A well filled month!

The month of February started off with a fantastic trip to California. Almost the entire time I was home I was blessed with sunshine, (each morning was a reminder of what pea soup looks like) just in time as I was beginning to turn purple and blue here in Maryland! The Havarah group has remained so strong in the Fresno and surrounding areas that I was kept busy teaching all of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I am so impressed with the dedication everyone has kept without having an on-site trainer; I realize that at many times this is problematic and frustrating for many BUT looking in from afar, my students are riding every bit as well as riders in full time training programs.

I plan on traveling back to California for clinics as often and as long as my riders are willing to have me; the east coast may have hills, trees and grass but I don't think I'll ever find another "Havarah"! As I say this, I do have to admit that the rising cost of travel is making my short trips a bit difficult to put together! I have always been lucky to get decent priced flights directly into Fresno but on the February travel I purchased a ticket into San Jose for half the cost of the ticket into Fresno... so note to all... always check the surrounding airports :) This actually worked out perfectly as my long lost brother conveniently just moved into a home that is about 15 minutes away from SJC. My brother, Aaron, is someone that many of you will never meet but I would still love you to know about. I've always referred to him as "the brains of the family". Aaron is a Cal Tech graduate, he studied Micro Biology and after putting in a substantial amount of time searching for a specific gene that creates cancer, he has now switched over to his true talent in life...computers. Aaron has lived in the bay area for many years now, and travels to Fresno only when he is completely forced into it, thus is why I mention that you may never meet him. None the less, I own him much gratitude for my insane horsey passion. We both began riding together at "Horseworld" and my goal was never to get great, but just to be better than my older brother :) This really only came to fruition when I gained a week of riding on him when he went to boyscout camp. Then his love of riding faded and he was left to be my taxi driver! My mom constantly reminds me that my favorite phrase as a youngster was "I can do anything you can do and I can do it better!" No wonder my brother said he liked me a lot better before I could talk!

California was great, every time I go I have to re-convince myself that what I'm doing on the east coast is really the right thing for me at this point in my life.

For those of you following this blog for some "Charly" up-dates, keep reading! For weeks upon weeks Charly and I were going on long walks, sometimes very peaceful and sometimes way too eventful! Charly was in a very slow rehab program and on January first he was put back under tack. All of January and February Charly was worked in the indoor having his work gradually increased each week, all walk and trot. These two months seemed to just fly by for me. Charly is one of those horses that just make your life better. I miss competing, I miss jumping, but I still look forward to any time I can spend with Charly. He was re-scanned at the end of February and was given full go ahead, it's time to canter!!!! :) Last week Charly had his first days of canter work in the indoor and then yesterday I took him out on his first "hack". Charly went up hills, through woods, across a road, by a dumpster, and even over some small little twigs :> The woods that I hack in have lots of jumps, mostly very natural logs, and it's taking all my will power to NOT jump them! Ahhh one more month!

I did take a non-horsey non-work weekend and traveled with Bryce to what I've always thought of as a very famous east coast destination...the Poconos. I'm not sure if it's just me, but I've always thought of the Poconos as a resort type of get away. In reality it's just the place where most of Pennsylvania goes for skiing/boarding (locally) if they really want good terrain they go to Vermont; OR if they want good snow they go west! Anyhow, it was a lovely quick get away and I'm finally catching on to the sport of snowboarding. Bryce even tricked me into getting down some black diamonds!

The end of Feb beginning of March brought along one more change...up until now I've been sharing a cottage with Asia, one of the girls that moved out east with me. She recently purchased a very nice house in PA. Quigley and I decided that we didn't need a move at the moment and luckily found ourselves a great new roommate named Jane. Jane is a vet student, excercise rider and a dog owner. Jane is as close to California as I could find! Quigley doesn't know it yet but Jane will be bringing over Lola, she's a female version of the Quig mister so I'm hoping they'll get to be good friends.

That's all for now... keep in touch!

