They Keep On Coming!

The past two weekends contained two very fun and very different competitions, let the comparisons begin:

Morven Park Horse Trials

-it was cold from the minute we pulled in

-it starts to rain the minute I reach the warm up ring, and doesn't stop...ever

-dressage was in the grass with rain coming in sideways

-Apollo tried his best despite the incredibly inconvenient rain

-show jumping was cold, and wet and cold

-SJ course was rather challenging, definitely not a sit-back-and-enjoy type of cours

-I realized my fingers were completely numb and I had no feeling in them somewhere between jump 7 and 8

-Apollo saved my butt when aforementioned fingers would not work

-cross country was wet, and cold and muddy and long

-cross country was felt long, but was really fun (maybe it's just because I thrive on challenges)

-Apollo was a beast and made me remember why I bought him

D: 40.00

SJ: 4

XC: 13.60

Total: 57.60--->5th place

Maryland Horse Trials at Loch Moy

-slightly chilly on saturday morning but I'm sweating by 2pm

-absolutely sunny and warm all weekend

-dressage is on the dragged, watered, all-weather footing dressage pad

-Apollo, while not perfect, showed how much we've improved since the beginning of the season

-show jumping had a fun new warm up ring above the competition ring

-SJ rode really well and smoothly despite the tight turns that looked otherwise

-Apollo demonstrated his fun new trick of touching a pole enough that it makes a sound but not enought to make it drop resulting in a flash freak out from his rider

-cross country had amazing footing for the weather that area has had lately

-cross country felt very easy, especially after last weekend and was a good confidence boost for Virginia

-Apollo showed great improvements by actually listening to me when I asked him to rebalance for fences

-Apollo reminds me again why I bought him

D: 38.6
SJ: 0
XC: 0
Total: 38.6--->3rd place

So both weekends were very much worth it, very different, but very much worth it

When It Rains, We Event

yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you're thinking, but come on this year it feels like an event just isn't the same without some mud.
This past week was started a great cross country lesson with Gammon. Apollo showed her a taste of HIS preferred version of galloping and we told him OUR version. The next day he had a touch of gas colic but it passed quickly. So on wednesday we had a great dressage test lesson working on all those, uh, less than perfect moments I tend to have in my dressage tests.
Then thursday was awesome. I jumped Apollo by myself, and wow was he good. He was soft and supple (yes those adjectives are usually attributed toward flatwork but guess what? flatwork and jumping are connected! who would have thought?!) and was in fine form. The best part of the ride was the fact that I wasn't being evaluated by a trainer, judged by competition or trying to impress some onlooker (don't lie. You know you do it too). I was just jumping for me and Apollo. And it felt amazing. So next time you're having a tough time learning some movement, or finding strides, just go ride and remember why you do this.

Any way getting past my strangely deep moment, we got up to Morven at 6ish, and I immediately went to walk cross country before it got too dark. I have to say, in the 2 month break I took from competitions (for me this year, 2 months is a really long time) I'd forgotten the size of prelim cross country jumps and was a little backed off just walking around. I'm not gonna lie, the course looked hard. I started looking at it as "now if I manage to live through this combination, I should probably get my rhythm back by this point". Not the best thought to be having.
Saturday, after waking up at the God awful time of 4:45 we get out to the barn (and no I do not have multiple personality disorder, my mom came up to drive and groom for me) and I start braiding immediately. I walked the stadium course, which also seemed big and hard (the big part may have been completely due to the fact that it was set up for advanced). Then I finally got tacked up and hopped on (and maybe the hopping part was after a venti chai latte from Starbucks). After a quick good luck wish from Karen I started to warm up. And this is when it started to rain.
The thing about Apollo is he is a great horse: great work ethic, very sweet on the ground, fantastic jumper. The bad thing is that he's got a really sensitive nose. I'm talking any kind of rain, bug or dust makes him toss his head. So poor guy is trying so hard to keep his cool but having to tilt his head to keep rain out of his nose as much as possible. That combined with the dressage ring being on the side of a grassy hill (literally the side of. The ground was sloping downward) he did the best he could and we got a 40. Not our best but not our worst. I'm bummed more because he has been going SO well lately that I really wanted to show it off.
But some things ya really just gotta shake off. Including the rain that had by this point soaked me completely through.
Show jumping was fun. There's really nothing like being soaked through all of the clothing you're wearing, being freezing cold and trying to jump. But Apollo was awesome. We did pull one rail at the first fence but for the conditions we were in I really can't blame him/me at all.
Now cross country. While the footing was absolutely perfect on friday evening, by 10 on sat I could tell it was going to be a bit deeper than expected. So we got to pull out the bullets that I haven't had to use since the April Plantation (still get chills thinking about that weekend).
The course actually rode a lot better than I expected. Apollo kept telling me at every obstacle "c'mon mom, I can do this, you can do this, so just relax and let me run!". As a result of the footing I decided to balance up before each fence more than I usually would so we ended with a couple time penalties, but then as I checked the scores I realized that not a single prelim rider made time. Made me feel better.
The best part of the course was definitely #13. It was through the gorge type area in the back where it was a jump over a raised long, a few strides down then out over an up bank down the hill a few strides to a narrow. The whole thing is a shoot made out of these huge rocks and you just can't help but feel epic as you go through.
We finished in 5th and I'm taking anything that went less then perfect, fixing it and getting ready for Maryland this weekend!
(oh yeah and did I mention that it was pouring down rain from 7:30 till we left at 12?)

