Syndication shares available!!!

I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason. A few months ago a horse came in for training and to be sold that has ended up being my new buddy. Sempre Fino aka "Sam" is a special horse, a 9 year old TB that was brave enough to take his amateur owner to Intermediate and talented enough to go much further with a professional. Sam took the sidelines for much of '08 and part of '09 while his current owner pursued her academics. Sam has only been with me for a few months and has shown great promise for the future, I really believe he is a rising star. Sam is brave, scopey, agile, and a type A personality! All traits that I feel like could help lead Sam to a career as a 4 star horse.

Since Sam has only been back to competition for a month + and his owner is leaving for graduate school we have the opportunity to syndicate this horse at a very affordable price. This is a unique opportunity for people to become immediately involved in a horse and rider's upper level career. When Havarah's Charly was purchased he was a young horse and took several years to develop into an Advanced level competitor. Sam is ready... NOW! There is a strong possibility (with the help of a few new owners!) Sam and I could be competing at the Plantation CIC ** in September and the Fair Hill CCI ** in October. This would then lead us to the Advanced level in 2010 competing in CIC ***'s and CCI ***'s. Rolex Kentucky CCI **** in April of 2011!!!

Havarah's Charly's syndicate was put together by a group of people who wanted to support me in my quest to be part of the USET and I hope to put together another group with the same intentions. I have a plan of how this can be done without being a financial bur-don on anyone. If you or anyone you know are interested please contact me for details on joining the Sempre Fino syndicate.

East and West lots of smiles!

The weekend of June 20th and 21st produced many happy Havarah riders both of the east coast and west coast.

Out in California Cheryl Gentzler made her way back into eventing competition with a lovely dressage and faultless jumping to finish 5th at Shephard Ranch. John Marshall did quite well also with a 2nd place finish as Alyssa Hatai and Kelcey Collins were also proud finishers of the event. Thank you Chris Scarlett for watching over and being such a good coach for these guys!

Out in Maryland Beaugeste finished 4th at Waredaca's challenging starter trials. Beau is really just a beginner at this sport but man does he love it!

Bromont CCI ***

As many of you knew, Charly and I were training for the Bromont CCI ***. Charly's training and fitness were foot perfect until a bad step on a gallop changed our plans. Charly sustained some soft tissue injury and needs a little while to rest so that he can go back to being the amazing eventer that he is.

Plantation Day 2 Success!

Another day of sunshine and happy ponies at Plantation Horse Trials in Pennsylvania. It was really a lovely treat to have all the horses owners at the event, Beaujeste and The Red Baron are very lucky horses! The Red Baron finished his second training level HT in second place and is continuing his happy go lucky way of competing. All horses should learn to be as relaxed as this guy. Rudy's QH side is loved by all! Beaujeste competed in his first beginner novice and was a star. This pony is a very exciting prospect and any vertically challanged person would be lucky to have him! At 14.2 he is mightier than most :)

Barb Strang competed her horse Guinness, to a third place finish in the Novice division... adding no penalties to their dressage score. Last but not least Hannah Metz competed in her first beginner novice and has come a long way in a very short time.
Good job by all!

Sucess at Plantation Horse Trials

This last week has been pretty wet, dreary and all around gloomy.... so today's event at Plantation with sunshine and lovely horses was a great change of pace!

I had the pleasure of riding Sempro Fino, Charlotte Freeman's 9 year old TB gelding. Sam has had a leisurely year and this was his second competition back this year. I'm pretty excited about this horses future and today he showed a tremendous amount of improvement in his training. This horse has a great amount of talent and I hope to either find him a rider/owner to dedicate their time to him or find a way to keep him in my barn. Sam jumped clean and used today as a learning experience to prepare himself for his future grand plans.

Lauren Billys rode in her second prelim event and did a spectacular job. I've been training Lauren for many years now and it's very rewarding to guide her along her way to becoming a solid competitor at the upper levels. Lauren and Ballingowan Ginger were in first after dressage and only added a few time faults to their score to finish a respectable 4th place. WAY TO GO GIRL!!!

Last but not least, Havarah Equestrian's newest rider, Katelyn Jackson, did a superb job in the Novice class. Wiesel and Katelyn took the novice lead with a steady dressage test and faultless jumping rounds. Katelyn is getting ready to start taking eventing pretty seriously and I'm thinking this rider will be one to watch out for!

This and that...

Photo credit to JC Kinnamon

Charly and I have our final qualifications for the CCI *** and are preparing for this big task at Bromont (Canada) in June. It will be the biggest challene that either Charly or I have ever faced and both of us are in total fitness bootcamp for the next few weeks!

I spent a few days in California teaching a clinic at Stanford University and at Eden Ranch in Sanger, Ca. California is fabulous in the spring time, as long as you have on sun-screen... ooops. I really enjoy the trips I get to take to the west coast, teaching is definitely a favorite part of my equestrian life. It's really a great feeling to be able to help people "learn" and feel how to better their riding and their horses.

I've also really enjoyed being able to help some youngsters come to the east coast and get a small "taste" of the differences from coast to coast. This summer Lauren Billys will be coming out to compete her mare and get a bit of work experience in a few different equestrian businesses.

Day 1 Jersey Fresh CIC ***

Charly and I were lucky enough to not get poured on during our warm up and I think Charly really appreciated the dry ground in the indoor when we did our test!