Busy busy busy

It seems like not a minute has past since 2008 began that wasn't fully utilized! I am excited to announce that Havarah's Charly is back in work; he's in a progressively increasing trot program, received a lovely set of shoes and he feels like a millions bucks :) I'm trying really hard to not get too ambitious about our up-coming show season (yet) we'll do a re-check scan in the first week of February. This scan is going to determine a lot, if his tendon is still showing improvement then his work load gets to keep increasing, otherwise the program has to get altered in accordance to better suit his healing needs.

I'm still galloping horses in the morning at the Fair Hill Training Center, I think the best part of this job is being so close to so many good riders and trainers. I still feel in awe to be working daily amongst many of the equestrian communities "celebrities". I've been taking a short break after my morning rides to come in, warm up, and catch up with some of my west coast duties. I then head off to the afternoon rides. Riding at Inspo and for Babsi Clark has been a remarkable experience. I feel like I'm learning the language of horses more and more each day, I also have to say that I'm absolutely falling for the Sir Sinclair line. I love them, lovely movers, very willing attitudes and a pretty face to go along.

I did play hooky for a few days from the on-going list of horses to ride and went to Massachusetts to ride a snow board instead! A good friend of mine and I met up with a group at a resort named Jiminy Peak. We stayed in a condo that was with-in walking distance of the slopes and had a fantastic time, a perfect way to spend a birthday weekend! However I came away with some good bruises from falling multiple times on some seriously hard packed snow...why I passed up learning how to snowboard on all those college Tahoe trips I'll never figure out!

Back home on the west coast I've received news that one Havarah girl has started out the 2008 season for us with a nice win at the Training level combined test at Twin Rivers...congratulations Miss Lauren and good luck with the rest of your season! Speaking of students in California; I couldn't be more proud of how all of my girls, it seems like each one of the "Rockstar" group has found their own little niche in life becoming very responsible and meaningful to the world...you go girls!

Last but not least, if you haven't heard the first clinic of 2008 is scheduled. Please contact me ASAP if you'd like a slot, it is filling up fast. February 8th, 9th, and 10th.

Back in action!!!

In complete contrast to my last blog up-date... the weather here is oddly delightful!
I'm still riding in the mornings at the Fair Hill training center and I've survived my first two fall. More importantly, I feel like I've acquired some excellent skills that I'll put to work in my event riding and teaching. I feel like there's aspects in everyone's riding career that can't be taught, they just need to be instilled from time doing. One thing I know I'm doing is spending time "doing". In California I was blessed to have multiple horses to ride and great students to teach; recently, here on the east coast, I've been blessed with an abundance of horses to ride, strong ones, naughty ones, talented ones, green ones, and trained AS WELL as the undulating ground to gallop across and trails to navigate.
Charly has had two weeks back under tack, and I truly couldn't be happier! Charly and Rosella's horse, Lance, moved to a new home where we have a great indoor arena to use during the bad weather and LOTS of trails to access when the weather is good. It was a good move for all of us involved, the facility is called "Inspo", if you get a chance you should look it up...they have some cute creatures there!
December was full of family and friends and a rest time for the ponies, it's now 2008 and it's time for all of us to get back into the sport!

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.

Giving thanks...

Holidays are fabulous, good food and good friends... what more could you want? This Thanksgiving to me brought sadness as well as great happiness. For the first time in my life I felt extremely homesick; Turkey day just isnt the same without my mom and all her FABulous food...! The homesickness was eased by realizing how much I have to be thankfull for; a good part of that is due to all of the wonderful people I have come across on my journey. My roomate is a great friend and has been here through so much, always being able to spin everything to the optimistic side....thanks girl! My bosses and co-workers are such knowledgeable yet light hearted people...they all make each day worthy of waking up before dark... THANKS crew! Of course there's the boot camp leader who I've realize isn't as tough as he may sometimes seem; but more just completely eager to see me and my horses do our best than I could ever hope for out of any coach....Thanks Mr D! Leading from that are the two fabulous four legged creatures that I am so blessed to go visit on a daily basis and have given me their all for this whole trip...Marky Mark and Chucky you rock!!! We then have our teams that help keep my great horses going, and have really taken us Cali girls under their wings and helped us in many ways...so much thanks to Chuck, Kathy and Vance, you are all amazing! If there wasn't a wagging tail greeting me at every possible moment, what would I constantly have to look forward to??? THANKS WIGGLE MONSTER! Then there's my team back home...the MINYAN owners, you have stuck by my side with so many big decisions with Charly this year...so MUCH thanks, I hope him and I can keep smiles on all of your faces for years to come! Then there are all of the HAVARAH equestrian group riders, vets, farriers, parents and family members who have dealt with a less than easy travel schedule on my part and kept up with great effort in my absence and been available on all of my visits.. YOU are all truely ROCKSTARS!!! VerY, VerY thankful for the group of friends I have been fortunate enough over the years to meet, and lucky enough that as large as the miles apart we may get, the visits we get are always as great as ever. Without this last person my life would never have been the same; always supportive, always available for advice (never mind the day or time), and the best rolemodel a daughter could ever ask for...I love you and thank you so much .... mama you're the best! TO ALL thank you so much for all of your help, you are all fabulous!

