Good luck

Good luck to all our friends starting the season tomorrow at Mullet Hall. Wish I could be there to cheer y'all on.

Welcoming new herd member

Our little herd grew by one this week....KJ received a call this week from Cecil Mills. Cecil had decided to sell Topaz and wanted to give KJ an option on her. As many of you know this pony (yes she's that small) and I have a very special connection. There are very few equines that I trust the way I do this mare. She is the only mare I've jumped 4 foot and better in my adult life where the reality of injury resides.

I'm very grateful to KJ for bringing her home this week. I know it was a tough decision for Cecil to decide to sell her.

I also want to let everyone know that I will not be posting much in the month of February. I accepted a new job this week as a animal removal specialist and pest erradicator with Trutech INC. I have to go to Atlanta for the next three weeks for training. I look forward to gettting home, and getting back in the saddle. In the meantime the horses can enjoy some down time trail riding with KJ. Hopefully when I get home I will have enough time to tune up Togey, Scout, and Topaz for some spring showing in March and April.

Togey's back in training

Many of you have been sending e-mails lately. I want all of you to know I appreciate hearing from you. My computer time is fairly limited by my new lifestyle, so I apologize if I haven't gotten back to you.

Togey came back from Katie's about 3 weeks ago. We gave him a couple of weeks of down time to adjust to his new environment here at the house. I started him back into work with some gentle trail riding around the cold and rainy weather. He's now well versed in the woods and doesn't look at much including decaying animals which is a smell that bothers many horses. We need that he had 2 triggers with water and steep hills. We don't have a lot of access to hills, and even if we did it would be too wet right now to work on them. On the flip side the wet weather makes it ideal to train in the water. The warm weather the last couple of days has finally given me the opportunity.

Horse training is an interesting business. Togey is a very intelligent horse and becomes bored easily. Living in the forest gives me the opportunity to keep his training very flexible. We hack 2 or 3 times a week in the woods for conditioning. We school another couple of times per week in the woods. There's nothing we can't work on in the woods that you would do in the arena. We do lateral work down the dirt roads, we use fallen logs to jump, and being in the woods gives us the opportunity to work on things that the arena doesn't. Today we got to the point where Togey is galloping through water without any thought at all. This is a really important skill for an eventer, as all cross country is required to include a water complex.

Today we also worked over logs quite a bit. I really enjoy jumping in the woods. Togey listens much better waiting for me to tell him where we're heading too next and listening for instructions. When we've had good days in the woods I usually come back and jump stadium style fences in the yard. Here's some video of 2'6" today. We worked really well at 2'3", but missed the video of it. My position is off at 2'6" as we were struggling to wait for spots.

It's amazing what you can make jumps out of with a little creativity. The jump in the video is actually an old bunk bed. We put feet on the headboard and footboard to use them as standards. This particular bed worked out really well because there were swells already cut in the rails that make perfect jump cups. KJ added a bit more creativity and drilled holes all across the top for flowers and holes down the posts so I can use actual jump cups and use it as an oxer.

The final part of Togey's training is spending one day a week in the yard working on circles. We are in the process of putting an arena up, but for the time being I work circles in the front yard. The arena going up is quite a process. We are relocating some equipment on the farm. Then we're mowing and leveling the area before bringing in footing and putting up the fencing for it.

Winding down

It has been almost two months since I last posted. There is a lot of change happening in my personal life right now. Some amazing relationships have been renewed, some amazing relationships are taking a break. Life is all about the ebbs and tides of the water. At this point in life I am needing to return to work full time, and have been winding down activity with CRA. I have retained a handful of private students who I really enjoy teaching, but otherwise we are taking a hiatus for awhile. My posting will be very limited in coming months. I wish you all well, and my phone is always one. Albeit with out voice mail. I hate checking messages.

MIA...

I've been MIA since just before we left for out trial in Tryon. To say the least the weekend did not go as planned. Togey did not take well to riding in the trailer for 5 hours with a mare in heat. I think he torqued his back during the ride as well. He came off the trailer a different horse. He was hot, looking at everything, and just unruly. We got unpacked and headed to the hotel, hoping lunging in the morning would help.

I don't think Togey got any rest Saturday night. Sunday morning his stall was totally banked and he had obviously been turning donuts all night. He was also trying to climb the wall into Em's stall. Katie was an amazing groom. She took care of everything with out me asking her for anything. She may have a career as a professional groom ahead of her.

