Hagyard's Midsouth CCI* w/ 2007!

Kentucky! I love being at the KY Horse Park, it feels like "the big time". Being able to ride on the same grounds as the ROLEX horses and riders gallop across in late April is thrilling. When you are at the KY Horse Park you feel like you are in heaven. The KY Blue grasses and absolutely beautiful, there are horses everywhere and you are with the people who share your same passion.

Of course KY is a long drive and I think I have stated many times how much I love road trips! I rode with Edee Lee and her mom Sue Slocum. This was the first year they added the Young Rider Championships at Midsouth. I was riding on a team with Edee Lee and Callie Judy to represent Area IV. (AREA IV Young Riders) We all were ready to do our best and bring home ribbons for Area IV.

I was very certain to make sure my horse was sound and she was clear of cuts on her legs so we wouldn't have to go through the cellulitis disaster like last year. I felt more then ready after a great Preliminary season this summer. I had ridden at the Minnesota Harvest Hunter/Jumper Horse Show the first week in October to give my show jumping an extra tune up. She was great and we successfully competed up to Level 5 (4feet).

On the ride down Edee and I went over plans of what we were going to do when we arrived, we had a lot of setting up to do because we had all of Area IV's gear, banners to hang and of course getting our horses settled in. When we arrived Sue went to get us bedding and we bedded our stalls and put our horses in their stalls, gave them hay and water and let them settle while we unloaded the gear. We had a tack stall so we began lugging gear into there, set up saddle racks, bridle racks and organized all of the other trunks, buckets and other miscellaneous items we had. After we unloaded everything and hung our Area IV banners we took our horses for a walk and checked in with the vets and made sure we had all of our paperwork in order and got our packets and numbers.

Since the adding of the YR Championships was new this year we were coach-less. I knew a great trainer from Michigan, Philippa Richards was there and I asked her if she could help us walk courses and be in the 10-minute box for us. She was great! She helped us the whole weekend, helped us figure out the roads and tracks and the steeplechase. Philippa gave us a great course walk for both cross country and show jumping. Her enthusiasm for us to do well helped propel us through the week. I am looking forward to working with her again!

Jogs were to be done Weds. I rode on Thursday and Callie and Edee rode their horses on Friday. We all went down to our jogs together and I was first to go. I did a few practice jogs with Hannah and kept her walking in the warm-up area. We were called and we jogged down the strip, walked around the flowers and jogged back down the strip. "Liz Lund and Lady Hannah B, ACCEPTED" Phew! So far so good! Edee and Callie both passed their jogs and we were ready for dressage. Later that day we took our horses for a hack through phases A and C of roads and tracks to familiarize ourselves with the marker locations to be sure we go through all the flags.

Thursday rolled around and I began getting ready for dressage. Ali Smallpage, from MN was here with us to help us groom for the weekend. She helped groom Hannah and get her looking gorgeous. She was freshly body clipped so she sparkled in the sun. I went down to warm-up and she felt great. I gave Ali my whip and began my rounds around the outside of the ring waiting for the whistle. When the whistle blew we entered the arena. Hannah felt great, light in my hands but rhythmically moving forward. We had a great lengthen across the diagonal and the rest of the test just seemed to flow together, it felt amazing! I came down centerline, halted and saluted the judges and gave Hannah a huge pat on the neck and let her walk out of the ring on a long rein. I was very happy with our performance and was eagerly awaiting our results. We walked around and watched the next test and then our score was announced a 53.3! I was very happy with our improvement on our dressage score from last year. I walked her back to the barn, un-tacked her and hosed her off, gave her some treats and checked her water.

Later on Thursday, Edee, Callie and I went out to walk our course and see what it was all about. The course was long, over 7 minutes! Hannah was really fit though and I wasn't worried at all about the length. There were definitely a lot of tough questions and big fences on course. Some of the course was the same as the year before but there were also new fences. I was ready to gallop across the ROLEX field as if I was riding in it.

Friday morning Callie and Edee rode their dressage tests and did pretty well. Callie received a 52.8 and Edee a 64. Later that day we walked the course with Philippa and she gave us really good advice on what lines to ride and just how our horses might react to certain fences. It was definitely helpful to have her there helping us along through the full format CCI. She also walked the steeplechase loop with us so we could scope out the big brush fences. We were set to go! I walked to course one more time that day by myself just to go over all my plans in my head and not have any distractions.

