The One Where I'm Freaking Out

So I’m trying to not be worried. I have this feeling of impending failure. It’s as if I know that this show is going to be disastrous. Like calamity is right around the corner. My dreams are being haunted by the horse that won’t go past X. Followed by a horse that stops at C, does a 180 and gallops right out of the arena. Again followed by the horse that gets to X, freaks out, actually says “What are you THINKING?” and proceeds to gallop/jump out of the arena.

So, I began to really contemplate - What is it that I fear failing? The competitor in me fears coming in DEAD last (but believe me, I’ve done that plenty of times), or being eliminated because my horse decided that we should be doing canter pirouettes and then leaping out of the arena instead of a calmly trotted twenty meter circle. Somehow, under my delusions of grandeur, I came up with the weird contortion of a thought that we might actually do well and perhaps ribbon. *cough cough – trying not to blush from embarrassment*

In light of this rather deluded epiphany, I decided I needed a realistic goal. After all – I’m taking two THREE year olds in a dressage class. Yes, that’s right. THREE year olds. And they’re ARAB’S – of all breeds! Not only Arabs, but EGYPTIAN Arabs. Basically they’re the flakiest of the flakes. Maybe I should be calling the show managers and begging for my money and registration back!

So realistically, what did I at least hope to achieve by this show? What attainable goals could I set?

Well, my greatest hope is that my boys have a POSITIVE experience. Yes, they may freak out. Yes, they make shoot out the arena and eliminate us. But, I think that, no matter what, we can at least walk away from this show having learned something, and doing our best to handle our mistakes/disapointments well. And most importantly, if something does go horribly wrong, we are not going to be guaranteed failure at every future turn. Gaining confidence and positive experience can only propel us forward.

I think this can work. I will do my best (which includes, staying a calming and positive influence on the boys), and lovingly accept their best or worst. My walls might not yet be pinned with ribbons, but we have to start somewhere. And that somewhere is this show.

The One With The Change of Plans

Ok. News Flash. Marston Plantion is out. Quintynne Farms Dressage and CT Schooling Show is in. Apparently, we will be boarding overnight Friday at Jumping Branch in Aiken. All this simply = less stress, more girly time to drink wine and talk horses. I'm totally game.

Check out Quintynne Farms here: http://www.quintynnehillfarm.com/

So the big scary question: How will the spooky Arabs handle mirrors in the corner?!?!

The One With A Start of Redemption

Please take a moment to read this statement from the USEA President. I find it compelling, and I am thrilled they are standing up and calling for some action!


