Breezing in the snow!

Today is December 5th and is the first day we've gotten a full white layer of snow...it's cold, and a good day to be inside catching up on relaxation! The end of November marked my last days working for Breakaway Farm and the yearling breaking, since it's a farm operation they basically close down for the winter and don't work any horses. So then the question was laid out, do I try to find riding jobs (in the snow : / ) or should I get my first non-horse job and just call it a winter experience? If I was smart (and maybe I'll get smarter in the next few weeks!) I would have chosen the second option.

Monday was my first day riding at the Fair Hill Training Center, a beautiful high end race horse training facility. I got a job to ride for a trainer named Edwin Merryman, who has so far seemed like a super nice guy. At the moment I'm just riding 2-3 horses a morning for him...which honestly has left me each day totally exhausted! Today was my first day breezing at the track, I've breezed before but it was on a farm and on young horses that weren't really all that fast yet.

I think that if I wasn't worried about my frozen hands the whole time, I would've realized how totally cool it was that I was riding a horse that was preparing for a race and we were flying. However, instead, I was praying that I could keep him from pushing the other horse over the rail and that I could finish the breeze without letting go of my reins. Both things got accomplished, but I assure you, I was terrified that one or the other was going to take place. All in all, the trainer was happy, so I guess a job well done for the first time. I still think a warm office job is sounding really nice!

RIP Texas Ranger

We've recently lost a great member of the Havarah program; Texas Ranger passed away in October and his owner Lauren Billys wrote a loving story for us all to remember him by.

"I guess I didn’t really know what I was getting into when my parents bought me my first horse at the age of twelve. I was scared and unsure of what my responsibilities would be, but, more importantly, I thought, I was excited to show off my new horse. Little did I know the impact that Ranger would have on my life for the next seven years. Our first and last events were the most memorable to me. Our first was at Woodside; my dressage was carefree. Because of our carefree attitude, our score was a 49, but I really could have cared less; all I knew was that I was having the time of my life. Ranger packed me over the course and trotted in places when I was losing my balance. So much has changed since then. Over the past seven years, I have picked 4,480 Ranger hooves and brushed his hair numerous times. It was a constant in my life, probably the greatest constant. Ranger was constant in every angle: he always wanted a bite of what everyone else was eating, he always had one bad day a week, he appreciated great care, and he would always jump the fence as long as you pointed him between the standards. Through all of this, he taught me responsibility, how to push through hard times, true hard work, and joy in doing all these things. He was there with me through the thick and thin. He really pushed me to become a better rider and to tough it out when things were hard. Through some fabulous people, I was able to see the potential this horse had and the way I could improve my riding to reach this potential. At our last event, we met this potential by winning the training three-day. It was amazing to know that all the work put into Ranger and our team work was returned with a blue ribbon and a great feeling of accomplishment. Ranger went through every phase with ease beating the competition. The greatest compliment I have received was when Chirs Scarlett, the cross country course designer, said that we rode the course the best of that day and the exact way she intended for it to be ridden. It was an unforgettable ride.
When I knew I had to sell Ranger, it never felt right, but I knew that it had to be done. But on October 20th, everything came by an unfortunate surprise. After getting a phone call that Ranger was not feeling well, I knew that this day was going to be difficult. His actions were the same calm way, but oddly different. While I sat with him, he laid his head in my lap when we waited for the vet. It was an important moment for me because our relationship had grown so strong that we had a mutual understanding, respect, and trust for one another. Before Ranger’s health went really south, he wineyed at all the horses as if saying goodbye. And then, nearly twelve hours after my initial phone call, I had to put Ranger down. When asked if I wanted to walk Ranger out and hold him, while he received his injections, I said yes. I felt an extreme responsibility that I had learned because of Ranger. I felt like I needed to return all the times that he had taken care of me by doing it for him, one last time. So my mom, Amy Fox, and I were there for the end. At that moment, I knew the changes from when I was twelve to know being with Ranger seven years later were a vital part of becoming the person I am today. I have grown to become who I am because of this great horse and some amazing people who helped me along the way." Lauren Billys

About time!

I apologize to all my regular blog readers, I know I've been very slow in up-dating you with all the haps on the east coast. So much has happened I don't really know where to begin!

Normally I try to begin and end with positive and exciting news, this is a strategy I've learned through doing Pony Club testings, it's called "sandwiching" and is apparently one of the best ways to present information to people. I think in this situation I'm going to start off with the two largest pieces of information I have; both of them happened awhile ago, neither one are good, but they both have brought change into mine and others lives.

