Getting Comfortable with the Uncomfortable - OCF Fall Recap

Otter Creek Fall Horse Trials was a success. I had Lady Hannah B running in the Open Intermediate and Juliette in the Open Preliminary. I had a lot to overcome as I headed into the weekend.

After having the last couple horse shows not go well, I was more nervous. Having prepared with lessons and the Ralph Hill clinic the weekend before, I knew that both myself and my horses were more then capable to conquer the upcoming challenges. One of the most helpful things I have learned going out and doing things that I am worried about, is understanding that the feeling of being uncomfortable, isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is just something you have to get comfortable with and know how to handle your reactions. "It’s not the situation but how you respond to it that makes the difference; it is within your control."

A book that I enjoy reading when I feel more nervous then normal is "Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence" by Gary Mack with David Casstevens. It is all the inspiration and encouragement I need to put myself in a better mental state. Although the book does not relate directly to eventing, the stories and quotes from the world of professional athletics can easily relate. Just like in horse back riding, you need to be able to control your thoughts heading out on your horse, whether it is into the dressage ring, the start box or the show jumping stadium. My favorite quote from the book is "You have to learn how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable."

We all know how much preparation and work goes into getting ready for one weekend. Weeks of hard work, gallop sets, dressage lessons, jump schooling, hacks and more. If you don't put in the work before hand, you can't expect to get out on the field and perform your best, and it isn't fair to your horse to not prepare them adequately for the game. "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."

The book also talks about goal setting.
SMART Goal Setting:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Time-bound
I had some very specific goals for Otter Creek. It wasn't to go out and win, it was to go out and perform my best. I had to overcome my latest fears of the potential to do bad. Because of my last falls, I had a lot of "what ifs" on my mind and I needed to clear my head of everything and go out there and do what I knew I could do, and that was put in a clean jumping round on the cross country. How did I know I could do it? Because I trust in my abilities to not over face myself, or put myself in a position that I am not ready for, and I knew I was ready because I have done it before. I had to push myself to take any self doubt out of my head, and replace it with confidence and self assurance that I was very capable of reaching my goals. "I may win and I may lose, but I will never be defeated." - Emmitt Smith.

I arrived early Thursday morning after a 2 hour drive in the pouring rain. I unloaded the horses and set up their stalls and organized the tack and feed stalls. I had special permission to walk my courses so I went over them with Kati Bodin and we came up with a game plan for each question. I then returned to the barn, soaking wet...literally all the way through and put on jacket number two. I tacked up Hannah B and headed out in the downpour for a dressage lesson from Alison Sader Larson. Hannah was great, as one dressage judge once wrote on my test "Good Mudder." I returned to the stable to put on jacket number three and wait for more students to arrive so we could work, again in the rain.

After the rest of my students arrived, we did lessons and then I rode Juliette. We settled the horses in for the night and hoped the weather would change overnight. Friday held early morning rides. Students Abby Turnacliff, Ashley Reut and Kelsie Holbrook performed in the Jr. Training Division dressage putting in good tests. Abby and Ashley competing for the 2nd time and training level and Kelsie moving up for the 1st time. I rode Hannah in the competitive Open Intermediate division and scored a respective 38.8 to put me in 4th place. Maria Filsinger and Pete put in a lovely dressage test to take the lead on a 34.8. Juliette put in a great test earning a 41.7 for a three way tie for 9th place. Morgan Samuelson & Ricky, Savannah Ruhs & Curb Appeal, Jen Johnson & Loose Cannon, Janelle Johnson & Royal Cootitan, Jessie Longe & Phoebe, and Kelsey Longe & Dance By Me all were riding at the Novice level and had good tests for the day. We were all looking forward to the cross country!

The weather report proved wrong, and we had sunshine on Saturday. We were all thrilled with the new forecast and although it was cold, the sun began to warm everyone up. Training was first to go for the day, so I warmed up Abby, Ashley & Kelsie and sent them out on course. Abby had an unfortunate fall at the fourth to last fence when Ziggy chipped in but didn't get his legs out of the way in time and the momentum sent Abby over his shoulder. Prior to her unexpected dismount she had a great round! Ashley & Rory had a wonderful round with one unfortunate stop at the ditch and wall but only added 5.6 time faults to their score to put them into 9th place. Kelsie had a wonderful first cross country experience at training level with a clear round putting her in 7th place.

