Another Day at TPF!

Today was a bit crazy at the farm. We had an incident this morning where a horse Ryan was riding wasn't jumping well, so Phillip got on to work out the kinks and the horse's back legs just started buckling underneath it. I was helping set fences, so I had to run back to the barn and grab everyone to come help. Kevin, our vet, looked at him and said it was probably something neurological.. hopefully not EPM! He did blood work, so we're waiting to see.

I got to ride a horse Phillip owns named Houston, and may be looking to buy. Everyone here thinks I'm crazy because he's definitely not the easiest horse to ride, but I did flat work with him today and actually felt pretty good. I'm supposed to have a jump lesson on him with Phillip tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes. I'm also trying one of Chip's young horses, which Ryan rode today and thought it was quite fancy for the price.

Tomorrow after work I'm heading home to VA to prepare for the Carolina Communication Association Conference. I'm on two panels for a paper I wrote senior year at Salem about ESPN's portrayal of female athletes. I haven't done academic work since May.. it will be so nerve-racking! I'm trying horses at Jan Simmons', heading to Wilmington, NC on Friday morning, presenting Friday afternoon for Salem and Saturday morning for competition, flying back to DC Saturday, and driving back to PA Sunday afternoon. Going to be a very busy weekend!

Also, Nate gave me a lesson with Silva Martin, a German-born AMAZING dressage rider and instructor at the farm (she's married to Boyd), so I'm super excited to see what she thinks about Sully next week. I am trying to sell him as a dressage horse, so this will tell!!

Plantation Bareback Puissance?!

Phillip & Jacob Two Two (he went to the Athens Olympics in 2004!) gearing up for the Puissance wall!!

Last day of Plantation Horse Trials and a crazy one it was! Phillip gave us the opportunity to take a break from work and watch the CIC*** at 11:30, so we rode some of our assigned horses and headed over. When we got there, they were finishing up the CIC**, so I got to see Skyeler go (she was in my Pony Club years ago!) and she ended 3rd with Tika. Then they did a dedication ceremony, which was really cool. This was Plantation's very first CIC, and it was a HUGE success! There are 7 Olympic riders in Chester County and 9 were at the show (David and Karen O'Connor came, too). Pretty crazy! After the ceremony they did a bareback puissance, which consisted of riders like Bobby Costello, Phillip Dutton, Ryan Wood, our Irish foxhunt friend Nile, the Chester County huntmaster, and a few others. They set up the wall to 5 foot 3 inches! It was awesome.

Phillip & Jacob clearing the wall!

Following the puissance was the CIC*** showjumping. Luckily Phillip had all the help he needed, so Susanna and I were able to watch pretty much the entire group. I got to see my trainer from NC, Susan Beebee, and her amazing horse Prowler jump around. They had a beautiful round! Phillip did really well with Danny (he can have his spaz out moments), and jumped around clean with 3 out of his 4 horses (2 were Jan Byyny's, but she has a broken leg!).

When we got back to the farm, I had to ride Sully and then took off to look at some horses at Jane Sleeper's farm at 4:30. Saw a few good youngsters and headed back to the farm for some good rest. All in all, another great event for TPF!

Phillip & Che Italica jumping around the CIC*** Show Jumping.

Plantation Craziness

This week/weekend was Plantation Horse Trials and CIC. Luckily this event was about 15 minutes away, so transporting horses to and from the event was pretty easy. Today was the x-country day, and the weather was PERFECT! Nate was one of the commentators, and he interviewed Phillip, Bruce, Skyeler, and other CIC riders during the competition. It was pretty entertaining :)

Phillip scheduled all the horses at True Prospect to have the day off, so those of us who were working could finish up the morning barn chores and help him with his CIC horses in the vet box. It was my very first experience in a CIC vet box, and oh the craziness! Horses walking everywhere, breathing heavy, sweating like crazy, 20 people walking with them trying to get vitals and grooms trying to take off the equipment and get them cooled down all at the same time, just insanity. I was stationed at the "cooling station," so I pretty much stayed in one spot and sponged the horses with ice water when they were done with the vets. Phillip did great, only having a few minor stops on a horse who may be having health problems right now. Besides Phillip, we had Liz riding Benjamin in the CIC**, and they jumped around clean. I watched her go, and she rode the water complex like a champ! It reminded me of going prelim on Elliott and made me that much more eager to find a new horse to get back in the game!

