, my clothes changed and had time to spare! Cross country warm up was a bit crazy, so P and spent some time walking around, enjoying the scenery of the Horse Park. Once we started moving, I soon realized that my horse is wickedly strong, and he acted as if he somehow just found that out. He was jumping great, but was taking a bit of muscle to get back into my idea of a pace after each fence. Feeling like I should have maybe put something a bit stronger in his mouth then a rubber mullen mouth snaffle (!), we headed to the start box...

And I guess the Ark wasn't a fluke!

After walking the course, I was pretty stoked to have a go at it... it seemed to be really forward riding, rewarding to the open step. P sailed around it without a problem, and gave me some really good feelings. He's ceased the over-jumping style that he used to carry around courses, leaving us sailing through the air for an eternity. He took nearly every fence out of stride (minus the small things, which I think he wasn't quite sure what to do with), however, I figured we'd be way slow on time considering how much I was having to fight with him before the fences. My worries were unfounded as we finished just 6 seconds over, moving us up to 13th place.

Back to the barn for some ice, dinner (for the horse), wine (for me and company) and a lovely night out with clients in downtown Southern Pines (and by night out, I mean we were in bed by 9pm).

Sunday's show jumping was run in reverse order of standings, so everything had to sort of guess their ride times. P was jumping great in warm-up, but was just a tad bit full of himself (yet again, seeing a trend here?). I changed his bit to a metal snaffle (hey, it's an upgrade from rubber!), and I liked the little bit of extra control it gave me (he did not). He went in the ring and was a rockstar (minus one lead conversation we had before the last fence). I was a bit disappointed in myself, feeling like I could have rode better and not picked so much between the lines, but I guess I'll have to fix that this weekend at the jumper show.

Thinking that there was no way that we would make the jump from 13th up to the ribbons, even with the scores being quite tight, I took the boy back to the stall, pulled my boots off (exposing some very sexy black and grey horizontal striped knee socks) and headed back to the ring to watch the end of my division. Much to my surprise, P and I jumped up to 9th place with our double clear, meaning I had to have my picture taken with my ball cap, striped socks, and pretty grey ribbon (although I'm totally pulling a Plushenko, and referring to it as Platinum).

Diddy came home to a scheduled visit with the vet to get some maintenance out of the way, so he gets a couple of days off. We'll travel to the Virginia Horse Center this weekend for some goes at the Thoroughbred Celebration Show's jumper classes, before the final countdown to the 3-Day!

However, we may need a rally call to get some more entries in the 3-Day at Fence, as it appears there are only 6 entries at the moment... you know you want to do it! :)

Until next time... Ciao, ciao!

It's always harder when you're not in the irons...

2010-03-12T06:55:00.000-08:00

As a rider, I spend a larger majority of my time on the back of 1000+lb animal who can't communicate through speech. There are some major risks with this activity, especially since my sport involves traveling at high rates of speed at obstacles that do no move. I calculate those risks every time I put my foot in the stirrup, and try to counter-balance them as much as I humanly can. I wear a helmet every ride (not a practice that I always had, but now, I do), I do XC in a safety vest, I make sure my horses are schooled to the absolute best of their ability (which includes letting them know that I'm ok with a stop, here in there, if they think we may not make it over to the other side on all fours), I "know how to fall" (meaning I spent a lot of time as a kid catapulting off my pony, on purpose, and tend to usually land close to my feet) and I have a very healthy fear for what I do.

I think people (eventers included) are made to believe that to be in this sport, you have to be a fearless individual, willing to risk life and limb to make it across the finish line. I can tell you that is NOT the case. I am afraid of heights, afraid of speed, afraid of a lot of things, but I am not afraid when I'm on a horse -- BUT again, I have enough FEAR to respect what it is I do everyday.

Recently, two good friends of mine were seriously injured on the same day in Georgia. Rebecca Howard and Jan Bynny are two riders that I have been lucky enough to know on a personal level for a while now (worked for Rebecca and trained with Jan), and I have a lot of respect for how they do what they do. To have them both injured on the same day, I think, put a lot of things in perspective for a lot of riders (that, in addition to the injury to Courtney King-Dye), including myself.

However, what I did not calculate, was the effect that those falls had on the people around me --the people who don't feel comfortable slinging a leg over a horse everyday and taking off through the field.

Believe it or not, horse people have non-horsey friends, and those non-horsey friends quite frequently don't really 'get' what it is we do, and how we do it. Yes, it's a 1000+lb animal, who thinks and acts for itself, and yes, they seem big and scary, and yes, my friends have been seriously injured doing exactly what I do everyday... BUT it's what.I.do.

My SO, who once had no problem slinging a leg over a BULL (I think horses seem way nicer), is really on the fence about my sport. He worked with Rebecca and knows her very well, and I think to see someone that HE knows personally effected like this hit him very hard.

I have tried to remind him that in his former sport, even when you did well (rode out the 8 seconds) you still had to fall off a bull who was trying its darnedest to injure you... that argument isn't working. :)

But, you know, as I'm sure any coach or parent who rides will tell you, it's so much easier when it's your feet in the irons. I watch my students do 18" cross rail courses and no one likes to stand by me cause I get very nervous when they are in the rings (I've even been known to leave nail markets when someone throws in a chip stride). The kids are fine, I have confidence in what I've taught them to do, BUT I also know that you can't control everything, and sometimes accidents just happen.

I do know those accidents are just so much easier to deal with when it's you in the irons.

P-Diddy and I head this weekend to Southern Pines Horse Trials for a last jaunt around the XC course before teh 3-Day (which is just 3 short weeks away!). I'll be updating via the CHorseEventing Twitter/Facebook (found on the left hand column). Here's to having safe rides for everyone this weekend!!!!!

Ciao, ciao!!!

Where are we going and what's with this handbasket?

2010-03-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

Starting last Monday morning, I was pretty stoked about having a weekend at home (no competition travel). I had these huge, well-laid plans about cleaning my truck/trailer/car/house, spending some real quality time with the Diddy/John/Ted/Puppies/etc... and scheduling a few lessons/rides in there.

Well, if you know me, you know I don't really hold still well and I'm pretty much moving at 1000 miles a minute or sleeping. Which also means that I tend to push my own personal plans aside in order to fit in others, so I pretty much stacked my weekend... and I mean stacked.