Last night I slept in my horse trailer and have never heard such hard rain, I woke up twice to downpours... it supposedly rained two inches, sounded like six! Mark Phillips and I talked on Wed evening and agreed that for Charly it would be best to do a condensed warm up as the footing was sure to be super sloppy. All worked out to plan, Charly had a long hand walk in the morning and a good walk hack with a 20+ min warm up. Mark said Charly looked the best that he's ever seen and all the US selectors that saw our ride agreed. We received a bit of a disappointing score of a 56, however, Couragous Comet received a 50 and he's a dressage king! Our score has us placed in 7th place, a place I'm quite happy to be in with this outstanding group.

Since we've moved up to Advanced this was our first test where we didn't have any oops moments; I'm thrilled to feel like we are now really riding at this level. I know our canter work has to continue to improve, I need to get Charly stronger in his collected canter so that he can maintain a better quality throughout the test. However, I finally got a really nice AND submissive medium canter and two clean changes :)

I got to walk around the cross country today with my coach, Boyd Martin, and we were both very impressed with the design and questions. Tomorrow we'll go out again and make a plan for Saturday. Cross your fingers that the rain goes away!

Havarah Twitter!

We are trying out this Twitter feed for keeping everyone updated at the events live, while it's going one. If you have an account already it's pretty simple. Just go to this link:

http://twitter.com/havarahEquine


Click on the follow button and turn on your device updates if you'd like to get updates sent to your phone.

If you don't already have an account I would imagine you could still click on the above link and create one. It's a pretty simple process. I would suggest adding your phone if you'd like to get text updates. The updates will be short and sweet.

I'll be updating this weekend except of course when I'm riding. Bryce will probably do some updates as I'm riding. We'll twitter the times when I'm going in advance so you can stay tuned to the twitter feed at those times but we'll also try to include some other observations and goings on backside in the stall area and at the event in general.

Stay tuned and please email me if you have any further questions or just comment here on my blog.

P.S. - The search function on Twitter is not working for some reason so if your having any issues finding my twitter page please use the link I provided above.

Fair Hill starter trials

The Fair Hill starter trials were a great success! Beaugeste had his first event and was a very good pony, he thinks this sport might actually keep him entertained for awhile! I have big hopes for this big pony, he has enough character to fill an entire trailer and is brave enough to stand up to any task. This horse has an exciting future ahead of him. It was really nice that his owner, Lauren Lenfest, was able to come witness Beau's first outing.

Hannah Metz also had her first event and finished on her dressage score receiving 4th place! Hannah has improved by leaps and bounds and seems to be pretty hooked into this sport :)

Christine, Barb and Mary; all pretty seasoned eventers, had a fun and educational day. All taking away some good pointers for how to improve upon their competition. I am a big fan of these one day events, it's a great low key way to help you become a better competitor.

Hannah's First XC school!

Hannah has been a student of mine since October of '08; All of her hard work paid off at her first cross country school this last Tuesday. Congrats Hannah and thank you for all the help so far this year!

Fair Hill XC schooling and starter trial

I will be at Fair Hill on the 28th for anyone interested in cross country schooling.

Also I will be at the Fair Hill starter trial beginning of May if anyone is interested in coaching.

Good Luck!

California!

________________________________________________________
May 11th and 12th in Palo Alto, Ca at Stanford University.
Email Meg Finn tallyhofarms@comcast.net
________________________________________________________

May 13th and 14th in the Central Valley (Fresno, Clovis, Sanger).
Email Molly Rosin molly@mollyrosin.com

_______________________________________________________

Havarah students looking great in California!

Photo credits to Dr. Liz Bracken DVM and Billie Gentzler





Lauren Billiys finished 2nd at Twin Rivers in Paso Robles, Ca in the Training level. At Ram Tap in Fresno, Ca Val Burch rode in the Sr. Beginner Novice (qualifying for Area VI's championships!!), Jestine Burch-Butts putting a very polished ride, and Alyssa Hatai finishing her very first event with her lovely new young horse from the east coast... John Marshall also rode in this event with some pictures in an earlier blog, winning the sr beginner novice and qualifying for championships!

** Salt Water Spa **

Charly received tremendous care all weekend from his sponsors, The Fair Hill Therapy Center ( www.fairhilletc.com ). After a great run on Fair Hill's Advanced cross country track Charly had a well deserved Salt Spa treatment on Sunday night and Monday morning. Charly is a horse of a lifetime and it's exciting for me to have this great group of people to help me keep Charly in the best shape possible. Charly also began his Aqua tred training this morning; I'm really excited about being able to use this as a work-out back-up when the ground gets too hard for gallops this summer. Many thanks to Bruce and Amy Jackson and all the staff at the Fair Hill Therapy Center for all their generosity!

The Spring Fair Hill

Photo credits to Steve Berkowitz and Nestor Torres





This last weekend I competed Havarah's Charly and The Red Baron at the Spring Fair Hill event in Elkton, Md. The Red Baron is quickly becoming quite the crowd pleaser at these events; he completed his first training level this last weekend and had one of the largest fan clubs around. "Rudy" is a pleasure to train, compete and apparently watch! Rudy handled the increased height and technicality with complete ease, I'm very proud of this guy :)

Havarah's Charly and myself completed our third Advanced event and seem to be on a good track to our spring three day events. I feel like I know what I need to work on in order to produce some better scores in the dressage phase and I feel like Charly and I are really becoming a good team in the jumping phases. I trust Charly more than ever and if he could talk I think he would say the same.

