Thursday, February 28, 2013

Aiken Adventures in Jump Setting

A beautiful morning for a jump school!  Setting jumps for the clinic today with Debbie Banfield.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Aiken Adventures

...so you know you're in Aiken when....

...you are running super late at the barn to meet people for dinner so u quickly swap out breeches for jeans over your boot socks, toss a baseball hat over a messy ponytail, add earings to make yourself look "dressed", and spray yourself with Downy wrinkle releaser to hide the horse smell.  Ta-Da!  Instant dinner appropriate attire (don't mind the smudge of horse snot on the back of my vest please). 

Sigh, I really did just admit to that ;)

Aiken Adventures- BIRD!

This silent guy almost sent me tumbling!  Stewie wanted to be sure I saw him, which of course called for a couple whirlwind spins and snorts.  Then the thing took flight and the wingspan was HUGE!  Which of course led to another whole cycle of spins and more exaggerated snorts.  Stew: "Hey lady, I TOLD you that thing was in attack mode!!!!  NOW do you believe me????" 

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Aiken Adventures- Apple Tree Pictures

Apple Tree pictures are up from both combined tests.  Check out www.barrykosterphotography.com and look under Horse Shows.  Diem and Stewart competed in the Apple Tree 2/12/13 event.  Diem's pictures are on page 3, #8110-8131.  Stewart's are on page 4 #8309-8325.  Kate and Ari competed in the Apple Tree 2/21/13 event and her pictures are on page 1 #944-971.  Looking good everyone!

Aiken Adventures- Northern Visitors and Pine Top

Another busy week down in sunny (and crazy rainy) Aiken.  After Paradise Beacon, Diem, and Devon enjoyed a Monday off while Stew worked on the flat and Kate rode Ari practicing her first ever dressage test.  Tuesday was a soggy day where everyone got very wet, and Kate had her first ever cross country school which her and Ari rocked.  Wednesday Stew and Ari took a field trip to the Hitchcock Woods, Devi and Diem had a flat school, and Beacon and I tuned up our dressage test getting ready for this weekend.  We worked with Therese, another trainer wintering at Sandy Hills, who really helped me pinpoint a couple key points to help improve my right haunches in and lengthenings.  Thursday was a super busy day, Diem and Ari shipped out to Apple Tree farm so Kate could finish up her Aiken experience with her first ever combined test and she finished third on a nice dressage score!  Diem dominated the warm up arena and seems to have those competition nerves sorted out.  We got back to Sandy Hills and worked Stew on the flat and then I took jump lessons on Devon and Beacon with the wonderful Debbie Banfield.  Carl had recommended that I look her up while I was down here and I am so glad that I did!  She has a wonderful eye and very good corrective exercises; I got a lot out of working both horses with her.  We have made plans to work together weekly and hopefully we can get her up to Valinor in the Spring!

Friday and Saturday was Pine Top in Thompson, Georgia!  Beacon and I ran our first Intermediate of the season and he was awesome, even in the less than stellar weather.  Friday was Dressage and Cross Country while Saturday was Show Jumping.  He warmed up beautifully for dressage even though the footing was straight mud.  In the test we had a marked improvement in both haunches in and lengthenings (thank you Therese!)  scoring lots of sevens and even eights in the walk and extended walk!  In the canter at home I've been schooling a lot of flying changes for the jumping and unfortunately it carried into the dressage arena this weekend where we put in lovely flying changes of lead where we should have done counter canter (dang it!).  The break in the movement means we could only score a four, but the canter was lovely; the judge even put a frown face after the four with "flying change" written, it should have been another eight!  In one of the most inconsistent score wise tests I've probably ever ridden on Beacon (ranging from fours to eights) we still finished with a 40 in ninth place out of 18 or so competitors.  He was a good boy and I was happy with the test, I just can't school flying changes the day before dressage in the future!

Cross country he was an absolute machine, attacking the complex questions and big fences with ease. This was a very big and challenging Intermediate, particularly for so early in the season, and I was so proud of him for clocking through everything.  I made a big rider error at the coffin, however, that cost us 20 and some time.  He galloped up and rocked back to his coffin canter beautifully, jumping the A element with ease, and then for some stupid reason I dropped my eye and focused on the ditch while looking away from C.  He jumped the ditch fine and then I realized I wasn't looking for C and yanked my eyes up only to realize we were now way off the line- Dang!  We just circled and jumped the C and continued on, but what a silly mistake!!!  Always look for the final element in a combination and ride all the way through the question!  Poor Beacon didn't deserve the 20, and without it we would have moved up to second!  As it was we stayed in ninth place carrying the 20 penalties and some time for circling; it was a hard lesson to learn, but I won't do it again! 