Dressage Pics: 53.3-4th Place

Walking the XC Course with Callie and Edee and looking at the massive ROLEX jumps that we will someday be riding over!Saturday morning arrives and we all head to the farm and get ready for the days events. I am the first to go our of our team and after the horses are fed and walked I get ready to go out on Phase A. I tack up, put studs in her and get my Area IV gear on. This was the first time I had ventured from my normal blue and yellow cross country garb and am representing Area IV with red, white and blue! I really liked the colors though so I was okay with it! ;) After I was all ready and got a leg up and walked around for a little while and headed towards the start of phase A. There was the count down and we trotted out of the box and I kept my eye out for all the markers and flags. We trotted along at a brisk pace and as we neared the steeplechase I did a little bit of cantering and headed through the A finish flags to the start box for Phase B.

3,2,1 and off we went out onto our first steeplechase course! I let Hannah out of the box and galloped towards the first fence. I just sat up a little and steadied her at our first fence making sure not to take away any of her stride and we flew over the first fence! There was a total of six fences and the steeplechase was two minutes long. We came in 9 seconds early and were just flying! I felt good coming in earlier as I had never done a course before. I came through the finish flags for B and went right into Phase C. I walked the first bit till her breathing came back then did a little bit of trot and headed towards the 10 minute box. Once we got into the 10 minute box, Phillipa was waiting to give orders. I got off of Hannah and my horse was gone. She was being walked and cooled off with water and checked by the vets. They took her TPR (temperature, pulse and respiration) right away and then let her walk and cool down. After we got her cooled down they checked her TPR again to make sure it came down enough to send us out onto cross country. Thanks to our hard work and conditioning schedule her TPR came back quickly. Philippa jogged her for the vets and her girth was tightened and I was thrown ontop. What a weird feeling to be going out on cross country with out having done any warm up fences in the arena. Philippa told me to ride her strong to the first couple fences since this was new to her.

First experience of steeplechase and it was a blast!

We headed to the start box and awaited our countdown. "Have a good ride" was heard and we were off. Philippa was right, I needed to ride her strong to the first three fences and then she figured out that we were on the "real" cross country course this time. We went through all of the questions without having any trouble, the combinations rode perfectly and we galloped over the open fences. We came through the finish with no jump penalties and no time penalties! What a great feeling! I hopped off Hannah and handed her off to Ali who was waiting at the finish to help cool down. We had ice buckets and her tack was removed, studs taken out and she was iced down and cooled off. She was given the "ok" by the vets to head back to the barn. I was all smiles! We had had a perfect Saturday!

Cross Country Photos: Log drop into water to a turtle in the middle of the "Head of the Lake" to a bending line out of the water to a corner.

Oxer in the middle of the field to a coffin fence which was a log one stride to a ditch bending two strides to a skinny.

Sunday morning came around and we were all getting ready for our jogs. I was hoping to her "Accepted" this year instead of "To the Holding Box". I groomed Hannah and got her braided and walked down for our jogs. I jogged her and anxiously awaited for the annoucement. "Liz Lund and Lady Hannah B, ACCEPTED." WHEW, we passed! We all hung around and waited for one another to jog and we all passed. What a great feeling! One phase left to go, show jumping.

Sunday morning Jogs

Waiting for the rest of my team to finish jogging.

We all go ready to ride, my division was to go before the JR division. I got all ready and Ali carried my hunt cap down to the arena for awards. I mounted and walked Hannah to warm-up. The warm-up was a little crazy and Hannah got a little frazzled and I did my best to keep her from shortening her stride, which she tends to do when she gets nervous. It was our turn to ride and we were currently in 3rd place after XC. I entered the ring, saluted the judge and picked up a forward canter. We rode through the course only having one rail so I was happy, she had felt a little tired in warm-up. We left the arena and hopped off her of and loosened her girth waiting for the other riders to finish. Once the other riders were done I put on my hunt cap for pictures and got back on Hannah. We were presented with a third place ribbon for our division! It was so cool! We took some pictures and did our victory gallop. Since this was a Championship show there were also awards for other divisions. I was also awarded 5th Place in the National CCI* division, Reserve Champion in the Adult Amateur Division, and Reserve Champion in the Young Rider (19-21) Division. We got to take home two lovely blankets! Callie and Edee finished their show jumping rounds and Callie received 8th place and Edee received 4th place in the CCI*-JR division. What a great weekend! Our Area IV Young Rider Team took home 3rd place! We all had a great weekend and lots of fun! I hope to run a full format CCI again someday but this may be the last with the disappearance of the full format throughout the country.