Lessons, rides, looking at horses, more lessons, more rides, a jump school on P (after he taught a lesson for me), and even a o'dark'30 hack on Sunday night.

And guess what? My trailer and truck still need cleaned, and my car has this faint smell of leather, horse sweat and possibly something else that I just can't place.

BUT I had a blast and LOVE being that busy. So, I'll probably continue to do roll with the punches, and pack my "weekend off" with crazy amounts of work.

This weekend we're off to the Southern Pines Horse Trials -- wicked good ride times, with my first ride (dressage) at 2:12, xc at 3:28, and the show jumping on Sunday. So glad to have the 'home event' with friends coming down to hang out -- should be a pretty good party!

Oh, and one more cool thing -- I'm blogging for the USEA about my Journey to the FENCE T3D, so check it out at www.useventing.com.

Fit pony = Crazy pony

2010-03-05T16:39:00.000-08:00

Trot sets are getting to be interesting!

Here are some great shots from the weekend from Hoof Clix (www.hoofclix.com).

Ya know when the stars just align?

2010-03-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

There must have been something in the water for the Sitton's this weekend.

For the few people in the US who did not hear my high praise for my horse as I came through the finish flags, I'll just have to fill you in on how stellar my Diddy-man was this weekend.

He had me a bit concerned, as he wouldn't eat his grain, and was just behaving way too well in general -- and for anyone who's been around P, you know that if he's behaving, he's probably not feeling well. He would eat his hay and graze just fine, but just no grain (until right before we left, but I'll get into that story in just a bit).

Anyway, being the concerned mother that I am, I was fully prepared to withdraw or retire at any moment that he did not feel up to the task at hand. We warmed up for our dressage and he was quite nice, but I thought we were a bit outclassed. Don't get me wrong, P give a great presence, but there were some REALLY nice horses in our division. Really nice. Diddy finished the warm-up, felt nice and swing-y and we trotted out of the covered, over to our dressage ring, and quickly discovered that the top of the footing was frozen. UGH. "Pony is not going to like this." P remained workmanlike, and I ended knowing there was a lot more we could have given. I told myself that there was no where to go but up when you start in last, and I continued out to walk the XC course.

Passing by the Sec. on the way back, I scanned the results from the bottom up, not seeing my name by the time I got up to the middle of the back, I was disheartened to think they hadn't finished scoring the whole division -- but low and behold, there my name was, sitting in 2nd!

Still worried about the pony's health, I warmed up for the jumping phases, acutely aware of every step, in case he wasn't feeling 100%. He launched around the warm-up... and then around the course. I about fell off during the ride when I heard Denny Emerson say "that's a nice jumping horse" from the sidelines.

My life was compete. :)

But it was on to XC. For some reason, after jumping the naturals in warm-up, I felt like I was sitting on a grown-up horse. Butterflies that usually start practicing cartwheels in my stomach weren't really givin' it all they had today because my horse felt.... awesome.

And awesome he was -- he came out of the startbox like his tail was on fire (in a good way), and rocked the entire course. I changed my gallop position a little bit so I was rode closer to him (for as big and bad as he wants to seem, I think he's got some poultry in his pedigree), and he finished in stellar form -- faster then he ever has gone, and I never once felt like I had to push him.

And just as was coming off course, John called my mom (their own little routine, so everyone knows I'm ok), and she let him know my baby (21) brother had just hit a homerun!!!! What a good day for the Sitton kids!

Hopefully the show photographs will be up soon, but here is one that friend/fellow eventer/volunteer extraordinaire, Patricia Roberts (of Fenridge Farm) took over the Trakhener.

Just another manic Monday

2010-02-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

And I do wish it was Sunday!

I don't know about your weekend, but mine was awesome.

The weather was great, which always makes us feel better, right? Our horses are happier (sans blankies, even!), people are happier, shows don't have to be canceled, and I can teach all day long in a light long-sleeved shirt!

P went to Jordan Lake with me on Saturday and taught a lesson for me. :) I always enjoy watching other people ride him because it makes me realize what a nice horse I have! I was able to do a quick jump school on him afterward, where we had this funny problem that the jumps felt too small! I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but it'd definitely weird. After a quick trip home to throw him in the field, I was off to teach several more lessons, and finish the day.

In the meantime, C-Horse students, Sarah and Taylor, cleaned up at the JoCo winter-warm-up! So proud of them, with Sarah running the gambit from 1st-5th in VERY large classes and Taylor placing well in hers also. I hear that Sarah's horse, Arnie, amazed the crowd with his high-flying over the 18" hunter hack fences -- always the entertainer, he is. YOU GO GIRLS!

Sunday brought another great day for the C-Horse family, with Lisa winning her dressage class, and Nancy placing 3rd -- much improved from a couple months ago, for sure!

The great show was followed by a couple of awesome new clients, that I'm very happy to have joining the "team". They were my first lessons taught out at 5-County Stables, a beautiful facility in Zebulon, NC where I'll be teaching the Intro to Eventing Clinic in April (10th and 11th). I'm very excited to expand my teaching, and to welcome such great people and horses!

After a quick trip to the other side of town, and a couple more hours of standing in the sandbox, I then got to help separate the baby donkey, who, just a couple of months ago was so small, that we could carry him around. He was none-to-happy about being put in the roundpin, and entertained us for a bit with his running, bucking, etc... His mom, on the other hand, was a bit relieved to have her life back, and wasn't concerned in the least about the separation.

All in all, it was a great weekend, and now I'm looking forward to prepping this week for The Ark this weekend... lots of getting ready to be done!

Oh, portablemusicplayer, how I love thee....

2010-02-19T07:37:00.000-08:00

As I sit here typing, I am entertained by my personal music-producing device -- serenading me with the likes of the crazy types of music I love.

Now, if you've met me, I bet you can't really peg the type of music I listen too. Country? Sure. Rap? A little. Hip-Hop? A bit. Folk-y? Yup. I am a giant sponge of music, and my brain is muddled with half memorized lyrics from all different genres. For instance, right now I am rockin' some Gavin Degraw, preceded by Damien Rice, and proceeded by Eric Church's classic "Smoke a Little Smoke". :)

Also, if you know me, you'll also understand why I have a portablemusicplayer, NOT an iPod... it's not that I'm an anti-Mac person (I've had the same Mac desktop since 2002), but it's that an iPod is really expensive, and I'm probably going to leave it in my pocket and wash it, or loose it, or something... so the $50 Philips serves me just as well. PLUS, it has a nice little clip that attaches it to my pocket (although I did find out that the clip does fail when I'm flying through the air after one of P's monster spooks - oh well, earbud cord kept it from hitting the ground. :) ).