The fist big news occurred at the Millbrook Horse Trials in New York. Many of you know my roomate, Asia Vedder, a fellow upper level rider who came out east with me to immerse herself in the life of east coast eventing and racing. Asia was riding at the Intermediate level and had a very un-fortunate fall on her mare Gem Lion. Asia was transported off to a nearby hospital, and luckily only suffered lots of pain and broken bones but no internal injuries. Asia ended up staying in New York for over two weeks, recieving a few surgeries to fix her arm and her hip. She then spend another week in a rehabilitation hospital to learn how to do normal everyday things; like putting on shoes, stepping up a curb, etc. I'll always remember going to pick Asia up and seeing her bright happy face and just being amazed at how well she handled all that she went through. Asia's accident happened about a month ago and she is now home, watching lots of videos and doing her best to keep from going completely stir crazy.

The next big news is about our beloved Charly. More than anything this has probably kept me from being able to up-date this blog, I really don't like having to pass along this information, perhaps it makes it too real. So many people have joined in with me to help get this fabulous horse to the east coast to compete in some very prestigious events and bring him up the levels in the best manner we could. Unfortunately in this sport no matter how prepared you are and how great your horse is, things still happen. Charly has visited two fabulous doctors and both agree on one thing, he needs some time off and with that time he'll be as good as ever and ready for full use at high levels of competition again. One vet believes that he doesn't yet have a lesion on his tendon but if he was kept in work her would get one. The other vet feels like there is a lesion, it is just small. EIther way, Charly is being treated as if he does have a bowed tendon. This means he gets iced twice a day, poulticed at night and hand walked twice a day. For the first week he was such a good patient, I was absolutely amazed! Every time he even thought about coming out of his zen nature I just told him that all of this rest time was for his benefit and he couldn't bounce around because that would make him hurt his leg and then he'd have to be in complete stall rest.... I've never thought any animal (besides Quigley) could understand english, but I really believe that Charly understood this. However he now is trying lots of different techniques to get in a little play time; his current favorite is to walk really calmly and then all of a sudden snort and leap all four feet off the ground. Bad bad boy!

I'm anxiously awaiting Charly's return to work but in the meantime I figure that this is a good time for me to get some experience out riding other horses and meet more of the Cecil county horse trainers/riders. Currently I'm still riding the race horse babies at Breakaway Farm, then I do Charly's morning routine, then ride 4 to 5 dressage/jumpers for a warmblood breeder/importer and then finish off the day with Charly's evening routine. This set-up is just for two weeks then I go back to California for our next Havarah clinic. I think after riding the 10 horses a day, I'll be ready to walk around doing some teaching!

Speaking of the Havarah group, I do have to say that my last trip out to California was one of the most successful clinics I've given. I get so excited to see how much progress my students get after 3 back to back lessons, everyone tries so hard... you guys are great!!!

On a much more exciting note our life long horse search for Amy Fox is officially over! Amy is now the proud owner of Socrates, a very handsome and athletic gelding that is a new residence at El Encanto. Amy's first show with Socrates is Woodside in October...best of luck to you Amy!

Also my "Rockstar" group of Havarah students (that was the initial group of teenage girls I started with) are all leaping into adult life in a big way. Christina Aguet seems to be doing extremely well going into her second year at UC Davis, and Lauren Billys has transferred back into California from Texas to atted FSU along with Kelcey Collins and Amy Fox... I have to say it's a neat feeling to have "my girls" all off in college and so many of them off to be Bulldogs...go dogs!

This was a super long entry...thanks for reading :)

Bittersweet

Yesterday Charly and I arrived home from the long journey to the lovely Lamplight Equestrian center in Wayne, Illinois. This is the site of the 2007 AEC's, and for anyone thinking of going, spectator or rider, I highly suggest it. Fabulous footing, excellent show management and beautiful fences on both the cross country and show jump courses.

This show was Charly's second Intermediate run and it was held under international guidelines (therefore called a CIC **); here are some of the differences...

*In barn inspection on Wed or Thursday to check the horses passports and make sure that we brought the correct horse
*Internationally designed dressage test, mandatorily held in a large dressage court and top hat and tails required. (Double bridle still optional)
*Longer cross country course and generally more difficult questions asked than a regular horse trials Intermediate
*Veterinary inspection after cross country to check TPR (temperature, pulse and respiration)
*Trot ups in front of a ground jury on Sunday morning to check for soundness

Charly's two star division consisted of 26 competitors; competing against the master himself Mr. Bruce Davidson (on two horses), Sara Dierks (a top US competitor), Heather Morris, Allison Springer and many other "big" names.