This weekend was especially great as I was able to share it with many of our friends from the East Coast. Many thanks to Ann de Matteo, John, Bryce, Rosella, Nial, Moureen, Jane, Chuck, Steve B., Vance, Claire, Bruce, Amy, Traci, Caroline, Nestor, Christie, Becky, Connie, Hannah, Pattie and all the rest of our cheer squad!

Fair Hill Equine Therapy Center *New Sponsor*

Havarah's Charly and myself are proud to have a new sponsor added onto our team!

Taking care of an Advanced level event horse is much like keeping a human athlete at the top of their game; to keep them at their best it is important to do preventitive therapy and every once in awhile injuries occur and it's important to treat them immediately.

The "Fair Hill Equine Therapy Center" is a state of the art facility with equipment that helps to keep sport horses at their peak and help them return to competition after an injury. http://www.fairhilletc.com/

I plan to use cold saltwater spa with Charly as an after work-out therapy. I have grown quite used to the standard ice boots and knee tubs but after having Charly use the saltwater spa today, I don't think anything will quite be the same! This spa is able to reach temperatures far lower than normal ice water and the salt water is helpful in reducing any inflammation that could have occurred from the work-out.

One of the best attributes of this therapy center is the highly trained staff that is there handling the horses. I was extremely impressed with the methodical and effective handling that Charly received today, I definitely would feel at ease leaving any horse there for a length of time.

This Friday evening the Therapy Center will be hosting an open house for all of us to learn more about the different therapy equipment that they have to offer. Please visit the site and if you are in the Elkton, Md area come over for a visit!

Havarah excitement back home in California!

It appears that many of my original Havarah students in California were out making me proud at the Ram Tap horse trials.

Our group was represented by Val Burch, Jestine Burch-Butts, Alyssa Hatai and John Marshall. From the sounds of it everyone had a great time, rode well and even brought home some nice ribbons! GO TEAM!! :)

Personal congratulations to John Marshall and his fabulous horse Cutamo on a win in the senior beginner novice.

Plantation Field Spring Horse Trials

I thought after enduring many wet and muddy days at horse trials this winter I had done my time; Yet again we had to bring out the trusty Dubarry boots and sludge through the mud. The gound was so wet that all the rigs had to be towed into and out of the parking lot!

The Red Baron competed in the open novice division as well as John Nunn and his horse Smiley. Both of the horses were saints and dealt with the conditions very well; Smiley pulled off both front shoes and still looked very elegant out there. John has been working diligently with this lovely TB, I'm quite proud of this combination. The Red Baron was hoping to use this weekend at novice as a preparation for his first training level next weekend at Fair Hill, but due to the deep going I decided to scratch from the jumping phases of the event. John and I both love riding at Plantation so we were both disappointed to not be able to take these young horses around this event. Rudy's owner and I were in agreement that the negative chances were too high to take the risk.

Next time!

End of winter '08

After a great weekend in North Carolina at the gorgeous "Fork" facility I am home in Maryland and re-capping some of the great moments I had this last winter. It was wonderful for me to once again have a barn of horses in training, something I realize that I had really missed while I was earning my keep as an exercise rider at the track. I wouldn't give back any of the time I've spent with the racehorses; I feel like that has helped me in so many ways as a rider. However, I am excited to push forward and once again have an event horse and rider training and selling operation. I think having multiple horses to jump and compete really hones your skills and helps you become much more at ease on course.

Over the winter I was fortunate enough to work with Boyd and Silva Martin who are both fantastic riders. Watching them compete and school horses has been very beneficial for me. I think it's important to place yourself around riders and programs that you believe in and that will encourage you to strive for better out of yourself. I was also around Phillip Dutton and his program a substantial amount and am just amazed at the amount of product this business produces in such a short time; I definitely have high regards to Phillip and all that he has created.

I was also part of the developing riders program which I firmly believe helped me raise my standards to a whole new level. Captain Mark Phillips has trained many of America's best riders and I am very proud to be one of his current pupils. Whenever under Mark's guidance I felt not only the need to be great but the ability to find that path... Mark is a great coach and gives you the tools you need to find your way. This program is also great as it is helping those of us out that are on our way to the top instead of just the current team members being recognized. The Aiken Horse has some good articles and pictures of the developing riders, you can find them online at www.theaikenhorse.com

Facility and support groups- definite must haves. Peter Barry built a lovely facility in Aiken that gave the horses true comfort which I think was vital to Charly's happiness! Peter also employs a fabulous rider/manager (Colleen) who was great to be around and work with day in and day out. Yoga yoga yoga. I definitely need to find a yoga facility and get onto a program here in Baltimore! It's amazing how you can take body awareness in a workout class and apply it to yourself while you are on a horse, I'm a total fan.

