Fastest girl in town

Bi polar weather is here. One day it's 80 and the next it's 30 and raining. We're battling funk, mud, and the lack of time outside and being stuck in the indoor. When we're not indoors we're battling the gopher holes in the field on the tracks we use to do trot sets.

We're finishing up on the heels of Courtney King- Dye's clinic during derby week (learned lots) and have a lot of take home lessons to work on for fall. 

Sinari is slowly, but surely coming back into fitness and regaining strength where she was sore. A week off is essentially a month lost in fitness, and with a lighter season it's really imperative that we come back to fighting weight.

Her sessions are wonderful she's much lighter and seems to have come back to her normal cheerful self. However, when she tires, she tends to become a bit offended about asking her to dig deep. This is the residual from working with a sore back. I don't blame her, and I know eventually she'll work through.

Conditioning becomes harder because of the grass in Kentucky. With an all-you-can-eat buffet out in the field (we've been muzzled since early March), it's hard managing things to keep everyone on the right track as diets swing very wildly (bye bye good hay, hello first cutting grass...) 

We'll probably hit KESMARC fairly soon to help with the conditioning issue.

Fritz is rapidly growing up into a horse that I deeply admire. He's pretty much a goof on the ground, but a really solid citizen under tack, walk, trot and cantering both directions on the bit and actively stretching. He went out on the trail with another rider to start giving him a break from the arena and to start conditioning him on the hills. 

I've learned a lot from him in a short time. The Fresians, are not unlike other driving breeds, they have a hard time stretching over the back, they plow through the aids as an evasion, they aren't too laterally supple, they pick things up quickly, they generally are steadier and they prefer to trot above anything else.

Fritz is a bit of an odd ball in that way- he loves to canter, and his canter for 60 days under saddle is really very nice and he's more laterally supple than most, but comparatively he's still not as flexible as a normal dressage-bred three and a 1/2 year old. 

Despite all the drama lately, there is good news on the horizon. Debbie McDonald is coming to clinic in the fall, I think David Marcus will be coming in summer, and I think I have a game plan for consistent access to trainers and to make the final climb to Grand Prix with the pony. Not to mention those new faces on the horizon.

I'm still on the fence about showing the crew until we're more established at I-1 for the pony and solidly fit enough to do training level with the others. We definitely have a few fall shows, but actually having this time and break to just work and develop things without the pressure cooker of going to shows.

I was tempted by doing a few local schooling shows, but timing just hasn't cooperated at the moment.

Dance till you're dead

Within the past few weeks, my pre-dawn game face begins with blaring red alarm clock numbers reading 5:00am and ends with the same ugly numbers saying 10:30.

Welcome to fall.

I love and loathe this part of the season for a lot of different things.

It's the best weather to train and compete in. The horses are getting their second winds and they feel fantastic. It's the time that young horses start their careers, and the older campaigners get to go out and hack about.  It's also championship season time, where all the work you've put in shows off, hopefully, at the right time.

It also marks the end of the long march of inspections, travel, shows, the pressure and the regular grind. It means that I don't have to keep the trailer stocked and hooked up. I can go out with friends that I haven't seen since March, go see family or take a non-horse-related trip and maybe, just maybe spend a few weeks at my house crashed on the couch.

It also means waking up and going home in the dark, hairy bra's for clipping said horses, extra shavings, blanket changing, heated water buckets, mash, fall shots, dental work, pulling shoes and apples from the local cider mill.


This fall denotes the end of a long, interesting season and the start of something entirely too different.

My horses, like everyone else, are benefiting from the change in season. Sinari has sprouted a coat, which makes work shorter until we get the clippers out.  Her workouts are more playful, but will gear in this week for another run at FEI in two weeks. Sincere is getting his act together and really start to come along, he still has a baby neck, but all the mechanics are there especially when he relaxes. He'll be shipped out in November to start his East Coast career.  I've started a little bit of in hand work with him to get the idea of lateral work in and also start creating some flexibility. Reba is also really starting to develop her canter. Her trot and walk are really nice, but the canter is still weaker so transition work on the ground and under saddle has really started to help her organize herself.

Also I got to travel a bit to Devon where I caught up with old faces and new ones. Devon is magic, and for those who haven't been the show (which is typically started with rain and goes into monsoon) the fall CDI is a staple and attracts a number of great rides. It's the only place in the US where you'll see babies straight to international Grand Prix in about three square miles of actual ground. It's also insanity.

This year I didn't bring a horse, but I was somewhere between press, at large groom and spectator. I enjoyed it but without a horse, I felt a little out of place. The shopping made up for that fact. It's something that I'm slowly feeling that showing there is something obtainable, and with the quality that is now coming out, it's on the goal list.