Saturday brought more rain and Show Jumping.  The Stadium phase has been hard for us recently, and I worried that he would be tired after a hard track the day before, a long busy week, and a lot of trailering back and forth.  I am super pleased to say that he jumped splendidly and we finished the event with only two rails.  One was mine, I moved him up past a distance, and one was his where he dropped one rail with a hind leg.  It looks like all the work we've put into the stadium jumping is finally paying off!  Funny enough we still finished in ninth, just out of the ribbons, and although some mistakes were made throughout the weekend they are nothing that a little tweaking can't fix.  Namely: don't school flying changes before Dressage, LOOK where you are going XC, and don't make too much of a move up to a distance in the SJ (because Beacon WILL get there, and if I push at all then he's way past the distance).  I am very pleased with our first big track of the season completed, and even though we weren't competitive this time, we will be for Full Gallop in two weeks!

The rest of this week is focused on the mares and Diem moving up to Training at Sporting Days, and getting Stew out for a bigger xc school.  There is a combined test Wed that I will probably take the two boys to at Training, and the girls need to get out to Full Gallop to school some Training level questions and tune up before the weekend.  Beacon will enjoy a little down time and then we plan on working with Debbie later in the week again, and Eric on the flat.

The sun is finally back out again and it's planned to be a high of 73 degrees today!!!  Hope all you folks up North are staying warm!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Aiken Adventures

Monday nights you'll find lots of horse enthusiasts at The Park Lanes, $1.50 a game!  So far my score is a 27.... in the seventh frame :(  Guess I should stick to riding horses, my 27 on Saturday was a good thing!

Aiken Adventures- Paradise Horse Trials

Paradise is my favorite Aiken Event, the courses are always maxed out and technical, everything is beautifully maintained and decorated, and the dressage is always on nice sand footing.  However, it seems to always have bad weather!  This year it was freezing cold (literally, ice in the water jump!) and raining on Saturday, and bright but very breezy and cold still on Sunday.  Check out the pictures of all four horses on the Brant Gamma website under Paradise Horse Trials, they should be posted soon. (Beacon #13, Ari #258, Diem #298, and Devi #297 http://brantgamma.exposuremanager.com/g/events )

Beacon had his first outing of the season and while he was obedient in his dressage test the 30 degree weather had him quite tight and a bit... um.... forward!  He put in a double clear show jump round, but I honestly wasn't as happy with it as I had hoped; he was still a bit sloppy and if they had been at Intermediate height we certainly would have had a couple rails.  Cross country continues to be his favorite phase and I must say he put in a foot work perfect and effortless round.  This horse is a dream to run xc, it's just so easy for him!  I however, was less than stellar and steered to the wrong rolltop and got us TE ed!!!  Dang it, those dark green numbers look the same as the black ones!  I wasn't alone at least, Doug also jumped the wrong fence; however he wisely thought it didn't feel right and circled around to jump the correct one before continuing on, thus racking up some time points but no penalty.  I jumped the training jump and in the air I remember thinking how small it seemed..., and then galloped on to the next fence.  Oh well, at least we got to jump around and get a good first season run in prep for Pine Top this coming weekend..

Ari was actually very soft and obedient in the dressage ring although her score doesn't show it.  She was being so soft and relaxed that I didn't want to interfere to much and I let her be a bit too long and low, which as it turns out, this particular judge hated and docked me at least a point every movement.  It was unfortunate because she really deserved a good score, but next time I will need to be a bit braver and push her up into a more uphill and ground covering step.  Her show jumping was double clear and the last line was lovely, she just needed to work out that first course of the season stickiness.  (Beacon, Ari, and Devi were supposed to run a CT at Sporting Days to get in the ring once before they competed but it was unfortunately cancelled so Paradise was a dry run for all three of them).  She was stellar cross country though, breezing through every question with ease.