Next was the Novice riders. I sent out Morgan, Savannah, Jen, Janelle, Jessie and Kelsey out on course. Unfortunately Savannah had a unplanned dismount into the second water complex, and Jessie at a dock fence out in the field. Although both riders were disappointed, they pushed on and helped the rest of the team out. Morgan, as expected, came in a little too fast on the speedy pony Ricky, adding 4.8 speed faults to their score, but Morgan now understands how important it is to maintain a steady pace and not run too fast (but nonetheless she was definitely having fun!) Janelle jumped a clean round to move up to 1st place and Jen also put in a lovely clean round moving her from 14th to 8th place. Kelsey also jumped a clear round moving them up to 6th place.

Next up was the Intermediate division. My first test of the day was to navigate Hannah clean around the Intermediate course. I had cleared my mind of any doubt or "what ifs" I had and put in my head visualizations of how my ride would go, positive thoughts only! After a great warm up we headed to the start box where Hannah jumped up and down in anticipation to get out on course. We galloped out of the start box and towards fence 1. We jumped clean and clear and headed out towards the upcoming questions on course. Our first question was fence 3, to 4A/B. We had to jump a vertical brush fence bending left hand turn to a triple brush skinny set at the top of a hill on a forward four stride to an even skinner triple brush skinny. Hannah navigated the question and galloped on to fence 5, a skinny cabin. We jumped the cabin and headed towards the water where we had a fence down into the water to another one on the mound back into the water. We headed to the picnic table to set up for the sunken road and jumped the bounce in, down the bank two strides across up the bank to another bounce out and ran on to a large table to a skinny cabin and down the hill to the second water complex. We had a large log drop in to a corner out. Next up was the weldon's wall, Hannah is so honest, I put her in right up to the ground line and she jumped on over. We headed towards another table in the woods to the down bounce banks on a bending line to a corner. We head to a vertical ramp on the tree line to the campfire vertical in the woods. We gallop up the large hill to a roll top and slowly slide down the backside to a triple brush skinny. Onwards we gallop to another picnic table and around the dressage ring to the coffin question, a ramp set on an angle one stride to a large ditch and two strides to a large brush vertical out on a bending line. After completing our last question we jumped the bench, the ramp and the final bear vertical and crossed the finish line. I was so happy that I was able to put myself in the right frame of mind to get through the course. Although we came in slow adding 23.2 time faults to our score, I came and did what I had set out to do, jump a clean cross country round. I was more then happy and my clean round had moved me up to 3rd place.

Next up was the Preliminary division, Maria & Pete were first to set out. Maria came up with a plan to ensure no eliminations at the water, which have been an ongoing issue of Pete's even before we purchased him. Maria put in a lovely round with only one refusal at the second water, a very good round only adding a few time faults to their score. I was very happy with her performance, we still don't know why Pete won't go into some waters and why he will go into others without even looking, but Maria has done a great job of working on building his confidence and getting him solid at the Preliminary level. Over everything else he is a machine, jumping everything out of a stride and not blinking an eye at anything else. We will keep working on him so look out for the two next season!

Then it was Juliette's turn to run around the course. Galloping up to the massive 3'7'' fences, that can be brushed up to 4'3'' with heights across the top up to 4'7'' and at the base 6'11'' with drops up to 5'3'' in height can be quite intimidating on a pony that is only 13.3 hands. But I couldn't ask for a better Preliminary Pony! She has so much power in the little body of hers that these preliminary questions are easy for her! She galloped out of the start box towards our first ramped roll top and flew over it, jumped up over the bike rack and over the large roll top towards a large ramped brush fence. Galloping on to fence 5 a skinny table and then a large roll top before the water. After galloping into the water we jumped the Otter and ran out of the water complex towards the large picnic table at the top of the hill shared with Intermediate before the sunken road. We jumped a coop one stride down the bank onto the road across to another vertical coop. We galloped on up the hill to a large table and then over some cabins back down the hill towards the second water complex. We had to drop into the water and gallop across to a vertical ramp out of the water. We then crossed the field to the large bridge question to the double bounce banks up and into the woods to a corner. Our of the woods to another vertical ramp on the tree line and to the camp site to jump two tents on an angle. We put in a lovely two stride and galloped up the large hill over a roll top at the top, slide down the hill to drop down a log drop and gallop out of the woods to another large picnic table (even bigger than the first and also shared with Intermediate) around the our coffin complex which was a roll top in, two strides to the ditch and one stride out over another roll top. We completed the course jumping the bench, the ramp and the vertical log and galloped across the finish line. I was so proud of Juliette, putting in a great round and adding 18.8 time faults, coming in faster then most of the larger horses in the division! We moved up from our 9th place tie to 4th place.

