I've been meaning to catch up everyone on the ways of the east coast world for awhile now, so here's my best shot.
The commumity of horse people is like nothing you could imagine, or at least it is completely different than anything I've ever been around. Everyone somehow knows of everyone, in some shape or form. There is an Irish Pub that is totally dedicated to the racing community, quiantly named "The Whip". On Sunday just as some would go and watch a soccer game, us girls went and watched the famous "Pennsylvania Horse Cup"; a horse from my work was ridden (and finished 2nd) in the youth race, and 3 horses from Asia's work were ridden in the real races, one in the actual "Cup" race. The cup race is 4 miles long and was finished in 8 and half minutes, you do the math, it's fast... oh ya the timber fences are outrageously huge.... Green grass and rolling hills, many fancy ladies in funny hats wearing breeches and boots or the men often seen in tall boots and vests on, a very different fashion statement than home! The horses get grain morning and evening, some places they recieve 3 feedings of grain... hay is just a filler. The woods have hack trails, filled wih various log jumps; the fields have mowed edges for "gallops", and the farms have jumps in all the fence lines.
Charly is currently found out in a big pasture trying to be the top dog, mainly everyone really is into eating and could care less; he has basically sucomb to this idea that he should enjoy vacation. His last outing wasn't his best of the year on paper, only due to a error in judgement on my part in XC, but a fabulous showing by him that he does have what it takes to be a great eventing horse. His dressage had improved from the previous one star by three points, this put him in second by just a hair... the rain came again and the steeplechase had to be removed, but we were left with a long and fairly difficult XC course; Charly came out of the start box like an animal I hadn't yet met! I guess the steeplechase from Morven left an impression on him :) Charly felt like a racing machine and was so on, I was having the time of my life. Unfortunately my watch decided to fog up and I couldn't read it until 2/3 of the way through! I knew that on all the gallop parts I would need to boogie; there were a lot of gate crossings with sharp turns in them, there were also 3 waters; with all of those places needing a bit of a balancing I was pretty sure to need some flying time... I was right, when my watch finally came to I put the petal down and asked for even more speed, Charly was right there and very happy to give it to me (that was at over 7 minutes into the course!), however then we had two very big and wide tables on a turn; he flew over the first and we just couldn't get back to the second... I couldn't believe it was happening, trying to not let it get to me we quickly made a half circle to this huge table and flew on; Charly was amazing I just couldn't be disapointed, I was sooooo excited about him and his ability AND desire to run fast for a long course and handle all the technical questions. He is such a great horse. Sunday was no exeption, he put in one of his fabulous clear rounds that had everyone's jaw dropped. Without our, or mine, XC penalty he would have won the CCI *, instead he finished 6th... still a very great accomplishment.
Malibu has become a stellar eventing horse as well; his last event was at Waredaca, training level with cross country been timed at 470 mpm... Malibu finished 20 seconds early... I'm soooo proud of him! Even more exciting, after getting a tour of the country Malibu will return home to eat Sanger grass and have the love and admiration of not one but 3 riders... he'll be in complete heaven with cookies and carrots from Betsy, Jestine and Val... however I made him promise to give them all fun and enjoyable rides so that he deserves all his treats!
Mark, my fiesty little bay TB, is also enjoying some vacation time in pasture. He will be starting back up in December and is currenlty looking for a partial owner, or owners to help get him out into the limelight this next year. Mark needed a few months to grow up; with some hacks in the woods and a few starter trials this horse should be better than ever and ready for some winning rounds.
With the horses on vacation I'll be hopping on a plane and getting to visit my Havarah group back in Cali...we've got a busy week filled with lessons and then finishing off the west coast season with the Ram Tap HT. Then I'll head back east and pack up out of the little Jethro place and head to the next destination of this tour.
Til next time....
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