Learning to walk again

Sinari is back under tack doing light work. I'm immensely happy to have her back. She's steadily gaining back conditioning with the work.

I'm still working and riding the horses. I need to, they're just as much fun as the ponies and I have someone exciting in the wings.

Namely we've been concentrating on forward, supple and balance, taking the time to lay some firm rules down for the push back to 4th and PSG. There is some grumbling from the girl about committing to that much balance, but already it feels better.

Hopefully we'll be further up to speed by the end of the month. Florida is still under consideration with her.

Sincere, however, has been going gang busters in his work. Lunging lightly under saddle, he's really accepted the job. He's worn saddles, bridles, side reins and Vienna reins. Accepted it all, with class and maturity. He looks awesome and minus some willy nillies from spooking at the turkeys, he's pretty darn brave. I can't wait to see him go on as a three year old and a fully formed four year old.

Since this is the end of the year, it means paper work. I shipped in my L paper work, my Bronze Medal application (conveniently online), the photo release form for the USDF Year Book, YR Graduate Application, and a few other things (trying to get my 2012 calendar in order). I have a few projects on the stove, and I still have clipping I need to get done with the ponies.

But right now, it doesn't matter, I'm taking a week break from the rush and I have an excellent view of the ocean.

The Blog has it's own paperwork as well. I'm still surprised after 250 plus posts and a number of years, that people actually read what I write. But then again, it still comes as a surprise when people come up and comment about articles I've written or edited professionally as well.

We recently received the One Lovely Blog Award from Dressage on the Quarter. Dressage on the Quarter posts very regularly, and, has a diverse amount of discussion.

Because of the perpetual nature of the award, I nominate the blogs to the left. They are good reads and aren't always just dressage-related.

The other condition of the award is I have to divulge 7 things about myself. So here it goes:

1. I meet my  heroes on a regular basis. I'm surrounded and continually inspired by the people who I train with, who I know, and who I work with. They keep me, the ponies and my perspective fresh. I think it's uber neat that I get to play, frequently, with those who help shape and impact the sport (not just dressage) on a far reaching level.

2.  It takes a village to raise an FEI horse. I rely on my team on a day-to-day basis to help us get where we're going. Currently on board is a small army of individuals and companies that keep us afloat. I'm hugely ambitious, and want to compete as many times as I can with the ponies at the FEI level, so I seriously cannot do it without them.

2a. Within the same vein: my ponies and horses are awesome too. They are deeply apart of my life and have been for sometime. They've sometimes come from odd, unexpected places as well. Sinari was found on a tobacco farm in back woods Kentucky, Sincere was bred out of two plain bays (and out of a dam that was never started under saddle and came to me malnourished) and the others I've found through just a bevy of network contacts and luck. I feel immensely privileged to have talented, willing and capable equines. When I'm away from them I don't feel right, so I carry video and photographs of them everywhere.

3. I'm pursuing my L, and eventually my 'r' for Dressage and DSHB. I'm currently apprenticing for my CDI organizers license as well (it's a five year push).

4. I'm a work-a-holic. I enjoy having multiple projects, staying busy and solving complicated, huge projects (as well as the cute small ones). Especially after they've created issues. It's a huge rush seeing the resolution come through. Whether it be a complicated article, piece of code, design flaw, riding issues, I don't care, if there's a way to make things less complicated, more effective and more beneficial to a larger part of the world, I'm right there tinkering with it. It also means vacationing and taking time for myself is hard (not to mention 2a).

5. I love to read and watch movies. I regularly abuse my iPad, Netflix and Library card. It also doesn't help I work for the world's largest retailer and I have access to all the new stuff coming out prior to it hitting the shelves. During the off and winter season, I probably roll through a book every week or so.

6. I'm find myself becoming more and more frustrated with the trend of feel good training within the discipline. I like uncomplicated (and happy), but I realize to progress you have to break a few eggs to get there. Training isn't always pretty, it's not meant to be perfect. It's meant to allow development. When things don't go well, or a new idea is met with resistance, just keep going.

7. I believe you are never where you don't belong.

Fields O'er Which the Reaper's Hand has Passed

The ink has barely dried on WEG, and with a minute window of opportunity, I responsibly shunned responsibilities for a weekend and escaped with the boy to a location that had a total of ten stoplights and no cell phone reception.

I went to the woods to get briefly get away from my life before the winter season and inspection struck and I would be unable to get away. I rode lightly throughout the week, checked in on young one, made a few decisions and then made arrangements to make sure everyone is looked in on.

It was fantastic. An hour out of Lexington, the world changes. The world slows.

And being unable to have much contact with the outside world, I did things that weren't among the normal routine.