Kaijsa had an okay dressage ride, followed by my disasterous one. Togey's hind end was not working right. I couldn't keep him tracking, and he refused to bend. My second level dressage horse went down to a poor quality Intro horse. After our ride we went back to the warmup ring only for him to LAUNCH me 20 foot in the air. KJ reports that my feet were above Togey's head. I landed on my feet the same way you just step off a high dive and weight for the water to make contact.

Kaijsa headed out for cross country, which was set to be a very challenging course. You basically went up the side of a mountain over 5 fences, across the peak over another 5 fences, and back down over the final 5 fences to the water complex. Kaijsa was really looking forward to going cross country. She headed to the starting box, while Katie positioned herself at the first fence to take pictures, and KJ and I went on up the hill to get the best perspective of the majority of the fences. Kaijsa got out of the starting box in great style. About 5 strides out from the fence it was obvious there was some hesitation on the pairs part and Em broke to a trot. One stride out Kaijsa realized that the jump wasn't going to be there, but by the time she had an opportunity to react Em had stopped. Em gave Kaijsa her heart and all and tried to jump the fence from a stand still. She did get clear, just rubbing the top of the 3' fence with her hind feet. But Kaijsa got left terribly behind on take off. The concussion of landing popped her right off the side and she landed badly on a hip. Since mom wasn't with us we aired on the side of caution and scrapped the day. We headed to the ER to have x-rays taken, and pick up a set of crutches.

KJ and Katie were fantastic they took care of getting the horses settled, and squared away then brought the truck over to the hospital to pick Kaijsa and I up. I did learn one lesson I am not travelling without at least one other licensced driver. I'm not sure how we would have gotten home from the hospital without KJ to bring the truck.

When we got home we put the weekend behind us, and started looking towards a trial at Carolina Horse Park near Southern Pines, NC. This time Katie will be showing Jazz. Katie doesn't like to event because cross country is nerve racking for her. But, this course is where her pony club rally is held, so it's a fantastic opportunity to practice. I was planning to compete on Togey if he started behaving better, and if not I would take Riley. When we got home Togey continued to act a fool under saddle trying to buck me off with each canter attempt. I opted to give him a week off, which made a world of difference. I got him yesterday for the first time in just over a week. I have my horse back!!!! I have decided not to compete him in Southern Pines though. I'm going to take him along and stable to see if he travels better before planning to compete. One difference with eventing compared to hunter/jumper shows is that you have to prepay for your entry. I don't want to spend $100 to discover that I have a nut coming off the trailer. So, he'll just come to be Jazz's travelling companion this time.

CRA has a crazy month and a half ahead of us. It doesn't seem to matter how small our team is we keep busy enough. This weekend is the 4-H show at Mullet Hall. Chipper will be competing on Riley, and I may take Togey down for some under saddle classes.

Next weekend KJ and I are heading to Cherry Point, NC to bring Storm home. KJ has purchased him from Mary's daughter.

The following weekend is the trial at CHP. Followed by Thanksgiving. The first weekend in December "the boys" (KJ & Randall) and I will be going to a hunter pace in Ehrhardt, SC. I'm really looking forward to this one, as they are doing an oyster roast for lunch. If anyone else is interested in joining us we'd be happy to have you. This time out we are planning to do the trail division (at a slower pace) and see what the boys think of competing.

Then the second week of December is the Christmas show in Clemson. It looks like CRA will have a large turnout for this weekend. At this moment we have Gia, Bailey, Katie, Olivia, Lily, Sadie, and Myself showing. The boys will travel, and if there's trailer space we'll bring some horses for them to trail ride while we're there.

Then finally we have several weeks home in a row. We'll be using this time for Katie to prepare Togey to compete in the spring shows, and I'm sure I'll be doing some much needed trail riding with the boys in Jamestown.

Cross Country Round 2

Cross Country

We took a big crew to Stono River Stables to school cross country today. We took 6 rider/horse combinations and 4 parents along for the ride. I had planned to get Togey ready for our trial this weekend, but things didn't go according to plans. Katie schooled Togey for me. I gave Jessie a training ride. Gia schooled Riley. Chipper got a rare treat on Jazz. Kaijsa and Em got ready for this weekend. Bailey brought Sassy out for her first cross country day.

I wanted to load a slideshow, but Dan's laptop and photobucket aren't cooperating. So here are some random shots of the day.