Sorry for lack of updates lately people!
But I think you'll find it all for the right reasons.
After my last post I made the difficult decision to put Dobbin for sale and after rocking around a few more novices he found an awesome home with a little girl named Katherine from Eerie PA who absolutely loves him!!
Then began my search for a new horse, and after weighing my options between leasing and buying I finally decided that buying a new horse was the right choice! The second horse we went to look at was perfect! Mudville aka "Sasha" is a 10 yo OTTB mare who has been brought through the levels both by her owner and a small town professional. Competing only in Area I and III. She has a lovely dressage frame and great track record when it comes to the cross country! After buying her, less than a week later we made our event debut at LHPC HT and finished on our dressage score in the BN division. Then after several awesome rounds at the novice level we made the intrepid move up to the training level at VAHT. The course was awesome and really technical but I really liked it! Everything rode incredibly well and I really enjoyed the entire course. Not to mention the fact Sasha jumped it all with 3 shoes on! Finishing on our dressage score ended us in 6th place for a more than successful first training level together! Hopefully we'll be back there next year for the 1*
And it looks like Sasha and I will be headed to Aiken to hit four more training levels before we move on up to Prelim!
Thanks for reading
-Little One
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
The good, The bad, and The ugly
Wow! What a long time since my last post! I've been busy with lots of training working and shows!
Before the beginning of the event season I took Dobbin to the Daniel Clasing Jumper Show and ran him in their novice and training divisions. Dobbin and I scores well across the board and were champion in both divisions! Even though I lost my stirrup!
We started the season off with Redland Hunt Horse Trials, going double clear, and finishing on fifth place at our first novice of the year.
Then Dobbin and I headed out to the MCTA horse trials, going double clear and finishing tenth in a very large and competitive division.
Dobbin and I made the move up to the training level at Fair Hill international. I scored an average dressage test, had an amazing show jumping and great start at the cross country, but was eliminated at the water.
The following weekend I tried again at the Flora Lea Horse Trial, I had a great show jumping and fantastic cross country until we reached the water complex, where I fell off!
Lets just say we will be schooling lots of water before we try again at waredaca this weekend! Because of all the success otherwise I am confident that Dobbin and I can do well!
Wish me good luck!
Little one
Monday, April 8, 2013
The Plagues of the Fork
You know it, you say it, but sometimes not everyone believes it. Eventers have to be the toughest athletes in the world. They just have to be. For reasons that are easily seen and not.
For those avid eventers that keep up with the results of the Fork this weekend, you have already heard of the monstrosity it was. But for those of you who don't the fork, one of the biggest shows of the year, was plagued by what I have come to refer as the seven deadly plagues. You know, the bible reference, classic. But incorect ( theres actually 10) But three years in catholic school taught me something, so I might as well use it.
Plague 1. The hail: in the early hours of Thursday, it began to hail. Frozen balls of ice bouncing off of our faces and coats.
Plague 2. The cold: as the day went on, it only got colder, chilling you to the bone.
Plague 3. The rain: then began the rain, a down pour soaking your clothes and filling your dubarrys with water
Plague 4. The mud: to make things worse then came the mud. This thick, sticky mud that had a tendency to swallow golf carts whole and stick to every wheel and truck possible.
Plague 5. Blisters: when the boots are thick and mud makes waking difficult comes the blisters. Everywhere on your feet possible.
Plague 6. The heat: after the freezing cold you would expect it to be nice to be warm. But in reality it was so extremely hot that you could not bear it.
Plague 7. Sunburn: personally I was got second degree sunburn and blisters on my ears. How much worse can it get?
And yet, although all these adversities were in the way, eventers all continued to compete all weekend and still competed at the highest of their ability. While the poor working students seemed to be struggling to handle all of the elements. Especially the late night, blistered, mud covered, cold, and soaking wet jogs. Yeah, we had to do that.
Even though we had to face all these problems, in the little town of Abermarle we somehow managed to find some normalcy mimicking home. That would be the various resteraunts. We took Apple bees signature quote "See you tomorrow" a little too seriously and came back two days in a row.
But all in all it was a good week!
Will be sacrificing the paschal lamb and putting its blood above the Quality inn hotel door while eating the roasted sacrifice at Applebee's next year for sure!
Keep moving forward
Little One
For those avid eventers that keep up with the results of the Fork this weekend, you have already heard of the monstrosity it was. But for those of you who don't the fork, one of the biggest shows of the year, was plagued by what I have come to refer as the seven deadly plagues. You know, the bible reference, classic. But incorect ( theres actually 10) But three years in catholic school taught me something, so I might as well use it.
Plague 1. The hail: in the early hours of Thursday, it began to hail. Frozen balls of ice bouncing off of our faces and coats.
