Sporting Days Take Two

Home sweet home!  I'm now in the barn back in The Plains, Virginia, sorting through the very soggy mess from Sunday's competition and attacking the mountain of laundry that goes with it.  The boys were very WILD and ecstatic to be back in their home field with their other buddies Milton and Bobby this morning, and they are already disgustingly covered in a thick coat of mud. Welcome home!

Sunday brought another day of competition at Sporting Days Farm again in Aiken.  My parents were on hand to help and to watch this time.   When I convinced them to come down, I mentioned the sun and the warmth.  It rained for their entire stay, including when Aunt Kathy came to visit from Charlotte, NC!

Bumbleberry was the star of the day on Sunday.  He improved his dressage score by 5 points from Wednesday, and he finished the event in 2nd place out of 19 behind Boyd Martin by 1 point. This was his first event at the Novice level.  He still has very green (=inexperienced) moments, but he happily cantered around both the show jumping and the cross country courses.  Now if I can only teach him not to whinny all the time and not to paw incessantly in the trailer we'll be set!

Rufus put in a good performance too.  His back was bothering him quite a lot on Saturday, and I considered not competing him at all.  He seemed much happier on Sunday morning.  He warmed up well, so we gave it a shot!  He put in a nice dressage test.  Rufus was a bit lazy in the stadium but found the cross country to be very easy.  He finished in 8th.

Pete is learning and growing from day to day.  The rain and cold and the long wait for his turn made his dressage test a little tense.  Part of the training process is knowing when to push and and when to back off, and Pete is ready for a mental break!  His inexperience showed in the show jumping when he was a bit late to focus on one of the jumps, but he too excelled at the cross country.  I'm very confident that these are just growing pains, as Pete has shown a certain talent and enthusiasm for the sport in the past two weeks.  He finished in 6th!

My photographer (aka Dad) got stuck in Atlanta last night, so I will have to post pictures when he makes it home to Minnesota.  Back to unpacking, and more soon!

Sporting Days Scoreboard

Our first event at Sporting Days Farm was a great success!  All of the horses performed well, each coming home with ribbons.  Even more importantly, I got a good read of what we're doing well and what we need to continue to work on.

Rufus is jumping wonderfully, and a little more polish should make our dressage score even more competitive.  Bumbleberry was a little nervous, being the baby of the group, and he whinnied for much of the day (including during most of his dressage test).  He looked to me for some reassurance during the jumping, but he did everything I asked of him.  Pete exceeded all expectations, putting in a nice first dressage test ever and behaving himself all day.  He struggled a little with the show jumping, but he is hugely inexperienced at this part.  He galloped around the cross country like an old pro.

At the Middleburg Horse Trials last fall, Jeff Keffer said, "I think I just need to do one more event, and I'll have it perfect."  I find myself saying that after every competition!  Part of what makes our sport challenging and exciting is that it's a never-ending learning process.  I was thrilled with the day yesterday because 1. the horses are all appropriately prepared and confident to be successful and 2. I have concrete goals for where to make improvements for Sunday's competition, as well as for the rest of the season.

Enjoy the pictures below! Special thanks to my photographers Rolf, Liz, and Ayla Turnquist and to Gwen Kriskie for helping me with the horses all day!

PICTURES AND SCOREBOARD

RUFUS

• Dressage Score: 35.5
• Stadium: 1 rail, 4 faults
• Cross Country: 0 jump faults, 0 time faults
• Final Placing: 5th Place

BUMBLEBERRY

Dressage: 35.8

Stadium: 1 rail, 4 faults

Cross country, 0 jump faults, 0 time faults

Final Placing: 6th Place

PETE

Dressage Score: 38.4

Stadium: 8 jump faults, 15 time faults

Cross Country: 0 jump faults, 0 time faults

Final Placing: 8th Place

This was the first time that Ayla and I had competed at the same level or even at the same event since Menfelt in June 2004 (where we both happened to fall off our horses in the water!).  Here we are discussing the stadium course before jumping. 

The Turnquists have been great hosts.  We have all spent a few nights unwinding in the hot tub after dinner!  

Ready for Tomorrow!

I'm sitting here in that strange in between of exhaustion and excitement after a long day of preparing the boys for their spring debut tomorrow.  They're tucked in for the night, bathed and braided for tomorrow's competition.  I'm studying my dressage tests and remembering the cross country courses for tomorrow's event at Sport Days Farm before falling asleep myself!  

For the next installment in The Lineup, meet Peter Panther!