The fabulous sights...

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....

AEC

Charly's AEC photos...

I also have an album of photos that I can send to you....if you want them then send me an email request :)

Morven Park

On Wednesday morning as we drove into Morven Park to get Charly his in barn inspection and prep him for his afternoon "jog" (official soundness inspection) I realized that I had once before been here. This was the location that I had tried out my young rider horse, Sweet William. William was owned by man named Colonel Wimert who happens to have a practice field at Morven named after him and that is where I first jumped William....

Anyhow that aside Morven is a great event with a fabulous real steeplechase course and tons of crazy things on the XC course. Soon I'll post pictures of a few of the XC combinations that I photographed.

Charly again improved himself from one dressage test to the next; he recieved all 8's on his trot work, the canter in my oppionion was SOOO much better than before, but the judge thought he was a bit low in the poll, but he was a bit lazy into his halts. The above was good enough to put him into second place in the dressage phase..I was super proud of him and he apparently was as well and by his next hand walk he seemed to have instictively known what was next...he was now acting like superman and ready to take on the world!

Unfortunately the weather changed and dropped from 80 to 50 and started raining, basically never stopping. Saturday became a game of riding smart versus chasing the clock; the steeplechase track was so wet that your path was chosen by finding the road less traveled instead of the fastest line; This was a whole new game for Charly and even with the icky footing conditions and the pooring rain making it terribly hard to see he finished B with time to spare.

I came off of B so proud of Charly but still feeling very unsure about the conditions I was about to send the two of us out in; I saw Danny and a smile on his face, that was enough to know we had done a good job, and feeling a bit confused about my path at that moment I trotted off to finish C. The whole way knowing that something was missed, knowing that somehow I missed C1 but not realizing where I had gone wrong. A long ten minutes later I passed back by my "team" and was told that I missed C1...the day, the weekend, was over. I could have tried to finish, but with the footing as bad as it was we didn't feel that Charly needed to have that go, there are other days, this was obviously not meant to be ours.

There was a lot of mud and mess to clean up before we could pack up and head back home. A long day of disapointment.

Currently I have a call into the Midsouth CCI * event organizer to try to get Charly signed up for that. He's fit, doing great and really should for his education have a full one star. The Midsouth one star is held at the Kentucky Horse Park in two weeks, October 18-22nd.

Life is a highway....

I heard that song today, on the way to the barn of course, and I couldn't help but smile. I was a very lucky girl this last weekend and had a fabulous showing with the Minyan's horse, Havarah Charly; he had a very deserving win in the OP division of the AEC's. I'm getting a few days of the celebrity feel, I have a call to return tomorrow to the 4th reporter that I've been interviewed by so far... wow :) I think back to all the traveling to horse shows, lessons, clinics and even the daily trecks to the barn for the past 18 years and it's funny to me that the reporters are so intrigued that I came all the way from California. I think one of them should add up all the traveling us Californian's do on a routine basis! Basically what I'm saying is that my life has been a highway and I'd have to say that although bumpy at times I wouldn't have wished for any other trek.