My last weekend down south was spent at The Fork with Charly competing in the Advanced division. I had a great warm up and really felt ready to go in an ride a powerful and accurate test; we achieved this at the trot scoring mainly 8's with a nine and a seven and then had not as great of canter work... All in all I still thought this was our best advanced test to date (only the third one) and we scored a 32 with change which put us tied for 5th place out of a challenging field of great combinations. The cross country was designed by Mark Phillips and had nearly all the same combinations on it as the three star, which made it a challenging course for Charly and I. Having said that I took three long routes, incurring some time faults but had the greatest feeling on course having a brave and honest true advanced competitor. Charly came off of the course really well and on Sunday morning put in a super show jumping round. The show jump course had been proving a difficult one to make the time and keep all the rails up; it was the first time on a show jump course that I really trusted Charly to send him really forward on the open sides knowing he'd come back in time to make a tight turn to a huge fence. It was thrilling to say the least! We ended up in 6th place behind famous pairs such as Stephen Bradly and Brandenburg's Joshua and Phillip Dutton with Connaught. I still can't believe I was in the same class as these super stars!

The Red Baron wins his first ON

It was a red hot day at the Wednesday Sporting Days event in Aiken, SC but my ride and my students ride was well worth the day in the sun! Rudy aka The Red Baron completed his first novice level event, scoring a 29.0 in dressage and jumping lovely clear rounds in show jumping and cross country. This little guy is quite the character and has been a joy to have in the barn. He'll do one more novice while he is here in Aiken and then he will return to Port Deposit in April. At that point we'll do another novice if he needs the experience but at this rate we might see him in the training class at Fair Hill!

John Nunn came over to compete his lovely young horse, Smile Like you Mean It. John, the owner of our favorite tack store, Bit of Britain, is a life long horseman that is just getting "back in the tack" after a bit of a hiatus. Smiley is one of the loveliest off the track TB's that I've seen and John has done a great job giving Smiley the time and education that he needs to learn that eventing is supposed to be a calmer more peaceful sport than racing :) Today Smiley didnt show any tension or nervousness in the dressage and very safely jumped all his jumps. John has a novice at Southern Pines and then will be back in Md. Smiley, John and I had a great time together here in Aiken and I'm excited for our continued efforts back at home.

Pine Top Advanced Horse Trials

"I survived 2009 Advanced Horse Trials at Pine Top!"
That's what the T-shirts say and that's how I feel! Thomson, Georgia had an incredible amount of rain Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Luckily the sand ground held up to these storms remarkably well and the show management made some safe choices about how to proceed with the running of the event.

Advanced did dressage and show jumping on Friday; This was the first ever dressage test for both Charly and I with flying changes, I think both of us were anxious to see how that worked out and both happy to have the first one out of the way! It was truly pouring rain during our show jumping but that didn't stop Charly from sailing through the air over each of the fences, it did have me a bit apprehensive about making the inside turns so we incurred a few time faults but no jump faults.

I rode an Intermediate horse on Saturday, Toast of Manhatten (owned by Liz Patrick of Waters Edge Farm) and he had to deal with even more rain than Charly did. This horse has improved by leaps and bounds and was a bit shorted on Saturday for his dressage efforts but he'll be out again at Southern Pines to show off some of his new skills. Manhatten is the true meaning of a "mudder" he cantered around his show jumping course in the downpour without any studs and didn't miss a beat. Manhatten didn't get to run cross country as the management decided that only Advanced would go on Sunday after a horrible storm throughout Saturday evening.

Charly and I headed out for our first ever Advanced cross country in yet again another downpour. There were some really big fences and a few definite advanced questions, Charly was so smart about all of it, he hasn't forgotten a thing from last season. The courses footing actually held up quite well, there was just standing water on about 70% of the course. I've never been hunting in Ireland but I suppose this is a bit what it's like. My main objective for the weekend was to give both Charly and myself confidence at this level and gives us a good place to start out for the rest of our endeavors. Despite the weather I think we did just that. :)

United States Equestrian Team Developing Rider's Training Session week 1

Being put on the developing riders list for 2009 was exciting in itself but partaking in the experience was really a dream come true. Everyone always asks what my goals are, in reality I've always just wanted to become better than I was the day before, the competition before and train my current horse with more style than the last one. Then there is always that peep of conversation my dad and I had when I was 8 years old.... My dad always said that one day I'd be good enough to ride for the USET, my dad was a very smart man!

Captain Mark Phillips was the coach for the entire week, he trained the "Training List" riders and the "Developing Riders list". Our first session was at Paradise Farm in Aiken, SC. This day was focused to fine tuning your cross country position, aids, and mental strength! This was Charly's first go at some cross country schooling exercises for the year so I was a bit apprehensive as to how he'd behave, I was very pleasantly surprised and had a fantastic school.

The rest of the sessions were held at Three Runs Plantation, a new equestrian housing development in Aiken, SC. Three Runs really treated us well, the footing was phenomenal, everyone was very friendly, and they held a great brunch for the riders and spectators.

Mark worked with Charly and I a total of 4 times. After the cross country schooling we then proceeded to flat sessions; Mark really like Charly's presence and movement but thought that we could work a little on submissiveness! No more being a bully! I thought this was a fabulous idea and was really impressed with how much we got done in the couple of days. Charly and I ended our last session getting to do two show jump rounds. Mark had a course set up that was HUGE. The idea of the jump school was to be very accurate with how the horse was ridden to each jump, and to dare myself and the horse to get quite close to each fence so that he really had to give a good bascule over the top.

Mark will be coming back over to the US in March and Charly and I have been invited back to his next set of training sessions :)

Charly starts off 2009 with style!

