Cause after all

I initially started writing about breeding season, but really words about reproduction right now escape me. I have breeding plans this year, but right now, I'm not up to discussing anything that involves a blue container and getting to know my FedEx delivery guy.

Show season kicked off for the barn, I had friends go out to one of the local schooling shows at the Kentucky Horse Park.

The Snowbird shows are very basic shows, sometimes even with questionable semi-frozen footing and weather to go along with it. You see the whole of the local Kentucky dressage universe there, but it also makes for good times with friends and cohorts. Intially I wanted to show but lack of transportation (just finishing up truck shopping again) and willingness to put management through extending the arena for a PSG test (I don't like being a prima donna), so I opted to help a few people out while fielding the occasional question  of when and where I'm going out next.

Truth is, I'm having trouble focusing in on showing this year after three years of being driven on the circuit (the bi-polar weather isn't helping either).  Kentucky's judge list plus the temptation of good footing is really asking me to go out just to do a PSG test. But really I want to push back to July.

Despite the doldrums, things have been going forward.  

Sinari has been schooling fantastic, County came out and reflocked the saddle and we're now cooking right along. Having these few months of taking her out of going and just doing the movements and now creating the power behind the movements while cleaning up our acts makes a huge difference. Her best pirouettes were done this past weekend I felt they were small and very balanced.

Now it's time to seriously up the ante and get eyes on the ground to really get behind the drive. The one's are trickling in, but the zig zags tend to allude us (I get stuck in PSG mode of school the big zig, instead of doing centerline-quarterline-centerline ones).

There are a few clinics planned for her that I feel she would benefit from and get out. 

Reba is doing well too, her schedule is going to ramp her schedule in May. She's becoming more forward at the canter and more solid with the connection. Fitness remains her biggest challenge, but for a horse that was maybe total ridden 5 times last year, this makes sense. 

There are also some new faces on the horizon, but more on this later.

A soft place to fall

The sport is full of trial and error.

You try, you make errors, you fix, and you try again.

I haven't had real show downtime in the past few months, it's mostly been fix on the fly.

I'm really debating about scaling the show season back a couple notches for the pony. There are shows I definitely want to go to if everything is in order. I know that there will be a number of schooling shows to haul to and work out kinds. But mostly I want to concentrate on the final climb to Grand Prix and cleaning up our acts.

Yes, I said it, Grand Prix.

Back in summer I was ready to retire her out, but lately she's been finding more gears. She's fitter than she ever was, she readily offers three and four steps of piaffe in hand and has been turning in stronger collection. The one's are coming, I just need eyes on the ground to spot things.


I know putting everything on and together will take the better part of a year, but in the end I think it's at least worth going to.


Other than that it's the same old thing different day.

99 Problems

We've all been sequestered to the indoor for the majority of the last two weeks. It's not my favorite spot, I like schooling outside so much more.

The weather has been bi-polar at best, swinging between reasonable to why bother, making the now infamously disastrous trip south to Florida more justified. We're just hitting the cusp of the show season, which really kicks off Mid-March. I'm happy to have achieved the Silver, and now we can let down our collective hair for a little while and concentrate on the training ahead.

For Sinari, I really want to refocus her on not only cleaning up her tests, but also focus in on putting on more of the piaffe-passage, the tempi's and improving the pir's. The big lightbulb moment with these movements is that the quality of the paces and use of the arena geometry directly relates to the quality of the movement itself.

In other words, if you give up a corner (10 meters) and you're going for a pirouette, and your collected canter is not a pirouette canter, you have to work like hell to get it on a long line, and the quality/size of the pirouette will be directly effected, most likely negatively (1-1.5 point spread).

We've also been playing with the pi/pa in hand, for her at the point in time it's about getting the reaction and developing the strength to carry that much. She's not really a big natural in the pi/pa stuff, I wish I started it a little earlier on her career.

We might go officially out in May, but it's going to depend on a lot of things (like transportation). There's also a number of nice schooling shows in between where we can just put the tests together and go through the movements. The real showing focus is on the last half of the season with the National Dressage Pony Cup and maybe Region 2.