Charly and I have been hard at work at 2 things; XC toughness and throughness in the dressage. Both came together in a great way last weekend; Charly seemed to know how big of an event this was and boldly paraded around the edge of the dressage court past BOTH judges and as we powered down center line and saw Loris Henry herself at the C box I smiled and knew I better ride the test of my life if we were to have any chance at a top placing. The test finished with a lengthen trot across the diaganol then up center line, Charly put in the ultimate of lengthen trots that literally gave me goosebumps and the biggest smile to our final halt...I knew that no matter what anyone thought Charly gave it his best and truely performed.

The cross country course was big and extremely well decorated and designed, it was a sight to see. One of the jumps had a running faucet filling the top of a big table another set of jumps looked like the back drop to a high class wedding. In the morning I headed out to watch the water complex, 21 ABC and 22 ABC, it wasn't riding well however I did get the good news that the 1st place horse had 2 time faults. Charly warmed up perfectly, never getting a bad spot, although we only jumped 4 fences, vertical twice the oxer and then a very extreme angle over a solid roll top. Charly's final minutes were precisely planned out by Danny and kept me totally calm and cool, in fact I was excited I felt just like I was heading out for a race. And that's pretty much exactly what Charly thought it was, he went like gangbusters, luckily he isn't a runaway in any fashion! However he was the strongest he's ever been and I didn't get the stride I wanted for the water complex and for sure gave everyone a scare when I left out a stride in 2 separate spots on that last water... Charly got iced twice that day, a few nice easy strolls and a heavy poultice.

The show jumping was so pretty, the fences looked like things you'd see at a Grand Prix. Many flat cups and lots of related distances, it was set for rails to fall. The morning was a bit hectic as we planned for 2 minutes a horse and they must have run at 1 and a half... nonetheless everyone grouped together got Charly all set up and we were on our way. Again he was so good in warm up, Danny again did a fabulous job getting us perfectly prepped for the ring, he did his best to give Charly a pre round rub, but twinkle toes wouldn't do it...by the looks of our pictures he wasn't going to touch a thing!!! Some how I actually managed to enjoy the ride, I truely went in there feeling just as I would in a lesson, determined to not mess up!

If I haven't made it clear, myself and many others are completely 100% in love with this horse; Charly hasnt lost his character, his fancy tail nor his sharp knees but he has definately gained a competitive spirit!

Delaware Park

So have I told any of you yet that I now ride race horses? I'm not talkin the kind that are "too slow" or "wouldn't run in company" and especially not "needing of layup"; I'm talking the real deal. OK so the honest truth is that it's a beginning of a seriously fun way to spend the hours of 4am to noon on a daily basis and try to earn enough money to care for my up-coming super star Mr Marky Mark.

The farm I work for is called "Break Away Farm", owned and operated by two of the coolest people I've meet since I've been here, Wendy and Travis. So far I've done gallops on grass lanes, hacks through the woods, and gallops on the neighboring sand oval track. Tomorrow is the big day, my first "breeze"... I'll be sure to let you know how it all goes. SO far I've stayed on, despite the valiant effort of my very first mount who immediately tried to un-load me...as far as I'm concerned we've been going pretty fast so I think after tomorrow I might have a whole new idea of what fast is :)

Today I accompanied a horse to Delware Park to recieve his gate card and a tatoo...all firsts for me, did you know a horse had to pass a test to be able to participate in a race? This guy not only passed but had a super fast work time, Monday's his race, very first one ever, he's little and squirly.

Sunday is the big day for the three at home, Malibu was the star ride of the day, I'm quite excited for him this weekend. Charly is behaving, but him and I are definitely due for our gallop and cross country run, we feel it's been too long! Mark is most likely going to be only doing the combined test phases, but his progress is really coming along. I think this horse needs to be syndicated out like Charly and stay around for the long haul, he's showing tremendous talent.

Our friend and newest roomate, Meg, arrived yesterday and is a welcome addition to the team. A happy smiling face always does wonders for the atmosphere.

Cali August clinic

I just got home from a fabulous 5 day trip to Havarah's home town... Many thanks to all the ranch owners for allowing me to continue to teach at their properties and all the work they put into them making a great learning environment. THANK YOU (Al and Laurel George, Carol Patterson, Val and Jeff, and Bill and Margaret Burton)

I will be back to coach at the November Ram Tap... make sure to have that on your calendars. Also I will be still in charge of the volunteers for the October Ram Tap, help is needed Friday the 20th and Sunday the 22nd. I would LOVE everyone that is competing in November to volunteer in October, this will help you in many ways and get you a Ram Tap buck so we can XC school!