Havarah's Charly is back at it! We competed at Pine Top in the Intermediate on Saturday, his first event of the season. Charly is normally pretty difficult to ride in the short court arenas, but this year he was so much better and more rideable. He scored a 28.3 which put him in the lead of a very impressive class. If Charly could smile he would have had a grin from ear to ear as he flew over each of the show jumps, I saw his picture and he was nearly to the top of the standards! Pine Top is a great place and I can't wait to go back at the end of the month and take Charly out on the XC. Charly has only just gotten back to jumping this year and I didn't want to push things taking him XC this weekend. Charly was withdrawn from the competition after SJ so that he will be fresh and ready for our week with the developing riders training sessions.

I had a second ride at Pine Top. A horse named Toast of Manhattan; This horse has come a long way in just the few weeks I've been riding him, I think he has a lot of un-tapped potential and am excited for his cross country run today :)

WEBSITE!!!

Just wanted to let you all know that I now have a website and would love for you all to check it out! I plan to keep it up-dated and would love for you to visit it often :)
Web design credits and thanks to Bryce Kinnamon!

www.mollyrosin.com

Aiken- week 2

Greetings from the south!

Charly and I are on our second week at "Maple Hill South"; this is the farm Charly and the other horses I have in training are staying at while we are in Aiken. Peter Barry and his family have out-done themselves with this facility and with their kindness having us here.

Last Friday Charly had his first jump school of the season, saying that he felt like he was king kong was an understatement. Usually when horses come off of a big three day event they either are a bit intimidated the next time they start up, or very proud of themselves. Charly was definitely confident in his ability! This week has been very exciting; Tuesday was the first day that Charly and I worked on our "changes", Charly thought this was a pretty cool new game and was very good with his hind end. (often horses change late behind, but luckily... so far at least, this doesn't seem to be a problem) We then had our second jump school on Wednesday and Charly and I were back in the game as the saying goes. He felt phenomenal, after not jumping him for awhile you forget the good feeling that he gives you over a fence. Both of these rides were very early in the morning and I felt like we were in some sort of movie as we set off on a trail ride before dawn to get over to our lesson site, interestingly enough Charly seemed to really enjoy his early morning workouts.

Charly has adapted to his routine here very well, he enjoys tormenting his young pasture friend, who luckily allows Charly to boss him around and thankfully doesn't give back any "hoof"! This weekend will be his first outing at a competition. We are going to "Pine Top" which is about an hour and a half from where we stay. Charly will definitely do dressage and then Boyd and I are going to discuss the course and decide what is best for Charly at that point. Next week we have a pretty full plate with the Developing riders training sessions. Cross country schooling with Mark Phillips on Wednesday, then dressage lessons and maybe a show jump lesson.

Aiken is an incredible place to be for anyone wanting to do horse stuff, and more horse stuff. Every week there are shows within 15 minutes to a couple hours away; cross country schoolings, derby's, dressage schooling shows, training sessions and regular events. I've been busy with the other rides in the barn which include a few young horses starting their eventing careers and an Intermediate event horse that is here to tune up his dressage and show jumping skills. The Red Baron is one of the young ones and he helped start off my season on a good note with a win at his first ever event :)

Hope you are all well and staying warm, come visit!

Aiken- week 1

My first four days here in Aiken have been a wonderful whirlwind! I arrived very late Sunday night to a gorgeous facility owned by Peter Barry. The next day I was kept busy from sun up to sun down, un-packing and organizing tack, feed, and equipment for the four horses that came with me and then meeting the 5th horse that arrived late Monday evening. I did, however, manage to meet Katie, my new roomate, the two of us are living in a double wide half a mile down the street from the horses 4 star accomadations! I have my priorities straight! Oh and I also took my first hack in Aiken; Charly and I followed Peter, Coleen and Alexandra over to Phillip Duttons to watch them in their jump lessons and learn the paths.

Tuesday was a bit of a learning curve figuring out which horses to turn out together and when. Everything worked itself out and now everyone has great buddies and neighbors and a schedule that suits them. That day we finished getting all of the 5th horses stuff settled and managed to get everyone ridden!

Wednesday was a nice lovely day with 20 degree weather and a wind chill that made it feel like 14 degree weather. I made it over to Full Gallop farm to watch the horse trials, but after a half hour decided to head back to our barn and ride in hopes of warming up!

Thursday was again a busy day, John Nunn and I unloaded an entire truck load of hay and then went cross country schooling. His young horse, Smiley, and Lynn's young horse, Rudy, both were total champions. I was very impressed with how well John and Smiley are doing in considerations of Smiley's greeness and extremely pleased with how easy going and smart Rudy is.

Today Charly and Manhatten (Liz Patrick's horse that I'll be competing this month) are heading over to have a jump school with Boyd Martin.... Then I believe there'll be some body clipping going on this weekend in preparation for the 70 degree weather that's supposedly soon to come!

Aiken preparation

Charly and the team are down to the last few days of withstanding the cold winter in Maryland before our trip down to Aiken, SC for February and March. Yesterday the accumulation of snow from the preceeding storm had a frozen layer of rain on the top and the entire countryside looked like one big ice skating arena. I spent the day running errands and organizing my rig and felt pretty accomplished...I then took things one step too far and attempted to hook up the trailer...oops! Luckily there were a few very friendly people with big trucks around! Bubba got pulled out, stayed hooked up while getting hooked up to the trailer and THEN pulled up and out the driveway! PHEW. It was nice to have help and get that done, but I really REALLY need to work on getting a 4wd truck.