PETER PANTHER

• Name: His Jockey Club (racing name) is Peter Panther, but his barn name (nickname) is Pete.
• Date of Birth: 2001
• Markings: All solid bay with some leg decorations (scars) from the track.
• Height: 16.2 hands
• Previous career: Pete was a race horse until he was 5.  Now he learning to be both a hunt horse and an event horse.
• Bit: Pete loves his Happy Mouth snaffle bit.  He is very sensitive and responsive, especially considering his previous career.
• Personal habits: Pete loves to lick.  He will lick your hands or your face, and he licks the air when he sticks his head out of his stall.  He loves to rub his whole head on his riders, sometimes practically knocking them down after a ride!  Pete is the barn mess; he trashes his stall into a disgusting mess daily. 
• First meeting: Audra Spouse brought Pete to me for a lesson in May 2007 in Virginia. Most of the lesson was spent running sideways, backwards, or stuck in park. Pete and Audra have both come a long way since then!
• Biggest victory to date (until tomorrow!): Pete HATED getting on the trailer when his owner Audra got him off the track.  For two years, it was a serious battle to take him anywhere, often taking an hour to convince him to get on.  Pete has learned to like the trailer, and he is getting better and better at getting on any trailer to go anywhere with anyone. 
• Favorites: Pete likes treats and attention.  He likes sunbathing in his field, often scaring us when he sleeps so deeply in the middle of the day! Pete loves to drink water from the hose while getting baths, probably an old habit from the track.
• Best friend: Pete and Bumbleberry are best friends, though Pete finds it easier to leave his buddies for work. 

That's all for now.  Be sure to check back with competition results from Sporting Days!

The Lineup

The boys had a nice, quiet weekend to get ready for their big week this week.  We did light flatwork both days, and Pete had a nice trail ride in the famous Aiken Hitchcock Woods yesterday.  Ayla had a great event over the weekend with Corelli.  Today we are cross country schooling at Jumping Branch Farm in preparation to compete on both Wednesday AND Sunday this week :-D

I thought it'd be fun for everyone to get to know the horses a bit better, so I'll introduce one each day. I'll start with Rufus. 

QUANTUM MERUIT

• Birthday: April 12, 2002
• Dam: Mouse
• Sire: Reputed Testimony
• Name: Rufus' owner Brooke named him Rufus.  My Dad gave him his show name Quantum Meruit, which is a legal term meaning, "as much as he deserves" in Latin. 
• Marking: Sock on right front, ermine spots on left hind, white hairs (roaned) on the right side of his belly
• Favorite treats: Mrs. Pastures Horse Cookies.  Rufus didn't like treats very much when I got him, but he's becoming more interested.  He eats apples in tiny people sized bites.
• Least favorite things: Waiting to be turnout out in the morning, having his face washed, and having his mane and tail pulled.
• Best friend: Jeff Keffer's hunt horse Milton
• Bridle size: Rufus is very dainty.  He wears cob sized tack, and he could almost wear a pony bridle.
• Quirky habits: Rufus can appear wild if he doesn't get fed or turned out when he wants.  He also is a very, very laid back horse.  After his first novice event, he slept flat out in his stall for three days! His lower lip is often drooping like he works way too hard. 
• Funny story: Dorothy Crowell delivered Rufus to Maryland from Kentucky.  We met at the Wal-Mart in Frederick, MD to do the trade off.  He was a young five year old, and he marched from Dorothy's trailer to mine right in the parking lot (photo above in May 2007). 

I'm off back to the barn to get ready to go school!  

South Carolina Nice and Lotsa Lessons

Happy Saturday!  I'm back at the Atlanta Bread Company to use the internet.  My computer battery is running low, and some nice gentleman saw me searching for an outlet, got up, moved his breakfast, and offered me his table!  The South is definitely different.  People move a little more slowly, are a lot more friendly, and generally seem more cheerful than farther up on the East Coast.  On the way to my first lesson with Mara, I pulled over to double check my directions, and three people stopped to ask if I was lost and needed help.  Gotta love it!

The horses continue to go well.  Below is me with the boys loading up to go cross country schooling on Thursday.  Rufus, Bumblerry, and Pete went out with Sally Cousins to Full Gallop Farm, about 25 minutes from home.  I don't think I had had a cross country lesson since Florida last spring!

Schooling is always a good reality check to see where we are in our training.  Rufus hadn't practiced cross country since his last competition last November.  It is always encouraging when they remember what they learned last season.  We're ready to go!