Remember to use your friends for help while I'm gone. Our team should be a great asset to you, help someone and then have them help you... video taping is a FABulous way to improve as well.

Keep in touch!

The Havarah Rockstar

I figured everyone would be happy to know that Quigley has settled in well to his job as the ribbon holder.

Lessons learned...

If you get a chance to talk to Jestine you'll hear that a 'few' things are slightly different back east. One of the differences is the application of poultice, as Danny would say, we're all too cheap and don't use enough. At the Wayne HT in July I had a poulticing lesson, and Rosella kindly captured the moment :)

Charly the wonder horse

Blue is apparently Charly's favorite color, and I'm currently a big fan of his, so I'll write today in blue in Charly's honor! Millbrook HT, in up state New York, was a huge fancy event with the who of the who and a truely challenging championship course. Lots of terrain, very green grass and even the colorfully decorated fences didn't stop us a bit! We were 10 seconds under the time (even with a trot down the man from snowy river hill!)... no penalties added onto our dressage score moved us from 3rd on Friday, 2nd on Saturday to 1st on Sunday... I am so extremely proud of our boy! You can look up the stats on www.millbrookhorsetrials.com and on that site you can find the photographer who will hopefully at some point get the pictues up, because they are super cool.

Today we did a cross country school (I took Malibu and Mark, although Mark got an educational trip from Danny not me on this one) at a facility named Unicorn. This place is owned by DuPont family... lots of history around this state! Malibu prepped for his up-coming weekend where he'll do his first training level event... he's pretty bright eyed and busy tailed just thinking about it :) Rosella and her big boy Lance will also be heading to Waradeca with us and tackling the Sr Training level class.

I continue to learn more and more EVERY day, and I think I continue to realize that us California girls do more and more things differently EVERY day! I'm coming home for a visit the 24th - 28th of August. A short stint of fun for my best friends Baccalorette and Bridal shower but otherwise I hope to see all of you for lots of lessons and catch up time!

That's right I said "Jethro"

WE HAVE A HOME :) the best part is so does Mr Quigles!!!! Our new home away from home is a quaint little apartment in a three plex that is adjacent to a playground, on a street named "Jethro" and seems to have many "Jethro's" that hang out on their front porches, AND it has a lovely back yard that hopefully one day will have a fence for our handsome pup.

This has been a truely stellar week, in addition to the home find, we also found a great "beach" that is truely just down the road, a fun little crab house hang-out, discovered that we have talents outside of riding (WAKEBOARDING :) ), and the ponies had an incredibly diverse week with a cross country school on Tuesday a dressage show on Saturday and a light gallop on Sunday (of course a bit of training in-between!)

Rosella and Asia have both quickly aquainted themselves with the roads, I myself continue to just be shoffered around by one of them... and admittedly am a bit nervous about when that ends! This place is confusing, no square blocks like where I grew up at!!!

So at the end of my first complete week of re-riding on Charly I can honestly say he's a changed man (and most definitely for the better). First of all you can rest your hand on his head, way cool; secondly if you correctly put a spur in his side (I say correctly b/c I still have a bad habit of not doing correctly, but I'm working on it...) he not only moves away, but he jumps away while asking how high, thirdly the horse is now more forward thinking that I on the cross country course...so I'm ALSO working on fixing that, fourthly the man can freakin RUN... yes you guessed it I am ALSO working on keeping up with that!!!! :) I am happy to report that it is not only me that has things to work on, he isn't perfect (yet) (I suppose if I had given Danny another two weeks of fixing him he might have been), Charles (aka Chuck or Chuck-A-Doodle as I foundly call him) needs to work on a rounder frame in his gallop, best described as more like a TB less like a fancy show jumper...hehehe So basically he has one huge lesson left and I have many... :) The real test is how quick of a learner am I really...Charly had four months, I only have a few more weeks....then we are off to Millbrook, NY for our first outing back out. I know lots of you have been anxiously awaiting a schedule; I'm going to list what I know of so far, however the schedule for Charly and I will be more complete after our first run at Millbrook.

