What do you mean it's 2012???

Intermediate. The big I. Red numbers and big fences.

I can officially call myself an intermediate rider now... AND IT FEELS SO GOOD!
I competed and finished my first intermediate horse trials at the Rocking Horse HT this past weekend and am still floating on air about it all. To think that 2 years ago I didn't have Apollo, I had never competed above Novice at any event and had only done 2, MAYBE 3 recognized horse trials.
Then in April I bought Apollo, by June we had finished our first HT at novice with a 3rd place ribbon. By August I moved up to training, In May of 2011 I moved up to Preliminary and in October I took home a 2nd place ribbon in Open Prelim. And now in January I've made it to intermediate level. It's all going so fast, and had it been any horse other than Apollo then I never would have moved up so quickly and I certainly would not say that others should move at this pace.
Almost every trainer I have ever ridden Apollo in front of asks to see his dressage first. And they are never impressed. Most of the time I hear a lot about how his dressage is not at the level that I claim I am competing at and they start forming doubts about my judgement. And then they see him jump.
All of a sudden I start hearing repeated comments about how our jumping is way beyond our dressage ability. And all I can do is smile.
I have never thought, claimed, suggested that Apollo cleans up in the dressage ring. Because he doesn't. He does try his hardest however and really that's all I can ask of him. Because at the end of the day I'd rather have a 4 in dressage then a fall on cross country.
Basically my horse is 14 this year, and he's not getting younger. So I'm moving up rather quickly because he is the most honest jumper I have ever ridden and I would rather move up to the more dangerous level quickly on a horse I know will save me if needed and also learn how to jump confidently around an intermediate course on him while he still has the ability to then be concerned about how well we can ride a pattern in the ring.
And I have also received the best instruction in the world in the past 2 years from Susan Harris, Holly Hudspeth, Boyd Martin and of course the O'Connor's. That didn't hurt one bit.

okay this post is way more serious than I intended it to be...here is something to lighten this back up

John Wall, Bernie and Cat-daddy walk into a bar...

Fantas-aweso-amaz-fabu-unforgett…

No single word can express my past two weeks in Ocala. Even though I already recapped last week, I’ll start from the beginning again.

Arrive in the sunny, beautifully colorful Ocala to barns filled with friends, new eager faces and lots of horses with potential bursting out the yin-yang. Run through a week with the best instruction you can imagine, going both ways too. Not only did the campers learn a ton from Karen and David, but they also learned a lot from the campers. If you don’t believe me just ask Karen and David to Cat-Daddy or Bernie it out at the next competitors party-- you will be impressed.

The next week was kicked off with 8 of us left over from the camp spending two hilarious hours at the bowling alley discovering all the different ways we can almost get kicked out of a bowling alley. Not that we were destructive, at least not purposefully. I’m sure those gutter bumpers will make a full comeback.

that would be miss rowdie adams on the right who is not touching the ground while swinging a bowling ball

Over the week I had two lessons with Karen, one flat and one dressage. (yes I’m beginning to notice just how many 2’s are in this post). The flat lesson was mostly about getting him stretching into the contact and really moving forward, something I’ve been working on for almost two years now and we finally have progress! In the jumping lesson she had me focus on really getting the right canter and not accepting any antics with his head.

Finally the show came around:

Something you should be briefed on first is that the zippers on tall boots completely and totally hate me. I don’t know what I did to deserve such detest but there it is. Before FL my schooling boot zippers finally gave out. No big deal, I got some winter boots and it’s kinda cold. Well one of those zippers went after cross country on the penultimate day (ooo fancy word with more than two syllables! Maybe college is making me smarter). Well that was unfortunate but I still have my dress boots, we’ll pull through. As I’m about to go to my jump lesson with Karen I pull those boots on and the tab of the zipper breaks. I vet wrap it onto my leg and we take it up to be fixed. Long story (I know this has already been a terribly long tangent but bare with me) the zipper breaks again, we get it fixed, then we realize that it’s Friday and maybe I should go buy a new pair of boots, just in case. The zipper breaks AGAIN right before dressage. Throw on the new boots and ride on over to warm up. By the time I get there my feet are losing circulation because the boots haven’t been broken in and are still too tight. Well after jumping off, unzipping then jumping back on I trot on into the ring, barely any warm up, not able to feel my toesies.

And yet somehow I got my lowest dressage score at prelim ever!

For show jumping I electrical taped my broken boot onto my leg, worked great.