I slept in, I took a long bath. I read two books. We watched movies (on cable), we ate... a lot.

To add to things, fall is a pretty time in Kentucky, and to be in the woods, is to watch the world transition.The fields are empty, the barns are full, and the colors turn bright.

Most times, fall means clipping the unenviable dread of the following season.

The reality of my, or any horse person's situation, that vacations or time off is non existent. When you do get it, run with it. Run hard. And never feel guilty about it.

We came back today, and while already the emails have started piling up, the house needs to be cleaned, the cats needed to be coddled and the week returns to normal tomorrow, It doesn't feel impossible to get through. 

Better days

I'm a little late on posting about Thanksgiving, but honestly, I had my reasons.

I love Thanksgiving, it's one of the few actual holidays that I enjoy and positively associate with. It's a holiday not about getting, but giving. It's about what you bring to the table and contribute, not what you get out of it.

As 2009 draws to an eventful close, I have a lot to be thankful for.

I'm first and foremost, thankful for my family.

My standard definition of it is fairy skewed. Yes, I have genetic relations who are family (and I do love them), but then there are the non-relations who truly co-create the core. The boy being the top of that list.

These people have stood by me during horrible lows and air-thin highs. They've seen me at my worst, at my best and every stage in between. I think there are some things in the works in the near future, and hopefully it will work out to the best.

Tying quickly for that spot, is Sinari. The wonder pony continues to amaze and delight. She's my rock. The only horse that I know, even for the bad rides, there are several awesome ones coming down the pike. She teaches me daily. I look at her every day and think how beautiful and amazing she is. I look at her everyday, and feel lucky to be her's and share in her life.

I am thankful for Sincere. I'm thankful that he's taught and rewarded my patience (or lack of at moments). Six months ago, I was in a bad spot with a barter that went wrong. He was still unborn, and was prepared to give up everything to walk away clean. But providence came in and said wait. He's rewarded me tenfold and will be excited to see how he develops.

I am thankful for the cats, who serve not only as my personal alarm clocks, but are willing to sit with me during the rough spells and tough blogs.

I'm thankful for a job. Even though I dislike it, I still have one. It's the first job I feel that I've actually feel successful at. It still pays the bills, is paying for a number of other things and will be allowing me to go and get my advanced degree(s) done. It's allowed me to mature, not just as someone in the work force, but as a human.

I'm thankful for my supporters and my critics, who help keep my team going and keep me humbled enough to keep on reaching.

Thank you all who have supported the team, who comment or email or send positive vibes. May your leftovers be plentiful, your smiles infinite and your worries few. May you all find happiness in those around you and have the grace to weather the changes that come.

Merry Thankgiving.

Kelly, Sinari, Sincere, Osmosis, Kiwi

&

Team EnGaged Dressage

Dream on

It's getting cold, and the days are growing shorter, and I'm retreating back into my indoor more and more these days with the odd gallop out on the crisp, indian summer afternoons.

The season is over and I'm breathing a temporary sigh of relief until December when we begin all over again. This temporary sigh includes remastering the freestyle, redoing a few websites and getting through second level.

Not to mention catering to my "real life". You know, significant other, potentially going back to school and J-O-B.

No one said being an amateur was easy, no one said the sport was a cake walk either.

Don't get me wrong, I love to compete. It brings something different to the table every year. But by Regionals time though, I'm ready to call it a done deal. This year wasn't any exception. I competed two under saddle for the first time, next year I might have three to four at various levels.

It also leads me to re-assess my goals. Everyone has a laundry list of stuff that they would like to accomplish short and long term, and I'm no exception.

Next year:

• I would like to earn my final scores towards bronze (just four away!). Be schooling/showing fourth level.
• I would like Bella to be confirmed first level.
• I would like May's foal to be going to the MSEDA breed show (preferably beating up on all the warmbloods;-)).

Long term:

• Confirm piaffe, passage, changes with Sinari.
• Condition Bella for second level.
  
• Qualify for the two year old jack pot with May's baby.

Then there are the lofty, perhaps unattainable, such as going after the Brentina Cup. Yes. I said it. I have the odd ambition to qualify for the Young Adult class. I know, I have sucker for punishment written all over me.

Unfortunately, due to rules, I can't qualify with the pony (no ponies or mules allowed) and I don't have a Grand Prix (or I2) horse. So I have a stick horse's chance in a fire so far.

Compounding the problem: you need to qualify via three (3) competitions with an average of 62 percent or better, and I think they need to be CIC* or larger. Luckily, there are two in my area, Paxton and Kentucky Dressage Association. The third international would be in Lamplight, a solid EIGHT HOURS away.

Like I said, it's a huge reach, but for some reason my crazy ambitions have a way of turning out.