Charly has a few friends coming on the road trip with us. A lovely mare named ULLA (sale horse), Manhatten (an Intermediate horse I'll be competing in Feb) and Smiley (John Nunn's young horse). Once I'm down and settled in there will be 1-3 more horses arriving; SO if you're looking for a few fun months in Aiken, I'd love a working student :)

Nunn Finer

I am proud to announce that I'll be a Nunn Finer sponsored rider for 2009!

Nunn Finer products are offered through Bit of Britain (www.bitofbritain.com) and many other tack stores throughout the United States; the company produces products that us eventers really need! They have very good quality bridles, breastplates, girths, boots and more.

Nunn Finer riders will be holding free course walks at events throughout the United States with Nunn Finer sponsored riders, I believe I'll be doing some course walks come Fall. Usually each event has a flyer up near the score board, definitely try to take advantage of this great opportunity!

Thank you Nunn Finer!

Waters Edge Farm

Waters Edge Farm in Sykesville, Md

This farm is owned by Liz Patrick and right in the heart of Maryland eventing... did I mention it has a beautiful new barn with bedrooms and a kitchen upstairs? There's a big outdoor, an indoor some cross country jumps, trails, pastures and soon to be lots of clinics with me! The Waters Edge clinics are open for riders to haul in, stay over or just to come watch. I'm excited to meet and help out a new group of riders. I can't wait to see all the things we can do at this lovely facility. www.watersedgefarmllc.com

For information on boarding or my up-coming 2009 clinics please contact
Liz Patrick
watersedge6150@aol.com
410.303.6940

Winter break...

Go Ravens! I just went to my first east coast Football game; the Ravens fans are un-real! I have never seen so many jersey's in one stadium ever before, they say it's one of the loudest stadiums in the country. We had a great wide angle view of the field, and were lucky enough to have good weather.... great night....thanks Bryce!

Charly and I are in our initial stages of winter training trying to beat the cold weather and ride out on good days and hurry to the indoor on colder days. Charly is doing really well in his work, right now everything is about setting a solid foundation, lots of walking and trotting. I think Charly grew another foot lengthwise, he loves his stretching! Charly and I will be staying in Maryland for another few weeks and then off to train in Aiken, SC for the rest of the winter to prepare for the Spring events and take advantage of a few competitions early on out there.

RIP Francis Louise Smith

The following excerpt is shared with us from Kelcey Collins, one of the California Havarah girls. Kelcey's grandmother shared her passion for horses and was a fantastic supporter of Kelcey and all the Havarah riders. We will all miss Louise. Thanks for sharing Kelcey!


My grandma, Francis Louise Smith

passed away Nov,17th 2008. She and Tom Smith her husband of more
than 50 years purchased a horse for me when
I was in 8th grade after growing out of my leased pony. Three
day eventing has always been my passion, and without my
grandparents help, I might have never been able to have my own
horse and do what I love best. My grandma LOVED George ( My
faithful Paint Horse gone "eventer"), and often times loved to
spoil him with carrots she would purchase at the market. As I
continue to ride, I cant help but feel my grandma looking down
upon me
enjoying every moment of the partnership that I share with the
horse SHE bought for me.

" Grandma there is not a day that passes that i dont think of you.
However, each day out at the barn, I cant help but feel you
sneaking carrots over my should to George. Cancer slowed your body,
but it NEVER slowed your spirit.

California Clinics

Just preparing for my final trip out to California for 2008; Wed the 10th & Thursday the 11th will be at Stanford Equestrian Center; Friday the 12th will be in Clovis, Ca, Saturday and Sunday will be at Ram Tap for XC schooling.

New Email Address

molly@mollyrosin.com
My comcast email account has been deleted.

I also have a new snail mail account, it'll be a Baltimore, Md address. If you need it, send me an email request.
Happy Holidays!

Fresno Clinic / November Ram Tap

Some of my fondest memories from growing up are from the November Ram Tap in Fresno, Ca. It always seemed to be a great show, and a whole lot of fun. I may have just really liked the fact that Saturday night I got to go home to a full Thanksgiving meal full of great food and surrounded by friends and family.

This last weeks trip back to Fresno lived up to all my expectations; The weather was phenomenal, food was great at mom's T-day dinner which was well attended to, and my students all impressed me with their progress they've made throughout the year.

Our clinic was held over 4 days all out at Silver Rose Ranch (thank you Carol!!!). I once over heard one of the riders refer to it as boot camp. It was great having most of the riders be able to participate in each of the days, the progress I saw through each of them was remarkable. In fact, the beginner novice group was riding through a pretty hard coffin simulated exercise on Sunday... just ask them, it was quite impressive!

In the competition at Ram Tap, Havarah had three riders; Aubrey is our latest addition to the group and she completed her first event with only one rail added onto her dressage, Jestine rode her very cute "Pink Pony" and is definitely in contention for most improved of the year (they looked totally professional on the jump rounds and will be a dominating force in the dressage within a few more shows), and last but not least Kelcey had a very impressive weekend as she rode to give her grandmother the best last weekend she could've asked for! Kelcey's grandmother was extremely supportive of Kelcey and our entire Havarah group, she will be terribly missed.

