2/22

Ah February, just when you think winter is over it makes a comeback. I was in Aiken last year for the worst part of February, but this year I'm having to buck up and deal with it! I won't complain too much though, it has been a fairly mild winter, at least snow/ice wise. But if I need to wear anything more than a tank top and shorts it's too cold for me!

On the bright side, there are signs that spring is on the way - I'm seeing some green grass and the days are getting longer! That is a good thing since I have so many horses that need to get worked! The ponies must feel it coming as they are started to shed out earlier than normal - that's the best sign of spring! The best news is that entries for events have started going out!!! I'm super excited for this year. The horses are going really well and I can't wait to get them out there!

We have a new member of the team - Regina Farinholt. Regina started working for me in December and she is great to have around. It's a huge stress reliever to have a competent worker for in the barn. The horses all like her too, which of course is the most important part! Hopefully I'll be able to afford her full time when she graduates from college in May - then she won't actually want to use her degree!

Polar and I start out the event season in a month. Check back to see how it goes!

Katie

11/24

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm actually taking the day off from riding - at least that is the plan! It's still early afternoon and I might change my mind and get one or two ridden.

The trip down to Ocala for the two-star went really well. Going down and back we stayed at Mistletoe Farm in South Carolina. It's a nice place to stay and the owners are wonderful, plus it meant I didn't have to drive for 15 hours straight!

I warmed up twice for dressage; the way Polar was going on Tuesday and Wednesday I thought I would need it. In hindsight one warm up would have been better - he was great the first time, but he got a bit flat the second go around. The collecting ring was right by a line of flags and when I went it was windy and they were making a lot of noise which got Polar tense and I had to ride conservative in the test. We received a 63 which was not what I was looking for. The good news is I know he can do a lot better. He has become so much better at home, now I just need to work on being able to produce it in the ring without getting him tense. It won't be easy!

Cross country was flat and with only a 8:10 optimum I was concerned with Polar's ridability. He was super fit and I knew it wasn't going to tire him out. Even though the course had five corners, it was fairly straight forward. We had one runout at the last corner, but other than that Polar was great - hewas defiantly fit. Of course, after the finish he nearly dropped me when he almost dead stopped spooking at some ATVs! He cooled out fast and looked great.

Sunday was rather interesting. The horse park was holding a combined driving competition along with the horse trials. As soon as Polar saw the first carriage he became nervous and stayed on edge the whole day. He pushed me off the lane during the jog! Due to some miscommunication from the announcer we ended up going to the stadium ring early and waited almost 30 minutes before warming up. Polar doesn't like to be kept waiting and therefore wasn't in the mood to listen to me. He was really tense and spooky and wasn't as ridable as he's become this past year. He had two rails early on before starting to behave!

Overall it was a good experience and I was happy with how he went. As he gets experience with the bigger events he will get used to the atmosphere and start to focus on the job at hand. He has the talent to be competitive - we just need to get him the experience. He is still young and I'm excited to see what the future will bring! Thanks go to my mom for coming with me on this trip to groom!

It's been a long competition year, it will be nice to have a break and not be competing every weekend. However I will still be busy this winter - I have a few racehorses to break, and my entire string of event horses who need to get ready to move up or start competing next year. Hopefully it will make the cold months go by faster!

Katie

10/30

It's been way too long since my last update! A lot has happened, let's see if my memory is good enough to remember it all!

Middleburg finished out September, Polar had an improved dressage and show jumped well as usual. The majority of the footing was decent and I decided to give it a go cross country. Polar was great and jumped a good clear round, and I didn't care about time and took it easy on the speed. It was a big course with a few good tough questions. I was happy with how Polar went and as its turned out that was our last run before Ocala!

Polar at Middleburg

The following weekend I took Appealing Beauty and Breeze to a combined test at Sandstone Farm. It was a nice laid back show. Beauty had a good dressage and jumped well in stadium to place 3rd. Breeze was a little super star - he had a great dressage and show jumped clear to tie for first!

Next up was Maryland at Loch Moy. I went with Antero for the Novice. I was wondering why I bothered with giving him a bath - it was a dust bowl! At times in warm up I literally couldn't see more than 40 feet! Teo had a nice dressage. He jumped well and was clear both stadium and cross country to finish in 4th. I need to work on some things over the winter. He will be ready to come out and do very well in the spring! That is if someone doesn't snatch him up before then as he is for sale!

