Erin, Robyn, Zion, and Beacon headed to Jersey Fresh International 3-day Event. Erin will be competing at the CIC 2* level!!! Best of luck to Erin and Beacon!!!!!
Other news,
The first jumper show is a week away. The show is on May 16!! What a great way to have fun and practice jumping 'show jumps'.
Showing in the jumper show or any other show and want someone to photograph you for free? Contact Emily or check out my page on facebook Here.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Lexi
Not only does Lexi chase birds and pretty much anything else that moves/flies, but she can also jump cross country jumps! What a talented pup!
Monday, April 1, 2013
Aiken Adventurers Return
All eight horses, six people, and one dog have returned! Walking ponies after our 4am arrival. It's a merry go round!
Check back soon for my Southern Season Sum Up!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Aiken Adventures
Getting excited for Morven Horse Trials this weekend! Everyone here at Valinor South has been working hard to prepare, check back for more details soon!
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Aiken Adventures
A little brisk this afternoon, but the Valinor crew is still rocking Steeplechase in style! An excellent afternoon filled with good friends, amazing equine athletes, and lots of age old tradition.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Aiken Adventures
A stellar XC school with Mr Stew! Lots of water, banks, ditches and combinations. He handled everything like a champ! He must know his mom is enroute and is trying to impress her.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Aiken Adventures
Pricey banana treats from the feed store? Nahhhh.... metal gates are so much better!
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Aiken Adventures
It's been a relatively quiet week since Full Gallop; Debbie came out Thursday for jump schools again and everyone has been working on the track doing trots and gallops and a little fine tuning in the dressage ring. The original plan was for a couple to run at Pine Top this past weekend, but no one got in! Instead, it has been nice to really focus on what each horse needs to work on rather than get them geared up for competition. Beacon has been working on staying rideable in his medium canters (both jumping and on the flat), Ari has been trying really hard to stay soft and even on both sides of the bridle, and Devi and Stew have been really working their hind ends so that they can sit down and come a bit more uphill into the bridle. Diem has been taking some R and R to hopefully be back to normal quickly- he's been sunbathing all week!
I had the chiropractor/acupuncturist out for Beacon just to make sure he's feeling great and all tuned up for the season. Dr. Ridgeway was phenomenal and I learned a ton watching as he worked through different muscle groups and pressure points. It was amazing to see where he was a little stiff/sore and then literally watch the sensitivity disappear through the acupuncture points. The deep sighs that he gave out after each adjustment, particularly the chiropractic ones, were telltale. Dr. Ridgeway was impressed by how even he is on each side and he only needed minor adjusting, meaning that he's been using himself correctly (yay!) He gets today off, a hack tomorrow, and then back to unrestricted work Thursday. He definitely feels good, he's been stretching, yawning, and napping all morning!
The remainder of this week will focus on more intense xc schools for both mares and Stew and preparing for the arrival of the rest of the Valinor crew on Friday afternoon! I heard they got more snow at home, it's 70 degrees and sunshine here again today!!! Stay warm up there!
I had the chiropractor/acupuncturist out for Beacon just to make sure he's feeling great and all tuned up for the season. Dr. Ridgeway was phenomenal and I learned a ton watching as he worked through different muscle groups and pressure points. It was amazing to see where he was a little stiff/sore and then literally watch the sensitivity disappear through the acupuncture points. The deep sighs that he gave out after each adjustment, particularly the chiropractic ones, were telltale. Dr. Ridgeway was impressed by how even he is on each side and he only needed minor adjusting, meaning that he's been using himself correctly (yay!) He gets today off, a hack tomorrow, and then back to unrestricted work Thursday. He definitely feels good, he's been stretching, yawning, and napping all morning!
The remainder of this week will focus on more intense xc schools for both mares and Stew and preparing for the arrival of the rest of the Valinor crew on Friday afternoon! I heard they got more snow at home, it's 70 degrees and sunshine here again today!!! Stay warm up there!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Aiken Adventures- New Cell Phones
If anyone has tried to contact me in the last day or so and I didn't respond please try again. My cell decided to kick the bucket on me and I'm just now sorting it all out. Sorry!