Just as I was about to get on Charly for his dressage warm-up I heard that there was a long hold in my dressage arena. Word got to me that a horse from my good friends barn (Gold Chip Stables) had an aneurism in the court (apparently reared up backed over the railing and died instantly upon landing). This may be the most horrific news, the only good part of the story is that the girl riding (even though pinned under the horse) was able to walk away physically un-hurt. Although I'm sure mentally devastated. The delay ended up not being all that long and Charly's warm-up went really well. However things were a bit confusing for the gate steward and I got sent over a whole horse ahead of my time, therefore having to walk Charly back and forth in between hundreds of spectators for a whole 7 minutes! Charly doesn't get nervous like you would see of that of a TB BUT he really likes to compete and he gets all puffed up like a stallion and very light on his toes, I definitely could not get him to stand for the seven minutes but he was a decently good boy walking back and forth! Then I entered the white fenced arena with the big grandstand on one side and flowers laid out everywhere and he (on his own) threw out the biggest extended trot I have ever sat on, I luckily got him back before the corner where he proceeded to spook at the flowers (becoming his signature mark before going into the dressage ring); after that he was all business. Charly performed very well; this test called for shoulders in, travers in, medium trot, collected canter, counter canter, simple change of lead (through walk), rein-back, extended walk, and a canter halt. For his level of training, he was great; I made the mistake of practicing the counter canter to a simple change in the warm-up and he anticipated them in the ring on both sides (coming down to the walk a few letters early on both leads); this was obviously given a very low mark by both judges. It was still a test that had me smiling the whole time and we walked out to a loud section of cheering...Charly and I were both very proud. The test put us in seventh place 3 points away from second.

The cross country course was fabulous. It gave you four big good gallop fences to start with before asking any questions (this is a plus for Charly as he has lately been leaving the box on a mission of going somewhere in a big hurry!) The path was often marked with white ropes as there were so many spectators that they needed to be kept off of the galloping lanes. Charly was absolutely phenomenal, the bigger fences and all the spectators didn't cause him any stress, it was a truely exciting ride. Him and I have one problem area, turning questions that start with a big table. He jumps so big over the table and lands ready for a gallop...this was our jump 4AB, a maximum sized square table 4 turning strides to a corner. Let's just say I had to represent to the corner of which he jumped great, and that we'll be doing some practice with this at home! After this Charly and I were completely together as a team; the water jump was a highlight of the course, it had a log max drop into the water to an up bank with a bounce to a jump out...it jumped so perfectly it felt like a gymnastic grid. We also had two bounce up-banks that jumped great which was a huge relief to me as up-banks were our other nemesis. Luckily that one seems to be behind us now :) Just before the last water complex Charly and I were flagged to a stop, I have never been held on course before but I was assuming that this must be what was happening as all my jumps seemed to have been going great...So thus the bittersweet story of Charly's weekend . After the bounce banks we turned to the left and jumped a hedge immediately followed by a "blind" turn to a corner, there was also the Intermediate hedge (which was the exact same fence but just placed to the left of ours; I landed from the up banks saw my line to the hedge and corner and never thought twice, the line jumped perfectly... problem is I looked too soon and saw the first hedge, the Intermediate hedge NOT the two star hedge so therefore I had jumped the wrong fence.

The next day was especially hard when I walked to 2 star show jumping course to see what we would have been doing. Words can't describe how amazing that arena was; it gave you the feeling of walking into a big grand prix ring each fence was completely decorated with it's own theme and I KNOW that Charly would have just done a great job in there! Errrrrr.

Looking ahead I know what we need to improve upon in each of the phases and I have 3 weeks to work on all of that before our next competition. Charly jogged up sound and happy on Sunday morning and shipped home safely. Next destination... Millbrook, New York August 9-12th...

Groton House II

Going into this last competition I realized I was going to have some extremely good horses and riders in my class because the Advanced/Intermediate division had been cancelled and all those horses were moved into the Open Intermediate class. In all honesty this aspect really didn't phase me very much, BUT the fact that it's been 6 years since I've ridden an Intermediate track and that Charly has NEVER run an Intermediate of any kind (let a lone one of the magnitude of that of Groton House) this all had me a little on edge!

Charly performed like never before in the dressage ring, going across the long diagonal in the "big" court, on turf, in his medium trot was quite possibly the most enchanting feeling I've ever had. I exited with the announcer commenting on what a lovely test Charly had, and the crowd (which was very large) all commenting on how great we looked, it was a great feeling. The judge gave us some very good homework and although fair was VERY tough. At the end of the day Charly was in 10th place out of the 29 in his class.