Teo at Loch Moy

I went back to Loch Moy the following weekend for the short course. It is a great concept - dressage with a combined stadium and cross country. It is a great experience for the babies. Breeze won the dressage! He jumped really well, but he did need to have a look at the turtle jump. It was the biggest jump on the course and the top of the log had 4 carved and painted turtles. He thought it was very scary! And others agreed as only 3 horses in the entire level went clear! Breeze has only been under saddle since the end of June and has made amazing progress. Beauty also competed. She's not a DQ but did her best. She was a bit green over the first few fences, then the light bulb went on and she got better as we went along.

Breeze

Beauty

Then we finally got much needed rain!! We got a lot and bad timing as it was right before Waredaca last weekend. I still went up with Polar hoping for the best. Even with some slipping (I did have huge studs in!) he put in a good dressage test scoring a 36, best score in a while! Fortunately stadium was on sand. Polar jumped a lovely double clear. As a result of the drought the turf on the cross country wasn't great, the rain had soaked in but still seemed slick. With the two-star close I decided not to run. I would have to be cautious and I knew I would be paranoid - that is when something bad would happen! I wanted to play it safe and ensure my chances of getting to the two-star with both of us healthy and sound!

This weekend I'm taking Polar to a schooling dressage show at Morven to run through the two-star test. Then I might go to Rubicon. After that Polar, my mom, and I head down to Ocala for the two-star!!! I'm very excited. It will be a fun week. Stressful but fun!

Until then
Katie

7/8

Wow, it's been a long time since my last update! A lot has happened, but I'll try to not end up writing a book! The past events have gone well. My horses must want to be earth-friendly and go green as we came away with several 6th places.

The first weekend of June was Waredaca. Polar had a good run at Prelim with strong performances in all three phases. I got a L'Apogee cross country saddle and it was my first time trying it out in competition. It is a really great saddle and now I'm able to stay with Polar! That makes a huge difference. I went a bit too slow on the first half of cross country, so with time penalties we placed 6th. I also had Flyer in the Novice, and he had a great dressage and a clear stadium. Unfortunately he thought the down back was scary and had a stop. Other than that he was really good. In Reality, aka Indy, went Beginner Novice. He had a nice dressage and a lovely clear stadium - I don't have to worry about him touching a rail! Except for a silly run out when he was spooky at canoes that I had to turn in front of to get to a jump, he had a confident cross country.

In Reality at Waredaca

Polar Storm at Waredaca

Rubicon was the following weekend. Seren and Flyer went Novice. Seren had her normal solid performances and placed 6th. Flyer had a good dressage test. He was having an "off" day in stadium but followed that up with a good clear cross country. Indy went Beginner Novice. He won the dressage by 6 points! He was a little sticky in stadium but overall good. Then the cheeky boy stopped at the first fence on xc! It was only a tiny little log. After I got him over that he was good. Even with the stop he still managed to place 6th. Another green ribbon!

Then it was Seneca the next weekend. Polar did another Prelim. He has a good dressage and a clear stadium and cross country. Once again I went to slow which dropped us down to.. can you guess?.. 6th! Seren and Flyer both did their last Novice. Seren was great in all three phases. She broke the trend of 6th and placed 3rd. I changed a saddle pad for Flyer and he was back to his normal self with a clear stadium. The down bank was big for Novice and he has a stop there. Other wise he jumped around without a hitch. We did a lot of schooling down banks after that!

After a weekend off, well off from competing, I had a busy time at Surefire. Polar was back at Intermediate. I've really been working on his dressage - it's getting frustrating being stuck in the mid-30's. This time 35 was good enough for first. He had a lovely stadium round, just tapping out one rail. There were very few clear rounds in all the levels. Polar was back to his confident self on cross country. Just a glance off at two narrows. Time to work on those! I was pleased with his overall performance. Indy moved up to Novice. After I finished up with Polar I was only able to give Indy a 10 minute warm up for dressage, plus I forgot to change into smaller spurs so he was really wanting to buck! He settled down for the test but wasn't able to put in his normal score. He had an excellent clear stadium and cross country to place 5th! Seren and Flyer both moved up to Training. Seren had a great dressage. She jumped well in both stadium and cross country. She felt like she's starting to get it! Flyer's dressage is coming along but not ready to be competitive at Training. He had a nice stadium. I quickly found out that he needs more than a happy mouth for xc - after running down a hill I wasn't able to bring him back and we ended up running past a jump. I didn't let him out after that! He proved that the down bank issue is fixed as by jumping off a huge one without a hitch. Overall, this guy was really great - he's only 4! He has a bright future ahead of him.

Polar Storm at Surefire

In Reality at Surefire

I had this weekend off. Next two weekends are the Maryland Horse Trials and a schooling event at Elysian. I have a nice group of horses and this has been a fun season so far!

