The End is Really Just the Beginning Isn't It?

Last week I did something that nobody ever thought I would do. I swept the aisle, cleaned the tack, unloaded the trailer, and worked for Kate the last time. Many of you who do not avidly follow my personal life (which I don't blame you for- it is quite dull to be honest.) will be scratching their head in awe at the moment... I know it's a confusing time for all of us.
Now might be a good time to let you in on the reason. Yeah, maybe I should have started with that but better late than never I always say. In two days I'm moving into campus at Notre Dame of Maryland University. A lot of people took my anti- collegiate monologues to heart; but my parents sure didn't. So if college is what I have to do to keep my horses, college is what I will do (and hopefully be damn good at it) .
The next big question is probably- "Why Notre Dame?" or "There's a Notre Dame in Maryland?". Yes, there is a Notre Dame in Maryland, non affiliated with the school with all the football- you could really see me fitting in with the Fighting Irish right? Wrong. Since I was a little girl I always wanted to go to college in Baltimore. My parents would take me out to the harbor, or shopping, or to John's Hopkins. I was just so enchanted with the rich history and culture of the town. So when it came time to applied to colleges, I honestly just applied to schools in Baltimore. I was in Aiken competing horses for the winter, I hadn't been to any of them. The first acceptance letter I got was from Notre Dame pretty quickly after applying, and yes I did get into other schools, but I never felt the need to visit them. The first thing we did when I got home from Aiken was visit NDMU, and I was encapsulated in exactly what I wanted in a school. It was small, and all the buildings were old, it was liberal arts, and they actually cared. So next thing you know- a whole summer has passed by and I'm moving in. It's crazy to think about it.
Yes, I will still be riding, competing, and keeping my horses at Sunset Hill. Honestly, people's amazement at that really catches me off guard. I'm just viewing my time as Notre Dame while not working for Kate a time to concentrate on me and my horses specifically.
Kate helped shape me into the person, and most certainly the rider I am today. I'm ever thankful for the opportunity to be her right hand girl these past couple of years.
Don't worry I'll be back soon
xx
Little One

Let Them Eat Cake is now qualified for YEH championships!

It is with great honor that I can announce that Marie has qualified for YEH championships within her first two Young Event Horse competitions. These judge her on her aptitude on becoming a competitive upper level event horse. The program is such an exciting move because it gives a great base for young horses and their owners!
I'm so excited to compete Marie at the Championships this fall and hopefully the judges will think she is just as amazing as I do!
Many thanks to my many supporters who believed me when Marie was just a scraggly off the track with a long mane- including but not limited to my awesome parents,  Phyllis Stein, C4, and my trainer Kate Chadderton
Emily

So Far So Good: Aiken Off To A Great Start

The first couple of weeks of Aiken are already over and everything has been going great! Marie has taken the additional training, learning cross country, and her first few shows totally in stride and is gearing up for her first event as Sporting Days at the end of the week.

Marie at her first combined test 

She placed 2nd at her first combined test, and third in both the intro and the beginner novice division of her first Derby cross. She is starting to develop a brave and careful form over fences and her muscles are starting to develop very well (she may have even grown!).

Marie cross country schooling for the first time 

I'm looking forward to her gaining more experience and confidence so that it matches her incredible natural jump with the hopes of competing her in the Young Event Horse Series later this year.

Marie cross country schooling for the first time

I look forward to a bright future with my incredible baby horse!
Until next time!
Emily

Preparing for Aiken

Over the last month and a half I've had the pleasure of getting to know the most amazing little horse ever. The new addition to the team "Let Them Eat Cake" aka Marie joined us on my 17th birthday. She's just a lanky dark bay mare but I can already tell she's something really special. She picks everything up so quickly, her dressage is excelling at an almost alarming rate and her jumping is spectacular.

We're looking forward to the great trek to South Carolina a week from today with the goals of Marie competing at Paradise, Sporting Days and Pine Top Spring. Hopefully this time next year little Marie will be preparing for her first prelim.

Thanks go out to my awesome parents, trainer and the whole team at After The Races.  Marie is the most wonderful four year old and I'm so excited for her bright future.

A Step In The Right Direction

Today Sasha and I competed at Waredaca August HT. Things didn't end exactly as planned- but I feel that we improved greatly on our previous runs!
In dressage we scored a 37, after putting in a decent test- both preforming the movements and slowing down. I was so happy with her!
We had a foot perfect show jump round (That caused a lot of others some problems!) to add no points on  to our dressage score. Kate and I both felt we had a much more mature round than in the past.
The first half of cross country was awesome and Sasha sailed over all the jumps and combinations. Unfortunately at jump 11, I was alerted to the fact that I had actually forgotten fence 8, so I received a technical elimination. Happens to the best of us I guess!

Success At Fair Hill!