(Rufus in the water jump).

(Practicing galloping fences around the farm). 

(Running Rufus through his gears around Full Gallop Farm). 

This was Bumblerry's second formal cross country school.  He found everything to be quite easy and unimpressive!

(Bumble jumping a roll top at Full Gallop). 

(Bumbleberry galloping at Full Gallop). 
(Bumbleberry practicing banks). 

Sorry I don't have any pictures of Pete.  My trust photographer Ayla had to take a time out to go and get her own horse ready to compete this weekend.  Pete stepped up to the plate and jumped happily around many of the beginner novice and novice jumps.  It's fun to train the horses who are smart and willing to try new things. 

Thursday we also went to watch the US Training Sessions again.  Below is Phillip Dutton during his jumping lesson.  

Yesterday I had two more dressage lessons with Mara Dean.  It was Bumbleberry's first "grown up" lesson.  Rufus felt better than on Tuesday, and I feel like he's ready to move to a new phase of his training, like graduating from high school to moving on to college.  Yesterday I also got to watch Liz Turnquist's lesson with Kathy Theissen, another Minnesotan who has ended up in Aiken.  I'm with horses all the time in Virginia, but it's been a long time since I took and watched so many lessons in such a concentrated period of time!

The boys will have an easier weekend of practicing and resting at home this weekend before gearing up for our first competition next Wednesday.  Tomorrow we may go for a nice walk in the famous Hitchcock Woods in Aiken to let them relax.  The perfectionist in me wants to keep drilling them and myself, but I also know that both horses and humans need some down time to digest and to renew. 

Have a great weekend!

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

Bumbleberry says good morning with his pearly whites!

I believe it was Jimmy Wofford who said, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect."  Yesterday was a day of applying my lessons from Tuesday to each of the horses.  Rufus practiced his dressage again, and Pete and Bumbleberry used some ideas from their jumping lessons to improve their dressage.  I enjoyed using pieces from each lesson with each horse I rode. They are very distinct and different horses, but I found a lot of overlap in the exercises and techniques I had learned on each one.  It is wonderful to have the footing and the weather to practice consistently and diligently. 

Ayla came by the barn to help (rolling polo wraps below and playing with Albert). 

(Emily and Albert hanging out at the barn)

Liz, Rolf, and Ayla Turnquist and I also spent a few hours yesterday watching the United States Equestrian Team Training Sessions with Captain Mark Philips, which are being held just five minutes down the road.  These are lessons targeting the athletes preparing for international competition, specifically the Olympics and the World Equestrian Games.  We saw the end of Boyd Martin's dressage lesson with Remington as well as Kim Severson with Tipperary Liadhnan and Jan Byyny with Syd Kent.

I always enjoy watching these lessons with the best riders in the country, and I try to watch whenever they are held close by (in Florida or Virginia too).  One of the most interesting things about our sport is that riders compete well into their forties and fifties, and they continue to practice and take lessons throughout their careers. These riders on the training list are still learning.  They are striving day after day to not only practice but to practice perfectly, improving themselves and their horses in the process. I often feel inspired to ride better and practice harder after seeing their examples.  We are going back this morning to watch their jumping lessons. 

I'm off to feed the ponies, but I will write more after taking the boys cross country schooling this afternoon!

Here's the barn aisle at the end of the day yesterday. 

Pete grooming Bumbleberry affectionately in turnout. 

Lesson pictures

Ok I got the pictures to work, hurray!

Here's Pete with his fantastic gallop around the field. 

Pete's jumping form is getting better and better.  A year ago he would trip over a pole on the ground.

Bumbleberry has rockets in his feet!

What's not to love about that face? He looks very pleased with himself at the end of his lesson. 

Rufus had to take a nap after his hard day at work!

Community of Learners

Many of you, particularly my roommates in 304, will remember my struggles with my honors thesis on the history of the economic relationship between the European Union and Mercusor during my senior year at Lafayette College.  Despite my other academic successes over the previous four years, I was challenged by the process of attempting to make my own original contribution to the field.  I spent much of the year stressed about digesting information and generating my own ideas, solutions, and policy recommendations.

Much to my dismay, I found myself in a similar situation a year later while preparing Beaufort to go Advanced.  I was fortunate to be training full-time with some of the best riders in the country, including Bonnie Mosser, Dorothy Crowell, and David and Karen O'Connor.  I remember vividly the moment that I realized that there I was exposed to decades of experience, differing "theories" or "methods," trying to synthesize their lessons to develop my own thesis of the time: Beaufort.

