Monday, December 31, 2012

The End of 2012 is the beginning of a New Year!!!

Wow...I can't believe today is the last day of 2012! This year really seemed to fly by! So much has happened it is has been a very, very exciting year! I don't even know where to start!

We had a great show season. A lot first time shows for students, Lucy ran her first Preliminary with Lainey Ashker, students got new horses, Maria went off to college, enjoyed a full year at our new barn, Elysium Farms, hosted some clinics, traveled down to Georgia for the AECs, horse shopping trips, new leases, fun trips, and even some fun non horsey activities including family vacations, volleyball, WOW, lake time, snowboarding and more!

I am so thankful for everyone around me. I look forward to a new fun year with everyone! We all have learned so much from this year and look forward to putting our new knowledge to use next year!

I have scheduled out most of the show season, but that is as far as the planning has gone. As far as Lucy goes, I am going to see what happens. I will continue to move her up the levels as we are ready. She sure feels great, now I just have to work on getting my trust back with her. That is the goal for the New Year! TRUST! You have to trust your partner!

I just returned from a family vacation in Colorado! It was a blast! I forgot how much I love being in the mountains...look out everyone I could totally see myself living there!! :) Hoping that we can do an LLE Ski/Snowboard day somewhere around the cities this winter! Stay tuned for that event to be planned!

We have been working hard already in the indoor. Some of us have been lucky to get out and ride in the snow on nice days too! Lots of no stirrup work, grid work, dressage, jockey stirrups and more...my kids sure know how to work hard! Everyone is determined to cram as much learning into our indoor this winter as possible!

I really want to thank all of the 2012 LLE supporters that donated money, time, trucks, trailers, help, driving, grooming, mentoring, lessons, clinics, and everything. EVERY LITTLE THING HELPS! I look forward to continuing to work with everyone in 2013!

Stay tuned for more regular updates. Working on putting some online topics for students, fans and followers for the long winter ahead! I hope to update more often in 2013 - feel free to keep me on top of it! I love hearing that people want another blog or want to know whats going on! HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Octoberfest

Hi everyone! We have been having a fabulous October so far! All of my students were fabulous at Roebke's Run Horse Trials! Unfortunately my Grandpa passed away on September 24th. He had a great service at Mount Olivet Luthern Church on Friday October 5th & then I spent some much needed time with my family. We had a great time going through Grandpa's old things & hanging out with our cousins!


Then we had a COLD & WINDY Roebke's Run over the weekend! It actually snowed on Saturday morning & everyone woke up on Sunday to discover all the horse's water buckets had frozen - poor ponies! It was a really fun show! Emily & Tess were running Novice and had great jumping phases finishing in 9th. Sammy & Cinder moved up to their first Novice, earned their best dressage score to date a 30 & jumped clean around the XC and SJ to WIN their first Novice - congrats! Makenna & Echo had a GREAT MN last show! Not only did she take 2nd place in the Novice, but she won the North Country Eventing Challenge and the Pony Club Challenge taking home a total of $3000! Congrats! Lily and Hannah had a great run at Beginner Novice and finished in 2nd - Hannah really loves to get out on the cross country! Ellis and Rugged had a good first outing in a long time at Beginner Novice, finishing in 3rd place. Olivia and Taco had another wonderful run at Starter and took home 4th place. Jodi & Oliver had a terrific first EVER outing (welcome to the Dark Side of Eventing Jodi!!) and were great! A few bobbles in the Dressage but was fabulous in the jumping phases and she even got to take home a 6th place ribbon! CONGRATS EVERYONE!!! Roebke's Run in October always has a fun competitor's party because, well it's Halloween & there is a Costume Contest! It was too cold for me to dress up as anything but a hunter, so I straped on my Camo and went to the party. The kids however really got into it! Sammy & Cinder were a Nerd, and won a 3rd Place prize, Emily & Tess were Dorothy & the Lion, Olivia & Taco were a Baby and Lily & Hannah were a LLE Super FAN!!! It was a blast and another really well run and organized event! Thanks everyone!


Lainey has been doing wonders with Lucy!!! She moved up to Training at Middleburg Horse Trials and won on her dressage score of a 29.1. She ran another Training at Morven winning once again on her dressage score of a 28.6!!! The plan is to move her up to Preliminary at the Virginia Horse Trials the first weekend in November! GO LAINEY & LUCY!!!



