Monday, August 30, 2010

Emotional Commitment

4:49am...Finally I am in my comfortable bed, looking at my very full inbox and already planning ahead work for the week before heading off to Ohio.

I had a lot of time to think about the future plans on the long drive home and as I was pondering I took a look at my horoscope just for fun and found it very intriguing...this is what it states:

"If the state of the world, or recent disappointments, or ongoing challenges are causing you to have a rather gloomy view of life right now, you need to find a way to restore your faith in your beautiful destiny. It's easy to get caught up in problems when they seem to keep knocking you down. But you have a purpose in life, and very soon you will have the chance to take on a very important mission - one that involves your reason for being. So pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and find the inspiration and motivation that will take you where you need to go."

Quite fitting in light of the past few weeks most recent events! I am very thankful for how things happened because they could have been worse, both Hannah B & myself made it home safely and in one piece, although slightly sore! I am already looking forward to seeing all my students this week, catching up on work, bills & emails, prepare for our next event this upcoming weekend and continue to try and plan for a season south this winter!

Not only is this sport my job, it is my passion, and something that I want to share with anyone who feels the same. This sport means a lot to me, I love my horses and my students, I am emotionally committed to what I do. I enjoy helping horses and people learn as they progress through the different stages this grueling sport requires. There are many ups and downs (literally) but we all have to pick ourselves up, dust off and move on! I look forward to the many challenges that will present themselves as I further embark down the road of trying to make it as an upper level event trainer in the state of Minnesota.

I would like to thank everyone for the kind words and motivation to keep on kickin!

Now it is time to catch up on sleep!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

try, try and try again...

Here I am yet again writting a blog that I wish could be written differently, but I suppose this is how lessons are learned. Hannah was nice and fresh this AM and ready to go. Our warmup was splendid and we came nice and forward out of the box and over fence 1. We had a nice smooth turn to #2 abig oxer and a lovely fence 3 out of the woods. We were a little sticky coming to #4 the weldons wall but that was due to off striding coming in so she had to quickly add another step and drifted slightly to the left. We jumped in well to the water at 5 and had a smooth turn to jump out over 5b the cabin. I set her up for fence 6, another big weldons wall which she jumped well but drifted left again on take off, a new problem as of today, she normally drifts to the right. We jumped well up over 7a a big brush to 7b a bank bounce to 7c a rolltop. We galloped on towards the second water and jumped the corn cob in well, popped over the brush on the island back down into the water on a steady 5 strides to the angled brush fence out. Galloped smoothly over #10 the turkey feeder and headed onto the sunken road which rode in a nice two to a two. We galloped down to the wagon which jumped well and onto our next cabin put in a short 5 to the brush then up the hill to the next cabin. We jumped 16 a cabin to set up for the coffin lovely and I brought her back to jump the verticle rail down to the ditch. I broght her back slightly too much so she had an awkward jump in and yet again drifted left. Popped the ditch and I really had to steer to 17c the skinny out which she was very honest adding a 3 and jumping out over the c element. We galloped onwards towards the corners 18 and 19. Jumped slightly up and down over the first corber and I sat up and pressed her for the four strides to the second corner which was a mistake. I should have either sat up and half halted for the 5 strides or circled out to represent as they were numbered seperate. Well anyway she went to add the 5 which wasn't there bc I pressed her up in the middle and she just ran into the fence, luckily she saved herself from flipping over the fence sideways but I got launced off of her left side into the ground with a loud pop as my airvest pin pulled out and quickly exploded around me. Hannah galloped off and pulled up not too far away as I scrambled to get my pinny off so I could loosen my vest and breath again. Laurie from xpress foto quickly ran over to assist and a golf cart was there immediately to bring me to my horse. We only had 5 fences left, a table, open oxer, another table, a rolltop to the final table, nice forward galloping fences that she would have easily done.

All in all you can speculate all you want about what could have been done differently but now I know what to need to work on. If you know Hannah she is high headed and can get very up and down in her canter. I need to think quicker while I am out on course. She schools so well at home but I need to know what to do instantly when I feel something go wrong. It would also help if I had an event trainer to work with on a regular basis at home but we just don't have any resources in MN. I hope to go and work with someone on more of a regular basis this winter in either Aiken, SC or Ocala, FL.