Stanford Equestrian Center

On November 11th and 12th I had the pleasure of giving my first clinic at the lovely Stanford Equestrian Center in Palo Alto, Ca. Meg Finn has is the resident event trainer at this site and she did a great job organizing this clinic. Her students all did a terrific job and I think we are already planning our next clinic for the second week of December!

A Rising Star!!!

"Willing and Able" aka Thatch had his first big day in history, he finished #1 out of a big class in one of the Novice Horse divisions at the Plantation horse trials in Pennsylvania.

This horse full-fills his name, he is the most willing young horse I have had the pleasure to work with. This weekend he broke the 30's and received a 29.5 in his dressage and never took a mis-step after that. Thatch will soon be taking a long trailer ride back to California to unite with his now owner, Alyssa Hatai, and I'm sure we'll have many more exciting posts about this great little young horse.

California Clinics

November
11th and 12th at Stanford University
13th location TBA in the Fresno Valley area
14th-15th coaching at Ram Tap HT and lessons in the Fresno Valley area

December
3rd Stanford University
4th Fresno Valley area or Twin Rivers
5th XC schooling at Twin Rivers
6th coaching at the Twin Rivers Hunter/Jumper & Dressage show

contact Molly @ mollyrosin@comcast.net to reserve your spot

Waredaca Horse Trials and Three Day Event

Alyssa Hatai's lovely young horse "Willing and Able" executing a perfect halt at while I competed him at his second Novice event this last weekend at Waredaca.


Lauren Billys took Ballingowan Ginger to her first three day event, finishing 7th at the Waredaca Half Star in Laytonsville, Md. Lauren had a full summer of training; riding daily with myself and working for Breakaway Farm and Roddy Strang.

On my left is Charly's vet, Dr. Charles Arensburg. "Chuck" has been a huge part of Charly's success this year. Charly has been lucky to have a vet that is so interested in his success!

On my right is Bryce Kinnamon, one of Charly's shareholders and my fantastic boyfriend. Bryce has been a huge help before, during and after each of my competitions this year.... I am a lucky lucky girl! :)

Sunday at the Fair Hill International

I will remember this day forever. Charly and I have now completed our first CCI ** together; we did it at one of the best and toughest events in the world. This event is truly spectacular, I had a moment this morning (in between my 5 times of walking the show jumping course) to stop and look around at the beauty of this grand event.

Charly was light on his feet and very handsome for his final jog and the excitement kept rising for our ride to come. The course was one of the toughest tracks I have seen, big, long, and very well presented. Charly was at the very end of the two star, Boyd and I went over the "game plan" and then had some time to watch the earlier riders. Boyd's coach, Phillip Dutton, was also kind enough to discuss with me the way the course was riding and go over some course strategies. I felt very well prepared and knew that Charly was up for the challenge.

When Charly and I entered the arena the entire crowd was silent, the announcer started saying a bunch of stuff but I didn't hear any of it, I think I was seriously in my own world.... slightly focused! The rest is history, and I'm trying hard to leave it at that. Charly jumped great and we had one slightly off fence, a light rub of a pole and our CCI ** win vanished. It was really very heartbreaking. I think the world of this horse and was so excited to help get him this win. Charly still got to go in and accept a few ribbons, so I think he still feels like a winner; people might think I'm crazy, but I know that Charly understands he has done well when he gets to do the victory gallop. Charly received a blue for the best conditioned horse, a blue for the best dressage score and a white (4th) for the over-all placing in the CCI **.

I'd like to thank all of you that have been following us through this exciting weekend; Also a huge thanks to Silva, Boyd and Phillip for all of their great advice and endless support; and last but not least my support crew ..... you guys are the best!!!!

FH Pic's

Thursday at the Dansko Fair Hill International

I'm speechless! Today was everything I could've hoped for, well except for the microphone/loudspeaker problem that happened as I started my first shoulder in, but besides that... perfect! Charly and I scored a 46.2(roughly a 70%) which after the first day of dressage is good enough for first place. Fair Hill has done a lovely job creating this big time festival, the horses even have 24 hour security. At the end of the day I was involved in a "press release", so stay tuned to the USEA webite :)

Wednesday at the Dansko Fair Hill International

Charly and I got set-up today at the Fair Hill International Three Day Event; Charly had "In-Barn" inspections first thing this morning, then a light ride to get used to the atmosphere around his dressage court, and last but not least had his "Trot-Up".

This is by far the most impressive "scene" that Charly and I have ever been part of, everything is top-notch. We are competing amongst 80+ of the best horses and riders at this level in the entire country. After the trot-ups I had some time to walk around the cross country course for the first time, it was absolutely magnificent. The course has been built by Derek DiGrazia, who has presented us with a fair yet very challenging course. 9 minutes of galloping and jumping. Needless to say when Charly sprung to life today in his trot ups, I was very happy and not the least bit up-set! Thursday at 2:21 is our dressage test.

Willing and Able

Thatch aka "Willing and Able" completed his first Novice horse trial this weekend finishing in 2nd place! Thatch was in the Novice horse division at the Radnor Hunt Horse Trials; It was a beautiful weekend and Thatch did a great job over the big course he was presented with. I'm a proud trainer/rider :)

Excited, anxious and a little bit nervous....