It is that time of year again! I just returned from a relaxing weekend Grouse & Bow Hunting in Remer, MN. It was a blast! I have fun going up North! Didn't see any deer, but I got another Grouse to add to my list! :) Hoping to head up to Duluth in a couple weekends to Bow Hunt there too!



We are now getting ready to head off to the KY Horse Park!!! We leave at 3am on Weds!! The girls are really excited! Emily & Tess, Sammy & Cinder, and Makenna & Echo will be going Novice and are all on a team and Ellis & Rugged and Lily & Hannah are going Beginner Novice and on a team as well! It will be really fun! Then I fly from Lexington right to VA to visit Lainey & Lucy! I am also looking for horses for a couple clients! It will be a fun trip! More to come after I get back in town on the SECOND half of the month!!! Ride Strong 2012!!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Onward & Upward!!

My oh my...I can't believe that time has gone by so fast that I haven't written a blog since SPRING OTTER!!!! YIKES!! Just having returned home from Fall Otter I have a bit of catching up to do! We will start off with a wheelbarrow photo...


Anyway - Otter spring ended up great!! Horses and students were fabulous! After Otter Spring we settled in and got almost all of the kids out at Carriage House Combined Test in June. Hannah won the Advanced with just one rail down. Lucy had her first Training outing with just one rail down finished in 8th. Emily had a successful outing at her first Novice on Tess with only one down. Sammy finished on her dressage score in the Beginner Novice to take 2nd place. Mia took 2nd on her dressage score in the Starter, Olivia jumped clear to finish 4th, Gabi jumped clear to finish 6th, Claire had one down and took 7th & Gabby and Cami finished their first show together with just one rail down! It was a great day for LLE! Congrats girls!

The kids and I had a lot of fun this summer! Lily also purchased her new horse - Boo Ya from Philippa Humphreys and looks forward to competing on him next season!


In June I headed off to Fox River Valley with Emma James & Lisa Borgia. Lucy's first training!!! She was fabulous! She scored a 30.9 and jumped double clear on the cross country and in the show jumping to move up to 3rd place! She was great around the cross country, the water was an easy question and she didn't even bat an eye! Maura Tierney & her horse Dylan finished 6th in their Novice division as well! It was a great weekend with great friends. I love coming to Barrington because I get to see my good friend Jordynn Sahagian and her mom Vicky!! They are always so generous! Lucy was very happy spending the night outside at Jordynn's! Love you!


July was a hot one and we headed off to Roebke's Run! Lucy was fabulous at yet another training - she won her division with clear jumping rounds with a lead of 11 points! Emily completed her first Novice ending on her dressage score, Maura jumped the ditch and took 8th place Novice, Kailey had a good outing at Novice, Sammy finished her first event ever on Cinder in BN taking 8th place, Rika and Jet also finished 8th in BN, Gabby also successfully completed hers and Cami's first show at Starter, Olivia and Taco took 5th in Starter and Claire & Ty 4th in Starter! First shows for a lot, new levels, new horses and many fun new experiences and memories! Many thanks as usual to my irreplaceable groom Maria - our last local show together for awhile :( She is off to Standford in less then a few weeks! So happy to have had her a part of my life & my team for so long! You will be missed! Thanks to all the adults too - you guys make the show and it wouldn't be the same with out you!!!


We had a little bit of a break the rest of July and focused a lot on training and skill work. We also had a lot of fun out on the Lake! I played a lot of volleyball and was able to enjoy the sun! I have also had a great time riding with Ralph throughout the summer at his various clinics!

Hannah at Ralph Clinic hosted at Jane Braddock's Farm.
Fun at Debbie's house on the lake!
Out on the lake!
Bucket of ice cream!
Birthday cake fight!
Gopher game with Mom, John & Jason.
Me & John at the game!
My grandpa, sister & Me!
More ice cream fun!
Chickens?
My first Warrior Dash!!!
Phone cover from Emily!
Rack City Volleyball Team! (L to R: Chelsea Janke, Katie Jones, Jenny Coleman, Kelly Galvin, Me & Maria Schafer)
Girls piling in the car to come watch me ride some training horses!
Learning how to wakesurf!
Catching up with my band on a road show this summer!
Summer tubing or "ubing" at Auntie Debbie's!
Vball champs!!! Go Flying Squirrels!

