Another jammed packed weekend in the neighborhood

In addition to being Mother's Day weekend, it was a big day for eventing all over.  In the NW, eventing got underway with the NWEC horse trials.  Elsewhere - Galway (California), Mill Creek (Area IV), Winona (Area VIII), King Oaks (Area I), and Windridge (an event I hadn't heard of in NC) were all being contested. I am sure EN will have reporting on some of these.  One of the blogs I follow covered Winona Evans Eventing Winona Blog.  Closer to home, it was both Jersey Fresh and Plantation weekend in Area II.  Caitlin was riding Remi and Sally riding Taz in the CCI** at Jersey.  Caitlin also had Steady Eddie out for his ** debut and Sally was Riding Sue and Wes in the CIC***.  Many other top names in eventing also spent the weekend at Jersey.  "My" boys had fabulous weekends.  Remi finished first adding nothing to his impressive dressage score of 41.  Taz finished 4th in the same division.  Shout outs as well to Erin Sylvester, Sharon White, Jennie Brannigan, Courtney Cooper and all the other winners and competitors Jersey Fresh Results

Meanwhile, on this side of the river, Plantation held a recognized on Saturday and an unrecognized on Sunday.  I rode Keegan on Saturday.  He was very good and the weather held off.  We got our usual 38 in dressage.  Time to start working harder to shave some points off now that all the basics are in place.  He did run off in the cross-country.  Missy suggested more bit and while I don't like it as a first recourse, at this point I'm ready to try as all the installed brakes that work perfectly at all other times seem to fail on course.  Despite picking up time penalties with needing to circle between 11 and 12 - carefully avoiding taking out the photographer (and trotting through the woods where I didn't trust the footing), he jumped brilliantly and I had a super day.  Morgan McCue was 1st and 2nd in the JYOP and Ashley Bruder won the open training, closely followed by Amanda on Gloria Cascarino's Preston.  Susie Beale was second on her own Abengold in one division and on Lesley's Digby in another.  I saw Lesley briefly while I was walking the course, but Keegan and I were on the buzz in buzz out plan, so other than seeing some of the preliminary while I was walking, I didn't see anyone else's rides.  Plantation Results
Meanwhile Rachel took Solo and Laura took Parker to the jumpers at St. Christopher's horse show and Eden Dedrick was kind enought to give Keegan a ride to Plantation in conjunction with walking her course.

That left Eden ready for Sunday and a 4th place finish on her mare Fancy.  Missy showed the most handsomest Bouncer, finishing 2nd on their 25 dressage score. Alex Makowski's Grace became a training level eventer and I'm sure everyone enjoyed the cool, sunny weather, despite the occassionally stiff breeze.  I wasn't there as I was running the Delaware 1/2 marathon down in Wilmington.  The weather was perfect for that as well.  I ran the first 6 miles at my usual pace, then slowed down to take it easy for the final 7.1.  It was a nice course (with more hills than I expected) and a great day.  The finish line festivities were impressive for a smaller race like this.  After grabbing some food, I headed out to the barn and took Keegan for a long hack.  We practiced our speed control while galloping, but as always when not on course, he was quiet and rateable.  I had a lovely hour out and about with him, despite the fairly stiff wind.

The weekend also included a dinner to celebrate Jen's graduation from Penn (leaving her free to join me here, which is very exciting), a great 10th inning Phillies win over Arizona and plenty of playoff hockey and basketball.  Spring is good.