Maryland, Michigan and New York

Big eventing weekend. Kaiti and Truman went to Maryland Horse Trials where Tiamo also redebuted after some time off. http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=0EBK00A7BI0030&po=60. At Stuart Horse Trials, Gillian won the training on Teddy and had a 9th place finish on Choo at Preliminary, even beating Susie. Lesley and Tia won the novice with a ridiculously good dressage score, that left them a needed rail in hand for SJ. Gizmo and Lexi went training level!! Yeah Gizmo!
Lesley and Tia: http://stuarthorsetrials.org/archives/2009/galleries/ndress1, Lexi and Giz: http://stuarthorsetrials.org/archives/2009/galleries/txc1/index.html (8th picture), Gillian and Teddy http://stuarthorsetrials.org/archives/2009/galleries/tstad/index.html (13th picture)

Meanwhile, I went off and played in Michigan. It was great to see everyone at Cobblestone. The course was lovely and the weather was almost perfect (it threatened to rain, but never really carried through). Cathy did forget her dressage test on one horse, but almost everyone I saw looked great and as always Eventing at Cobblestone Rocked!

catching up

Since I last managed to post, there have been many good things and good times. I did the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle half marathon on June 27th. Perfect weather, beautiful course and a PR (still really slow). Then off to a week at Rocking Cs Ranch in Montana where I got to ride a lot, including the lovely Ravenna, kayak down and river and meet a bunch of really great people, including Harry and Wendy who got engaged while I was there (the very prompt wedding was being planned when I left). Then Henry's birthday, a 9-1 homestand for the Phillies, a lovely weekend at Maui Jim (except for the very sad death of Uni Griffin, thoughts and prayers to Lisa Marie Ferguson and others touched by his death). At Maui Jim, I stayed with Cindy Zitko, who generously opened her home. She has a lovely OTTB called Dickens, so I will be watching for them at events (online). Finn also jumped his first barrels. The one between standards with a pole over it did not phase him at all. The ones lying on the ground took 2 tries to be recognized as something to jump over, but then he was very good. I hear he and Duff had a moment on a hack, but he seems mostly quiet as ever and progressing at a great rate. Life is good

In and Out

Because Finn jumped his first one stride on Tuesday and the squirrels on campus are dumpster diving all the trash cans and you see them popping in and out as you walk across campus. Tuesday, we did the little one stride for the first time and he was good, though very wiggly much of the time. He has a bit of a tendency to stall, though today, when we repeated the exercise (and the fences may actually have been 2' high), he discovered his "go" button and seemed to be having some fun. He can also canter a circle now, which means he is on his way to being ready to go to his first event. He remains quiet to the point of laziness, but is willing to try pretty much anything. He tends to step *on* things like rails on the ground and curbs, because stepping over them is apparently either, 1) too much work, 2) really uncessary, or 3) both in his world. Heading out tomorrow for the 1/2 marathon in Seattle, then 5 days at the Rocking C's ranch in Montana. Yeah!

more jumping

OK, I really do need to get a camera out to the barn so there can be pictures. We had another lesson with Missy today, more jumps. There were 3 little fences today and we made a (very little) course: jump the cross rail, turn left around the end of the arena and then across the diagonal to jump the 12" vertical then turn right around the other end of the area and up the opposite diagonal to jump the 14" vertical, canter once around the whole arena, back to trot and do it again. He was very good about the whole thing, and is nonchalant to the point of being lazy. Missy raised the possibility of small spurs as potentially useful. Hacking out is planned for tomorrow, after I run 10 miles in the morning.

Finn jumps

Well, sort of jumps, as the "jump" was about 8" high. But, he cleverly and carefully trotted through trotting poles and had no issues about going over the jump (he just didn't really think it was necessary to jump). We also got in some nice canter work (steering at the canter needs work, at one point two or three feet went up onto the railroad tie around the ring, but he was totally unphased by that). The bending and staying on the bit is improving, still not consistent, but as often as not. We actually saw a little spook out of him as all three big dogs were racing around like maniacs (which he kept an eye on, but wasn't too bothered by) and when one actually jumped into the creek, the splash resulted in about a 3 step skitter, really seriously spooking is probably just too much work. Sunday was also beauty shop day, so he got trimmed up and had braids put into his mane to get it even more trained over to the side. I hear this is a Missy pet peeve (along with the brass polishing). The rest of the weekend, I spent volunteering at Plantation. Dressage scribing for the recognized on Saturday and XC starting for the starter on Sunday, with Denis' very cool, optimum time divisions at training and novice on Sunday. No watch allowed. If you are within the optimum time plus/minus 5 seconds, no penalty. More above or below incurred 1 penalty point per second. People did quite well and it is a great skill. JYOP dressage on Saturday was a bit disappointing. I always think of the young riders as being really good, but this group didn't seem to have it that together. One test actually received 3 zeros, which I've certainly never seen before (nor ever received, thank goodness). More riding coming up, along with running in preparation for Seattle

A little bit rock and roll

Successfully completed the full marathon on Sunday. Yeah!! Glad the remainder of the planned runs are 1/2 marathons (although sketching plans to run my 10th full marathon in 2010 and a 50k for my 50th birthday year in 2013). Jenna asked me what I think about when running a marathon. My reply

Plans for work, plans for horses, plans for birthday presents for those with
upcoming b-days, stuff triggered by the songs played by the bands. Some
chat with the other runners, how long until the next water stop, mile
marker, what pace am I on now? Must people continously lie about THIS ONE
being the last hill on the course, when in fact there are several more... I
manage to keep busy :)

It was a good day. As planned, I ran the first half at my usual slow pace and then the second half one minute per mile slower, but was quite comfortable through the whole thing and not particulary sore yesterday or today.

Finn's first lesson

Finn and I had our first lesson with Missy this afternoon. I decided to carry a whip, since our boy is a bit on the lazy side (probably what I get for giving him a name that sounds Irish). He was very good and the whip came into use to remind him that he could continue to move forward while figuring out how to bend and what to do about the pressure on the reins (that would be drop the nose, not stick it in the air). He progressed quite noticeably during the course of the lesson and I got to work on my position (which as always needs a lot of work). After vacation, I'll try to get the camera out to the barn so I can add a lesson picture. Hopefully, everyone enjoyed the memorial day weekend and found time for a thought for the troops.