Plague 2. The cold: as the day went on, it only got colder, chilling you to the bone.
Plague 3. The rain: then began the rain, a down pour soaking your clothes and filling your dubarrys with water
Plague 4. The mud: to make things worse then came the mud. This thick, sticky mud that had a tendency to swallow golf carts whole and stick to every wheel and truck possible.
Plague 5. Blisters: when the boots are thick and mud makes waking difficult comes the blisters. Everywhere on your feet possible.
Plague 6. The heat: after the freezing cold you would expect it to be nice to be warm. But in reality it was so extremely hot that you could not bear it.
Plague 7. Sunburn: personally I was got second degree sunburn and blisters on my ears. How much worse can it get?
And yet, although all these adversities were in the way, eventers all continued to compete all weekend and still competed at the highest of their ability. While the poor working students seemed to be struggling to handle all of the elements. Especially the late night, blistered, mud covered, cold, and soaking wet jogs. Yeah, we had to do that.
Even though we had to face all these problems, in the little town of Abermarle we somehow managed to find some normalcy mimicking home. That would be the various resteraunts. We took Apple bees signature quote "See you tomorrow" a little too seriously and came back two days in a row.
But all in all it was a good week!
Will be sacrificing the paschal lamb and putting its blood above the Quality inn hotel door while eating the roasted sacrifice at Applebee's next year for sure!
Keep moving forward
Little One
Sunday, March 24, 2013
It's that time of year again..
Yes, it's that time of year again that most pony clubbers dread.. Quiz Rally. Quiz Rally is a horse knowledge competition that kickstarts the horse show season and gives us something to do over the winter when riding can get sparse because of the weather. This year, I was busy teaching a group of D pony clubbers that newly joined and also happen to be some of my moms students, so I may not have gotten in as much study time per usual (generally I read the manual entirely). But I did get in some unusual ways to studying... including a knowledge off with my little sister (which I won), compiling worksheets for Ds and reviewing some of the material for my HB next month. But as usual the day of quiz rally cam slightly unexpectedly, and we all began to gather our pony club attire of khakis, pins, and polos. Which may be in fact the most difficult part of the quiz rally. Considering between my sister and I there was a fight to the death for the only Howard County Pony Club polo (which I again, won) But all sorted itself out and we arrived to quiz rally generally unscathed and everyone somehow managed to find a pin (I wouldn't say their pin because there was a lot of begging for extras). Our pony club sent competitors in almost every division, and when we arrived everything went fairly smoothly except the fact one of our pony clubbers was sick and unable to attend! My team was partially composed of previous team mates, one from quiz nationals Madison, and the other from last year Laney, the final team mate was a friend Zoe. Two of my students who were attending their first quiz rally were also in the rising stars division.
My team's first phase was barn where we received outstanding scores. Followed by a three hour grueling classroom and written test. It was a good thing that we brought cookies in, or we would have died of hunger. Although long, our classroom session was pretty hilarious by jokes and wild correct guesses that lightened the mood, including calling the organizer Ms. Nicole "god of the rally" every time she came on the intercom. We finished out the phase winning by 100 points over the other teams, and I had the high classroom score of the day (a 70) answering all my questions at a HB and HA level, and getting them all correct. We had lunch, played some wall ball, regrouped and then headed off to stations that some may have said we bombed. But we were still in the lead by 90 points, so it must not have gone so bad. Then we headed off to mega room where we spent the wait listening to nirvana on 8 tracks. turns out that mega room had a "teaching and poisinous plants" theme, and we all came out with not exactly the scores we had expected, but they were still fairly strong. We protested a question, and while the TD was outside, we got to hang out with this cool bunny named Cinnamon. And then came the process of "score tabulation and competitor frustration". We all want to get out of the rally, but we have to wait on scores, so we spend our time playing some wall ball, eating cupcakes in a cup, and talking about how cool the protest bunny was. And finally they began awards. In the team awards, a team in the junior Ds with our pony clubbers came in third, our rising stars came in first at their first rally (and I taught them!) My sister and her junior C team came in third in a very competitive division, and my team came in first in our division. In the individual high scores, I came in first for our division!
I just have to say that I am so happy that I have made my epic comeback from last year and I have to thank all my supporters and people who may not have supported me for giving me the push to compete. I also want to just say how proud I am of everyone in Howard County Pony Club for doing so well in the rally! I'm ecstatic that Kate is coming back from Aiken so the hard core training can begin!