It's Wednesday night, exactly one week away from the trot up's at Fair Hill. Charly has an exact schedule lined up to "hopefully" have the two of us at our peak for the Fair Hill CCI **. There are so many of you that I wish could be here to share in next week's big event with us. Charly will have my mom, Bryce and myself at his beck and call (ok and maybe a few other east coast groupies Charly has attracted) but I know that he wishes he could get treats from each one of you! No matter what happens next week, this has been a thrilling four years of riding and training with the Minyan Syndicates fantastic horse, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Charly wins Plantation Fields CIC**

What can I say about the weekend... it has taken me 24 hours to begin to absorb all of the excitement and take my first brief look back... Working backwards, we'll start with the results... Havarah's Charly Won the first Plantation Fields CIC** ever!!! To all of those who have helped out, what wonderful joyous news to share with you. The down and dirty backwards in time... double clear show jumping round to take first place, perfect through Sunday's jog-up, a wonderful competitor's party at the Walker's (the competition's landowner), 2.4 time faults on Saturday's beautiful course designed by organizer Dennis Glaccum, a brilliant dressage test, and great coaching by Boyd Martin!

BIG weekend ahead...

Plantation Field Horse Trials is this weekend; Ginger is doing a Preliminary HT and Charly is in the CIC **. The course at Plantation is known to be quite BIG but said to ride very nicely. Both horses jumped early this morning and are ready to go. Ginger is seeming very willing and interested in all the new exciting questions that are coming with her jumps and Charly just can't get enough...

Thatch, Alyssa Hatai's young horse is sitting this show out (as they only start at Preliminary) yet was a total super star at his cross country school on Tuesday at Fair Hill. Willing and Able is the perfect name for him!

A trailer full of champions!

The weekend of September 6th and 7th will never be forgotten for many people on the east coast and I have to say that I am happy that I am part of that crowd.

Hurricane Hanna made her way over Washington DC just as Charly, Ginger and Thatch were to enjoy a weekend of competing at Seneca Valley. Luckily the organizers did a great job at moving times around to avoid the worst of the storm and MOST luckily I had great ground support from Bryce over the weekend to be able to get the three horses safely and successfully through despite the very offsetting weather.

Charly was the first of the three horses to compete and he did all three phases back to back on Saturday morning in the very beginning of the storm. Charly hands down did a great job considering the trying conditions. He slipped a few times in the dressage court and cost him his normal spectacular test, but he more than came through for the show jumping and cross country. Jumping clean in both phases he only incurred time penalties which were due to me wanting to have a sound and brave horse for Plantations CIC ** and Fair Hill's CCI ** both coming up very soon :)

Ginger was next in the line up and being slightly young and much less traveled she was rightfully concerned with the horrendous weather that she was put in for her dressage test. After having a few moments of "un-happiness" in the dressage test we got through, loaded into the trailer as quickly as possible and headed to safety to their covered stabling. I then proceeded to fill up water buckets with the amount of water that came out of my boots! The horses all seemed to really enjoy their early day (in stalls by noon!) The rest of their Saturday was filled with eating, drinking and I'm sure some good stories told by each.

The weather made a huge turn Saturday evening and Sunday was an absolutely stellar day. Ginger had her first Preliminary completion jumping clean in both phases and finishing second! GOOOOO GInger! This is a great horse and I'm sure we will see her for years to come in the winners circle. Lots of jealous people on the east coast all said that she is happily owned by a young rider in California.

Last but not least was Thatch aka "Willing and Able", Alyssa Hatai's new young horse. I took Thatch in his first BN on Sunday and he was a total gentleman through the entire event. Dressage warm up made him slightly nervous, and the slippery conditions in the dressage court had him a bit confused as to how he was supposed to canter on such small circles but he was willing to do whatever I asked of him. Thatch jumped clean in Show Jumping and absolutely loved the cross country. This horse was so ambitious jumping into the water I nearly fell off...Alyssa I advise holding on ! :) This is going to be a cross country machine.

Thank you and congratulations!

There are two of my students that I would like to give a bit of a spotlight to. These girls recognized the need for a more intense learning period and went way out of their way to receive this. I hope that each of them realizes how much this has affected their lives and realize how much they can now give back.

The first is Jestine Burch-Butts. Jestine trekked to the east coast in the summer of 2007. That summer she worked day in and day out for a great horseman and very tough boss! :) Jestine learned how to meticulously care for a barn of horses and how to help horses acheive a second career after the race track. I know that there is a lot more to her summer than the above, but I, as a very far away coach, am very excited about her having this intense training program. Since the summer of 2007 Jestine has returned to Sanger, Ca where she has been taking on training projects and sale horse. I am very proud of you girl, keep up the good work!

The second is Lauren Billys. Lauren has just returned to California after a very full-filling summer of work on the east coast. She had some great opportunities presented to her and has already expressed how excited she is to share this with others back in California. While she was back east she learned how horses are correctly kept in shape for the upper levels of eventing and also how to deal with many different types of "problem" horses. I think more than anything Lauren is excited to work with her students back in California on how to prevent problems both under saddle and on the ground. Good luck in your endeavors Lo!

Thank you Jestine for taking what you have learned and applying it to all of your new mounts and Lauren I can't wait to see how sharp you'll get our crew at home!

New Havarah horse!

Congratulations Alyssa Hatai on her new horse Thackery!!!!!