The cross country course was very well designed and very difficult. As you can see in the results it retired or eliminated about a third of the division. Lots of forest with steep gullies with BIG drops and banks, just by walking the course you could tell that time would be almost impossible to make. One of the best lessons I've learned from being out on the east coast is that each competition truly has it's own importance, and that often means chosing to get a certain goal attained other than taking home a blue ribbon. I knew that if I was one of the fastest times I was sure to be in the top of the division; however I also knew that I needed a very confident run to qualify for the CIC ** that Charly and I would be running just two weeks after this show. I knew that Danny Warrington, my coach and former international steeplechase rider, would be running for time on his big fast TB who is well seasoned at Advanced; I also knew that "Dobbin" is an Advanced horse that has blown the socks off of his competition for the last few years. I also know that running fast and jumping down multiple BIG drops is really tough on their feet...all things considered I decided that this event was there for me and Charly to become confident at the Intermediate level. Charly completely impressed me with his braveness, never questioning a single fence; he also thought he was impressive by thinking he was cute and jumping me out of the tack in one of the big narrows at the top of a steep downhill...after that I learned to sit a bit tighter coming into the next drop! This was lucky as the water was tough; a big hedge at the top of a hill brought you down to a ramp into the first level of water, two strides across to another ramp (drop) into another level of water 3 or 4 strides across that to an up-bank out left handed turn to a huge table with a large drop on landing...then one fence to the finish.
At the end of XC I knew I had gone slow, and totally did not care as just jumped better and better as the course went. That day moved us up one placing to 9th.

As if the cross country didn't involve enough terrain that show jumping brought more! It was held on a large grass field, all jumps set going either up or down hill and most off of a small turn. Charly walked in very professionally and as soon as I saluted he was off and on a mission :) That horse can jump, I really think that is the best way to describe it! Before we went, rails were coming down left and right and I never once worried about him taking a rail, he just flew. I love going into show jumping with him, because you really feel like he understands how important it is to keep up the rails and he tries his heart out every course. After our round the rails kept coming down and allowed us to move into 5th place. I honestly couldn't be happier with our horse, one of the girls in the barn kindly named him the "Eventing King".

So much!

I had a great trip to California and then it's been non-stop since I got back! My California girls, Rosella and Jestine made the big trek across the country and arrived (with healthy horses!) this last Thursday. Welcome ladies!

The babies at the race farm have been all in full work getting ready for their future racing careers at their respective track. This has been a great conditioning work-out for me, usually a good 6 horses every morning getting a full gallop.

Charly has been going great, lots of work for us prepping for his first Intermediate run this coming weekend at Groton House in Hamilton, Mass.

I posted a picture of my new "Maryland" family as well as a picture of the Chesapeake Bay at Sunset.

First win of the season!

Charly brought home the blue this last weekend competing Preliminary at the Waredaca HT! A lovely consistent dressage test (with an 8 on his reinback..this used to be a huge issue!) gave him a second place start with a 29.6 then he gave me a double clean show jumping round and a great smooth cross country. Have I said lately how much I love this horse! :)

We had a lengthy period between this show and his last so that we could bring his fitness level way up, it looks like he's fit and ready to go!

Memorial Day East Coast style

The begining of my memorial day weekend started off at the site of the preakness, the Pimlico Race track. One of my cow-workers had her debute race ride at a real track, she did great, however, if anyone is interested in seeing one of the big three races, I would advise the Derby or the Belmont.

I have come to realize that I'm a big fan of being a spectator at the "Point to Point" hunt meets. Secretly, one day, I'd like to be a participant, but for now an on-looker is working just fine! On Saturday, my current home town, Fair Hill, MD, held their own hunt meet and did it up in style. Imagine a big county fair, but instead of watching racing on a dirt oval track; it's all held on turf and has hudle fences and timber fences. The closest thing to riding cross country and racing at the same time!

My other big east coast adventure for the holiday weekend...a trip to the big city of Philladelphia. Anyone remember the soup nazi in Seinfeld? I was taken to Philly by a local and shown where the REAL cheese steaks are sold. This place is truely a site to see! The line (at all times, day and night) wraps around the building and they have specific rules about how to order your sandwich (so that the line stays moving at a very fast clip). They suggest, on the instructions, that you actually practice in line, if you mess up they hold the right to move you to the end of the line! Luckily I practiced, fellow line standers doing the same, messed up twice, but put out a good order by the time I was at the window. :)

A fancy new mare !!!

Congratulations to Maddy Barney and the Barney family on their new family member. This combo sounds like they are going to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come....watch out! :)

Shephard Ranch HT

Shephard Ranch has opened it's entries...remember to send them in ;)

Alyssa B. NOVICE
Alyssa H. NOVICE
Lauren B. NOVICE
Kelcey C. NOVICE
John M. BNovice
Amy F. BNovice

Keep in touch with each other, re lodging and hauling.