Anyway, there is a horse-point to all of this, I promise, just wait.

With the imminent arrival of the T3D over Easter weekend, my time between now and then is going to be spent perfecting P's imperfect dressage, jumping jumps that make my stomach feel a little bit funny (Gotta be ready to move up to prelim after the 3-day), and millions of seconds, thousands of minutes and several hours spent doing hacks, trot sets, and gallops (gotta get the ex-racehorse pony to delve into the repressed memories of when he used to know how to gallop).

That later of the list is why I bought the now hailed, protablemusicplayer (ok, and maybe to make our dressage schools a bit more interesting).

Why so much time spent in the saddle? For those of you who don't understand what it means for us to be doing a full-format 3-day, here's a bit of a breakdown on what we will be doing.

Day 1 - Jog Up for soundness
Here we simply jog up and down a path (with me leading him) for the veterinarians to make sure he is sound enough to safely compete in the event. He is groomed within an inch of is tolerance, and I actually may put on make-up.
Day 2 - Dressage
Just the usual dressage test -- hoping to stay in the ring and do the circles and lines when appropriate.
Day 3 - Endurance
The break down of endurance is pretty much the following: Phase A: 1.8 miles at 8.2mph. straight onto Phase B (steeplechase): .93 miles at 19.4mph with 4-6 jumping efforts. straight onto Phase C: 2.2 miles at 5.96mph. 10 minute box (where grooms cool down the horse as much as possible, riders freak out about the next phase, farriers replace shoes if necessary, and vets watch the horse jog for soundness). Out to Phase D (cross country): 1.55 miles at 17.52mph with 20-27 jumping efforts. Horses are then cooled down in the vet box until they get the release to go back to the barns.
Day 4 - Jog/Show Jumping
Horses are Jogged for Soundness again (just as in Day 1). Repeat steps to make horse beautiful, and put make-up on my face. Once they pass, then we do show jumping in a ring (just as a normal horse trials).

So now see why I'll be spending hours and days in the saddle with my music blasting, getting both P's butt and my own flabby body in shape for the 3-day?

Thank God for my portablemusicplayer.... :)

The big-boy pants come out of the closet...

2010-02-16T07:21:00.000-08:00

With the plans of running around the 3-day at FENCE looming over my head, I've made a new vow to keep my horse and myself first, rather then scheduling everyone else over the top of us. I think it's a good problem to have -- growing clientele makes for a busy schedule when you're trying to fit together several jobs, but it also means that P was just stuck in there when I had a few spare minutes to get on him.

Well, this weekend kicked off my new drive to get us to the top first, so I has scheduled a XC school on Saturday, Dressage lesson with "the real deal" aka Dieter Riedinger on Sunday, and a jump lesson with Melissa Jones-Sarle on Monday.

The weather had other plans.

When I woke up Saturday morning, still crossing every toe, finger, and appendage that some how the snow had skipped this area of the country, I was sadly disappointed, seeing as there was about 3-4 inches covering everything.

No cross country school.

On the bright side, the snow did melt quite quickly and I was able to do a trot set up and down the driveway -- not exactly as thrilling as a XC school, now is it?

Sunday's weather looked WAY more promising, so I headed over to my client's ring for a couple of lessons with Dieter -- first on the client's horse, and then on Prophet. P held his own, and spent a very intense lesson (for both of us!), where I realized how much more I should be asking of him! He was up for the challenge and I was very pleased with my boy. I did get some of it on video, however it looks rather boring with us going round and round... hopefully I can get John to edit it so you can at least get the idea.

Yesterday, there was more rain scheduled, but I was determined to get over some jumps -- and I was so glad that I did! This was our first lesson with Melissa Jones-Sarle, and after hearing some very good things about her, I was very excited to get in front of her.

Once again, P did not disappoint! She has a great eye, and caught on to both his and my bad habits right away. Apparently my horse is a bit smarter then I give him credit for and I need to stay out of his way a bit! :) He jumped like a million bucks and I am falling more and more in love with my new monoflap jump saddle every day! I have one more lesson scheduled with her before The Ark, but I feel so happy to have found someone I think can really help us with our jumping (I've been feeling a bit lost since Stephen left).

So excited for the spring season to get rolling... got a busy couple of weeks in preparation for the Ark -- here's to hopin' that the weather keeps on improving!

Bust out the Bubblewrap...

2010-02-11T09:30:00.000-08:00

For a long time I've though P would greatly benefit from running a long-format event. I feel like he's just one of 'those' horses. Honestly, it's been in his plans since I got him, but in those 5 years he's just always been overshadowed by his siblings, hindered by finances, and held-back by my life getting in the way.

But it appears the planets have aligned and come hell-or-high-water we'll be trekking to South Carolina over Easter weekend for the FENCE Training 3-Day. Lately it seems the high-water part is desperately trying to keep us away with rain, rain and more rain, but we're going.

And for those of you who know me, you may have been witness to my slightly obsessive tendencies when I have a goal. When I ran in a marathon my freshman year in college, I ended up working out 3 times a day, running through campus in the snow, and doing other sorts of crazy ventures in order to prepare.

Well, now that I've set my sites on running this 3-day, my obsessiveness has once again taken over. After being sick all week, and sounding like I may be coughing up a lung on occasion, I took the opportunity to go riding yesterday in the 40 mph wind gusts. Gotta get the pony ridden! :)

This weekend should be fun with a cross-country school outing on Saturday, Dressage lesson with Dieter Riedinger on Sunday, Show Jump lesson with Melissa Jones-Sarle on Monday, and lots of teaching and riding in between!

Ciao, ciao!

Animals to Wear

2010-02-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

About six months ago, I found myself in Lexington, Kentucky working with a friend at NAYRC, and freezing in the dead of summer. The heat had given way to a chilly wind and lots of rain. And there I was with nothing more then an XXXL Sports Innovations jacket to keep me warm. Our booth neighbors (Rebecca and Chris of Animals to Wear) took pity on me and supplied me with a wonderful long-sleeve zip-up that saved the day.

