Saturday, May 19, 2012

OCF Spring 2012 Fri/Sat

Well lets start this blog off with saying...no matter what Otter Creek has always been my favorite show. The people, the farm, the courses, everything. There is too many things to list. First of all, OCF is close to my heart because it is like a second home to me. I went to school at the University of WI - Stout in Menomonie WI and kept Hannah at OCF. I grew very close with the Warner family. It is fun to see the younger generations of OCF kids thriving off of the Warner's knowledge and generosity.

Friday was dressage day. So Hannah knows what her job is when she comes to Otter Creek...and well she definitely doesn't think that it is dressage! We scored a 48.8...the walk was virtually non-existent, and instead it consisted of half rearing, left foot stomping, jigging and head shaking from C-A in well some sort of a diagonal across the arena earning us a well deserved ummmm 2...anyway that put us in last to say the least! I can't help but laugh at that mare sometimes! She is too special for me to worry about her dressage score! As long as she is still happy, sound, fit, jumping well, and teaching me then I guess she gets away with a little bit more than the red mare!

But the red mare picked up her older sister's slack, put in a lovely test scoring a 25.5, placing her first in her final Novice! She is ready for her move up, just trying to figure out which show I'd like it to be at. The debate is between Silverwood, which unfortunately is the same weekend as a Ralph Hill Clinic, or Fox River Valley, which is the following weekend in June. I'm guessing FRV will win because I can't skip out on the opportunity to ride with Ralph! Thanks to Alison for helping warm up both the girls!

The BN kids did well in show jumping both Emily & Janelle jumped clear rounds! So proud of those girls! Both are showing new horses for the first time!

Saturday - the best day of the weekend - was amazing! This weather we have had has been amazing! Almost too hot for what we are used to though! The day started with Lucy! This whole weekend she has been a little odd in her stall, a little frantic, restless, but loves to be around people, she falls right asleep in your arms. Maria showed up in time on Saturday to help out for the day, after 2 hours of sleep after her Senior Prom! Yikes - don't know how she does it, but she does & that is why she is the best! She had all of the other kids running around with tasks helping out as well. Everyone on the LLE team is SO helpful! Lucy warmed up great, was jumping really well! She ran around the course with ease and didn't look at ANYTHING! Not even the two waters! Go Lucy! She galloped everything easily out of stride and we are excited for her big move up to Training!!! She put in a double clean round!

The Novice riders, Maura & Kailey all went later. Unfortunately Morgan's pony Ricky came up lame Sat AM with an abscess! Bummer, but she was such a good sport, stayed positive and cheered on and helped the rest of the team! Maura was having a great round till a scuffle at fence 10, the ditch. Unfortunately, EACH step back and then forward then back again counts as a refusal, so even though she got him over the ditch and the following B element, she was pulled up an Eliminated. Kailey had a GREAT round on Nokomis where she jumped everything with ease!

Hannah the Machine! She is now a "wild" horse in her young age in warm up! She shakes her head and jigs around ready to go! Jumped a few nice warm up fences and off we went! Galloping the fastest I've gone and jumping EVERYTHING out of stride! A little tight in our B element in the first water, her stride has seem to lengthen SO much over the winter - which is great! She was spot on to everything, and VERY honest to her skinnies! She loves XC! Although she had 15 time faults - I swear that was the fastest I have run her! I couldn't have gone faster! Now here's to having a good show jumping round tomorrow!!!

Then the BN kids were off to do some XC! They both had GREAT rounds. Emily jumped clean on Tess and just like she was told went nice and slow (because Tess is known to go quite fast!) and actually acquired some time faults but finished 7th overall! GREAT job! Janelle had an unfortunate stop, but other then that Cleto was very good to everything else! She finished in 10th! Congrats girls!

Photos to come later! Now that I am showered and clean - we are off to Otter's amazingly fun competitor's party and to walk the show jumping course! I'm ready for a little bit of dancing then a lot of sleep!