Ahh Spring in California :)

What a trip! Life sometimes works out perfectly and this last weekend was a prime example. My monthly Havarah clinic in California happened to occur simultaneously with DGBAR's last big event, MOTHER"S DAY :), and a Fresno trip by one of my long time event friends from So Cal. Oh and not to forget about all the perfect weather we had! Most of the group were able to take between 2 to 4 lessons, everyone improving with great strides from the first day to the last; I really believe that the clinic situation will end up working in everyone's favor, I think having a few days of lessons back to back really let's you understand and feel what we're trying to acheive. SO far I think it's working! DG Bar put on a fantastic show, and it was a great way to re-connect with horse riding friends from all of California. LOTS of fun!

April in California

I honestly have never been so excited to return home to California as I was for this trip. I was soooo looking forward to sunshine and warmth! The east coast is continuing to be COLD and windy, rainy and snowy...I can't complain b/c it is also plush green and beatiful, all I'm saying is I need some sun!

Havarah Equestrian had a substantial showing at this April Ram Tap, 10 riders; Even better was that all ten were GOOD riders with GOOD horses. I was super pleased with all the horses behaviors and all the riding talent that we had. I like to think that each event has it's purpose and this events purpose was to go out there and truely ride your horses not just compete them. One day everyone will be at the point where truely riding your horse makes you extremely competitive...this of course is the big goal :)

As much praise as I'd like to give you all for that I also want to pass along that I was really not super pleased with some of the horsemanship I saw back at the barn. Even though we are bringing horses together from multiple places when we're at horse shows the Havarah group needs to behave as one "team" and the horses are part of that. They all need to have a feeding schedule, fed at the same time; morning chores should be done as a team so the barn is complete as well as the evening chores. The horses did come up to the show ring looking put together, but back at the barn they had sweat stains, dirty stalls, and large messes in front of their houses...I really don't like being the un-happy trainer, but not taking good care of your horses is the quickest way to making me frustrated...let's make sure that Shephard Ranch in June is a different story! :)

The May clinic is in planning stages, if you don't have a training schedule for the next month contact me ASAP.

Make sure to look at your photos at Ed's website... pictures are worth 1,000 words!

It's lumber time :)

Yesterday was Charly's favorite day of the year; it was the day that he got to "see lumber" again. This is apparently the east coast terminology for jump schooling. Actually I think it's a steeplechase phrase, but I thought it was cute.

Charly didn't miss a beat he's completely on his game and is looking in good form for his first competition at Morven Park in four weeks. To follow right along with how the rest of our winter work has gone, the jump school was slow in pace and huge in learning. Most of the jumping was done from the walk and I was amazed to find some amazingly minute details in my ways of riding to a fence that need a bit of fine tuning. Luckily I have Mark who requires the perfect ride even at 18" so that I get myself fine tuned in the next few weeks!~

Thursday will be our first day of trot sets out at Fair Hill. For the next few weeks Charly will have two days a week of trot sets and then a gallop the week before Morven.

Warrington back in California

March 9th, 10th, and 11th Danny Warrington will be working with Havarah at El Enchanto Stables and Ram Tap. This is a great prep for April Ram Tap, if you haven't signed up yet email Molly ASAP otherwise go watch! El Enchanto, Sue Rice's new facility is Saturday and Ram Tap 8-4 on Sunday.

FVE up-date

So remember Foothill View Equestrian out in Madera...it is still there but new and improved operation status has changed it to FVE GOATS! Check out my mom's new kids, they're so cute! These things have more toys than they know what to do with, stop by and play some time...

GO John!

John and his super handsome Cutamo canter around the SJ course to take home the blue in the Sr. Beg Novice division. Not a bad way to START his Combined Training career!

Every girl needs a little...

DISCO in her life :)

Rollin rollin rollin...

On Friday night the 23rd at 10:00pm EST I made to my home in Elkton! Although I have no desire to do it again in the close proximity, it was a very, very cool trip. Just watching the countryside change as I drove east was amazing, New Mexico deserves it's name the "Enchanted State" and AZ doesn't get enough credit for how beatiful Flagstaff is. Tennessee might have been a favorite of mine....lots of trees :)

I took some pictures from the "drivers view" so that you could see a bit of what my road trip looked like... California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia and home to Maryland...

The big trip

Blair has a new horse :)

Congradulations Blair! Blair and Willy are one of the Havarah hot new items...now living at Silver Rose Ranch Willy promises to get Blair hooked on eventing as the two become real Havarah rockstars!

Western half of the United States...

California to MD; 2800 miles!