Since then, I've been lucky enough to run into Rebecca and Chris at a variety of shows. They are always coming up with great new products to add to their line of beautiful artwork, and I take the opportunity to stock up when ever I can!

Now Becky and Chris have just made it that much easier for me to stock up on their beautiful apparel by signing on as C-Horse sponsors. I'm very excited to promote their brand and I'm sure if P could talk, he'd say that he is too! Visit their site at www.animalstowear.com for more information about this wonderful company!

Come rain or sleet or snow or ice....

2010-02-05T07:29:00.000-08:00

So I had to do it... and with the new revelation that P may run the 3-day in April, I knew I needed at least to get on him and see how crazy the week off has made him...

And man was he full of himself.

I can't imagine what stalled horses are feeling like with this weather, because P (who's out 24/7) sure is tired on not being able to RUN. It sure is making for some interesting above ground acrobatics! He also likes this new game of "kissy face" (also known as I-bite-you-you-bite-me) which he keeps trying to get started with both Ted and I... both of us are quite unimpressed but we've got to give him credit for being persistent.

For all the mud and grossness, he actually is feeling quite good physically. I can't wait to get him in a ring where I can really let him go a bit! Hopefully we'll be getting over to Jordan Lake Equestrian Center this weekend a couple of times to JUMP! :)

You know, they really are ok...

2010-02-04T07:23:00.000-08:00

With all this nastiness, my horses have been a bit self sufficient. P's had some time off, which I think is disastrous, but in reality, is probably fine for a pony who is out 24/7 and gets too fit easily anyway. I was gone for the weekend in Pennsylvannia for a trade show (which proved to be awesome! More updates on that later), and John took care of the boys through the frigid temps, snow and ice. Now there's mud, half frozen sloppiness, and grossness everywhere, ugh... But I took their blankets off this morning so they could get a good roll in before the next round of winter storms, and you know -- they were just has slick and shiny and fat and happy as they were a week ago. No fungus snuck up their muddy legs, no fat-eating monster came and made them skinny, and I'm pretty sure they did fine without me pampering them for a bit. Maybe this will prove to be just what Prophet needs!

Something for nothing...

2010-01-28T06:24:00.000-08:00

It's an old saying, repeated around dinner tables, bars, offices, etc, etc... there's a bunch of different ways to say it but basically, 'nothing in this life comes free.'

Oh contraire, my friend, I now offer you something free. FREE clinic sessions!!!

What's that you say? A FREE Clinic session!?!

Yes...

The benefit here is twofold - I needed a way to get my name out into the area for lessons/training rides, and a lovely local farm needed a way to get some exposure to their new cross country course and horse trials. Thus the FREE clinic was born.

Now, to prevent people from just bringing several horses and taking a bunch of clinic sessions for free, we are charging a small fee for any additional sessions ($40), but participants ARE NOT required to sign up for more then one! There is a $15 facility fee for each horse to help the owners of the barn cover expenses.

Now, you might be thinking about another very popular phrase "you get what you pay for." Well, I hope to greatly prove this wrong, and keep you coming back for more.

But... since there's no fee, why not give it a shot?

The clinic is April 10-11th at Five County Stables in Zebulon, NC. Your session options are 45 min. private dressage; 1.5 hours small group show jumping; 1.5 hour small group cross country. Like I said, you are not required to sign up for more then one, but you can do so if you wish. More information can be found at www.chorseeventing.com. You can sign up online, and pay by PayPal or credit card... or you can send in your registration along with a check -- doesn't matter to us!

See you there!

Splish Splash, I was takin' a bath...

2010-01-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

Ah, I remember the days of my heated water, heat lamps over the cross-ties, and even electricity to run the body clippers (gasp). Now with my horses living out my back door, I am without the comforts of a modern barn. This doesn't seem to phase P in the least! He's quite enjoying the mud!

And so it begins the endless cycle of blankets, grooming, riding, blankets, riding, grooming, riding, etc. etc. etc.

I am happy he gets to roll around and "get all the itchies out" though!

Get that booty moving... 'laterally'

2010-01-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

Ok, sorry attempt at a pun... it's just one of those days I guess.

Anywho... The rain and cold are serving as quite a successful way to avoid the too-fit problem I have with Prophet sometimes. We've been doing lots of walking, trotting and a bit of cantering, but mainly focusing on overcoming our severe ADD (both of us!).

Neither one of us really have a problem of just shooting off into full-speed ahead mode the minute my foot hits that stirrup. It's the little things like lateral half-halts, transitions within the gaits, stopping, standing, relaxing.... those kinds of things are our hang-ups.

So that's what we've been doing. LOTS of square corners, leg yields with varying degrees of angle, and stopping and standing, and learning to love it. :)

And suddenly I have this uphill horse who goes forward off my leg, rather then off a spook, and he is starting to have a lengthening, like, REAL-live lengthening. And suspension in his working trot, and collection at the canter, and all this other good stuff that I'm not really for sure what to do with because it's so unlike him.

And we have a lesson scheduled for Saturday with Karyn, and we'll probably lose it all in the ring, but for now it's really fun.

And since my lessons for tonight are canceled do to MORE rain (UGH), I think I'll go see about getting myself a nice (cheap) MP3 player that me and the Diddy-man can rock out to during our trot sets. :)

Ciao, ciao!

Becoming accustomed to the darker side of life...

2010-01-19T07:51:00.000-08:00

Have no fear, next time you see me I will not suddenly be transformed from my usual optimistic, cheerful, glass-half-full self. No dark fingernail polish and chains and black clothes are on my shopping list. I may however need a stronger eye-glass prescription do to squinting through the darkness... yes the darker side of life is Prophet and I enduring night rides!

Seeing as our winter here in North Carolina has been less then Southern, morning rides are happening, but sometimes it's just so hard to drag myself out of my warm, soft bed to layer on 20 pairs of pants and shirts and trudge through the frost to walk and my very excited-to-be-alive pony. Yes, I do it, but on the occasion that I hit the snooze one too many times, I have to then ride at night.

P is actually much better behaved at night. Maybe he just can't see the booger monsters coming to get him, and therefore he doesn't shy as much, but we actually are getting some good work in!

Now if only the rain would stop making my field into a swamp, then we'd really be on the right track!