David came over just as I went into the ring and I knew that if after 6 camps and 2 private lessons with Karen, if I screwed up then I would never hear the end of it. So I worked really hard on getting to “that spot”, you know the one, the Goldie Locks of spots, not too long, not too short. Except for a rush at the triple bar everything went really well with 0 poles, but a few time.

Cross country was fun. Apollo is really becoming very adjustable out on course and cleared every fence like it was baby green. With a double clear xc we finished in 4^th, and I am so very proud of him.

Our next event is Rocking Horse, and while I’m superstitious about saying this I’m also really excited to say that we’re entered in Intermediate there.

So until next time just remember:

When in doubt, Bernie it out!!

http://youtu.be/8OgPma_6bd0

Ooooo-cala where the wind comes drifting through the palms....

I'm in a bit of a singing mood right, hence the title. Time for a quick recap:

8 people on the bull-SUCCESS

After 2 1/2 weeks of not riding at all (trust me, I was going insane) I came home and threw myself into riding for the next week and a half by riding not only my new and improved Apollo, fresh from dressage bootcamp part 2, but also my other horse Cordoba who needed a bit of a bootcamp himself. Let's just say that I never realized how much the sitting trot can hurt when you don't do it for a while.
The day after Christmas my mom and I packed the truck and trailer and headed out on our 2 day trip down to Ocala in the land of Glory-da. When we pulled into the O'Connor's I immediately felt like I'd come back home. With the gorgeous rolling green fields contrasting with the blue skies with palm trees being rustled by a soft breeze Meredyth South truly looks like an eventer's dream.
The week of camp went by unbelievably quickly with most of us being repeats to the camp and knowing the lectures like the back's of our hands  being familiar with the lessons we were able to get into more advanced lessons much faster.
I'll only make one reference to the first night dance party where we scared David with our Bernie-ing abilities or the Wednesday night karaoke dinner. Hey, what happens at O'Connor Eventing Camp stays at O'Connor Eventing Camp...unless photographic evidence gets posted on Eventing Nation of course.
(http://eventingnation.com/home/2010/07/good-times-at-camp-ocet.html)
The camp is really my favorite week of the year. It's just about 100 hours of good people, great times, and amazing instruction.

how to get 8 people off a bull very quickly

I now get to look forward to one more week of enjoying the Florida sunshine before I head back up to the Virginia mountains for another semester of college after starting my 2012 season at Ocala I HT at prelim this coming weekend. Knowing the people that I'll be hanging out with this week, it will certainly not be a boring week. But I guess it's just another day in the life.

narp!

5:54. AM. November 19th, 2011. 28 degrees.

These settings would normally, when combined, create a very unhappy Marina. Yet when you divide them by the fact that it was for a Holly Hudspeth clinic, suddenly I am able to be quite enthusiastic about the whole deal. Well maybe just about the clinic.

7 o'clock sharp Apollo and I were out there cracking through the frozen surface of footing, okay so Apollo was cracking, I was sitting there feeling bad enough for him to give him extra walking time but not bad enough to get off and help.

The lesson with Holly went really well, Apollo has been having problems actually going straight. Which I guess is kinda important, especially since we're moving up to intermediate in the spring (yayyy) which has fancy movements like shoulder and haunches in.  Anyway, so we worked a lot on a tight circle getting him to stretch deeply into each bend and stepping through both sides equally, then leg yielding out while maintaining the contact.

We then worked on canter-walk transitions, stressing on the contact. By the end of it I'd say we looked pretty good.

After getting some much needed Starbucks, and a quick nap on back of our truck Apollo and I headed down for a show jumping lesson.

Holly had us working on just staying really consistent in the canter so that the distances would come without much adjusting, but if I had to adjust it would be easy. 

Basically more of what we've been working on all year. We are getting better but I'm gonna go ahead and make a prediction that I'm gonna be working on this for a really long time. It's one of those things you don't escape. 

I would have ridden Sunday morning too, and I should have a fun seafood boil to recall but unfortunately I got what felt like the flu Saturday afternoon and couldn't ride.

Apollo is staying in NC until december for training and I get to experience some time as a NARP (non-athletic regular person) it's what some of my varsity friends call themselves when their season is over for the year.

So a- NARPing i will go until winter break

I work out!

Last show of the year, so it's gotta be good.
Let's take a quick look back at my first show this year:
It was the starter trials at the VHC.
It snowed.
Do you see where I'm gonna be going with this?
Started the year in the snow at VHC, and finished in the same way. What can I say, I like patterns.
Now that I live in Lexington and the walk to my car takes longer than my drive to the horse center (yeah, it really stinks at 630am when it's snowing) I have found that this is become my favorite show of the year, even MORE so. I get to sleep in my own bed, and...yeah i really just like the whole "my own bed" part.
So the show stuff started for me on Thursday. Headed out to the center to buy some shavings and throw them in my stall. As I was walking down one of the aisles I spot an adorable Chestnut. Let the squealing and screaming like a little girl begin.