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Aiken Adventures- A Week in Review and Full Gallop
This has been a whirlwind week: lessons with Suzie, Eric, and Debbie; Joe came to town; a cross country school with Marissa, and three horses running at Full Gallop. I'm also in the process of finding a new jump saddle and so have met with countless saddle reps, sitting in all the saddles that were "best" for me. My lessons this week all went well, Debbie and I discovered that Beacon is rather sensitive with saddle fit and it directly relates how he jumps- one saddle that I loved he thought had too much pressure and started jumping defensively through his back- that one was tossed. Ahh... the adventures of saddle searching.
Full Gallop was a bit of a rough outing. Beacon's dressage was only average scoring a 37; he is so relaxed in the dressage arena these days that I am finding I really need to kick him to get forward. Who ever thought that big pony would become a kick-a-long ride! It's an adjustment that I need to make when competing him, but it shows he is more confident and relaxed in competition which is great. Show jumping, however, was a bit of a disappointment. He warmed up brilliantly; literally loping down to the big, airy 4' fences like a hunter and casually stretching into a lovely shape across the top. He didn't come close to touching a rail and I was super pleased so we stopped and watched a couple trips in the arena, and then I went to just jump another fence or two right before our trip. He stepped right up into a lovely working canter and loped down to the line. We were about five strides out from a big oxer when a woman walked in front of it and he just completely shut down, slamming on the breaks. His brain completely switched off and he went into manic mode, trying to race against the bridle and throw himself at the fences. Unfortunately, this all happened with only one horse ahead of us, and so I didn't have time to really break the cycle with a walk break and start over at the cross rail (which is what he needed). We went into the ring with him still panicky and took down more rails than stayed up I think. Disappointing to say the least, but what really is bothersome is understanding why he shut down. The woman that walked in front of the fence and stood at the corner of it, although distracting, should not have in any way fried his brain like it did. Discussing the events with Debbie afterwards brought up an interesting observation. In our lessons, the jumps that are consistently his worst are when she is standing in a close proximity to them, the ones he truly relaxes over are always where there are no people near. We're not sure what this really means, but it is certainly worth making a mental note of, and we plan on experimenting with this a bit in our next session, just to try and understand a bit better the psychology behind it.
Cross country, on the other hand, he was a superstar, as always. This horse is so completely confident out on course it is amazing. The Intermediate division was a bloodbath on Sunday: countless falls, eliminations, retirements, and withdrawals. Beacon rocked around a tricky track with ease, getting through all the hard elements effortlessly; it was just about a footwork perfect run. We picked up a little bit of last-fence-itis in the final combination of the sunken road, however, (not a question I was anticipating would be problematic), and picked up an unlucky 20. The question consisted of a house at the top of a hill, down the hill to a drop with a rolltop at the edge, land, one stride, turn 90 degrees right, and then a couple strides to a bank, one stride to a skinny. My plan when walking was that the large house at the top of the hill would set him up and balance him back so that we could jump it softly and just pad down the hill and through the combination. What I hadn't anticipated was that at that point in the course, after clocking through all the other hard stuff, the house at the top of the hill wouldn't back him off at all. He locked onto that house and SOARED over it which left us flying downhill towards the sunken road. I simply didn't react fast enough and he jumped the down portion of the sunken road boldly, too boldly, and the landing carried us past the turning line. I glanced right at where I was supposed to be going, sighed because I knew it wasn't going to work, circled left instead and continued on. In the future I need to remember that a simple large fence is not enough to back him off after such a stellar run and I need to do more a bit more. What a shame to rack up 20 simply because he was TOO bold. Regardless, I was very pleased with his xc outing. And even with a horrible show jumping and a circle xc he still finished in third (that's how much of a bloodbath it was). Now if I could just get all the pieces together on the same day....