Oh... and Prophet DID have reason to celebrate last Friday -- our dressage lesson unfortunately got rained out, therefore he'll just have to wait until this weekend to get tortured. :)

Everyone needs a "Happy Friday Guy"

2010-01-15T10:52:00.000-08:00

When I was in college (Go Ball State University!), my hero was this scooter riding, underwear-on-the-outside-of-longjohns wearing, masked, caped man who would emerge on Fridays riding his little wheeled thing throughout campus yelling "Happy Friday!". He would zoom in and out of the crowds of students at the busiest times of the day, echoing "Happy Friday" as he rolled on performing his civic duty. You could be having the worst day in the whole world, and really couldn't help but smile when you saw him.

I have a feeling that he could probably come up and steal your lunch, and you'd be like "Hey! Happy Friday"... complete with a thumbs up and everything. He just had that sort of star power.

Which is why I'm going to start thinking of P-monster as the Happy Friday Guy.

Fridays no longer mean a weekend full of nothing to do (well, really they never did for me, but that's besides the point). Now they mean the start of a weekend that will go by way too fast, full of lessons, and riding, and dinner dates. All fun stuff... it just goes by too fast.

But let's discuss why P needs to be the Happy Friday Man.

I rode the monster this morning, complete with frost and frozen ground. Now, he just got his shoes on yesterday, which usually means he is a bit short the next day. And if he doesn't feel good, he's NOT forward.

I just wanted to have a nice Friday morning hack... get the blood pumpin', come back to work after his day off, kick off a great weekend.

P decided this Friday was time to celebrate, with more celebration then any other Friday, ever in the whole wide world. (I guess I haven't ruined his weekend with word that we will be taking a dressage lesson on Sunday).

After a nice walk across the field, he let loose with a nice little hop/buck move at passing car. "Haven't you heard? It's Friday! Time to Dance!" Then he held it together rather well as I worked on some bendy/stretchy/free walk circles in the "field of scary things" aka neighbors. He then go very excited and did "The Ted"* for a bit just because it was fun.

*The Ted is a highly specialized move created by my now-retired superstar, in which the horse stays very light in the bridle, and proceeds to canter in place while throwing their feet WAY out in front of them. It's fun. Sometimes.

He then chilled out again, was good... but basically just wanted to celebrate the whole "being alive on a Friday" thing.

So... Just as to not get frustrated with his antics, I'm now going to visualize P as the Happy Friday Guy, zooming around on his scooter with a cape, mask and exposed underwear.

ETA: I forgot, HFG also gave out candy... to bad P lacks the opposable thumbs necessary for candy giving, because that would be a huge help in the "Don't get mad at me for being stupid" persona he's got going on.

We all need a little inspiration from time to time...

2010-01-14T07:56:00.000-08:00

It's a heatwave! Up above 50 degrees today...

Need inspiration to get your spring sesson kicked off right? Here it is...

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night...

2010-01-11T16:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it's night riding, but REM never did a a song called "Nightriding" so we'll just make believe.

Anyway, Diddy and I had to have a bit of a night school seeing as it was quite frigid in the morning. He was really good! I guess he couldn't see well enough to be spooky. :)

And sometimes they surprise you...

2010-01-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

Let me paint you a picture...

I walk outside, and for the first time in a very long time, the ground isn't frozen... score! I change out of the cover-all/mudboot get-up into full-chaps and paddock boots, and walk down to catch the pony. He looks so calm and sweet standing in the far corner, begins to lumber up towards the gate, and hits the turbo... great. I catch him, attempt to have some sort of civilized walk up to the trailer, but that process turns into a series of bites, strikes rears, spins, spanish walking, etc... None of these moves are malicious-- he flat out just wants to PLAY! I attempt to tack him up, only to get a call that the farrier is coming early to trim the Ted, so back into the field Prophet goes (for the moment).

Bad idea, because then Prophet lets Ted know that now is PLAYTIME!!! Around the field they go... kicking up their heels for the first time in who knows how long (because of the frozen ground). Finally I get Prophet, which means I can then catch Ted. Let go of Prophet, who then proceeds to get Ted to continue playing -- while I'm leading him! Ugh...

Ted stands like a champ for the farrier. I pay. I run inside and John to tell him to grab the video camera since Prophet is being crazy and he'll "for sure" be doing the Spanish Walk today. My plan was to get it on tape (or at least have video evidence as to which way P ran after he dumped me).

I grab the now-standing-quietely-in-the-field-like-nothing-happened P-monster and tack him up, hop on, and he proceeds to be really, really good! Albiet a quick ride, with not enough warm-up to get in entirely 'through', but he had minimal spooks, no bolts, no Spanish Walking, and a very decent extended trot (which I did get on video, but I'm too ashamed to show because of my attrocious riding). Good Boy P-man!

So basically, that's my long winded way of saying I tried, and failed, to get THE "Prophet Spanish Walk" on video.

Ciao, ciao!

Mad Props to My Pops....

2010-01-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's really, really cold. P-man and I have been doing our best to shun the coldness with our early morning hacks around on the frozen ground. Me in my coveralls, scarf, gloves, headband, Muck boots - him in his Baker Blanket and hackmore... we make quite the pair. He likes to take moments like these and express his distaste by doing his version of a Spanish walk (which I REALLY need to get on video so you all can see), and pretending that the neighbor kid's wagon is a horse-eating villain, left in the yard with the sole purpose of attacking us at the exact moment he relaxes. But none-the-less, we walk up and down the only hill on the property, doing endless leg-yields and free-walk/Medium-walk transitions. Today we even trotted! It was glorious. :)

So since things have been a bit slow, I figured I'd take this opportunity to give a bit of a shout out to my pops. He and my mom (who I wrote about a couple of days ago) are celebrating their 31st (I think) anniversary today, and so I thought it would be appropriate to give him a post.

My dad rides also (notice a trend here), but in a different way then my mom and I. Footing concerns? Not so much. Helmet? HA! Bending, Giving? What? But he's an amazing rider, and I envy his fearlessness. He was definitely much happier when I moved away from the Hunter Jumper ring and began eventing... at least he liked the cross country part (maybe not so much Dressage and Show Jumping).

When I wrote about my mom, it was about improving on what she had built. I wish I could say the same for me and my dad, but I do believe it's my brother who's taken on that roll. My dad wants to forever by 19... jump out of airplanes, barefoot ski, repel Australian style, ride around on motorcycles -- just be a daredevil in general. Definitely not so much my style (I take risks, but they are carefully calculated!). BUT my brother is the next step up from by dad. Daredevil doesn't even begin to describe him. At about 6'2" he's a baseball player by trade, but will pretty much try anything... and I mean ANYTHING. He carries on my dad's 'legacy', while I'm ok not being involved. :)

So, Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Hopefully T and I can continue to lead lives you can live vicariously through! MUAH!!!!;)

Those are some big shoes to fill...