August brought on our busy fall season, it seems we have almost been non stop since then! The LLE Team headed to Otter Creek Summer for another great show of ups and downs. I unfortunately had a bad fall with Hannah which resulted in her retirement from the upper levels - but happy to report she is sound, healthy and LOVING her new job! Lucy was fabulous at another training & jumped right into both waters and finished in 2nd place. Sammy had an unfortunate stop to finish 7th in the JBNR division. Emily had another successful Novice finishing on her dressage score in 5th place. Claire and Ty won the Starter division with Olivia & Taco in a close 2nd! Congrats to another great weekend & a VERY fun competitor's party as usual at Otter! Thanks to everyone for all of your support & making another FUN show!!!


After Otter I returned back to Otter for their fall dressage show! Both Hannah showed 3rd Level bringing home ribbons each time - Lucy won all of her classes!


Next I headed off with both girls to Richland. I had Hannah running around Training just to give her a good run of confidence before taking on her new kid at the lower levels. She jumped great and clear in both phases. I LOVE THAT HORSE!!! Lucy was great in the dressage leading on a 24.6 and had one down in the show jumping. She was off on the cross country though and wasn't jumping well over anything. Had two stops at the first water and a dirty stop at the second water sending me off her shoulder. Another eventing weekend of ups and downs! Thank you so much to the Turnacliff twins for all of their help at the show! Abby was fabulous getting the girls ready, taking care of them, and helping me out!

Giant table!!!

Between Richland and the AEC's - Elysium Farms hosted a Ralph Hill Clinic & LLE Fundraiser. It was very successful! We had great rides over the two day clinic held in our large grass jump field and a lot of great donors came to the fundraiser! Thanks to EVERYONE who participated!

My trusty groom Maria arrived home from a month of school at Stanford and we headed out on our journey to Georgia for the 2012 AECs! You can follow our trip down with a variety of video blogs found on my facebook page - under the video section! It was a very exciting experience that brought on many changes! Lucy was naughty at the water again which resulted in my asking Lainey Ashker to take her back to Virginia with her to work on her "water problems". Thanks to the fundraising we did this was a possiblity and I have been enjoying regular updates from Lainey - including their win at Seneca Valley PCHT at the Novice level - dominating on their dressage score of a 26.5! Congrats and thanks for all of your hard work & time!!! Lucy heads off to Middleburg this weekend followed by Morven the next weekend at Training level - go Lainey & Lucy!


And now on to the most recent event - Otter Creek Fall Horse Trial!!! What a GREAT weekend - I mean I could seriously be satisfied with showing at Otter the rest of my life - the people, the facility, everything is just wonderful! It was weird not showing - one of the first shows since their first event that I haven't shown at! Maybe one or two in there over the years - but very very rare! Although having 9 kids at the show - it was nice not riding and being able to give 100% of my focus to them! They all did AMAZING too!!! In Novice Emily had a great run at Novice to finish in 7th place & Makenna Rold on Echo finished in 2nd! Beginner Novice Sammy took 2nd, Ellis Rold on Penny took 3rd, Gabi took 4th, Mia took 5th & Lily riding Hannah B took 7th! This was Lily's first ever event and Hannah's first ever Beginner Novice! Soon she will have ridden every level at Otter Creek! Olivia & Taco won the starter division with Claire & Ty close behind them in 2nd!!! I would say it was a MORE THAN SUCCESSFUL weekend for the Liz Lund Event Team!!! GO TEAM!!! You guys are awesome and I am SO PROUD of all of you!!! Thank to all of the adults for making the weekend possible - such a fun time and so many fun memories & new experiences! It is so nice to spend time with the other local trainers and see many friends. I look forward to these shows all of the time!!! Thank you of course to the Warners and all of the organizers and volunteers! Wouldn't be possible without you!!! Check out all of the photos on facebook - we had a great time at the competitor's party - fake eyelashes, colored hair spray, face paint, beads, glow sticks & dancing! Such a fun group!


Now we are on to Roebke's Run and Midsouth in KY! Two more shows & we plan to make them good ones!!! Onward & upward!

I promise more updates more often! Lucy will be showing soon too - stay tuned!

"Sometimes I’m afraid to live. Because when you live you lose, but you also win. And those times you win, make life worth living."

Ride Strong 2012 - Onward & Upward!