A Message from USEA President Kevin Baumgardner
Updated: March 19, 2008
Eventers everywhere are deeply saddened by the accidents that occurred this past weekend at the Red Hills Horse Trials in Tallahassee, Florida. First and foremost, our thoughts, prayers, and heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery go out to our dear friend and USEA board member Darren Chiacchia. Darren is an extraordinary horseman who has worked tirelessly on behalf of the sport of Eventing. We also send our condolences to Jonathan Holling and Missy Miller and those connected with Direct Merger and Leprechauns Rowdy Boy. These beloved horses were the best of the best—they will be missed. Furthermore, the USEA recognizes the excellent work of the Red Hills' Organizing Committee under very trying circumstances.
The sad news from Red Hills comes at a time when the USEA is taking a hard look at the sport of Eventing. During the December 2007 Convention in Colorado Springs, the USEA reaffirmed its commitment to horse and rider safety as the paramount consideration in the governance of our sport. The centerpiece of the Convention, the all-day-Saturday G10 Summit, was devoted exclusively to a full and open discussion of the safety issue among all of the stakeholders in the sport—riders, trainers, coaches, breeders, owners, officials, organizers, parents. A number of positive changes came out of our discussions in Colorado Springs, including the implementation of beefed-up qualification standards at preliminary level and higher that will go into effect this December 1.
Having said that, I remain deeply concerned with the direction the sport has taken over the past several years. It would be unfair and counterproductive at this juncture to focus on any one incident, cross-country course, or horse trials. We should never jump to conclusions regarding single incidents, let alone lose sight of the fact that there is, and will always be, an element of risk in any sport involving horses. And I will never point fingers or be a party to personal attacks on any individual involved in the sport, no matter how much I might disagree with his or her views. But the overall trends, particularly over the last three years, are unmistakable—and in my view totally unacceptable. I know that my concern that the sport has gotten off track is shared by many of our members, amateurs and professionals alike.
We seem to be in an ever-spiraling loop in which the aspect of cross-country that attracted most of us to the sport in the first place, the joy and thrill of galloping rhythmically over jumps across country, has been replaced with questions of extreme technicality and a proliferation of combinations taken at show-jump speed. It appears that the driver behind this emphasis on increased technical difficulty is the need to challenge and sort out the elite combinations competing at the highest levels of the sport. The net effect of this shift in emphasis, however, has not been confined to the upper levels. Rather, because of the need for each level to serve as preparation for the next, the sport has been altered all the way to the novice and training levels. This has left a large proportion of our core USEA membership—the 90-plus percent of Eventers who will never compete above preliminary—asking whether there is a place left for them in the sport.
Our members want courses that provide fun and challenge, and that leave both horse and rider feeling elated and wanting more. Unfortunately, this is all too frequently not the experience that is reported by many of our members. Cross-country should be a positive, exhilarating and educational experience for an appropriately prepared horse and rider. That is particularly true at the levels populated by adult amateurs and youngsters.
And what about our horses? Does the gallop-collect-gallop-collect nature of many of our courses, combined with the rigid adherence to established optimal speeds despite the twistiness of many modern courses, best serve the talents and abilities of our mounts? We owe the highest duty of care and compassion to these wonderful animals—in my view, the bravest and most noble horses in the world.
What can we do? The answer is plenty. To begin with, we need the active participation of our membership. When you are concerned with the direction of the sport you love, it is not good enough to sit on the fence and passively watch events unfold. Get involved! And I don't mean just the "grass roots" USEA membership (which judging by the large number of emphatic emails I have received in the last few days is already energized). We also need the active involvement of a broad spectrum of our Eventing professionals, the riders, trainers and officials out there who do not belong to the small coterie who have dominated the direction of the sport over the past twenty years. I believe there is a "silent generation" of Eventing professionals, most in their thirties or early forties, who are concerned with the current condition of the sport. In large part, these professionals have not actively participated in the governance of the sport or spoken up publicly, perhaps because they feel that their voices won't be heard or, worse, because they feel intimidated by the "old guard" at the top. Well, I have a message for that "silent generation": now is the time to speak up. I challenge all Eventing professionals to take a stand on this critical issue and get involved. It's now or never. I promise that your voices will be heard. And I also have a message for those who would block constructive change in the sport: Expect a fight. Neither I nor the USEA is going to stand idly by while our sport continues down this path.
Over the past several months, Darren Chiacchia has taken a leadership role in terms of looking at how we can modify our national level courses, particularly at preliminary and training, to better suit the majority of horses and riders competing at these levels. Through his position as chairman of the Professional Horsemen's Council, Darren worked with multiple USEA committees and spearheaded the development of a "white paper" on potential changes to cross-country courses that was presented to the Board of Governors in Colorado Springs. Included among the concepts discussed in the white paper were fewer technical questions, more forgiving jump faces, fewer combinations, more realistic optimal speeds and the like. I appointed Darren as the leader of a USEA task force charged with converting the ideas in the white paper into concrete rule-change proposals, to be submitted to the USEA Board of Governors and then forwarded on for action by the USEF Eventing Technical Committee (chaired by my fellow USEA Governor Malcolm Hook). During Darren's convalescence, I have asked Gina Miles, his close collaborator in developing the white paper, to move forward with the task force's work on an expedited basis. A number of other prominent figures in the sport, among them Kim Severson, have also volunteered to become actively involved in this effort. I, too, will work closely with this task force. I believe it is equally important that all segments of our membership forcefully express their views on the necessity of the types of changes being addressed by this task force. Please pass your thoughts on to me—I will forward them to Gina, Kim and the other members of the task force.
On a separate track, the USEA will immediately investigate avenues to work with veterinarians and equine research professionals to find ways to reduce the stressors on our horses and explore the mechanisms of equine cardiovascular failure. If it makes sense to do so, I will ask the USEA Board of Governors to commit funding to this effort. We reaffirm the USEA's commitment to ensuring the well-being of our equine partners as well as the safety of our riders.As many of you are aware, the USEA Board will be conducting a strategic planning session in Leesburg, Virginia this coming Friday and Saturday. This will be a topic for the meeting and I will solicit additional input on ways to move forward quickly and positively with these initiatives.
Again, this is no time for fence-sitting. If you believe it is time to stand up for your sport, please make your voice heard and volunteer to be part of the solution. Please contact me at kbaumgardner@corrcronin.com or at (206) 621-1480.