Overall I feel we are both very capable of the level we just have to start filling in the holes with some more skillful riding and knowledge. Unfortunately we don't get ton continue on this weekend but I am already starting to mentally prepare to take the pony preliminary next weekend at South Farm in Ohio. Hopefully I can learn from our previous fall at Wayne DuPage and you know, maybe stay in the tack at one of these upcoming horse shows. Hopefully spirits and confidence begin to pick up as the day goes on. You can't dwell on mistakes made for too long, take what you can and move on a better, more educated rider and go out there and try and try again! Stay tuned for updates at South Farm this following weekend! Thanks for all of the support!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Bring It!

As I sit outside my friends stall while she braids I figured I would have time to report on my dressage ride and go through my course. The smell of fresh shavings and hay wofts down the aisle. The weather is beautiful, not too hot yet and quite chilly at night.

Hannah is settled in and seems to have rested well last night. We arrived at the show around midnight and poor Hannah hardly had a good nights sleep before it was time to check in with the vets, braid and go in the dressage ring by 1133am. To say the least I had a very tired horse. She was well behaved in the warmup and tried to put in a good test. She jigged slightly in her walk but all in all she was a good girl, just tired so we did our best. The judges both scored very similar to one another both giving us a 58.52 for a total of 62.2 to put us in 22nd. Slightly better score then at Otter Creek CIC2* earlier this spring. Someday I hope to be able to get myself to my shows so that I can come with plenty of time for Hannah to recover from her haul, but I am very happy to just have gotten here.

I was able to get out on the cross country yesterday and check out our course. Not having done a show with Hannah since May makes the jumps seem large but overall the course looks like it will ride well. I need to go out and walk all my distances again and make a final game plan as well as have my coach, Philippa Humphreys, check it out. We start out of the box with a ramp down to an oxer, through the woods up a vertical log to a weldons wall. Next we head to the water and drop down a raised log drop bending line to a cabin. Number 6 is rather large, it is a weldons wall type fence but instead of a ditch there is a down bank in which they built up a large verticle brush fence to be jumped as one with a large landing downhill. Then we head on to a brush fence bending line up a bank bounce to a rolltop. We gallop on up the hill to the wnext water. We jump a corn cob round log across the water to a brush type fence on a mound in the middle of the water. And then a bending line to a skinny brush fence. After the water we gallop on to a turkey feeder and around to the sunken road. We jump a bench down the slight hill to go up the bank to another bench. Next we head to a large table to be followed by a skinnier brush fence in line with a larger brush fence followed by another skinny brush fence. Then we gallop on to our coffin with a skinny brush down to the ditch on to another skinny brush. Next we have two large corners set 4 strides apart onto a large flower table. As we head home we jump an open oxer to a skinny (but wide) table to a roll top and then our final large table shared with both Advanced and the CIC3*! This will be a good, challenging course for the both of us and we are ready for it! We are going to have to bring it!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Big Time...

Here it comes! The big time! I am about to head off to Richland Park Horse Trials to compete against the best. I will be running Hannah in the CIC2* against riders like Bruce Davidson, Mara Dean, Eric Dierks, Leslie Law, Phillip Dutton (on 2 horses!), Becky Holder and many other very accomplished riders. So now I am mentally preparing for the next days upcoming events. Most importantly is keeping Hannah happy, healthy and sound. We embark on our adventure tomorrow and arrive late at the horse show. My goals consist of putting in a steady dressage test, as long as I am happy with it I won't let my score bother me. A clean jumping round on the cross country, I will be very happy if we make it in with under 15 time penalties, but most importantly I just want to jump clean and take it easy. Both Hannah & I are very green at this level so I am more looking for a good experience then a blue ribbon...or with this competition any colored ribbon! I look to jump double clean in show jumping, I will have to ride very smart in all three divisions and make sure to stay in the center of Hannah and out of her way.

I look forward to trying to keep everyone posted, I will not have internet access as I am kickin it old school and sleeping in a tent, but I will have my phone! I would love calls of encouragement so please feel free to give me a call anytime! Now it is time to focus on a steady, consistent dressage test!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Long Road Ahead...