We have also been invited to a number of places in the East to train, this will shake itself out by April.

Reba is doing equally as well, she's been actively working and doing a little jumping to help her develop the canter. While we initially planned to do a schooling show, the show filled up and we were wait listed. Not a big deal there will be other shows through the season. We're in no rush this year, even with the idea of having her school changes by the end of the year and go second level. The bigger goal is to get her mentally and physically geared into the work for the next three years.

I get knocked down

I really don't know where to begin except that I'm home, and while it's sunny, it's not happy-go-lucky Florida sun. It's cold.

My initial trip home was supposed to take 12 to 15 hours, it ended up on a 48 hour excursion which left us stranded for 18 of those hours in Tennessee, with the most entertaining of police officers and tow people, at the Super 8 hotel. To cap it off it was a dry town with no beer or liquor store.

I was batting a 1000 and me and a bag of Oreos got really friendly at one point. 

After a really sleepless night (I was up every two hours checking), downing the worst coffee and two waffles, watching an entire season PBS' Downton Abbey and transferring the majority of my stuff from truck to trailer, we got on the road again around 3ish thanks to James Welsh and Elite Transport's connections to Kustom Equine Transport.  My truck is still in Tennessee. Everything important is thankfully up here.

I'm ultimately very grateful to the people who called, helped out, showed up and kept company (virtually and sometimes physically) throughout that period. Its nice to know that the community does take care of it's own.

If there ever was a saint hood for ponies, Sinari needs to be first in line. The mare took everything in stride (angry over the temporary living accommodations). She came out fine, and has the next few days to herself while I sort out finding a new truck, unpacking the disaster zone of my dressing room and figure out life. 

I also am down one FEI horse. Kobe isn't coming back up. It's not something I wish to really go into at the moment, but I'm dealing with the fallout.

At this point  it's time to regroup and figure out what's next.

Chasing the sun

I didn't plan this trip well, in fact I think I winged most of it right down to my departure.

First, I was planning on staying in the great white north, hoping the weather would cooperate and get my herd ready for their spring runs. I was (and still am) looking forward to a few arrivals. I was actually looking forward not having to worry about the fishbowl that is Wellington, or who was doing what, where.

That hope of hibernation was dashed when clinicians started agreeing to do clinics in the sunny south (Europeans who want to go to Florida, go figure). After rounds of whacky scheduling, I set up a few things, and next thing you know I have some work to do. Was thinking I would just go down and come back for the few events that I had so I could keep my budget/sanity and avoid a drive.

Even that was dashed.

Then the pony started clicking in, ready enough to do a few tests and work some lessons. So why the hell not go down and get this party started right? Plus I have to go look at a few horses, finalize what is now Kobe, and appointments to shore up.

There's no avoiding it, if you want to be serious about dressage you go south.

I went down last year  to train with Koford and worked a little with Atkins. This year it's a bit of a burgoo of training, work and showing. I have no real intense day-in and day-out help there. I'm also bringing down just one horse, and picked up another one along the way. A literal vacation from the thundering herd up here.

I managed to squeak out three weeks of time, I need to be back to continue with the herd up here and to also check the snail mail plus keep a host of other projects on the burner.

So far it's been a huge adventure, leaving Lexington at 10am and arriving the next day at 2am. Minor truck and phone issues after we had arrived.

After the recovery, it was back to riding, schooling around White Fences, in between rounds myself and company caught the Masters, and sat at the Global Dressage Forum, did a weekend of showing, more training, and then we're now in the final week of events and clinics.

The universe tends to shrink around this time of year to the size of Palm Beach County. This becomes Mecca and a uniquely intense period of time to do business, get fit for the season, kick off the season, and interact with friends and people you haven't seen in a long time.

Everyone, including the most professional of professionals, develop the worst case of ADD. But it's not without just cause.

This week alone I've fielded what feels like a bazillion phone calls, coordinated without any "real internet" (hello mobile), or "real computer" (hello iPad) took lessons at Still Point Farm, started to ride Kobe and figure him out (more lessons), show and obtained my final score towards my Silver.  With the season well under way and another goal checked off, I can easily breathe until May for recognized showing.