The One With the Recap from the Weekend

So the boys had their first combined training session last weekend. I like to think of it as “Operation First CT Event of Our Lives.”

As Saturday was supposed to be stormy and disastrous all day, I jumped at the first beam of sunlight to hop on my boys. Kehbir was the first of my enlistees for the day. The most recent that I had ridden him, however, was the previous weekend where I hopped up on him for only a few moments to work on some canter work (his first, by the way).

Kehbir was surprisingly willing to please (of course, I’m sure sugar cubes played an important role in that equation). Overall though – despite his “baby-ness,” he really surprised me in the progressive strides he has made since our last ride. He is beginning to move nicely away from my leg, has much better impulsion to move forward off my leg – and the steering is MUCH better. We warmed up with some nice stretches at the walk – he was reaching very nicely for the bit. We then progressed to a nice trot – mostly balanced too (a VAST improvement). The little bit of canter work we did do, he was on the correct lead – but I just feel like it’s more of an upward movement rather than a forward movement. However, I’m sure this is just a balance issue.

We worked on both Intro Test A and Intro Test B (see http://lancaster.unl.edu/4h/fair/documents/dresintr.pdf ). While B was a bit rocky (we can’t trot in a straight line down the center line :-\), I have to say I was VERY impressed for our first try. Kehbir was so incredibly focused and tried incredibly hard. I couldn’t help but grin the entire time.

Taking him over his first cross bars was equally exciting. We only had one stop – and even then he only sniffed for a few moments, but then proceded to go over it. After each jump, he would be so pleased with himself and pick up a mini canter again. I felt like I was on a natural jumper. We had really only one rocky moment where I decided to try taking a jump from a canter and he was beginning to drift out. However, I brought him back to the jump, and we jumped it crookedly (however, clear!). Well he is just SO collected, he had an immense bunny hop, propelling me onto his neck. He, however, decided this wasn’t something he liked, so he threw in a few bucks to let me know. I chalked this up to something he just needs to get used to, and I was mainly happy that I was able to stay on. :-)

After an exhilarating ride with Kehbir, I was a little sore, but bounding happily along to find Sudi. Sudi however seemed a little tired still from the show, only four days prior, so I wanted this exercise to be fairly low key and simple. And that it was. In the dressage ring, I could barely keep his attention, but at the same time, I could barely get him to move forward either. After two frustrating tries at Test A, my mom suggested we move our practice into the jumping ring to try to get something fruitful from our work. Here, he was much more demure and focused and we produced a decent Test A. I would have liked a little more impulsion, but I was pretty happy with what we got.

After we rounded up the dressage work, I took him VERY successfully over some cross bars. He really didn’t have Kehbir’s enthusiasm, but he was consistent and took every jump I asked. After all the jumps had been cleanly cleared (we didn’t knock any down), I decided to hop off and call it a day.

Sunday was designated to nice, pleasurely trail riding, which it ended up NOT being. There were some lose dogs and then, of course, Halara, who was all TOO helpful in our trail riding process by trotting around and bucking rather obnoxiously. Needless to say, Sud got over his lacsidasical-ness and was very forward. :-) My mom, however, had a bad scare when Halara bolted for Kehbir at a gallop. Thankfully, all of us stayed on and are ok.