Monday the 18th was the D day; departure was delayed due to wiring issues...errr and late packing on my part! 1:50 pm finally on the road.
This left me in Needles, Ca for my first overnight stay, but before I got there I had my hopefully scariest moment of the trip. The "needs fuel desparetely" light had come on in the middle of the desert with no fuel in sight. 33 miles Bubba had to drive on pure hope of diesel, so when I finally came across the "Oasis" (this isn't even sarcasm, they actually named this station that) I was happy to pay OVER $3.00 a gallon so Bubba could carry me along to a hotel!

TUESDAY I set out ready to drive and hopefully get myself out of California... just to get a call from the trailers owner saying I was going to wear out the bolts unless I found someone to get the air compressor to work. SOoooooooooo Flagstaff, AZ turned out to be a great place to get RV help. Some nice boys at a shop called "Bubba's" rigged up a fuse for me and then enjoyed watching me back up the "Big Rig" to get out of their forest filled RV shop. Hmmmph. Oh and so this fuse is supposed to be removed each evening so it doesn't run out the battery, well I continue to get shocked upon removing and re-entering this fuse, so next time you see me if all my hair is standing on end you'll know why!
Sleep location... Santa Rosa, NM

WEDNESDAY a fairly uneventful day; lots of driving. I did however think that Bubba and his Pegasus deserved a bath after their 7+ month hibernation. This bath took place in NM and apparently the truck washers there don't have the sense of urgency that the Ca washers do...
sleep local; Sallisaw, OK

Any ideas on the fuse issue, feel free to call!

Feb Ram Tap results

For Havarah's first show of the year I thought our group did a remarkable job. Dressage and show jumping seemed to be our strengths this time out; which shows just how much work everyone has put in because it used to be that the central valley could jump clean but never be placed after the first phase.

After dressage we had two leaders; Rosella hunter leading the Sr. Training group and Cheryl Gentzler leading the Sr. Beg Novice class. In a close second was Laurel George followed by John Marshall in third. Alyssa Hatai was also in third in her Jr. Beg Novice class. In fact it was even noted by one of the dressage judges that our entire group appeared very "prepared" for the day.

Our group of riders looked very safe and well mounted for cross country, however we still have some cobwebs to clean up :) Clean rounds by John Marshall and Alyssa Hatai ....

Sunday was the day that really made me smile; In Sr. Beg Novice we had 3 riders go and 1 in Jr. Beg Novice; everyone produced not only double clear rounds but also rounds that were smooth, accurate and overall very polished. John brought home the blue ribbon and Alyssa grabbed second place from the Jr's.

A few chose to retire from the weekend and I'd like to note that this takes tremendous horsemanship to know when it just isn't your weekend, don't worry I know all of you will have your blue show as well!

February California trip

Saturday @ Riverland Farms

9:00 Rosella

10:00 Maddy
********** Sienna ride

11:00 Louise
Clara

12:00 Sharon W. ?

12:45 John

1:30 Val
Laurel w/ Dior

2:30 Blair w/ Aruba
Alyssa H

3:30 Cheryl
Laurel w/ Caleb

Blair and "Ce Simple" @ Davis's... 5pm?




Sunday @ El Enchanto
Sue Rice's Facility

9:00 Christy
Cheryl

10:00 John
Laurel w/ Caleb

11:00 Meghan G

11:45 Clara
Laurel w/ Dior
Val

12:45 Maddy
Alyssa H

2:00 Kelcey
Jestine

3:00 Rosella
Jessi

Monday - all day horse shopping, bay area; Lauren, Amy, Alyssa, Blair?, parents?
Tuesday - all day horse shopping, Irvine; Lauren, Amy
Wednesday
7:30 am John @ Silver Rose
8:15 Megan G?
9:00 Rosella
**** Val aat Riverland Ranch?
****Jestine at Riverland Ranch?
6:00 PM Cheryl @ Silver Rose

THURSDAY RAM TAP
1:30 Cheryl & Christy
2:30 Rosella & Meghan G?
3:15 John & Laurel
4:15 Jestine & Alyssa H
***** Please ride up to the warm-up with your partner, less stress the better :)

Friday- Sunday Coaching at Ram Tap;
Rosella - Training
Meghan - Training ?
Jestine - Novice
Laurel - BN
John - BN
Cheryl - BN
Christy - BN
Alyssa H - BN


Sunday XC schooling after show (around 2:00 pm, KIT)
Val?
Maddy
Kelcey
Amy- horse try outs?
Lauren- horse try outs?
Blair- horse try outs?