Diem had a bit of a rough first day, he couldn't really seem to settle in the electric atmosphere and he unfortunately had to ride his dressage test in the freezing rain (not helpful to encourage looseness!)  By the end of warm up he was actually traveling pretty nicely, but lost his relaxation transitioning into the ring.  The CT that he went to earlier in the week had a very laid back atmosphere so he had none of the show jitters there.  The test wasn't bad at all, he was obedient and trying, but just tense, and the judge nailed him for it.  An hour later in the show jumping warm up he was much more relaxed and starting to handle the pressure of a larger venue.  Unfortunately when we went into the ring he wasn't paying attention and tapped the first rail.  I reprimanded him and O.M.G. he was most definitely NOT going to touch another rail.  He jumped the rest of the track over the height of the standards!!!   The pictures tell the story, there's one of a rather funny face I am making that made us laugh when we reviewed them.  That pony can JUMP!   Sunday was his day to shine though, and he ate up the technical novice track.  Everything was footwork perfect out there and he was a breeze to gallop between the fences and rock back for each question.  Good thing I was wearing a watch because he was being so efficient in covering the ground that we were almost too fast.  I was extremely pleased on a whole with him Sunday, he was super relaxed and unphased by the warm up and the atmosphere, and stayed really relaxed and rideable throughout the day.  I predict that now that we have gotten the first jitters out of his system he will be able to really shine at the next outing!

Little Miss Devon was the star of the weekend finishing on her dressage test of 27.4!  This little lady has become so easy and consistent it's amazing.  The dressage judge actually stuck her head out of the car at the end of the test to inform me that Dev has an AMAZING walk!  Her show jumping started a little quick but she worked out the first track of the season jitters before we got half way around and finished up in a lovely rhythm.  She was a dream cross country!  Possibly, with the exception of Ollie, the easiest cross country round I've ever ridden.  She was super relaxed and every question was effortless for her.  I also almost went to fast on her, and it only felt like we were loping around!  Her stride is so ground covering and efficient it is effortless for her to gallop over the terrain.  She is turning into quite the competitor.

Well, now it's monday morning and everyone is enjoying some time off relaxing in the sun.  Beacon has to work on the flat this afternoon, Stew has a cross xountry school, Kate will lesson on Ari, and I'm heading to Marissa's farm to ride Carino.  Happy riding everyone!  And stay warm up north!!!

Aiken Adventures- A Week in Review

Lot's of excitement happening down in Aiken, this was a super busy week!  After the Apple Tree Combined Test on Tuesday I lessoned again with Doug on Beacon Thursday (this time on the flat) ran Beacon Paradise in the Open Prelim division Friday, ran Devi Ari and Diem in Open novice divisons Sat/Sun, welcomed Jane and Kate to Aiken, met Chris and Red's new horse (yes!), learned how to be creative drying clothes sans dryer, found a HUGE spider in the barn (and I mean HUGE, ....Chris also screeched like a little girl...) .... (sorry Chris) .... :)  body clipped Devi (and had to borrow clippers to finish since my blades died and no one sells them here!)  Let's see, what else...  met up with friends at a kareoke bar (but I most certainly didn't sing!) and ate delicious crab legs at Local's.  I think that about sums it up!  Details below:

First, massive spider, any ideas what it is???


 
 
 
 
 
 
Chris's new horse:
 
 
 
Chris's leg after his first rodeo ride and stellar dismount:
 

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Aiken Adventures- ICE!

It does happen, even in Aiken!  Third and final day of Paradise Horse Trials today, reports to follow.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Changing a light bulb

Why use a ladder to change a light bulb when you can get a boost from the tractor?



*Warning, do not attempt at home ;)

Aiken Adventures- Life in Full Swing

The schedule is in fast forward now.  Saturday was a full dressage day for all horses and then Sunday was the first cross country outing!!!  Everyone had a great school and seems to have remembered everything from last season.  There were no issues; banks/water/ditches were all a breeze!  We even put them to the test a bit with a sunken road and a series of skinnies which all four horses (Diem, Stew, Ari, Devi) attacked confidently and seamlessly.  Go ponies!  Beacon had his first lesson with Suzie Gornall and finished up nicely over some show jumps, and I was FINALLY able to resurrect my poor soaked saddle from riding in the hurricane earlier in the week (three separate sessions of soaking it in oil)!  Monday was a well earned day off for all horses and I spent the day body clipping Beacon, buying some more hay and feed, and cleaning tack.  Tuesday kicked us right back up into the swing of things with a lesson on Beacon with Doug Payne first thing in the morning, Diem and Stewart competing at their first combined test of the season, and then the mares doing gallop sets.  Beacon jumped phenomenally well with Doug and is all prepped to run Paradise on Friday.  The boys were excellent at Apple Tree with Stew finishing in second and Diem with an unlucky rail still pulling sixth in competitive classes.  The remainder of this week will be focusing on getting everyone prepped to run at Paradise!!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Aiken Adventures- Good Boys!

Success at Appletree for Stew and Diem, ribbons the first outing of the season!

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Aiken Adventures- Updates

Hello to the blizzard-ified north!  Here in aiken we got rain, LOTS of rain, but I can't complain, it's better than the awful amounts of snow that you guys have been pounded with.