So, after the pretty successful weekend, I signed both boys up for the Marston Show. We’re keeping our expectations fairly low and hoping for this to mainly be a training type event for the boys. However, I know these guys are special, and that we always run the risk of them surprising us with a win.

The One With Just Pictures of Sudi From Sporting Days

The Sad One About Red Hills

I know this isn’t about my boys, but I feel it deserves my respect and brief comments.

I’ve been very saddened and disappointed over the Red Hills Horse Trails this weekend. I know I join with the entire eventing community in sorrow over the loss of two great horses Leprechauns Rowdy Boy and Direct Merger; both horses suffered from heart attacks.

I am also greatly saddened for one of my favorite riders Darren Chiacchia as he sustained major head trauma and injury from a fall taken on his first ride of the day on seven year old Baron Verdi – the horse’s first Preliminary Event. (Baron Verdi was not injured in the fall).

I want to wish my heartfelt sympathies to the friends and family of Darren Chaicchia, Leprechauns Rowdy Boy and Direct Merger. Please know you’re in my thoughts and prayers.

For further information – please visit http://www.useventing.com/

The One With The Really Good Babies

The show was a BLAST. We did not necessarily come back big winners, but we had a really good time. We got to the show about two hours ahead of time so that the babies (Onyx, Dublin and Sudi) would have plenty of time to settle in and get adjusted. Well there was almost no settling in required. - They acted like seasoned PRO’s! By their actions, you couldn’t even tell they were young – and you definitely couldn’t tell that Dublin was still a stallion.

We did have two "incidents" though. We were watching some of the YEH Dressage classes and all of a sudden Dublin broke loose from the trailer – his leather halter hanging in pieces on his head. What we THINK happened was that Sudi began to assert some of his masculinity (ha!), and Dub decided he’d had enough and pulled back – hard enough to snap his old leather halter. He was such a really good boy though and really didn’t go anywhere. Luckily we had a lovely PINK halter in the trailer that fit him. :-D

Our second incident, was slightly more amusing. Onyx, being tied next to the tack room discovered a bucket of feed while she was sniffing around slightly through the door. Noticing her curiosity, I moved the bucket to the back of the tack room, thinking nothing of it. The next thing we know, the front half of Onyx is completely inside the tackroom - her nose burried in the bucket of feed. Tammy calmly asked Onyx to back out, but the poor baby got her front hooves caught on the bottom ridge of the door frame. She never freaked out, and thankfully the door frame was made of alluminum so it only bent slightly.

As far as the FEH tests went, Onyx performed the most perfectly out of all three. We all commented that it looked as if she knew the judges were admiring her lovely figure. Dublin was second to go and was farely well behaved except for a few small love nibbles on Tammy's arm as they trotted around the triangle.

Poor Sud was the last of our three to go, and by that time had had about all the show boredom he could take. He did not stand well, had the most unmotivated walk, and when we trotted, he broke into a canter freaking out at some people in the background. The judges were very nice about it, but nevertheless, he didn't get terribly great scores.

Overall, we were all pretty pleased with how well the babies did. The dressage show at Marston Plantation is still on for both Kehbir and Sudi on April 5th. We'll possibly be taking a total of six horses (two for me - Sud and Kebhs; two for Tammy - T-Rex and Barney; and two for Liza - Calico and Poppy) This weekend will determine if we do just dressage or add on some Combined Training classes! To check out the show website, go to http://www.marstonplantation.com/show_schedule.html

I don't have any show pics loaded on the computer yet (I know - I'm SO slack!). I promise to get some up soon though!

For now, let just hope that all our dressage work doesn't turn out like the below pic!

The One Where I Can't Take the Wind Anymore

Ok. So I'm tired of the wind. And the rain. And the Windy Rain. It SO needs to go. The ONE weekend I've had some extra time off work, it rains; and even when the rain goes, it is still way to windy to remotely work with my horse. *HUGE sigh*

I am thankful though that it's supposed to be nicer tomorrow, despite a "low" high of upper 50's.