It doesn't mean that the rest of the string won't be out, Reba is going to the Snowbird show, Kobe will be most likely going as well if I can get myself under control trot wise. Sinari will be refocused to I1.

Carry on

It's the end of January, and I'm looking at some fairly sweeping changes that have been brewing for sometime. A lot of them are welcomed and many of them are of the house keeping variety.

I've kept most quiet on the subject because until things are signed and delivered, I really don't think that they're final. It's nothing against people, it's just what I've come to know about the horse world, nothing is ever final until ink is dry and the horse is in your hands.  But with details that are falling rapidly in to place things can be announced.

I'm forming a new venture that focuses on the horsey portion of my life.

This does not mean I'm backing away from the clinics or turning pro, it's just a way to keep the goals and finances aligned correctly. It's something that's been coming down the pike for sometime.

My main horse-related income is still derived from the clinics and organization, but this is a nice supplement to increasing saddle time, funding future investments and campaigning horses at FEI.

Speaking of FEI, things are changing there too.

Secondly, I recently came into an agreement with another rider to take on one of her FEI horses. Kobe is a huge departure from what I'm currently on (17 hands, grey, gelding) but he's a very capable individual who is confirmed small tour and the majority of the GP elements. Not the fanciest but really a great card. He's a fantastic schoolmaster, and really pushes buttons. I've bought stock in old lady shampoo and I officially look like a midget.

The big aim this year is to be qualified for the Dressage at Devon CDI*** at the small tour.

As exciting as this is, this is incredibly daunting. It's a steep learning curve that doesn't forgive, but to go where I want to go, I have to go there. This also means campaigning two FEI horses plus the roster of lower level horses while maintaining the normal job, the clinics and actively training. 

Finally, there's the pipeline. Two breedings are in the works. One in Canada, a KWPN, and one out of Reba via ET. Both present excellent futures as world class competitive FEI mounts (knowing my luck I'll have another jumper!).

So... that bigger trailer...

I say goobye, you say hello

I bred Sincere roughly three years ago to be my upper level prospect for when Sinari stepped down.

I almost got what I asked for.

His dam wasn't my favorite, in fact she was a little difficult and could be very opinionated about life, but she was an excellent broodmare, and was the herd mother of the group keeping everyone in line and teaching all the foals some strict ground rules. Sincere was one of the best she's produced to date. She's now working with an old friend in Michigan who loves her to pieces and is having her own life.

His sire was Dutch and jumper bred through his sire's side, but performed and placed at the USEF Young Horse Finals when it was here in Kentucky a number of years ago. I originally thought he was a gelding because he was really just that professional about his career. He was bay and had the right talent in the right places. His damline was very strong. He retired out way too early due to his owner not having money to campaign him.

I bought the breeding not really knowing where this cross would lead, but felt it would lead to something good, even though I was yelled and degraded repeatedly not to cross the two and throughout the pregnancy by a former friend and a employer.

It is with some satisfaction that I'll say, I think he turned out just fine and my craps shoot ended up a well played gamble. The GOV was interested at one point to have him as a pony stallion candidate, which gives me a nice ego boost to have this particular pairing go well.

I've watched him for three years grow up from a gangly little foal that could canter up and down hills with abandon to a nice young horse that I'm really proud to say: I created him, he's a product of my program, my decisions and my efforts.

While there are parts, selfish parts, of me that want to keep him, that want my rider to bring him to the one star level to be by his side when he finished a round or a course, I know I can't do it. I know fiscally it would be very hard, and secondly it would be unfair. Not to him, but to my own goals. To the others that are coming up, and the others who have yet to make their place with me.

He loves his job and will be very good at it with time. The person who purchased him adores him, and thinks the world of him. He will do me proud being a happy go getter and I'll always be his first fan and cheerleader.I couldn't be happier with the home he's going to. I can honestly say I got the best of both worlds.

So today is the day where I say not really a goodbye, but bon chance as he loads into the trailer for his new life and goes down the road. I already miss him, but I know he's started his own grand adventure, and I can't wait to see the next part of it.