This realization reaffirmed my commitment to the community of learners in my sport: people devoting their lives to understanding, teaching, and communicating with horses.  My annual trips South are designed to further my study of horsemanship and riding.

Yesterday was my first day of serious training in Aiken.  My morning began with a dressage lesson with Mara Dean, who is particularly gifted with her dressage. Mara began helping me with Rufus last summer.  Much of our lesson focused on the elusive concept of the half halt, an idea we use constantly and yet are always striving to define, practice, and perfect.  Once of the most exciting (and sometimes frustrating!) things about this sport is that we are never done learning and improving.  We're still addressing some of Rufus' physical problems, and Mara gave me some useful exercises for strengthening and suppling him.  

The afternoon brought two jumping lessons from our farm host Sally Cousins.  Sally is known as one of our sport's most natural jumper riders.  Bumbleberry sailed around like an old pro, despite his relative inexperience.  He exudes confidence in himself, and his abilities to control his body and process information amaze me.  Pete, though older, is working on some of the finer points of controlling his footwork over fences.  It is fun to watch him put together the pieces from the lesson with his already strong canter. I know he is only going to continue to get better.  Sally excels at working with idiosyncratic horses, and she gave me some new ideas for explaining things to Pete.  Sally had some useful pointers for me about how to use my stirrups to improve my balance and about how to control my body with my core.  Both horses finished their lessons jumping better and better.

While I am here to improve each of these horses, I am also in Aiken to continue to educate myself.  I am very lucky to be a part of this community of learners, pushing myself to try new ideas and to think about things in new ways as I strive to solve the puzzle, develop the techniques, and "write the thesis" of each of these horse's careers.  The process is no longer filled with stress but rather with enthusiasm and optimism and inspiration for what's yet to come.

PS - My friend Ayla Turnquist took nearly 380 pictures from my jumping lessons yesterday.  I've spent a few hours trying to get them to upload without success.  I will try again after riding this afternoon!

Destination Aiken

I have just completed a nearly nine hour journey from home in The Plains, Virginia to the winter horsey haven of Aiken, South Carolina for a two week intensive training session and competition schedule, serving as a sabbatical or working holiday of sorts to kick off the 2009 eventing season.  

Setting the stage for what's to follow, I'll introduce this winter's cast of characters. I have three very special horses with me this year.  Below are pictures of them happily settling in to their accommodations here in Aiken this evening. 

Peter Panther, "Pete," is my high school friend Mrs. Audra Spouse's 8 year old Thoroughbred gelding, a former race horse.  He will be competing in his first events in Aiken after an exciting fall fox hunting with the Orange County Hunt.  He has matured physically and emotionally in the last year, and I feel confident that he is ready for his competitive debut. 

"Bumbleberry" is a 5 year old Thoroughbred/Pony Cross owned by Mrs. Elizabeth Keffer (and the Keffer Family).  He is the goofy monkey and also the child prodigy of the Keffer barn in Virginia.  He is an elegant mover and a phenomenal jumper. I adore him, and I am hugely excited about his future. 

Quantum Meruit, aka "Rufus," is Mrs. Brooke Miller's lovely 7 year old Thoroughbred gelding, and he is beginning his third season with me.  He has grown stronger and more confident in the past year, and I am hoping that he will follow in the footsteps of his talented mother "Mouse" as he prepares to move up to the preliminary level this year.  It feels strange to think of him as the "grown up" of the group, and it's a pleasure to start the season with him as my "old" pal.  

Our departure for Aiken was delayed by several weeks, in part due to the present economic situation as well as to my bad left shoulder and to Rufus' sore back and pelvis.  A special thanks to Dr. Sallie Hyman, Dr. Kent Allen, and Dr. Susan Johns for getting Rufus back on track and to the team at Blaser Physical Therapy for patching me together for the trip.  Thanks also to Zeb and Sean our blacksmiths.  Thank you to the Turnquist family for graciously opening their home to me for the duration of my stay in Aiken, to Sally Cousins for sharing her farm and facilities, and to the Keffers for giving me the flexibility to pursue my competitive aspirations.  And most of all thank you to the owners of these delightful horses for allowing me to be a part of their stories!

When you work with horses every day, you can't ask for more than to have horses who make you smile when you walk in to the barn in the morning, and I love this group of horses.  I look forward to sharing our adventures with you and to getting back in the saddle tomorrow!  

Be sure to check back often!

Emily