Despite a long day, long drive & late arrival, I am here typing up my blog!

The ups and downs of eventing are never ending, but very humbling and they are the reason that I enjoy this sport so much!

So the good or the bad first?...well not really bad so we might as well start there.

I headed off to Wayne DuPage Horse Trials this weekend with Juliette to run her second preliminary horse trial. We left on Saturday, arrived in the evening, settled in and schooled the flat and walked the XC course. Surprisingly the XC course was a lot more demanding then I had expected. Pony put in her best dressage test yet, although only scoring a 40 point something she felt amazing, counter cantered both directions and walked the entire walking section! She was jumping great in show jumping but the rails were flying for the whole division! We had a lot of challenging Preliminary questions on the XC. Bending lines, skinny after skinny! Our first water complex was at the "old water" and we had to drop in over a rolltop drop to the water, across to a cabin and a bending left hand turn to a right hand corner - pony jumped it fabulously! Our next big question was up a bank, one stride off a bank, one stride off another bank, and a few strides on a bending line to a triple brush skinny - once again the pony jumped it like a seasoned pro! She has no idea how big she really is! She flew over the large tables, jumped the barrels bending line to another corner very well, took what is normally the Intermediate drop into the Maui Jim water great, landed took two the three steps and unfortunately stumbled across some bad footing. After sticking with her a few strides trying to right myself off of her neck, I hit the water while the pony scrambled to not trample me just grazing one of her hooves across my face...nose is slightly sore and I think my shoulder may have popped out, yet once again so at least I know that will be fine! All in all we had only a few more fences, she did all of the demanding questions on the course perfectly but we had to walk away with a Mandatory Retirement because you are no longer allowed to fall anywhere on the course according to the new rules. She really proved herself to being a Preliminary horse, its just hard when a 13.3 hand pony loses her balance, there really isn't anything to hold on to! I'm sure I will be sore this week, but it all comes with the long road ahead!

Now on to the GREAT news!

Students Maria Filsinger, Abby Turnacliff, Marianne Kelly doing their C3 eventing ratings & Katy Turnacliff doing her C3 & B dressage rating, all headed off to Riverfalls, WI. On Friday, the eventing group did formals and flatwork including switch rides and all passed with flying colors! Saturday morning they started out with longing, once again all passing that section and then began gridwork followed by course work and switch rides. All 3 passed the gridwork. Unfortunately Marianne's horse was being rather difficult and they didn't pass her when the course work began. Maria & Abby finished up the day with successfully passing their C3s and Marianne experience one of the lows of horses, but now knows what needs to be worked on at her next attempt, because eventers (especially eventers!) never give up!

Katy Turnacliff passed her C3 dressage on Saturday afternoon and did her B on Sunday. She used Hannah B as a her switch ride and had a great test, also passing her B rating!

Congrats to all the Pony Clubbers!

Then Maria put Pete in the trailer, headed East on 94 towards Illinois to attend the Wayne DuPage Horse Trials...in which I plotted last minute after she told me she passed. Originally we were going to go to Dunnabeck Horse Trials later in September but we are unable to attend due to a Ralph Hill clinic the same weekend. About 2 hours into the trip they had truck problems, were delayed 2 hours and didn't get to the show grounds until 11:30 that night! Pete was happy to be somewhere, it was nice and cool at night and he settled in well. Maria put a nice dressage test in the next morning, yet like everyone else had a few rails in the show jumping but they had yet to face their true test, the cross country.

Pete's history of having water issues was either going to prove to be fixed or yet show its ugly face...having two difficult water questions was really going to put Maria's riding and Pete's confidence to the test! Maria rode beautifully and due to my unfortunate departure between fences I was able to watch her skillful riding through the 2nd water complex. She tactfully brought Pete to the trot to present him to the water, he sort of shy-ed and slowed down but jogged down the huge 5 foot drop like it was a small step, across the water and out the bank one stride over the coop. I was absolutely thrilled to be able to see Maria handle the situation the way she did, I couldn't have been happier for her! She was all smiles (minus her one sad face of sympathy for the pony's mandatory retirement) when she returned to the barn! We were going over her course as we walked up to check scores once the horses were taken care of and as I was looking at the scoreboard and chatting with another rider who had an unfortunate departure about our mandatory retirements I didn't even check yet to see what she had scored. She stood by my side quietly waiting for us to finish our discussion. I turned to the scoreboard and was absolutely thrilled to see she had won the division! I didn't understand why she wasn't jumping up and down spastically because as soon as I saw the results that is exactly what I did!