Stew had a super first outing of the season, although his score doesn't really do him justice. He started his dressage warm up brilliantly- all businesslike and confidently relaxed. Then the warm up got a bit crazy and I thought I was going to lose him completely- we started doing piaffe and passage and couldn't simply halt or stand. He was at least starting to breath again as we circled the arena, and put in a very accurate and obedient test, but it was a bit conservative which the judge really didn't like (but hello! if I had told him to step a bit bigger he may have just stepped right up and out of the ring!) Even though I played it a bit safe I was surprised by the score (a 40!), and thought that the judge scored him a bit harsher than necessary. He was super and double clear show jumping, and very ride-able. In the last combination he got just a touch flat and so I asked him to wait and add a stride instead and he did with ease- that's a huge improvement, as before he would just lock on and go big and long when he wasn't in that perfect distance. Cross country (aka the Novice Olympics) he handled like a champ, although it did take him a few fences to get rolling in a confident rhythm. Once he clicked into gear though he was a rockstar: negotiating two big water complexes, a coffin, offset houses, banks, and even a trekhener! (See what I mean by the Novice Olympics?) All in all, a great first outing for Stewart, he will need just another run or two at Novice to make sure he can start out of the box as confidently as he finished through the flags and then he is ready for his Training debut!
Diem had the best mental readiness that I have ever experienced with him in a warm up ring. He started all business-like, soft, and obedient; and he was trying SO hard for me! I was really pleased with him- he didn't even bat an eye when another horse in the warm up almost crashed into him. Unfortunately, his physical readiness didn't match his mental state and he was just a bit stiff and even a touch unlevel at times. We opted to play it safe, even though he wasn't unsound, and scratch him from the remainder of the competition. For him, we know he can jump and do the flatwork- the biggest hurdle has been getting him mentally ready competition day and not tensing up in the warm up arenas- this he passed at Full Gallop with flying colors, even in a chaotic warm up! I was very proud of him, and very appreciative that he was trying his little heart out for me. Hopefully this state of mental readiness will carry through to his next competition.
So, not a bad weekend at all: each horse had some really stellar, progressive moments. This week has a lighter schedule for all with more specific focus on what each horse needs. The next competition scheduled is two weeks away- plenty of time to dig deep into some homework and still have time to polish up for the show ring.
Spring is fast approaching, and with it our return north to the Valinor home base. Stay warm and ride on!
Full Gallop was a bit of a rough outing. Beacon's dressage was only average scoring a 37; he is so relaxed in the dressage arena these days that I am finding I really need to kick him to get forward. Who ever thought that big pony would become a kick-a-long ride! It's an adjustment that I need to make when competing him, but it shows he is more confident and relaxed in competition which is great. Show jumping, however, was a bit of a disappointment. He warmed up brilliantly; literally loping down to the big, airy 4' fences like a hunter and casually stretching into a lovely shape across the top. He didn't come close to touching a rail and I was super pleased so we stopped and watched a couple trips in the arena, and then I went to just jump another fence or two right before our trip. He stepped right up into a lovely working canter and loped down to the line. We were about five strides out from a big oxer when a woman walked in front of it and he just completely shut down, slamming on the breaks. His brain completely switched off and he went into manic mode, trying to race against the bridle and throw himself at the fences. Unfortunately, this all happened with only one horse ahead of us, and so I didn't have time to really break the cycle with a walk break and start over at the cross rail (which is what he needed). We went into the ring with him still panicky and took down more rails than stayed up I think. Disappointing to say the least, but what really is bothersome is understanding why he shut down. The woman that walked in front of the fence and stood at the corner of it, although distracting, should not have in any way fried his brain like it did. Discussing the events with Debbie afterwards brought up an interesting observation. In our lessons, the jumps that are consistently his worst are when she is standing in a close proximity to them, the ones he truly relaxes over are always where there are no people near. We're not sure what this really means, but it is certainly worth making a mental note of, and we plan on experimenting with this a bit in our next session, just to try and understand a bit better the psychology behind it.