Overall the Liz Lund Eventing Team had a very successful day! I would like to thank everyone who helped get my horses ready and take care of them after my rides! The competitors party on Saturday night was a blast as usual, dancing on the picnic table, chatting with friends and fellow competitors around the bonfire and just hanging out reflecting on the days events and prepare for tomorrow's challenges in the show jumping ring.

Show jumping started at 8am when there was still frost on the ground. I warmed Hannah up and headed down to the ring to watch. Rails were flying left and right as we had to jump over a "pink course" sponsored by Jumps 4 Joy...which proved to be a challenge for just about everyone. Although I had 3 rails on Hannah I maintained my 3rd place position, which isn't common, so that right there tells your how many issues everyone had with the course! Overall I was very pleased with our performance over the weekend. A great way to end the season. I am looking forward to working this winter to improve even more for next seasons challenges.

There were 156 competitors at the horse show, and there were 1060 jumping faults throughout the day on Sunday, majority of them being rails and some of them being stops. I did the math for Poplar Place September Horse Trials, the same weekend, which had 206 riders and only 648 jumping faults throughout the day, which I also assume some were stops but most were rails. Obviously something was going on with our Jump 4 Joy jumps! I looked for reviews online but couldn't find anything. So far my experience with the Jump 4 Joy jumps has not been positive. The horses, even if they are jumping well are punished for doing their job. Despite this being said, we put in the best rides we could throughout the day.

Lady Hannah B finished in 3rd in the Open Intermediate division. Juliette 4th in the Open Preliminary with Maria Filsinger & Pete in 7th. Kelsie Holbrook & Tess finished 6th in the Jr. Training and Ashley Reut & Rory finished in 9th. Jen Johnson & Loose Cannon took 7th in their Novice division, with Morgan Samuelson & Ricky in Jr. Novice, with Janelle Johnson & Royal Cootitan finishing just outside the ribbons in 9th place at their first Novice event and Kelsey Longe & Dance By Me taking home the 2nd place spot in the division. Everyone had a lot of fun, it is always great when we all can get together and support one another over the weekend.

I would like to thank everyone for making the 2010 show season a successful one! I have come out of the season a better rider and teacher! I look forward to working hard this winter towards improving for the 2011 show season! Look out because Liz Lund Eventing is going to hit it hard this winter!

On another note, I will be staying in Minnesota this winter and am available for training and teaching either at my farm, Trophy Hill Farm or am willing to travel. I hope everyone continues to take lessons and set new goals for next year!

I will try and continue blogging throughout our training this winter. Stay tuned for updates on schooling shows and clinics this fall! Kick on and get over it!



Mind Gym Quotes-

“it takes years of hard work to become an overnight success”

"Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it lit"

"Create your own mind gym visualizing yourself overcoming mistakes and doing things well"

"Focus on the task – do not let negative thoughts intrude"

Derby Days!

We finally had some beautiful weather! I think I actually got some color back on my face! It felt good to be outside all day in the sun with a great group of people. Jean & Walter Kunz hosted a Derby at their farm, Steepleview Farm in Delano, MN. It was run great, thanks to everyone who helped out!

I had a lot of students riding, some of them it was their first show! Skye Lundahl, Mia & Gabi Geraci, and Olivia Shirley headed out and each did two rounds on the Starter course. They all learned a lot and had a lot of fun riding, watching and helping everyone out. Next was Alex Lundahl on a new pony, Savannah Ruhs, and Emily Shirley riding at Beginner Novice. They both had a blast figuring out their mounts! Janelle Johnson, Jen Johnson and Savannah Ruhs navigated the Novice course, figuring out the challenges of a higher level and navigating the course beautifully. Kelsie Holbrook, Jen Johnson, Maria Filsinger and myself competed in the Training division. We all had a blast and it seems the pony is back on her game after a slight bit change and some more schooling, she came in first place!