2010-01-04T13:28:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite memories is of tacking up a tractor tire in the barn with my best childhood friend, Sarah. I was probably about 7 and we were both the most horse crazy girls you could find. We were serious competitors, horses were in our blood, and we wanted every waking moment to have something to do with those crazy four legged creatures.... so, as the sun had long faded, we'd switch on the lights of my parents barn, and ride the hell out of the big ol' tractor tires.

To many people it may seem ridiculous, but to us, it seemed natural. We were in the barn, with the smell of horses, leather, dirt... it all was way more familiar then our own rooms.

We also thought it natural to jump on a couple horses in the school-horse field and gallop with the herd to the barn, no bridles... no saddles. We had falling off contests, rode the horses we shouldn't have ridden, and were just too young to care (but we were smart enough to hide it all from the adults). But... for all of us, horses were in our blood.

I thought for a long time that my grandmother was a famous horsewoman. To me she was, and that's all that mattered. She had some articles written about her, taught some clinics, and made crazy horses calm and sore horses feel better. She died when I was 8, but I still have all the pictures of her with a horse etched into my memory. The one of her and the horse both 'laughing' while wading through her pond, the one of her in the snow, the one of her with her voodoo seeds 'healing' the muscles of a poor little two year old off the track.

I remember taking a lesson from her on one summer day... it was hot and dusty in her little covered arena (it seemed HUGE back then), and at 7 years old, I had no idea what she was talking about when she told me to put the horse 'on the bit'. But I tried. I remember picking up (or maybe it was dropping off) the great Bruce Davidson at the airport and going to dinner with all of the adults when he gave a clinic in the area. I even remember her telling someone I was going to be an amazing rider someday. Of course at the time, I thought I was already an amazing rider... :)

Now I know that she wasn't famous, but she gave it her best shot. She wanted it really bad, but really didn't know what it was she was wanting.

And then there's my mom... who can outride ANYONE when it comes to the feel of a horse. Amazing to watch her work on the ground and in the saddle... frustrating too (for me!). She can connect with horses in ways that most of us will never understand, but doesn't have enough faith in herself, or in her process to take it where it needs to go. I've gotten to watch my mom go through her own stages of learning her gift - from when she had such a bad back (thanks to carrying me for 9 months!) she could only ride a gaited horse, to now winning her first attempt at endurance riding. She frustrates me because I can't always feel what she does, but she's even more frustrating because she doesn't trust what she does enough to be comfortable with it.

She's never pushed any learning on me. She'd fix my pony for me when I let him get pushy, but never force me to 'learn' what it was she was doing. I had rules growing up that in order to compete, I had to put in my time riding and helping in the barn, but if I didn't want to ride and compete, I didn't have to (that wasn't a choice in my mind).

So now here I am in my journey... I'm a bit different from many riders because although I'd like to be at the top of sport, I care way more about the partnership between horse and rider and making each horse the best IT can be, than I do about getting a bigger/better/more talented mount to take me up the levels. I want my clients to enjoy sitting on their horses each and every day. I want to help make each horse feel happy in its job, both physically and mentally.

And I want to fill the shoes of the previous two generations. I have their trials and tribulations to fall back on... and their mistakes to learn from. I want to help people help their horses (and help horses help their people!). say that 10 times fast. :)

Third time's a charm, right?

Hello 2010!

2010-01-03T15:16:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure why I've been procrastinating about posting an update about what's been going on around here... every time I gave thought to it, by ears started smoking, brain started hurting, and my fingers just coudn't find the correct keys. But it seems I've gotten over that feeling for the moment, so here it goes...

First, let's reflect a little bit on 2009. For P-man, I think we learned a lot about eachother. I learned that he will be the one to teach me to truly ride, no matter how frustrating that process may be. He's shown me how talented he can be (when he wants) and how much of a cow he can be (when he doesn't want). I'm currently going back to the basics a bit with him, to get him more comfortable in his own body, so he's ready to fire off when asked to do so. I had a really nice little jump school on him right before NYE -- hopefully that set the tone for the coming year.

The whole C-Horse thing really formed itself in 2009. I couldn't ask for better sponsors, clients, friends, supporters, etc., etc., etc... I can only hope it will continue to develop and grow in the coming year.

So... now here we are at the closing of the 3rd day of the new decade, and it's bloody cold here in North Carolina. My clients are all amazing troopers and I have continued to teach and ride through the fridgedness. This is the time for making show plans, and finding those rays of motivation, and I have a great team to motivate me, and I hope I do the same for them.

To be honest, I haven't set my goals for 2010. There's a great post on Eventing Nation about focusing on the process, and that's what I hope to do. I want to develop monthly plans to focus on where I want to be in the immediate future, cause I know alot can change between now and the Fall season, and I really just want my horses, my clients, and myself to be the best we can be at that moment. I figure if we can do that everyday, then the bigger goals will form themselves!

So here's to a great 2010! One of my clients got me a great '10 calendar with P's pictures topping every month... I'd like to think of it as a sign that 2010 will be the year of the Prophet! :)

Ciao, ciao!

Thoughts from Jane Smiley...

2010-01-01T06:38:00.000-08:00

A quote that I though appropriate to send us into 2010...

Most horses pass from one human to another - some horsemen and women are patient and forgiving, others are rigourous and demanding, others are cruel, others are ignorant. Horses have to learn how to, at the minimum, walk, trot, canter, gallop, go on trails and maybe jump, to be treated by the vet, with sense and good manners. Talented Thoroughbreds must learn how to win races, and if they can't do that, they must learn how to negotiate courses and jump over strange obstables without touching them, or do complicated dancelike movements or control cattle or accommodate severely handicapped children and adults in therapy stables.

Many horses learn all of these things in the course of a single lifetime. Besides this, they learn to understand and fit into the successive social systems of other horses they meet along the way. A horses's life is rather like twenty years in foster care, in and out of prison, while at the same time changing schools over and over and discovering that not only do the other students already have their own social groups, but that what you learned at the old school hasn't much application at the new one.