What's that? oh, right. Rust.

So. I had my first jumping lesson with Gammon this past Tuesday. Guess what I realized. We hadn't jumped in 5 weeks. Not good. The last time we jumped was at Fair Hill actually. I guess if you count:
 2 weeks spent in dressage bootcamp
+  1 week when he broke my jump bridle the week he came back so that day we didn't jump,  then Irene hit so I was at the horse center (aka, no jumps available to me)
+ 1 week while I was running around like crazy trying to get myself packed for college
+ 1 week when i was first at college and it was raining like crazy so i couldn't pull any jumps out.
___
5 weeks
So there I was, Tuesday afternoon cantering around a ring looking for distances and spots and MAN was i rusty. I'm talking not thinking about balance or rhythm or maintaining a good canter AT ALL. Not really the best intro to a new instructor but what was I to do about it.
Apollo was good as always though, although we did have to have some conversations about getting too excited about the jumps and popping 3-4 feet in the air when it's a 2'6" vertical.
Friday I took him out to the fields to work on his conditioning a bit and to give him a break from the sandbox. I think he's forgotten what real hills were like though because by the time we reached the top of the galloping hill he was definitely panting a bit. And that wasn't even one of the Hills of Death. That'll be next week's surprise.

Far side of the hay field looking toward the top of 

the galloping hill and House Mt.

Walking is fun...

not. Unfortunately, with me being a freshman at college the parking lot is not close. Not at all. So to get to my car to get to the barn I have to walk down 8 flights of stairs, walk a 1/4 of a mile, walk down 3 flights of stairs, walk a 1/4 of a mile across a bridge, then walk up 4 flights of stairs then walk another 1/4 of a mile to my car. Then after riding I have to do all that in reverse to get back. This usually makes me feel justified in eating as much chocolate as I want.

View from the bridge on my walk

Any way, getting back to the horse; I was only able to ride twice before I got to ride with Lynn Symansky! As I have found out, Lynn went to W&L:

"After graduating high school, Lynn was certain she wanted horses to remain in her life, but also valued the importance of an education. She went to Washington & Lee University, one of the country’s best liberal arts universities, and graduated Cum Laude in 2005 with a Bachelors of Science in Business. While at school, she managed to find time to compete her long time partner, “No It Tissant” at the advanced level all four years while also bringing along another young project. She successfully balanced school and her competitive career, and in 2003 was named to the High Performance Winter Training list for the United States Equestrian Team (USET). She and “No It Tissant” attended training sessions with Captain Mark Phillips, Sandy Phillips, and George Morris. That summer, the pair was named to the short list for the 2003 Pan American Games CCI***, and rode as an individual alternate where they finished 10th with a double clear cross country round."

The lesson would have been fantastic had the pollen not been intense and mosquitos all over the place, causing Apollo to be incredibly uncomfortable and he was throwing his head violently whenever we did anything other than walk or slowly trot. 

So hopefully the next time Lynn swings by we'll be able to really show her what we can do, but until then Apollo will be doing lots of moving forward and I will be doing a lot of walking and stair climbing,

Here's to muscular calves!!

There is no Irene in Lexington

As many people in the world know, there was a hurricane this past weekend (and if you didn't know then I'd like to welcome you to the internet, because surely this must be your first time). Since I live almost directly on the ocean, my mom and thought it would be a grand idea to run away to the mountains.
After loading up all three horses we booked it right on out of Virginia Beach. Unfortunately so did the rest of the city and we all met up for what was essentially a tailgating party on I-264. We then commenced the tour of Tidewater so that Apollo could see all of the area before he left...or we had to go all the way around to find a way out, same difference.

This was just the out skirting clouds of the Thunderstorm

Finally, 5 hours and a nasty state-wide thunderstorm later we had made it to Richmond (normally a 2 hour trip btw) then 2 more hours and we were finally pulling into the Virginia Horse Center, where we were greeted by the strangest stall decor I have ever seen.

(The mulch and the curtains were all so that their trophy boxes had a nice backdrop)

Turns out the North American Arabian World Championships (yeah I know, doesn't make sense to me either) was happening at the same time. Besides the fact that this group rented out the entire horse park when they were only using 25% of it is beyond me, but the folks at the Horse Center were as hospitable as ever. They let us come in at 10:30, security came around and turned the lights on, in the morning they watered and dragged both the lower ring and the indoor ring so that we and the rest of the evacuees had a place to ride and were very helpful all 4 times we went over to buy more bedding and hay because we are very bad at math.
The next day I had a very nice ride with the ever fantastic Rachel Lawson (if you don't know her yet, you will very soon because she is an amazing rider) then on Sunday we moved Apollo over to Sunrise Stables where he will be living while I go do this "college" thing.