So - On a past note, Spa Day went well, despite Kehbir's blatant disaproval in the picture (seriously - zoom in and check out the expression on that horse!). And I think I actually made Sudi a little too cold, because he ended up galloping/rearing/bucking around the ring for about twenty minutes. You'd have never known he was even remotely tired from the trail ride!

Well here's hoping for better weather and some good practice in before Sporting Days!

PS - We're thinking about a schooling dressage show the first weekend in April at Marston Plantation. EEEK! (I'll keep you posted!)

The One With the Really Long Blog and too many pictures...

So I'm sore. REALLY sore. I don't really mean to make it sound like complaining. Honestly it's the good sore - the kind you get from staying in a two point for an hour when you haven't done it in - oh - five or so years. But at least it was totally worth it! I had an absolutely blast!

After a yummy breakfast of sausage bisquits, my mom and I finally made it over to the barn to pack up around 8:15. (We were both WAY too tired Friday night to even think much about packing. Although, I did manage to get a good shaving in for both the boys) We were able to give the boys a yummy breakfast too, and Sudi even loaded the trailer within 5 trys! haha :-) (That's a huge accomplishment for him - really!) I seriously think Sudi has an issue with fitting on his side of the trailer. He doesn't like loading unless we swing the divider over for him to fit in. He looks at me as if to say, "Does my butt look too big in this trailer?"

This trip was also special because this was my mom's and my first time pulling the trailer! (That's my mom to the right while driving and looking very confident) I have to be honest: I was scared - When I was driving, I freaked out every time a car passed us. Thankfully though, I had a limited amount of stress as I only had to drive one way; my mom drove on the way over, and I drove on the way back. This is not to say that the trailer was hard to pull or dangerous by any means. I was just VERY very conscious of the fact that my BABIES were in the back, and that was very scary for me.

During the drive though, I got to take some fun pictures. (Ok ok, so maybe I was a little too enthusiastic with the camera!) This is one picture as we're going over a huge bridge. I think Charleston is absolutely gorgeous.


We made it to the park without any problems whatsoever. I had this fantastic plan that detailed us getting there, me and Sudi practicing the Triangle (and btw, this would go perfectly), and then we'd be hitting the trails. HAHAHAHA (Yes, I think I can hear you laughing as well.)

WELL, the triangle went anything BUT perfectly (as you can see in the video). For the life of me, I could NOT get Sudi's attention. You would have thought there was at least something for him to be staring at, but there was NOTHING. Nothing I tell you! The weather was slightly windy, but overall it was a good test drive for us. At least I came away from the practice with some good ideas for progress. I realized that I need to pay more attention to my reins, work on getting Sudi's head down (as well as getting his attention, but what does that matter to an Arab? haha). I also realized that I need to learn how to walk and run in a straight line, and also not to pull my horse behind me. We were grossly lacking in both all these areas.

However, after the Triangle, things went MUCH smother for all of us. My mom and I mounted and headed for the trail. We ended up riding close to five miles! The trail was mostly wooded, and when we were in the sun, it was actually quite warm. We passed several other very friendly groups while out there, and also some Terrifying Horse Eating Palm Trees. Sudi, however, was a great sport and hopped over three downed palm trees and a log for me (all from a walk to a halt to a *sniff sniff* to a hop).

Our other BIG achievement of the day was that we actually CANTERED for the first time with me on board!! He had such a huge, smooth stride - I was in love at first sight ... er ride. :-) Kehbir was dying to canter as well, but my mom thought it best to keep him back to a trot. However, he definitely displayed his displeasure with quite a few headshakes. Overall though, I think both boys had a great time out there.

By the time we got back to the trailer, all of us were beat, and I was already feeling the pain to come. We made it home safely, and put the boys out for some quick field time before dinner. Sudi promptly rolled...3 times. I think he wanted to feel nice and dirty having such a successful day on the trail.

Well our next event is at Sporting Days Farm in Aiken on Tuesday, 3/11/08. Sudi, however, is the only one of my boys going. He will be participating in a Future Event Horse class. So, to prepare, we have Spa Day coming up and then a normal bath that Monday night. Wish us luck - We'll need it being Arabs and all. :-)