We do not require as much of any other species, including humans. That horses frequently excel, that they exceed the expectations of their owners and trainers in such circumstances, is as much a testament to their intelligence and adaptability as to their relationship skills or their natural generosity or their inborn nature.

That they sometimes manifest the same symptoms as Romanian orphans - distress,strange behaviors, anger, fear - is less surprising than that they usually don't.

No one expects a child, or even a dog to develop its intellectual capacities living in a box 23 hours a day and then doing controlled exercises the remaining one. Mammal minds develop through social interaction and stimulation. A horse that seems stupid might just have not gotten the chance to learn!

Ciao, ciao!

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-25T15:09:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone is having a blessed Holidays!

Updates a' plenty

2009-12-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

Apparently the rain hasn't taken the hint that I don't want to see it any more, and just won't leave... and with the rain has come my lack of updates, for which I do apologize!

Things at C-Horse have been zooming right along, with several things in the works for 2010 that I'll be very happy to report (I hope!) once they materialize!

P-man is in semi-work, and quite full of it! He feels great, and if only the ground would cease being a sloppy mess, we could get down to some real work. All in good time, I guess.

The C-Horse students haven't been slowed down at all by the rain. This weekend was an awesome little show at the fairgounds. Dressage / Flat class day was Saturday, with Nancy and Niki doing their first big-girl dressage test together, and the same for my new client (Nancy's sister, Lisa) and her mare Grace. Although the scores didn't reflect the joy experienced by everyone staying on and staying in the ring, we all had a blast (I think). What fun ladies (horses and people)!!

Maggie was next in her hunter on the flat classes, where she pulled off her first blue ribbon!!! She was riding better then ever, and I'm so proud she did so well! She continued the hot streak on Sunday for the over-fences division with two 3rd's out of a very competitive division. CONGRATS to her and Wiley!!!

WHAT A GREAT WAY TO END THE 2009 SEASON FOR C-HORSE!!!!

Video and pics will be posted soon of everyone. I'm pretty sure everyone's cameras are just now unthawing from the cold!

AND I'm happy to report that I am nearly done Christmas shopping! Here's to hoping you all are almost done too!

Happy Holidays!

Christmas pics

2009-12-16T09:46:00.000-08:00

8 Days left till Christmas! AH!

Must.

Get.

Shopping.

Done.

While I do that, here's some images from the Christmas party for you to enjoy!

John, Scott and Doug discuss anything not related to horses. :)

The Brooks

A portion of the crew

Hoof Wraps! www.hoofwraps.com

Ok, Rain... we need to talk.

2009-12-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

... I am hereby breaking up with you. Round up your doom and gloom and get out, you won't be bringing me down anymore.

Ok, so I live on a hill. At the TOP of a hill, and my back yard is holding water. Did I say I live at the TOP of a hill? I do. It's that bad. My poor ponies are stuck out in the rain and wind, being the feral ponies that they are. I feel so bad, but can't do anything about it. Luckily it's only a little bit bitterly cold.

But P's probably enjoying the lack of riding, although I really want to get on him to run through what we worked on with my mom. Can't wait!

And now for some seriously exciting news...

I'm now taking clients as the instructor/trainer at the Jordan Lake Equestrian Center. Their website is currently under construction, but I will definitely post it when it's up. The place is AMAZING with 14 stalls, wash stall, Nike footing in the arena, full course, AND.... stadium lights! It looks beautiful all lit up at night. Absolutely stunning. I can't wait to get P over there and jump around a bit.

For anyone that's interested, we are offering an introduction package for lessons where, when you buy 5, you get a 6th one FREE!

Anyway, I will have more updates about Jordan Lake later... and hopefully more updates about how the rain has let up a allowed me to ride!

Back to my roots and branching out...

2009-12-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

Ok, finally an update about home, and the rest of stuff going on here at C-Horse.

First off, can we all just stand up and give a hand to Thanksgiving? I mean, come on -- what a great Holiday. Our's featured family, food, wine, good stories and lots of relaxing. I got to spend some quality time riding horses for my mom's clients (she's really lucky in that there's some really nice horse flesh she gets to sit on weekly), and riding my old man, Rockie.

Now, good ol' Rockstar may be slightly heavier then he was when I showed him, but he's still as big of a baby. Picture this - me having to hike next to the poor guy the whole second half of the trail ride cause he plumb wore himself out during the first half. There are several of us who've now had to hike him back to the trailer, thinking of making it some sort of exclusive club.

Anyway... what a fantastic break! The only sad note was just as we were getting ready to leave Sunday morning, we discovered our 15 year old cat, Chief, had passed away peacefully in his sleep. My family had Chief from the time he was a kitten, and he was the permanent fixture at our front door. The last couple of years it seems age has taken it's toll on the old man, as he grew a bit skinny, but he was always there early in the mornings to share my mom's cereal with her. Even after being gone for several years, it's hard to lose a long-time family member like Chief.

Although sad about Chiefy, I was excited to head back to see my four-legged kids in NC. One of my clients had been taking wonderful care of my 3 boys and Ellie, but I was happy to hear Ted's friendly nicker as we got out of the car.

My mom traveled back from Illinois to spend the week with us... She's currently fixing all the problems I have with P-monster... can't wait to sit on him after she's done! She frustrates me with her talents, because she can totally get through to horses in ways I can't seem to, but at least I do have her available to me!!!

Party is tonight for all the C-Horse crew!!! Can't wait for everyone to get together so we can enjoy good company and good food. And yes, my mom has done my portion of the cooking, so no one is at risk for food-poisoning. :)

Will definitely post pics from the party over the weekend.

Ciao, ciao!

Holiday Shopping fun- the internet way!

2009-11-30T10:55:00.000-08:00

My update about Illinois will have to be postponed until I can sit down and process it, but for now, some Holiday Shopping FUN! Because... after hearing all weekend long about the shopping dramas, I'm sure that you all want to hear about more shopping.

But that's why they created the internet -- so people like me don't ever have to set foot in an actual store, where there are actual people and actual lines to wait in. The internet hold all these cool little sites where you can get awesome stuff, that, without the World Wide Web, you would never discover! Usually these sites have the coolest people working for them, the best customer service and again, REALLY COOL STUFF!