Area IV Young Rider CCI* Team: (L to R) Callie Judy, Edith Lee, Liz Lund

Presenting the awards for the Young Rider National Division 19-21, Reserve Champion

Victory gallop for the CCI* division: 3rd Place.

Otter Creek Fall HT 2007

So, I am trying not to be too repetitive in my entries, but there is only so much you can explain sometimes (especially since most of these entries are coming from just memory and records) I will try and keep it new and fresh for my readers!

Another awesome Otter Creek weekend! I love being at Otter Creek, especially in the fall, the colors are amazing. This year Otter Creek was moved back two weekends because AECs moved to Area IV and were on the original Otter Creek Fall HT weekend so the show was pushed back two weekends, making the weather unpredictable.

The weekend started out great. We had a lovely weather on Friday for dressage. We worked hard and put in a great dressage test receiving a 31.7 securing us into 2nd place by .4 penalty points! I was excited to try and do my best at the show and possibly take home another blue ribbon. Next we had to focus on XC, which looked very tough this year and proved to be very challenging due to the number of eliminations and faults riders acquired on course. The Preliminary and Intermediate XC was delayed for two hours due to rain.

Meaghan Marinovich & I waiting for the rain to clear so we can run XC!

My little sister, Maggie Lund playing with Hannah while we wait to run XC.

We finally got out and were able to warm up. The course looked really tough this year and people were having refusals left and right. Otter Creek added a new water this year. The preliminary second water was a jump at the edge of the water two strides to a jump in the water. The first part of the course was running great for us, we negotiated through the technical questions and flew over our straight forward fences. We had just come down the Preliminary bank question and were heading towards the new water, Hannah chipped at the first question so I decided to circle her since the two fences in the water were not related (they were numbered separately instead of A and B). I circled her around and presented her to the second fence in the water, I pressed her on for a faster gallop between the last few fences to make up time. Even with the circle we only had 3.6 time penalties giving us a total score of 35.3 holding our 2nd place standing with only a .3 difference between first place.

Sunday morning was beautiful, with rain forecast for the afternoon, I was thankful to be riding earlier in the day and miss out on the rain. I warmed up and Hannah felt good. I went into the ring hoping not to have a rail. We jumped a double clean round and I knew I had at least secured 2nd place unless the 1st place rider had a rail.

I know every rider has that feeling when they are able to move up a place easily with a rail that they secretly hope that the rider in front of them will have a rail. As terrible as it sounds I think every rider has felt that at one time or another. When that rail drops, there are mixed feelings. In my case this is exactly what happened. Since there was a .3 difference in our scores, a rail would make a difference. The rider in first had been jumping a very nice round and had a rail on one of the last fences. At the same time you are happy because you moved up to first place you also feel bad for the other rider. If you haven't been in that spot where the pressure is on and you make a mistake and drop in placing, you will and you will also realize that it is ok. Everybody makes mistakes and it will happen at one point or another.

With the first place rider having a rail, we moved up to finish in first place. It was a great weekend despite the weather and I was glad to have had a great year and felt more then ready for another shot at Hagyard's Midsouth CCI* in a few weeks.


After our double clean Show Jump round.

Trott Brook Farm Horse Trials 2007

Trott Brook! I love this show because it is so close to home and Kim and Kevin Voller (owners) are great people! I arrived to the show on Friday and unloaded Hannah and got her settled into her stall and unpacked all of my gear. I walked the course and tacked up Hannah for a dressage school. She was very good in the school and we were ready for the next day.

After staying up till about midnight and braiding horses I went back to the trailer I was sleeping in and curled up under the blankets. I woke up early the next morning to braid a few more horses and get ready for my dressage ride. We had a great ride and I settled into third place with a 34.1. We were ready for XC. Last year I had a runout at the corner on the top of the hill so I was determined to ride it and get over it the first try. We ran around the XC course and it felt great, a lot better than last year and we had great spots to most of our jumps. We came in double clean for XC.