August 6th- "OLNEY HT" - Malibu and Molly/Lance and Molly/Gem Lion and Asia
August 11-13th- "MILLBROOK HT"- Discover the Power and Danny AND Charly and Molly
August 19-20th- "WAREDECA HT"-Makers Mark, Malibu, Charly with Molly ; Gem and NZ Swag with Asia; Lance and Rosella .... plus Danny's entire crew
September shows will be decided here shortly but I think it will be as follows...
September 9-10th- "SENECA VALLEY HT"-
September 20-24th- "AEC's"-

Well I'm off to give it a shot at being domestic...We've got to make this house on Jethro a home

East coast travel...COMPLETE!

A week ago, the fourth of July, us three girls(Asia, Rosella and myself), four horses (Swag, Lance, Malibu and Mark) and a dog(Mr. Quigles of course!) set off on a long adventure. The night before dragged on a bit long as we tried to organize four months worth of anything you could need for any type of weather; and to top it all off we were doing last minute rig re-configuration. Luckily Rosella seems to be a super handy type of a girl and stayed calm through 2 hours of wiring work, in the end we had lights, brakes and turn signals...
The first leg of the trip was supposed to be 15 hours, ending us in Wyoming at a fair grounds for a night of rest. Lesson number one of horse road travel, always add lots of time to map quest estimations (apparently they don't understand that we have to stop and water horses and feed the trucks). So this trip actually took 20 hours which meant that we weren't asleep til 4am the next day... needless to say we were exhausted.

The second leg was originally going to be 17 hours and take us all the way to our destination of the Wayne Maui Jim horse trials in Illinois. Being quick learners we new that 17 hours was a far off hope and we (Asia) found a really quaint nice place in Atlantic, Iowa. The land of corn fields. SO a shorter trip that day, but it was either driving or sleeping, we learned lesson number 2... if you aren't needing to watch the road take a nap. Oh yes, lesson number 3... always take a Verizon phone if you want any service after you leave California until you get back into more civilized states... my Sprint phone finally started working in Illinois.

One more day of driving and we made it to the show grounds. The best news of all is that we stepped out of the truck and un loaded happy, alert, and healthy ponies. We quickly got to work setting up a little camping community with my long lost buddy Heather Morris who was at the show with her Texas barn mates. I of course couldn't let myself catch up on sleep or even try to just chill; the next morning started off super early with 4 horses on my list to braid all needing to be finished by 7am. Well worth it when I watched our handsome horse Charly parade around the warm-up looking like a million bucks.

The show grounds was immaculate, GREEN grass and perfect weather made it the perfect way to lay over. Charly flew around cross country coming in 25 seconds under the time... I think the boy can run! The next day he jumped beatifully and finished his first CIC *. Not only does he seem to really enjoy the sport he also seems to be much more mature than the Charly that left California.

The final leg of the trip started at 3am Monday morning and we arrived into the ponies new home away from home at 6 pm that night. The horses have a great big barn to live in and lots of green grass in the big fields for turn-outs.

As for us girls, we still have a hotel. I hope to be bringing news of a cute apartment or cottage in the next post! If not I might have to be looking into a flight home for Mr. Wiggles... anyone ever flew a dog before?

Off to bed... I'm still trying to catch up!

THE TRIP planning begins :)

Charly has continued to impress us all with his success out on the east coast; his record now includes a 1st at the Virginia Horse Park, a 2nd at Waredeca and a 2nd just this last weekend at the Groton House Horse Trials. This last weekend was a big test for Charly, his first weekend of competing in wet difficult weather... as his finish can prove he handled it great!

Our plan was that if Charly was doing well then I'd be heading east to ride him under the same conditions that he's been training under and compete out at the big shows with the big "players" of the east coast. IT'S TIME :)

My trip will start on July 3rd, leaving from Clovis and arriving in Illinois on Wednesday at the site of Charly's next competition. I'll be bringing back my other horse, Makers Mark and three other horses (and their owners/riders) will be joining for the trip as well. We'll stay and watch Danny ride Charly at the Maui Jim horse trials and then that Monday head to MD where we'll call home for the next few months.