Apollo and I doing flatwork at Sunrise Stables

Overall the weekend was lovely, weather was cool (highest was around 83 degrees) with nice breezes blowing through.

My mom's dog Typhoon grazing with the horses (literally grazing...he's species confused)

Oh yeah, and that whole hurricane thing? I think we got 27 whole drops of rain and a partially overcast sky. Simply unbearable.

Dressage Boot Camp-Check!

As I mentioned before, after Fair Hill Apollo would be spending the next two weeks in dressage boot camp with Holly while I ran home, did some college shopping, spent time with Cordoba my other horse and spent a week in the Keys.
We flew home on Saturday, drove back down to NC on Sunday, had a lesson with Holly at 7:30 am on Monday then Apollo had his feet done and we drove back up getting home around 7ish.
In my lesson with Holly she started out riding him to show me how she's been warming up, what to watch for when he's trying to evade actually working, etc. Basically I was watching this long legged bay gelding go around the ring thinking, okay this horse is amazing but now when is she going to bring MY horse out??
Well as i should have guessed, Holly is amazing. Apollo was immediately moving straight, through, and supple-y at all 3 gaits. A small head toss here and there assured me that it was in fact my horse.
When it was my turn to get on all I could think was that I hadn't ridden in a week, okay just don't mess him up!!
Well i can't say it was my best riding ever but Apollo was behaving incredibly. I wasn't doing anything, I was just thinking what I wanted to do and he would do it.
I also got my new favorite jacket that i may never take off even if it is in the 90's and humid:
HCH jacket with sponsors on one sleeve and my name on the other!
After an incredibly tactful proposition to Holly by the HCH working students back in the beginning of July she ordered these for us and they just came in after Fair Hill. We are all incredibly excited about them and I can guarantee you that I will be wearing my jacket with my Stew Crew shirt and my HCH hat at Virginia HT! (and probably before then too).
I don't have any shows planned until VAHT but that can change very quickly as soon as i figure out my school schedule. Apollo is now at Calypso Run Farm in VB where he is finally going to get to jump and gallop (and do some more dressage but shhh don't let him know that!) until we pack him and most of my stuff into the trailer for college!
Oh and btw, did anyone else feel that 5.8 earthquake that rattled the whole eastern seaboard from New York to North Carolina or was that just me?

Finished???

A year ago before heading to Susan Harris' stable in Louisville, KY to work for a month I started searching the internet for barns near colleges knowing that the inevitable would happen: I would have to apply for college eventually. When this happened I wanted to have a list of places that first off had barns nearby. This immediately ruled out city schools. In my online adventures I came across Equiventure, a barn set 15 mins away from Duke University (score!!!!). And who was based out of Equiventure but the fabulous Holly Hudspeth herself (double score!!!). I immediately emailed Holly asking if she wanted a working student next summer (because while summer '10 was full, summer '11 was looking widee open).
I later talked to Boyd Martin's working student coordinator, Lillian Heard about working for Boyd in the time that Holly would be lazy-ing around giving birth to a child and what not.
So by the time this spring came around I already had my days from May to August filled with working student fun. Every time I saw anything referencing Holly, Boyd, summer, working students, horses etc I immediately thought about what I would be doing and would get excited all over again. This resulted in me getting randomly energized throughout the spring and telling the most unhorsey people ever about all the details of my summer.
Well as shown through my blog this summer, I did it! It is now August, I've been home for 4 days now and am slowly realizing that my super exciting and educational summer is essentially over. Sure I've got a few more weeks of buying stuff for college and lounging around to do, but I'm not working anymore. And boy let me tell you, that is a very, very, VERY strange thought.
In a quick recap:
-Working for Holly again was amazing
-Apollo and I made some huge progress on the flat over fences
-Apollo is still in NC until the 21st going through some intense dressage bootcamp with Holly
-Apollo was unbelievable in warm up and I just wasn't able to get the same feeling once we went into the ring. But I had so much fun just doing dressage and not fighting him through the test that I didn't even mind our 42
-picking up the final trot a huge bug landed on Apollo's neck and he tried so hard to ignore the bloodsucker hanging from his neck (huge progress, just take my word for it)
-We placed 4th in JYOP at Fair Hill HT (so we have now placed 4th-7th in prelim, yay!!!)
-Maxine and Ned Divine also placed 4th in JOT
-Allie and Notable Grace did very well after dressage and show jumping but had a silly stop xc which cost them a ribbon in JOT
All in all I have had an amazing summer so far, and can't wait till we go back to get Apollo to see how much he will have improved since Fair Hill!