This past weekend at Fair Hill was a success!
Sasha and I warmed up wonderfully for the dressage- but sadly we warmed up for too long so she got a bit tense and went in and did not preform to the best of her ability! We still scored a 43!
We had an awesome clear show jump round! and a clear xc adding five time penalties!
Bonus is that we finished fourth! And second as a junior!
We head to Waredaca this weekend!
Thanks to everyone that came to support us!

Here We Go

So sorry everyone for the lack of blogs! But lately I have been working my fingers to the bone and spending all my free time watching youtube videos of horses.
Why? You may ask?
Well! It's official Sasha and I did our first prelim! After our two awesome runs at Fair Hill, we competed at Seneca, Sure Fire, and Waredaca. We had awesome runs at all three and were feeling plenty pumped up, after some schooling, for the big day last saturday at Loch Moy #2.

We had a minor melt down in the dressage, but still ended with a good 40 in the dressage.

Our show jumping was surprisingly clear, Sasha and I's trouble area showed tons of improvement!

And then we had an awesome cross country round!

Our next event is Fair Hill International! See you guys there!

Emily






Photo Credit: Sarah Jeffrey

Spring has sprung!

It's finally the spring season and it has been crazy at Sunset Hill Eventing between grooming at Rolex, competing at Fair Hill, and getting a handle on a bunch of awesome blogs I haven't had any time to even reflect!
A few weeks after getting back from Aiken Kate, Cole, and I packed up and headed to Lexington Kentucky for Rolex! It was the experience of a lifetime! You can read about it here

Sasha and I also have had two amazing runs at Fair Hill International, with clear cross country and show jumping both times! She's jumping really well and I'm very excited for our event this weekend; Waredaca HT, followed by Seneca, and then hopefully a move up to the preliminary level if everything goes according to plan! We've been working on some more difficult and technical questions while schooling at home, and our confidence both on and off course has sky rocketed!

Wish us luck!
Emily

Aiken Part 2- Sporting Days Horse Trials

Well if you haven't already heard.... Sporting Days was a total success!
Sasha and I competed on saturday in the junior open training division where we finished second in a large field! Our dressage was consistent and steady, earning us a 34 (our personal best at the training level) and putting us in fifth place!
I was incredibly nervous going into my stadium round, but as soon as we got into the arena Sasha gave me the confidence that it would be okay! The first jump was a little slow, but I got her moving forward and the rest of the course went like a breeze (with the exception of a few whip smacks here and there! Oops ) We ended up having an awesome double clean round and I was ecstatic!

The cross country was equally awesome! Sasha navigated through all of the difficult combinations with ease! Her personal favourites:
The bank complex, a bank up followed by a large brush table two strides later

The water complex! First a ramp jump, followed by a jump in and a jump out of water! Sasha got a little excited and tried to run into the tree after the jump, but I got her back just in time to make the turn to the next one!

And here are a few odds and ends pictures!

All in all it was a great weekend and I'm so happy Sasha and I did so well! Second place is an awesome place to be, and hopefully we'll be able to do just that (or better!) at our next event Carolina International!
-Little One

Aiken- Part one

Well!
WE MADE IT
Aiken 2014 is going! We started the season out with Full Gallop Farm HT at the novice level. We didn't score as well as we had hoped in the dressage, followed by an unfourtunate run out at the first jump in show jumping and then an awesome clean xc round!
Two weeks later we headed to Paradise HT in the training level. After a winter storm preventing us to ride for two days, and only one day of preparation, we headed off to Paradise. Day one was the dressage, I scored a 35 which ended me around tenth and then a miraculous clear show jumping round bumped me up to somewhere around seventh. The second day was the cross country, the course was tough and Sasha and I set off to have an awesome clean round with the exception of a few time penalties. We ended fifth in the open, as the top placed junior.
Our next stop is Sporting Days this weekend! Wish us luck!

Looking Forward to 2014

2014 is sure to be an exciting year! With it beginning in Aiken SC Sasha and Emily will arrive on the 24th of January, and compete in four events. With the hopes of competing at the preliminary level, ending with a CCI 1* Emily and Sasha will be hitting some of the most difficult courses in the area. Then with the rest of the year we're planning the following:

• Move up to preliminary 
• Fitch's corner prelim
• Millbrook prelim
• a few more events
• Richland prelim
• Plantation CIC 1*
• VAHT CCI 1*

In addition to the exciting competition season I've joined the team at www.eventingnation.com as a guest blogger. I will be writing a riding log, as well as a style and trend report. I'm super excited to broaden my blogging horizons!
As well as Eventing Nation, I've joined up with two other young riders in Area 2 to write a blog called the Optimum Times! www.theoptimumtimes.wordpress.com This is a combination of riding logs, as well as inspirational posts, and helpful hints.
Lots of interesting things are ahead!

Little One

2013 with Sasha in review

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

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 

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