Monday, January 30, 2006

Movin' up the levels...

Congradulations to Christina, Lauren and Jestine! Christina finished 2nd in the Jr Training at Ram Tap's CT and she and Lauren both finished their very first Preliminary competitions; it's a huge move from Training to Preliminary and both of these girls are making great strides. ALSO Jestine has a brand new horse that is not only a new addition but inexperienced as well, and she had a terrific first horse show experience...this will be a pair to watch for :)

This coming week is the Pomona Equine Affair; this "convention" is held Thursday-Sunday and is a terrific venue for anyone that has any horse love in any discipline.

Charly, Mark, Cimarron, and Griffen are heading out in the Davis's new elite rig for a road trip to Galway....let's see if we all did our winter homework!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Third times a charm

Today I was lucky enough to join some really good friends out on the golf course; hard to believe but as much as it appears that I eat, sleep and breath horses I do enjoy a few other activities! In all honesty I really think that I come up with some of the best training tactics for riding while doing completely non horse related things. Today is a prime example. My first attempt at tee-ing off this afternoon was a total success; this was much to my surprise as I haven't hit golf balls for at least two years and at that time I certainly wasn't a child superstar. Then as the holes went by I was fitting the saying "third times a charm" quite well. My first two tries to hit that silly white ball were always incredibly embarrassing, I would usually just miss altogether. Then low and behold on the third try I would hit it, and for the most part do a pretty decent job (ok for my level of golfing :) ) In a joking response, after all I had to try to defend this somehow, I admitted to knowing that if you don't get it done on the third try your day is over and you don't get any more play time. I said this in reference to cross country day; Everyone of us has been there, your horse stops at the ditch, you come around the second time and you just don't have all the pieces together and then low and behold on that third try you get that horse over the ditch witout any hesitations. So then we all gallop off wondering how come we couldn't do that the first time.
So today I pondered this question and presented it to myself for my actual golfing issues...the first attempt at hitting the ball I would almost always unbend my knees to early as I went to look up to see where the ball was going (after all whats the point in hitting it if you don't get to see the results!) This never worked well, it would always just top the ball of the tee and I'd look silly. Then the second attempt would involve about the same exept I think it was caused by my embarrassment over the first mess up. Always before the third try I'd review the few things I knew that I needed to be able to accomplish to actually make contact with the ball and get it up in the air. Low and behold that third shot worked!
SO for those of you that have contiued reading this far, you're probably wondering why I bother sharing about my sketchy golfing abilities; well as you would could probably have guessed I cut the golfing short to head back to the barn and get in some horsey time and during a lesson that afternoon I discovered a REAL correlation for this theory.
I've noticed the third times a charm rule in my students and hope to break this cycle. Think about some of your schools, how often do you get that great feel on your very first jump? How about your first canter transition? I personally challenge each one of you to do your mental homework BEFORE starting any pattern, transition or course...let's all try to be prepared the FIRST time and see if we can break the "third times a charm" curse that plagues us way too often..... We all need to dig down deep and give our horses the preparation they need in order for them to be able to perform for us. Let's remember this riding thing is a partnership and the horse's need us to prepare them properly so they can perform like the rockstars that they are. We've got a great talented group of horses and riders, let's show Area VI what's up!!!!
Good luck to our first set of competitors at the first show of 2006...hope to see everyone at Ram Tap cheering on!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Silver Rose lesson scheduling

Sunny skies in mid January gave us a great first day of lessons at Silver Rose! I am currently setting up lesson times and am hoping to be able to work with everyone's schedules. Monday's will definitely be a permanent lesson "day" out there, 4:30 is an elementary group and the rest of the time slots are still open so call to reserve your preferred time while it's still available :)
Currently I am also going out on the morning of the 19th and afternoon of the 21st....
Keep those ponies fat and happy :)

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Current use at Sport Equine

As of January 10th, 2006 until further notice...
Sport Equine will need to be used soley for the training of horses under the Davis's or my guidance. We hope this can be resolved soon... please call for details and any questions you may have.

Area VI Champion!

Congradulations Debbie and Cimarron! It's official she needs more shelf space in the trophy room :) I know I am going to need help remembering all of the exact winnings... let's see how I do ...
Debbie and Cimarron recieved the following for 2005;
Area VI Training horse of the year
Area VI Traing rider of the year
Area VI RIDER OF THE YEAR ---- that's for all levels!
USEA Training Adult Rider
USEA Training Horse of the year ....

Galloping into 2006

The new year started off in a real wet way, but that luckily didn't keep us from enjoying a terrific clinic. On January 3rd and 4th the Havarah group held a private clinic with MD eventer and horseman, Danny Warrinton. On a personal level, Havarah's Charly and Makers Mark and their rider (me!) recieved some much needed advice on how to allow the gallop and how to smoothly cover ground getting from gallop fence to fence. I was able to watch the entire clinic and was excited to see all the improvement in ground manners, flatwork, tactfullness, and xc riding. It seemed like all who attended had a good time and learned a ton.... stay posted for more clinic oppurtunities!