Keep moving forward
Little One
My team's first phase was barn where we received outstanding scores. Followed by a three hour grueling classroom and written test. It was a good thing that we brought cookies in, or we would have died of hunger. Although long, our classroom session was pretty hilarious by jokes and wild correct guesses that lightened the mood, including calling the organizer Ms. Nicole "god of the rally" every time she came on the intercom. We finished out the phase winning by 100 points over the other teams, and I had the high classroom score of the day (a 70) answering all my questions at a HB and HA level, and getting them all correct. We had lunch, played some wall ball, regrouped and then headed off to stations that some may have said we bombed. But we were still in the lead by 90 points, so it must not have gone so bad. Then we headed off to mega room where we spent the wait listening to nirvana on 8 tracks. turns out that mega room had a "teaching and poisinous plants" theme, and we all came out with not exactly the scores we had expected, but they were still fairly strong. We protested a question, and while the TD was outside, we got to hang out with this cool bunny named Cinnamon. And then came the process of "score tabulation and competitor frustration". We all want to get out of the rally, but we have to wait on scores, so we spend our time playing some wall ball, eating cupcakes in a cup, and talking about how cool the protest bunny was. And finally they began awards. In the team awards, a team in the junior Ds with our pony clubbers came in third, our rising stars came in first at their first rally (and I taught them!) My sister and her junior C team came in third in a very competitive division, and my team came in first in our division. In the individual high scores, I came in first for our division!
I just have to say that I am so happy that I have made my epic comeback from last year and I have to thank all my supporters and people who may not have supported me for giving me the push to compete. I also want to just say how proud I am of everyone in Howard County Pony Club for doing so well in the rally! I'm ecstatic that Kate is coming back from Aiken so the hard core training can begin!
Keep moving forward
Little One
Friday, February 1, 2013
The Aiken Diaries
I started writing this sitting on an air mattress on the floor of Kate's living room at 4:30, were fifteen minutes late leaving for Pine Top Horse Trials. So I deemed this time worthy of recollection of my time so far here in Aiken. For those of you who are not familiar with it, is the winter home of many equestrian athletes, and alot of eventers! The town it's self is beautiful and the only thing more wonderful than the amazing footing is Maria's Mexican Resteraunt! I've been having a great time . Ive been able to see some amazing events and riders, not to mention I get out of the cold!
We had the chance to hack in the Hitchcock woods on 4 OTTBs on one of my first days here. If you don't know the Hitchcock Woods , it's a huge Forrest (1000 acres) that's full of trails and jumps for horses! All of the horses were surprisingly very calm and relaxed, to make it even better, I got to ride Beth Sokohl's Buckharo! I really enjoyed the woods and I wanted to jump all the steeple chase jumps!
We also visited Full Gallop, and Pine Top, and Sporting Days I got to walk some courses there. Full Gallop was a cool farm and I loved how they had a lot of combinations in their lower level courses. Pine Top I thought was beautiful and defiantly a difficult course tapered for the already upper level horses to start their season. Sporting Days had some really cool jumps and a bank in the show jumping, which is pretty common down here, I would have incorporated into my course somehow! So even though I wish I could stay here for longer the spring season is just around the corner back in Maryland! I'm planning on this being a very exciting one and Dobbin will be moving up to training level!
Will be blogging as the spring season gets in gear! Below is a schedule of events I'm considering doing:
Ct morning side 2/23
MDHT Cross derby 3/16
MDHT starter 3/24
Morven- N 3/30
CDCTA- N 4/7
MDHT starter- T 4/14
Redlands Hunt Pony Club- 4/20
Mctea 5/4
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
New year, new opportunities
While all of you were celebrating the new year at midnight, Kate Chadderton eventing was celebrating it at 8:00 AM. In Kate's truck (named Trevor), the Australian Today FM played the midnight countdown. We all got so excited and screamed when it finally got to midnight in Australia.
So the new year does mean a bit of reflection on last year.. Last year was a big one! I started my job as a working student, competed at Millbrook, and Culpepper show jumping, in addition to many other events. I got to experience the "backstage" of many cool events, and meet a ton of cool people.
But the New Year also means new beginnings. So I think that it's important to start the year out right. Tomorrow I will make my first of three trips to Aiken South Carolina this winter. Which I am so excited about! This will be my first ever trip down South! I don't have a lot of expectations for down there, except that its going to be a lot of work, but also very rewarding.
Well that's all for now!
-Little One
So the new year does mean a bit of reflection on last year.. Last year was a big one! I started my job as a working student, competed at Millbrook, and Culpepper show jumping, in addition to many other events. I got to experience the "backstage" of many cool events, and meet a ton of cool people.
But the New Year also means new beginnings. So I think that it's important to start the year out right. Tomorrow I will make my first of three trips to Aiken South Carolina this winter. Which I am so excited about! This will be my first ever trip down South! I don't have a lot of expectations for down there, except that its going to be a lot of work, but also very rewarding.
Well that's all for now!
-Little One
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