Such as.... Horse Lover's Gifts and Wild Home Decor. (http://www.horseandwildlifegifts.com/)

You know those horse enthusiasts that have everything? No ordinary horse gift will do, but you want to get them something a bit classy... That's what Horse and Wildlife Gifts is for. They also have other stuff that doesn't have a horse theme, but the owners have years of experience in the horse world, so they 'get' us horse people. :) No crazy horse sculptures where the supposed "Arabian" look like a cross between a Llama and a Golden Retriever.

They have great stuff including the Painted Pony line, which I absolutely adore! Check them out for your Christmas shopping needs! I promise, no waiting in lines!

I'd like to thank the academy...

2009-11-24T09:52:00.000-08:00

So, J-bomb and I have hit the ground running, rolling our way the 12 hours or so up to the Illini state. I love going home for Thanksgiving. I get to see all my family, old friends, hang out at my 'ol' stompin grounds'... you know the drill.

Anyway, figured it would be an appropriate time to offer some thanks to those that have made this past year a great one for me. I've truly been blessed with some very exciting relationships that I hope will continue to grow! I really can't name everyone, so I'm not going to try... but you know who you are.

I've been lucky enough to have people let me use their barns as teaching bases, sponsors who have donated products for me and my horses, awesome instructors who have been instrumental in my education, general good friends who always have a kind word or shoulder to cry on, and just the best clients, friends and supporters anyone could ever ask for. I am one lucky person for sure!

I really like to think of my C-Horse crew as family... we all work together to make eachother better, both around the horses and just in general. And I have the best family in the world. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Hope everyone has safe travels and eat lots of stuffing!

Pittman Clinic Photos

2009-11-21T15:11:00.000-08:00

Photos taken by Sneaky Dog Photography
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/store.aspx?p=223032

Ah, the sun...

2009-11-16T09:13:00.000-08:00

After a long week of Ida - induced clouds, we thankfully saw the sun this weekend. With no shows are clinics on the schedule, I found myself spending a lot of time in the sandbox.

On Saturday I had a much need light day with one lesson and one horse to ride. We all celebrated in the arena when, after a very long, dark week, the clouds parted and the sun shown down on us! That night Kristin, Sarah and I enjoyed the Grand Prix jumping at the fairgrounds. Too bad that Kristin was so sick that her glassy eyes made her look like she was crying the whole night! No more crying though cause she got a job! Yay!

Sunday morning, J-bomb took me to a nice breakfast (Biscuitville, anyone?) before I had to start my long day of teaching.

First off, I had to make the hard decision to let a client know that maybe we needed to seek other avenues of help for her horse, as I wasn't making the progress he needs. Things like that are always tough to admit, but it was definitely right for everyone.

Then my little girls at Kims had a fun day of doing emergency dismounts! Poor Wiley pulled a shoe AND rolled in fire ants, so little Buddy stepped up and taught he very first lessons! Everyone had fun launching off him at the walk and even the trot, and I'm sore this morning from giving 1000 leg-ups. :) Good time was had by all.

Prophet is still taking it easy, although he's frustrating me a bit at the moment. I think there is a combination of about 10 things that have made him quite body sore, and I'm trying to knock them out one at a time. It's tough though! I just want him to feel better. :(

On a happier note, here's some images from the C-Horse team, taken over the last couple of weeks (thanks to all the parents/students who let me steal their pics!).

Prophet and the Gasias

Carlie loving on Wiley after a job well done

Finished with First Dressage Test EVER!

Last minute instructions

Maggie riding our one-eyed monster, Brewer. :)

Yes, I took off my half chaps so have on crazy white socks...
This is Sydney on Buddy working on emergency dismounts.

More emergency dismounts... I wasn't kidding when I said there were 100's of leg-ups! We also worked on led-ups from the 'off' side. You never realize how tricky this is until you try it!

No pics or video yet, but...

2009-11-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

Everyone did fantastic at the dressage show last weekend. I survived the weekend of running around like a chicken with minimal sleep lost, and all was wonderful!

Saturday morning rolled around with morning lessons to teach and horses to ride. A quick rush back to my farm to throw the P-monster on the trailer and head to Amanda Miller's Falcon Park for the Stueart Pittman clinic. P's still a bit foot sore, but he was a champ none-the-less... actually too much so.

This is the problem I run into with P. He's not brilliant, but you really can't find a place to fault him. He does what's in front of him. "Preliminary table, ok. In the water, out of water, banks, pimples, corners... whatever, it's cool." Here in-lies the problem -I end up getting barely anything out of some lessons. I literally was not told anything other than, "he's nice." HELLO! I want to make him MORE nice! Help me out! Stuart was a lovely instructor and I saw much improvements around me, but I like it when people tell me what I'm doing wrong, whether it be with my position, my approach to the fences or my horse - I want to know - I just didn't get that...

But I was very happy with my horse.

I had to quickly load him back up and shoot him off into the pasture at home to go teach a couple of more lessons and head to the grand prix with friends... great fun!!

Sunday morning came early with P-man back in the trailer and heading to Whinstone Farm for his walk-test debut with my student Sydney. I promise to post pics and the video cause it was so cute -- and NO drugs. :) After the girls were done showing, P served as a mighty fine babysitter to the entourage, letting them graze, lead, groom, pick-feet, and just about everything else... who knew my big-bad event horse was a softy at heart?

My perfect lesson horse, Wiley stole the judges hearts by doing a wide variety of walk-trot and Training level tests throughout the morning. All of my girls were fantastic, putting in stellar tests on a less-then-enthusiastic Wiley. I'd much rather him be like that then crazy though! Great first dressage show for all the girls, for sure!

I didn't get left out of the fun for the day, with Buddy being entered in his debut dressage test also. He tried really hard for a pony whose life was all about western until a few months ago. He's turned it around and for his 3rd ride of being asked to go in the bridle, he was VERY good! Only one minor spaz moment in the ring which came from me warming him up way too long.

From the show, I went on to do more lessons and finally got home to rest and enjoy a nice dinner out with John (who had videoed at the show ALL morning and then went and pick up 50 bales of hay for me! He deserved a dinner out!).

Fairly light weekend this weekend. It's going to be even lighter if Ida keeps pouring on us like she's done for the last couple of days... my client's rings are gonna be ponds!

P's best friend, Tina (physiotherapist, Equine Edge) is staying with us this week, so hopefully we'll have a chance to work on his back this evening. Promise to post pics and video of the show when I get them!

Think Forward! Ciao, ciao!