Tomorrow we head off to the Schweiss' farm in Hector, MN to go cross country schooling in preparation for Otter Creek. We are all looking forward to our "hometown" show in a few weeks! Liz Lund Eventing will have good representation! Stay tuned and kick on!

Pushing Forward

To say the least I feel stuck in a rut. The last 3 shows have not gone quite according to plan. Yesterday at South Farm was not an ideal day at a show. The rain was pouring down in sheets as it was maybe 50 degrees. It was cold and wet and miserable to say the least. Juliette's dressage was pretty good for her! She was relaxed but kept trying to leave the ring and head back towards stabling... She definitely did not want to be out in the rain and wind! We got a 38.7 - anything under a 40 is pretty good for the little pony!

Maria's horse Pete was pretty stiff and flipped in his counter canter, the judge was very unforgiving and gave her a 40. We headed back to our stalls to try and dry off and get ready for the XC. It was raining hard while we warmed up, you could hardly see and it blowing like crazy. Juliette was jumping fine, but once again kept trying to head back towards the stabling. She just didn't feel on and like she wanted to be out there, not a good feeling heading towards the start box! As we headed out, she felt under confident, backing off at the first few fences, I retired her after fence 5, knowing that what I had underneath me could become dangerous as the course progressed. I would rather be safe and sound to try again when she is more on her game.

Unfortunately, Pete would not go in the water. He stopped at our A element, a cabin followed by a one stride down a bank. He jumped on the second presentation but stopped and backed up, went forward and backed up again down the banks causing the jump judges to excuse them from the course. We decided it would be best for us to head on the road as soon as possible, so we packed up, stripped the stalls and headed out on the road. We stayed again at Vicky & Jordynn Sahagian's in Barrington, IL.

After sleeping in until 8am this morning, we ate breakfast and then headed to the Barrington Riding Center to do some XC schooling. The weather was great, cool and sunny. The horses felt refreshed and happy to be out. We jumped a few fences, and the pony felt "normal" again which was comforting. Peter went right into the water as well as a creek we found to walk the horses through. All in all, it ended with a great school as we prepare for the next Preliminary at Otter Creek Fall Horse Trials.

Though the team took a hit again this weekend, we will keep pushing forward and working hard to achieve our long and short term goals.

This weekend holds the Eventing Derby at Walter & Jean Kunz's farm in Delano, MN. A lot of first time riders will be doing their first show! It will be a blast! Sunday we head off to Hector, MN to the Schweiss Farm to go cross country schooling in preparation for Otter Creek.

Stay tuned...chin up, heels down & keep kickin!

On the Go

We finally made it to Ohio...only two temporary breakdowns yesterday and a minor stall today, just to have the repair men tell us they don't know what is wrong with the truck...oh well, the truck chugged on and we arrived, after 15 hours of driving at South Farm. A huge thanks to Vicky & Jordynn Sahagian for letting us lay over at theirlovely farm in Barrington, IL!

We unloaded the horses, our stuff and checked in. We walked our course as the sun went down, checked on the horses again and drove over 45 minutes to our hotel...this driving thing is getting a little old! It will be nice to have a couple week break (well break meaning not driving back across the country again until October!) after this one before Otter Creek!

Juliette's dressage has been improving immensely and I hope our hard work will be reflected in our dressage test tomorrow, although after two days of driving, I hope the horses have fully recovered by morning. The XC course looks great, starts out with some nice galloping fences that gradually get larger and then puts us into the water for our first challenging combination. We have a fence, one stride drop into the water, bending line across to a bank out and a few strides to another fence. The coffin looks decent and is set in the woods, a one stride to a ditch and a one stride out. The two corners on the course are single fences, but of significant size (especially on a 13.3 hand pony!) and there is a large, but inviting weldon's wall on the track as well. We have a good bank question up the bounce banks to a steep hill on the other side down to a large log.

Overall the track looks nice and will be a good test for both Juliette & Maria's horse, Peter. Stay tuned tomorrow for updates on how dressage and XC turns out!

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!

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!

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!