We've officially been in Aiken a week today, and I have been very tardy in updating this blog.  I promise to get better (sorry Mom!!!!)

I am in love with the setup of my barn this year.  I have a little shed row barn all to myself off in the corner of Sandy Hills.  The horses have all settled in fine, and I have been busy organizing and making the place feel like home.  This place is amazing with the amount of riding space we have access to.  Along with the fields, arenas, and track there are trails throughout the different properties along the road which everyone shares, and since my barn borders one of the access points I've had a few visitors already.  Just the other day Fernanda Kellogg (the driving force behind Fitch's Corner) hacked by and invited me over to her farm across the street for lunch:  BBQ shrimp, taco soup, salad, some amazing baked beans, the works!  While over there I also chatted with Silva Martin who is heading to FL this week which makes room for Alison Springer to move in.  Nick Meyer's (Fernanda's right hand man) and I started discussing hay and, BINGO!, he has plenty of good quality northern hay that I can buy off of him that beats every price in Aiken.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time!  For those that are unaware, the drought that the country suffered last year has drastically effected hay prices, the same hay I bought last year for $11.75 is now $19 a bale!!!

Now what everyone really cares about- the horses!!!  The first day of turnout had me calling Tom right off the bat to tack on some pulled shoes for me.  Stewart and Ari both needed a quick resest, but at least I found the shoes!  After the first exciting day everyone settled down nicely so that we could focus on riding.  All horses hacked the first two days to get them stretched out and settled in after their long haul, I have to admit there were some acrobatic moments from all five ponies, but the dancing award definitely goes to Diem who was so excited about the warm weather and sunshine he could barely keep his feet on the ground until we got down to the track and let him blow off a little steam.  At this point all horses have done two dressage schools (in the amazing full sized dressage arena with mirrors all down one length), a sj school, and a conditioning day in addition to the first couple of hacks.  The easiest horse to gallop?  Devin!  The best show jump school?  Diem!  The worst show jump school?  Beacon (who thought it was very exciting to be outside and jumping and decided galloping between fences was much more fun).  The best dressage schools are awarded to both Stew and Ari, and Beacon gets most improved after he jumped like a gentleman again last night.  Red's rides have also been going really well; yesterday she jumped Moon on her first ever XC school and the little mare ate it up!  Keelan owns the third thrown shoe so instead of riding him yesterday Bubba (the wonderful owner of Sandy hills) helped Red swim him in the pond.  He was a superstar at it, more on that and pictures to come later.

All of the horses are getting geared up for the first competions starting just next week.  There are two combined tests before Beacon and the ladies run Paradise Horse Trials next weekend.  This weekend everyone will get to jump around the derby field a bit, and I have started the process of signing up for lessons with Suzie, Doug, Eric, and Mara.  I think I will also try working with Alison this year since she is so close.

That's all for now.  Stay warm!!!!

Snow!

Ugh

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Aiken Adventures- Tan Lines!!

Aiken Aventures

Only 8:30 and its already 50 degrees!  Beautiful mist across the fields this am.  Getting rides done early and then off to Full Gallop Horse Trials to volunteer.  First real blog entries come tonight!

Aiken Adventures- jump judging

Its 75 degrees out! And Zion and I are stationed at fence 10 on the Novice track at Full Gallop soaking up some sun.  Red and Chris are also volunteering here today across the field.  I think it is so important to volunteer if u are able to do so, organizers are always desperate for help of any kind (trust me!)  And what better way to get your horse fix in on a sunny afternoon?  You have to do it right though!  A hat to block some sun, a little bit of shade, a chair to kick back in, and some citrus iced green tea makes the whole experience worthwhile.  Now I get to relax and check out the color schemes that are in this season, don't want Beacon and I to engage in a fashion taboo next weekend!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Hungry??

Our road trip goodies have stocked our kitchen! Thanks to all!!! :)

Welcomes

Welcome Charlotte Fyfe and her horse Andy. Valinor also would like to welcome back Kelly Springer and her mare Vee.

Night check complete, all ponies happy! Aiken Adventures start tomorrow!

We've arrived!!!!

Everyone's here safe and sound on a very uneventful trip south (yay!).  It's beautiful, in the 50s, so everyone is out stretching their legs naked!  The barn is beautiful!!!  Updates to follow!

Ready for Steeplechase

Thanks to Betsy and Kate, Erin will not have to borrow a hat for Steeplechase this year.

Friday, February 1, 2013

A migration send off party

We had a great time as we bid farewell to Erin and crew as they prepared for their annual migration to Aiken. Many thanks to all who came.