Cross country, on the other hand, he was a superstar, as always. This horse is so completely confident out on course it is amazing. The Intermediate division was a bloodbath on Sunday: countless falls, eliminations, retirements, and withdrawals. Beacon rocked around a tricky track with ease, getting through all the hard elements effortlessly; it was just about a footwork perfect run. We picked up a little bit of last-fence-itis in the final combination of the sunken road, however, (not a question I was anticipating would be problematic), and picked up an unlucky 20. The question consisted of a house at the top of a hill, down the hill to a drop with a rolltop at the edge, land, one stride, turn 90 degrees right, and then a couple strides to a bank, one stride to a skinny. My plan when walking was that the large house at the top of the hill would set him up and balance him back so that we could jump it softly and just pad down the hill and through the combination. What I hadn't anticipated was that at that point in the course, after clocking through all the other hard stuff, the house at the top of the hill wouldn't back him off at all. He locked onto that house and SOARED over it which left us flying downhill towards the sunken road. I simply didn't react fast enough and he jumped the down portion of the sunken road boldly, too boldly, and the landing carried us past the turning line. I glanced right at where I was supposed to be going, sighed because I knew it wasn't going to work, circled left instead and continued on. In the future I need to remember that a simple large fence is not enough to back him off after such a stellar run and I need to do more a bit more. What a shame to rack up 20 simply because he was TOO bold. Regardless, I was very pleased with his xc outing. And even with a horrible show jumping and a circle xc he still finished in third (that's how much of a bloodbath it was). Now if I could just get all the pieces together on the same day....
Stew had a super first outing of the season, although his score doesn't really do him justice. He started his dressage warm up brilliantly- all businesslike and confidently relaxed. Then the warm up got a bit crazy and I thought I was going to lose him completely- we started doing piaffe and passage and couldn't simply halt or stand. He was at least starting to breath again as we circled the arena, and put in a very accurate and obedient test, but it was a bit conservative which the judge really didn't like (but hello! if I had told him to step a bit bigger he may have just stepped right up and out of the ring!) Even though I played it a bit safe I was surprised by the score (a 40!), and thought that the judge scored him a bit harsher than necessary. He was super and double clear show jumping, and very ride-able. In the last combination he got just a touch flat and so I asked him to wait and add a stride instead and he did with ease- that's a huge improvement, as before he would just lock on and go big and long when he wasn't in that perfect distance. Cross country (aka the Novice Olympics) he handled like a champ, although it did take him a few fences to get rolling in a confident rhythm. Once he clicked into gear though he was a rockstar: negotiating two big water complexes, a coffin, offset houses, banks, and even a trekhener! (See what I mean by the Novice Olympics?) All in all, a great first outing for Stewart, he will need just another run or two at Novice to make sure he can start out of the box as confidently as he finished through the flags and then he is ready for his Training debut!
Diem had the best mental readiness that I have ever experienced with him in a warm up ring. He started all business-like, soft, and obedient; and he was trying SO hard for me! I was really pleased with him- he didn't even bat an eye when another horse in the warm up almost crashed into him. Unfortunately, his physical readiness didn't match his mental state and he was just a bit stiff and even a touch unlevel at times. We opted to play it safe, even though he wasn't unsound, and scratch him from the remainder of the competition. For him, we know he can jump and do the flatwork- the biggest hurdle has been getting him mentally ready competition day and not tensing up in the warm up arenas- this he passed at Full Gallop with flying colors, even in a chaotic warm up! I was very proud of him, and very appreciative that he was trying his little heart out for me. Hopefully this state of mental readiness will carry through to his next competition.
So, not a bad weekend at all: each horse had some really stellar, progressive moments. This week has a lighter schedule for all with more specific focus on what each horse needs. The next competition scheduled is two weeks away- plenty of time to dig deep into some homework and still have time to polish up for the show ring.
Spring is fast approaching, and with it our return north to the Valinor home base. Stay warm and ride on!
Monday, March 11, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Aiken Adventures
Delicious cappuccino and chocolate croissant for breakfast, a phenomenal dressage school with Eric in the sunshine, followed by a yummy lunch of fried bologna tomato and grilled cheese! Can this day get any better??? Headed back to the barn now to ride more ponies and then jump with Suzie this afternoon.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
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