RIDE STRONG 2012~

Go Otter Creek!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Forward Balanced Rhythm

Foward.

Balanced.

Rhythm.

That is our goal as riders. Not only on our horses, but in life as well.

We had an AMAZING weekend in Lexington KY at the Kentucky Horse Park watching the top competitors in our sport dual it our for a chance at winning the watch at the ROLEX 4* 3 Day Event.

Thanks to The Shirley Family & Tracy Adams Kooman for allowing me this wonderful experience. The weather was absolutely wonderful. We had a great group! We also saw other friends, students and many, many fellow eventers and fans there. Nothing re-energizes you more like going and watching these amazing athletes (both horses & humans) gallop miles across the beautiful horse park, jumping fences that are as big as cars!

Someday I hope to have a crowd there watching me gallop across those beautiful rolling hills!



Shortly after returning from ROLEX we loaded up and headed south to Iowa City for Catalpa Corner Charity Spring Horse Trials. I brought Lucy to compete in the Novice A division. She was fabulous. I thought she was going to be a little hot in the dressage because all she wanted to do in the warm up was extended trot and passage...but she was perfect in the ring! Very steady. She earned a 30 to put her in 3rd place in a tough trainer division. Due to the bad weather and all of the rain, they changed the format of the show so that we would do everything in one day. We were to head right from show jumping to cross country. Next time that happens I will be sure to put on Lucy's show jumping boots first! We had two rails down in show jumping on a tough course, where many others were having rails. She was double clean on the cross country and bravely went into a tough water complex! Hopefully that means she is growing up! One more Novice then the plan is to move her up to training! She finished 3rd overall in her division. We packed up and headed home to arrive just in time for a crazy lightening and rain storm. By the time we all settled in at home we were ready for a quick warm shower and hopefully in bed by 330am! Successful weekend!



This weekend was perfectly amazing! The weather was absolutely beautiful and we crammed so many fun activities into the weekend! First it started with a great Friday night at the farm with lessons and rating prep. The kids were great helping one another out and helping each other get horses and equipment ready for the next day's Pony Club ratings. Saturday morning was an early one for them as they all worked hard to pass their ratings - which they did! Congrats! Then we all headed down the road on horse back to the Polo Fields where the Long Lake Hunt was hosting a Steeplechase! It was a BLAST! The kids had so much fun! It gave everyone, riders and horses, the confidence they needed in the spring! The weather was amazing and you couldn't have asked for a nicer crowd of people! Sunday, Mother's Day, we all went off cross country schooling at Deb Stern's beautiful farm Meadow Breeze. Again - the kids were all great! More then willing to do everything, horses became braver, kids a little more cocky and everyone left on a great note!



On a different note - Bracelets came in! $10 each - let me know if you want one! Here are the photos of them:


Also I am doing another order for clothing - just sent out an email! If you did not receive it and would like to put in an order - please contact me and I can send you the information! eventrider@lizlund.com

So now the final days count down this week until Otter Creek Spring Horse Trials! We all had a great tune up this weekend and I really am looking forward to getting Hannah out! I have gotten a lot done in preparation due to this nice spring weather and feel really prepared! Hannah is nice and fit, a little crazy, but fit! Lucy is all ready to do her best after her Catalpa warm up show. I know these weekends are going to fly by as they are packed with fun and (hopefully) nice weather! A typical XC run at Otter Creek Spring involves some sort of a down pour at some point in the day on Saturday...usually when the upper level riders are running! Hoping for sunny weather and a cool breeze!

The next weekend, Memorial Day Weekend, we are headed off to the Schweiss Farm to go Cross Country schooling! It is open to anyone - please contact me if you are interested in riding!

My game is all that and more.

"When the game is over I want to look at myself in the mirror, win or lose, and know I gave it everything I had." - Joe Montana

Keep up the hard work - RIDE STRONG 2012!