I love me some Freddie

You're probably asking yourself who this chestnut could be, well if you remember back, (or just read my old posts) you might remember a 4 year old gelding I fell in love with in North Carolina. That's right, it was FREDDIE!!!!! I love that boy so much and I'm really not even sure why. But after realizing it was Freddie and squealing my lungs out expressing my excitement I realized that Holly's newest working student Kelly was standing there wondering what the heck she should do in this situation (sorry Kelly!). Explained really fast then went running to go find my favorite people. Saw Holly riding Stewie while Maxine held Hailey (aka cutest baby ever), more squealing, this time more controlled and at a lower octave.
Eventually got out to Oak Hill to walk my course. There's another back story I should tell you:
four years ago when I first competed at VHC I was running BN and decided that I was going to one day get to a level high enough, that I could compete on the other side of the road. It's been my short/long time goal ever since (yes i also dream of rolex and olympics but baby steps here!)
So I'm standing at the top of the hill in the brisk fall air realizing that I did it. I'm here.
Getting back to the show now,
Dressage warm up warm up was really good, he was moving really fluidly. Came back and got the news that because of the impending snow I, OP and PCH were going to be running cross country that afternoon. So much for going to calc class.
Dressage warm up was good until 10 mins before I go in, it starts to sprinkle. Not enough for anyone else to be bothered but my wimp sensitive horse noticed and was not going to not react.
We actually got through the dressage test fairly well, and it would have been awesome if he hadn't been twitching throughout it, but c'est la vie.
Now on to the fun parts. Preparation for a show involves listening to music while braiding for dressage and getting one stuck in my head so I have a rhythm for the day. This weekend was no different. So before cross country I listened to "I'm sexy and I know it (I work out)" by LMFAO on repeat. Well pumping up for cross country also involves dancing around. So I'm sorry people down the aisle from me that were subjected to my crazy dancing, but let's face it: i'm sexy and I know it ;)
Cross country warm up was fun with a big narrow table like ones I had on course included so that got my confidence up.
Walking around the start box Apollo starts jogging, he knows this is gonna be an exciting course. We take off, and of course right as I'm going over the first fence I hear that the rider in front of me has had a refusal at 6. Crap. Quickly shake that out of my mind and focus on what's in front of me.
Apollo was amazing the entire course. He ran when I let him and came up when I asked. By jump 8 I realized that he didn't need as much preparation time as I thought and I could save some time by preparing a stride or two later. And he did so perfectly. We get to the last combination, a coffin, and coming off the last fence of it I check my watch, 25 seconds left. So we book it. I fly up the hill over the last fence with 3 seconds to spare. God I love my ex-racehorse.

That would be me checking my watch as I'm over a fence. Yay multi-tasking

It was probably the best cross country ride I have ever had.
He got Saturday off because it just didn't seem fair to tack him up just to walk around in the slushy snow.
Saturday afternoon is when the pressure hit me. I finally looked at the scoreboard (I was over by Wiley to watch my friend and teammate Jennifer Friberg do dressage and show jumping, and she was AWESOME).

Jennifer before dressage, while I give Jasper a pep talk

I check the scoreboard and I'm in fourth, with Sharon White leading the class, and I'm one pole away from 3rd and 2nd, and 2 poles and some time away from first. If I go double clear. Let the hyperventilating begin.
Sunday morning while eating breakfast I watched the intermediate show jump. Let me just say that it wasn't the easiest course and a lot of rails were pulled. More panic.
Braid, tack up, attempt to tie stock tie, fail, run a pin through it any way and hope no one notices.
I trot on into the warm up because it's so cold. Take maybe 4 or 5 jumps with Apollo feeling super and then hear them calling that they NEED someone from OP to go.
Heck, why not. It's not like he's going to get any cleaner over theses fences.
Trot straight into the coliseum pick up my canter and go. And let me tell you, we went.
I was so determined to go double clear that I think Apollo picked up on it and he understood that he was not to even THINK about touching any of those poles. We had an amazing double clear round, and I don't think I have ever been prouder of him.
So how did we do? let's just say we were TWO cool for fourth. That's right: 2ND BABY!!!

Happy Dance

BTW I attribute all of my success this past weekend to Sarah Berhalter and her amazing sugary baked goods.

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?)