Long over-due up date

My favorite news I get to deliver to you is about Charly's tail... For
all of you that don't know, I love tails, no doubt about it. Charly has
a great one, therefore all the more fun to spend time making it the best
it can possibly be! So this winter (from the day after his last horse
show in
October) I let the top part of the tail grow out; usually I had it
clipped up so it would look neat and show off his handsome rear end....
NOW it is even better :) After it grew out I decided that I would have
Charly looking "proper" which means that his tail needs to be pulled and
not clipped, sounds funny, I know, but it's a big difference and it is a
definite time envolved plan. The pulling makes it look as if Charly
naturally has a perfectly shaped tail (at the top) instead of the whole
world knowing that it has been clipped to give the illusion of it being
"cute".... so now he is "proper" and believe me he likes to show off his
tail; he's conceited and I'm ok with that :)

Another cool topic is the fact that on the east coast there is truely
winter "training" time; on the west coast as soon as the holidays are
over you need to be getting fit b/c your first show is just a few weeks
away. Our first show isn't until April (schedule to follow). As I
stated before for Charly to be as competitive in Intermediate as he was
at Prelim we have to make him longitudinally more supple and that will
make his canter more active and light. All of January Charly has been
learning to be forward while stretching while being soft "like butter"
in your hands... he looks so happy and limber it's unreal... I'm very
excited! I've been lucky to have Danny around to help me out with his
Charly times, because Charly will always be Charly!

On Tuesday Danny was riding Charly while I was on Mark (did I mention
yet that it is time for Mark to get sold :(... ) The ride had finished
and we were on the way back to the barn when out came the super scary
BAG....Charly thought it was EVIL... proceeding to do some very quick
footwork, nearly un-glueing Danny (which is unheard of) therefore being
a very bad idea on Charly's part. Needless to say with Danny's "super
horseman" talented lik ways soon our boy was standing on top of the
scary BAG; it was impressive and should have been video taped!

Below is a tentative 2007 schedule for Charly; our plan is to get myself
and the boy out at Prelim to start out super confident and BECOME
precise before moving up to Intermediate. Perfect it at the lower level
to lessen the stress on Charly...

March 31-April 1 Morven Park - Preliminary

April 20-22nd Fair Hill (MD) - Preliminary

June 2-3rd Waredaca - INTERMEDIATE :)

July 12-15th MAUI JIM CIC ** (Wayne, Ill) Two Star CIC - no steeplecase

August 9-12th Millbrook (NY) INTERMEDIATE

September 9-12th Seneca Valley INTERMEDIATE (unless he goes to the
AEC's)

September 12-16th American Eventing Championships, Wayne, Ill (if
qualified)

October ----- CCI ** .... at the time of planning this schedule, Radnor
was our end destination, however the very next day Radnor gave notice of
terminating their event; supposedly there is a new 2 star at the
Virginia Horse Park... I believe it is the 24th-28th of October.

Charly and I always welcome vistors (he really welcomes them if they
come with anything edible for him, and him only); We'd especially love
to see you guys at some of his "parties"... I think that's what he
thinks the shows are. If you are interested let me know and I'll help
figure out which ones would be best for you and where and when to fly
into.

Chiropractic opportunity

On my last visit to California I had a fortunate opportunity to meet and use Michael Agrella's chiropractic skills. Michael has agreed to come back to the area during our Havarah clinics to help keep the horses and people well alligned. His next visit will be Saturday the 10th of Feb at Riverland Farms in Sanger.

I asked Michael to give us a bit of his background...

" About me, I have 8 years experience with humans and 5
years exp with horses, dogs, and cats (I have even
adjusted a ferret...once!). Chiropractic is my
passion, and my life. For undergraduate studies, I
went to UC Davis, and studied Biology. My
professional license and certification is from Life
Chiropractic College West, and is called "Doctor of
chiropractic", or chiropractor. I am also licensed by
the AVCA- the American Veterinary Chiropractic
Association (which is a separate one year post
graduate degree program).
Chiropractic for humans and animals covers a very
broad spectrum as far as benefits, uses, and
treatments."

At that visit a few of us humans had adjustments and I believe at least 4 horses were treated. All of us had nothing but great things to say afterwards.

Anyways just thought I'd share this with you, if you are interested let me know so that I can arrange your lesson time with a work-out from Michael to follow.

Snow white

I've been waiting and waiting and it finally happened! Last week we had our first snow flurries and it was soooo pretty :) Then this week we actually had enough that it made the ground white; Mark didn't like it very much, he thought his world was captivated by ghoasts... however I don't think I've ever seen Quiggley happier, he played ALL DAY! Charly just continues to terrorize all his pasturemates and destroy as many of his clothes as he can, if I do have children I think I'll request a girl! Supposedly the next few days are going to be COLD and produce "measurable" amounts of snow; we'll see how excited I am after that!
Oddly enough I still give California huge props for the snow skiing/snowboarding areas... I had my first trip on Sunday and I did have a great time HOWEVER it was nothing like the slopes at home.