I am so proud of my students over the weekend, they all handled their outcomes very maturely, learning from new mistakes made and quietly enjoying "their moment".

I am looking forward to running Hannah in the Richland Park CIC2* next week (wow that time flew by!) and the following weekend the wonder pony and I will make another attempt at the preliminary level at South Farm HT in Ohio. We have a jam packed fall season and I am looking forward to it immensely!

Stay tuned for updates on Pony Club camp this week, Becky Holder's Jr. Developing Rider Program to be held at Trophy Hill, cross country schooling at Otter Creek and more exciting adventures!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Preparing...

There is nothing like seeing something you want and knowing that it is out of reach...

Horses can be so frustrating at times. Currently I am in the search of a individual that would like to help me out with my goals. I don't have the financial backing to purchase another horse and am hoping to find someone who would enjoy helping me achieve my goals of getting a young horse for the future.

Anyway, unexpected things can also happen. The owner of Juliette, the wonder pony, just informed me today that we will be heading off to the Chicago area on Saturday (yes, in like less then 3 days) to attend the Wayne DuPage one day. Good thing this weekend was open! As I am sure you have heard me state before, making plans with horses is no easy task. My goals with Juliette are to get four solid Preliminary runs under her belt (so far has 1) and tackling the CCI1* course at Midsouth 3Day in Kentucky in the middle of October. Of course this is no easy feat considering I am riding a 13.3 hand pony...although I will be the first to admit my level of confidence in her is quickly rising to equalling my confidence in my own 16.3 hand 2* mare.

It is great to finally have another horse (well a pony) at the upper levels. We are hoping to continue to progress in the dressage as that is not her strong suite and keep tackling the jumping obstacles as they are thrown at us. Stay tuned for our progress throughout the weekend.

As far as Ms. Hannah B goes, we are headed off on the 22nd to Michigan to stay at Philippa Humphrey's farm in Rockford for a few days and then heading down to Richland Park HT. We will be doing the CIC2* and my goal is to finish in the top third of our division. I have had great runs at Richland Park previously and hope to continue to. Last year we had 1 run out at a corner due to pilot error (of course!) but none the less had a great, successful, educational weekend. I will continue to update my blog as often as I can, feel free to give me a shout if it is not often enough! eventrider@lizlund.com

Stay tuned for posts on shows, sale horses, students and more!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Catalpa Corner Charity Horse Trials

Early Friday morning we all headed down to Iowa City to attend Catalpa Corner Charity Horse Trials owned by Susan Brigham and Jim McNutt. LLEventing had a large crew in tow, Liz was riding Juliette, owned by Katy Bloomquist Holub, at her first preliminary event. Keep in mind Juliette is the 13.3 hand grey wonder pony! Maria Filsinger & Pete doing their first preliminary as well, Abby Turnacliff & Ziggy Who moving up to the training level, Kelsie Holbrook & Tess moving up to the Novice level, Jen Johnson & Loose Cannon at their first show back since Jen's baby Sam, Morgan Samuelson & Ricky at their first show together competed at the beginner novice level, and Janelle Johnson & Royal Cootitan at their last beginner novice before they plan to move up to novice. As you can see we had quite the crew!

Liz Lund Eventing polo shirts came in, so we were all able to represent in style. We had a lot of comments on how great we looked and how much of a team we were.

As soon as we arrived the work began, unloading, filling water buckets, organizing trunks, cleaning tack, riding horses and teaching lessons. Friday afternoon involved everyone taking a dressage lesson and then doing course walks...to say the least I was a little tired after walking BN, N, T & P courses one after the other. We had some light rain on and off throughout Friday and it rained on into the night. We all headed off to eat dinner and get some sleep for a bright and early morning.