Entries go in tomorrow for Charly's and mine first competition at Millbrook the second weekend of August. I'm so excited to get back in the tack!!!

So at the moment I'm super busy, and a bit overwelmed!!! trying to figure out how to pack for such a long visit.... AND the facility I'm currently staying at in Clovis was robbed, taking many important items, to me the most important being my laptop. Until that is either found or I replace it I am going to be using this email address, since the other one is accessible to whoever is borrowing my laptop, and un-accesible to me. So please use mollyrosin@hotmail.com ...thanks!

I have a terrific group of students here in California and I want to make sure that everyone gets the help they want/need. I plan on coming home roughly once a month for a 4-5 day period of teaching. Currently I'm thinking the first trip will be July 12th-16th... let me know how these dates work for all of you, and how many lessons you would like with in that time frame.


Please keep in touch and thank all of you for your support!

It's for real!

That's right the rumors are true! Betsy Lumbye's horse, Malibu, competed at his first Novice event at Shephard Ranch this last weekend with me; we not only won but finished on an incredible dressage score of 17.5!!!! We got a 10... so cool, well worth all the hours of dressage practice!

The rest of the horses and riders were stellar as well. My Makers Mark was a star in the dressage court and FUN on XC... I'm so proud of him! Meghan Dayka's young horse, Destination Houston, finished his first event and recieved a 4th place ribbon, what a great young prospect.

Alyssa Hatai and Tammie Hoffman also competed at the BN level, first event taking 6th and 5th place..way to go!!!

Kelcey Collins came back out with a great new look and went home with a third and Jestine Burch-Butts finished Sienna's first novice with lots of confidence ready to tackle more!

Meghan Geiluffe guided her fancy black mare around the training and finished with a lovely Sunday show jumping round, a pair to definitely watch out for.

Special thanks to John Marshall and Rosella who brought their horses for a Sunday school, you were both excellent help all weekend....THANK YOU!!!

May 2006

May is looking like it's going to be super fun, super busy and SUPER hot!!!!
May 4th and 5th Danny Warrington Clinic
***clinic is full but we would love to have you audit, free of charge
May 6th SJ course work, contact Molly for details
May 7th Ram Tap XC schooling
May 10th MVC lessons
May 12th schooling show at Galway Downs
May 13th and 14th Galway Downs, combinded training event
May 15th-23rd --- Molly is traveling to the east coast to watch Charly at the Virgina Horse Park
May 24th MVC lessons

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HAVARAH camp, possibly at Connie Arthurs June 17th-19th
Stay tuned for details!
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up-coming event info

If you are going to Galway and or Moorpark, it's time for entries.... www.useventing.com has an online omnibus. ALSO www.evententries.com is the best and easiest way to fill out entries, you'll wonder why you ever hand wrote entries after using this site a few times.
Galway goers.... I have a tack room reserved, so make sure to bring some bridle hooks and saddle racks, I might be looking for some grooming help that weekend.... any takers?
Moorpark riders; the pipe pens are fine IF your horse is friendly next door to others IF not then reserve a regular stall (these are VERY limited so enter now)

Makers Mark photos

Thanks Aunty Liz ----- Havarah's own super vet and great friend that is one of the best photographer's around!!!! I love these shots of Makers Mark at the Easter Ram Tap and thought I'd share them :)

XC schoolings

We lucked out and had terrific weather (and footing!!!) at Connie Arthur’s last weekend, I think I can speak for the group and say we all had a blast! I really like Connie’s for the nice introduction to XC in a calm relaxed environment. I would like to set up another trip over there and want to run a few dates by everyone and get feed-back as to what would work.

May 6-7

May 20-21

May 27-28 (this is also the weekend of Woodside)

June 17-18

AS for recognized horse trials we are planning on trips to Galway May 13-14^th (this show has a schooling day for dressage tests and sj rounds on Friday); and also Moorpark, June 3-4^th. Let me know which ones, if either, you would like to participate in so I can best help you get there. I’ll also be letting you know about un-recognized events as they come about and fit into the schedule.