Ram Tap Combined Test, volunteers

Saturdays schedule

For this coming Saturday at Ram Tap; please show up at the metal container by the "tower" 7:30am or earlier; Judy Rosin will be there to check you in and give you a Ram Tap buck.


Val Burch, scribe @ arena #1 all day ending at 2:24
Rosella Hunter, scribe @ arena #2 morning shift, arena #5 12:00-1:40pm
Natalie Pitts, scribe @ arena #2 12:40-2:40
Blair Rotert scribe @ arena #4 all day
John Marshall scribe @ arena #5 morning shift RING STEWARD arena #2 12:30-1:50; #3 1:50-2:40
Terry Vaughter ring steward arena #1 all day
Judy Rosin ring steward arena #2 morning shift ending at 11:42
Cassie Harkins ring steward arena #4/#5 all day

Thank you all soooo much!

Sunday is still in progress, I am looking for more helpers... if you can help 7:30-1pm please let me know :)

Filling out event entry forms

www.evententries.com SAVE this to your favorites, it will be your favorite, I promise :)

This year the eventing comittee changed the entry forms, so it is now a new learning experience for everyone...not only the first time competitors. However if you use the above website (which is free) you only have to go through this once. Go to evententries and become a new user, get a username, password and it is completely self explanatory from there (however you can still call if you have questions)

** IF you are going to be competing at the Beginner Novice level your horse does NOT need to be registered with any of the event affiliations, nor do you. BUT is cost effective for you to become a member (as a rider) so you don't have to pay non-member fees all year...plus there's lots of perks! To do this go to www.eventingusa.com and find the become a member page, dowload and fill in, send in and on your horse show entry form write that your "number" is pending.

** IF you are going to compete novice or training, your horse does need to be registered and it is ONLY $25.00; again www.eventingusa.com

** IF you have not done any competitions yet, write that in the section that asks for experience... event secretaries do not like un-marked sections

** One the back page of your printed out entryform there are slots for lots of signatures...
1) you are the rider, sign that
2) whoever owns the horse or is responsible for the horse signs as owner (or agent for the owner)... don't worry about the USEF registration number if you don't have one (and are competing at the lower levels)
3) trainer.... as odd as this sounds.... I don't need to sign for you ... this slot is in need of someone over 18 years old that will be held accountable for how your horse is presented at the show (in terms of legality.. no drugs on board :) )... since I am not at your home barn to witness daily feeding it is best that I don't sign this... if you are over 18 you can sign for yourself, otherwise have a parent be your "trainer"
4) coach ... this slot is optional, so we don't need to worry about it

******* Make sure to put down a phone number that will be reachable the weekend of the event under the "emergency" section.... SUPER important!!!!
_______________________________________________________
As for lingo for the entry form...
BN = Beginner Novice
N= Novice
T = Training
jr = 18 and under
yr = 21 and under
sr = 18 and over
O = open
A = amateur
_______________________________________________________
I think that this should cover most of your questions, I've been known to forget important details so really call if you're confused... secretaries really do not like bad entries :)
ALSO if you have not already started, it would be a great idea to look over a "rulebook"... I think they have them online www.eventingusa.com or you could also get a hard copy by request.
For instance do you know that you can now wear smooth leather half chaps? (only do this if you show them to me first and DO NOT have tall boots)
Dressage whips MAY be carried in a test, if it is not a championship class. BUT not any leg wear on your horse.
DO you know what bits are legal for dressage?
There's TONS of rules to this sport; read up!

Winter training sessions...

The first week of January kicked off "HE"'s first of our series of winter training...it was quite a success and we should all be thanking mother nature for the week of good weather! I appreciate all of you who stuck around during your vacation time and hopefully you found it well worth your while. I was so impressed with the riding that I saw that I am making a change to our show schedule; we will be starting out the year at RAM TAP's FEB horse trials. This will be the first event for many of you, so there are a few things you'll need to know about;

1) How to enter
2) Dress codes
3) Registration requirements
LOOK for all of this on the next blog...

All of you competing in the Feb Ram Tap should plan on volunteering at the January combined test (also at Ram Tap)...Jan 27 and 28th...Mark it down :)

Should be an exciting group; we have enough for a very strong adult team and almost enough for a junior team...
Laurel, Val, John, Cheryl ----Adult BN
Bianca, Alyssa H --- Junior BN (find one more for a team)
Jestine ---- novice
Rosella - training
**** If anymore of you are interested let me know, the next schooling session will be set up before the end of the week.