The next day was show jumping. I was in first after cross country and the second place person was a rail behind me. The rider ahead of me put in a double clean round and I was determined to do the same. Our round was going great and we came to a triple line up a head that was a long one to a long one. We got a terrible spot to the first jump and I really had to ride to get through the line and luckily we left all of our rails up and jumped double clean and received first place! It was an awesome weekend!

Maui Jim CIC* 2007

Road trip to IL again! This was going to be great! Hannah's breeder from Kaeson Farms (www.kaesonfarms.com), Kae was coming this weekend to watch us. I was really excited to see her again! We arrived to Lamplight Equestrian Center and unloaded the horses and all of our gear. We were stabled in one of the back barns which is nice and relaxing. We took the horses out for a hack all around the show grounds. On Thursday we did a dressage school to prepare for Friday's test. She was absolutely fabulous!

Friday rolled around and I prepared for my test. I braided Hannah and sketched squares on her flank. I mounted and walked up to the warm up rings. Her warm up was amazing! She felt great and I was ready to go in the ring. I dropped off my whip with a friend because in the FEI test you are not allowed to use a whip in or around the ring. We began our ride around the outside of the ring waiting for our whistle to be blown to enter the ring. Things fell apart as soon as we began around the ring. She felt stiff and against my hand and short in her stride. Well there wasn't any time to fix anything major so I just tried to supple her as much as I could and we entered the ring. After our test I gave her a pat and headed back to the barn to un-tack.

Saturday was an early start with earlier ride times we had to get going right away. I fed Hannah, took her for a short walk and groomed her. I tacked her up, studded her shoes and made sure we had all of our gear. I mounted and made the trek over, across the road to the XC course warm-up. She felt great, we both LOVE cross country! It is our turn to start out onto the course and we wait for the 3,2,1 go and gallop out of the box towards our first fence! She felt great and we were flying around the first part of the course. We went through the first water complex and gallop across a galloping path to the coffin. A barrel fence two strides to a ditch one stride to another barrel, perfect! Next up was a coop to either a long four or a short five up a bank one stride across the bank to a down bank and three strides to a skinny. My plan was to go for the long four, which in turn ended up being too long for her. She split her legs going up the bank and skidded on her knees across the top and a flipped off onto the bank and then off the other side. She stood at the top of the bank and waited for me to get up. Cindy Burke, a friend and trainer from Iowa ran over and threw me back up. We hopped down off the bank and jumped out over the skinny and galloped on. The rest of the course road perfectly. I was bummed we had that slip up but it was un-preventable at that point. (It was also nice to school the complex a couple weeks later at Young Rider camp with Jonathon Holling).

We were moved into last place with our fall but I was still happy with her! We walked back and untacked and I gave her a few treats which were well deserved. Now I had to walk the show jump course and boy was I ever getting sore. The soreness just kept creeping up on me! We all went out to dinner and I could barely walk, but I was determined to ride Sunday and finish my first CIC*.

The next morning came and I crawled out of bed, surprisingly less sore then the night before. I took some advil to tone it down even a little more and fed my horse. I took her out for a quick hack before the jogs. I got all dressed up for the jogs and was hoping that the judges wouldn't send ME to the holding box, I knew Hannah was just fine! I gimped down the jog strip and back and listened for the judge. "Liz Lund & Lady Hannah B, ACCEPTED" Great! I got through the jog and now we had to get through the course. The course was in the large arena and I hadn't ridden in here since last year when we had a stop in the show jumping. The course looked great, it looked large because at CIC and CCI events the show jumping is a level higher, so really it is intermediate show jumping measured at 3'9'' instead of 3'7''. We have done some 4' jumper classes so we were ready for the bigger course.

I headed back to the barn and had to get ready right away because I was in last, I was first to go for the whole day in the large arena! All eyes were on me to see how the course road. I warmed up and Hannah felt great. We entered the ring, saluted and heard the whistle. I picked up a forward canter and headed towards our first jump. The course was perfect! I have never had such a great show jump round, we found all of our spots perfectly and the lines rode great! I was one of the few double clean show jumping rounds and was very pleased with both Hannah's and my performances. Another great weekend filled with learning!