Katie

5/29

Whew! I can tell it's summer - back to 14 hour days! I finally have found some time to write up a report from the last event. Elysian Hills held a schooling event on the 19th. It's very laid back and a good change from the regular horse trials.

As there aren't many local events in May, I took Serendipity in Novice to keep her going. There wasn't much in the way of a warm up for dressage, so I gave her a quick warm up and wasn't expecting too much. She was relaxed and forward and I was happy with how she went. I found out later on in the day just how well the test was - she scored an impressive 17.5 which is a great score even for a schooling event! She went on the jump well around the stadium and xc. Should have won, but I was marked as missing a jump. The only thing I can think of is one jump wasn't marked, or I probably took the wrong jump. Oh well! I was very happy with her. She should be ready to move up in July.

Serendipity (Seren)	In Reality (Indy)

I also took my 4 year old TB gelding In Reality, aka Indy, to his first event in Beginner Novice. He was great. First, he had to stay on the trailer while Seren did her thing. Then he went into an indoor for the first time for dressage warm up. I decided not to use spurs as I thought he would be more on the muscle for his first time out. I quickly discovered that I actually needed them as he was a little on the lazy side. But he's such a good mover that he still looked impressive; the judge defiantly thought so as he scored an unbelievable 14!!! I was in shock when I saw that! He went on to jump really well. Just had some green moments on xc. As it was only his 3rd time going xc, I was thrilled with him. I'm excited about his future, he has great potential.

I'm even ting the next three weekends. All four will be going out; Polar, Seren, Flyer, and Indy. I'll try to write up a report after each event. No promises though as it will be a ton of work!

Katie

5/7

The past couple of events have gone well. I took Polar to Loudoun the last weekend of April, and as I was trying out a different bit (again!) I ran him the Prelim. He had a good dressage, I was able to get him more up in front, which is something I've really been working on. I kept him in the happy mouth bit for stadium and he jumped a lovely clear round. I decided to drop him back to a full cheek snaffle for cross country which worked well. I had plenty of control and was able to turn a lot easier - I hope I'm done experimenting with bits! Polar now has a break until June - as there aren't any Intermediates running in the area he'll do two Prelims before moving back up in July.

This past weekend I headed off to MCTA with Seren on Saturday. She had a lovely dressage putting her in second with a 29! The warm up for stadium wasn't set up in our favor. The jumps were very close to the in gate and Seren is the type that I have to send her forward to get her in front of the leg - between weaving around the horses and making tight turns to the jumps I wasn't able to accomplish it. Wasn't the best round we've had but it was still clear. Cross country was a lot smoother as there was room to get her going! Her clear jumping rounds kept her in second - very good for her second time at Novice! She gets better every time out.

On Sunday, I went to Difficult Run with Flyer for his move up to Novice. Dressage was in the indoor which is hard for an inexperienced young horse. Flyer was a little distracted but put in a good test to score a 30. He followed that up with a clear cross country. A few rails in stadium dropped him out of the placings, but once his canter gets better that won't be an issue. I was happy with his performance - hopefully he will move up this summer!

I have this weekend off from competing. The horses are now on night turnout, so I'm really looking forward to Sunday morning - I'm going to bring them in and then go back to sleep!

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4/23

Finally an event with warm weather! Winter finally seems to have lost the battle (now as I say that we will probably have 2 feet of snow for this coming weekend) This last weekend, I went to Redlands with Serendipity and Flyer - it was so nice to be back in one layer of clothing again!

Katie and Flyer

Seren moved up to Novice and she was the most relaxed she's been. I overshot the warm up for Dressage and she was a bit lazy once we got in the ring. But she's such a good mover I can get by with that, at least at this level! She scored a respectable 32. She was very confident jumping. She's learned a lot since her last time out in February. She easily jumped clear both stadium and cross country, however I chose to trot down some hills with bad footing so we ended up with some time which unfortunately knocked us out of the placings. I'll make sure to go faster next time! The courses felt very easy for her, she'll be ready to move up to Training by summer. This fabulous mare is for sale - buy her now before she moves up and so will the price!

Flyer had one more Beginner Novice before his move up. I'm very impressed with how mature he is. He had a nice dressage to place 2nd with a 33. This time he only stopped once in warm up for stadium. He must not see the point in having to jump a stupid little cross rail. How pointless is that? He had a lovely clear stadium round. Cross country was very easy for him, the only jump that he questioned was the bank up which was fairly big for BN. I can't remember when the last time he's gone up a bank - I think it was in January. He slowed down and since I said keep going he literally stepped up in one hoof at a time! It was very cute. The clear jumping rounds moved Flyer up to take the win!! He'll be moving up next time out. I'm very excited about his future. He's a good one!