Arriving at the farm at 5:45am on Saturday I had to bathe and braid Juliette for her early dressage ride. She put in a great warm up on the grass and the studs I had chosen were of the appropriate size for the grass footing dampened from the previous night's rain and the morning's dew. As we began our final rounds around the outside of the dressage arena before we heard the bell, she became a little tense and tight, I did my best to keep her pushing into the bridle. We entered the ring and she put in a decent test, she flipped once in her counter canter which was immediately corrected, and rewarded for later, but over all had a steady test. The judge seemed to like the pony and complimented me for my soft giving hands even though the pony was tentative to accept the contact. We were generously rewarded a 37, to be 5th out of a competitive group of 20. I was pleased with Juliette's performance and we headed back to the stable to switch tack and put some larger studs in for some higher speeds and slicker footing.

We had a lovely warm up for the cross country. Everyone always is surprised when she enters the arena, you can almost see in their express "You are taking that pony at this level?!". She jumped well and was easy to adjust. We headed over to the start box and off we went. She had a great pace considering she has to take probably twice as many steps as the other horses in the division. She was great to everything, jumped strong into the water but I was able to hold to our bending line to the skinny. She handled everything like a champ and I am looking forward to stepping it up at a more challenging preliminary. She recovered nicely after the course adding only 7.6 time faults to her dressage score to secure her 5th place into show jumping.

The next morning she was anything but tired, she was bathed again (of course she loves her poop pillows) in the morning and then hand walked. As I tacked her up she was pawing at her stall ready to go! Again she had a lovely warm up, and jumped a double clear round in the show jumping which proved to be a tough course for a lot of horses and riders having rails come down and time on the clock. She finished 4th in her first preliminary, a very successful show!

I couldn't have asked my students to have performed any better. Almost all of them were moving up a level! Maria had a lovely XC round on Pete, he jumped into the water with out even questioning it, Maria rode it lovely preparing him for the drop in with a large trot circle. She had a double clean show jumping round and finished in 2nd place at her first preliminary! Abby Turnacliff & her horse Ziggy Who made the move up to training level and jumped clean around the cross country with only one rail down in show jumping to finish in 5th place. Jen Johnson and her horse Loose Cannon were back at it after delivering a beautiful baby boy and finished 4th in their novice division. Kelsie Holbrook & Tess made their move up to the Novice level to jump double clean finishing on their dressage score in 3rd place. Morgan Samuelson and her new mount Ricky, owned by Cindy Piper, competed at their first horse trials together at the Beginner Novice level and finished 2nd on their dressage score. Janelle Johnson and & Royal Cootitan (Ty) completed their final beginner novice, before preparing to move up to the Novice level, in style winning the division as well as the Madison Brigham Memorial Low Point Jr. award.

Congrats to everyone! Looking forward to our next adventure!

Stay tuned as Maria & Liz head off to South Farm HT in Ohio to compete Pete & Juliette at their second preliminary horse trials!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Midsummer Update

Alpine Farm hosted a hunter/jumper show in which we attended on June 25th. I brought Juliette, the 13.3 hand sale pony and showed her in the Level 2s & 3s. She jumped around very well. Student, Kelsie Holbrook and her horse Tess competed in the 0s, 1s and 2s and gained a lot more experience in the jumper ring.

The following weekend we headed off to Parkside Dressage show, also at Alpine Farm. Both myself on Hannah and Maria on Pete went to compete. Maria had a very successful weekend, winning all 5 of her classes at 1st and 2nd level with scores in the mid to high sixties. Hannah performed our first 4th level test, we had an amazing warmup with wonderful lateral movement and lovely changes but when we entered the ring she became a little tense. None the less I was very happy with her performance in the test as well as her 3 other 3rd level tests.

Attending our local jumper and dressage shows is a great way to get more ring time to help prepare for upcoming events.

Maria headed off to Chicago for Young Rider Camp with Pete and learned a lot of valuable information from her riding lessons to unmounted lessons.

The Liz Lund Eventing team has been working hard as we are preparing to head of to Catalpa Corner Charity Horse Trials July 30th-August 1st. Stay tuned for a horse show update!