We also had a few riding in the Horse Trials portion of the event. Phillip won the Preliminary on Rocky (his very first prelim!), Ryan got 3rd on his mare Legend, Susanna had a mishap and was unseated xcountry on her mare Nina, and Kevin jumped around clean on his and Gomez's first Prelim (ending in 15th). All in all pretty successful! We're still waiting for the show jumping of the CIC tomorrow.

In other barn news, one of Nina's babies, Diva, left us to go to the racetrack yesterday. In her place, we gained DaVinci! DaVinci is a baby that had its last race this past Wednesday. I think it'll need a bit of time off! We also gained Chip and Ryan's recovered Intermediate horse, Wolf. Last night I had to meet the shipping van at midnight to collect Willie, a horse from Minnesota I know nothing about! Also, we've been lucky to care for the O'Connor's horse, Mandiba, for the weekend. Karen had a non-riding mishap and broke her arm, so it has been VERY entertaining watching her give Phillip riding lessons!!

Tomorrow I'm headed to try out some of Jane Sleeper's young horses for sale. Should be another interesting day!!

AEC's and a Roommate!

Phillip and the crew are on their way back from the American Eventing Championships. Things went pretty well, but everyone who had faults knew they could have changed things to make them better.

Final Results:

Advanced (6)

Phillip - 2nd

Nate - 3rd

Jennie - 6th

Intermediate (16)

Jennie - 1st

Phillip - 5th

Preliminary (39)

Phillip - 5th

Training (19)

Phillip - 2nd

Novice (40)

Phillip - 2nd

LeeLee - 4th

Jennie - 8th

All in all a pretty successful show! Back at True Prospect we're all busy preparing the upper-level horses for Plantation next weekend. Sully and I aren't competing since it's only Preliminary and up (we're going Novice), but there are a bunch that have to be exercised while Phillip is gone.

In personal news, I entered Sully in his first show of the season the other day (pretty exciting!). Phillip gave me the okay to enter something, so we're going novice at Morven Park Horse Trials in VA. I also got a roommate at the apartment in PA. Her name is Susanna Holder and she's from California. She has a gray mare named Nina who has been going Prelim/Intermediate, so she's psyched to start working with Phillip to get things moving. It's pretty nice to have a roommate since it's so quiet being here alone!

Nate gets back with Ping, Vidalia, Rolex, and Rocky tonight, so I'll be helping him unload the ponies. It's also the True Blood season finale on HBO, so I'm going to have to take over his TV... (shh.. he doesn't know it yet!). Day off on Thursday!!

Cleaning up at the AEC's!

True Prospect is really "bringing it" at the American Eventing Championships!

So far (after dressage and xcountry):

Advanced:

1st: Nate on Rolex

3rd: Phillip on Woodburn

6th: Jennie on Cooper

Intermediate

1st: Phillip on Wild Tiger

2nd: Jennie on Ping

Preliminary

1st: Phillip on Vidalia

Training:

2nd: Phillip on Rocky

Novice

3rd: Lee Lee on Cadet

4th: Phillip on Ula

17th: Jennie on Whiskey

Can't wait for tomorrow!!

Oh what a day!

I haven't updated in a while, mostly because it has just been crazy getting settled here at True Prospect. Things with me are going so much better after a bit of a rocky start getting used to the craziness that is here! My horse Sully is doing loads better after some lessons with Ryan Wood.. his jumping was a little difficult but is starting to come along quite well. In the last two weeks we've lost two of our barn helpers, Veronica (school) and Candace (home), which is sad but also makes the barn work a bit more difficult! Phillip is in England at Burghley with his head groom, Emma, so the barn tasks here are pretty much up to us. On a general day, we feed, bring in night turnout horses, turn out day horses, muck stalls, sweep, tack and untack horses for Ryan and Jennie Brannigan, ride our own horses, feed lunch, bring in day horses, set jump courses, wrap legs, groom each horse, feed dinner, turn out night horses, sweep, and put away the laundry. It starts at 7am and usually ends around 5pm. Every day is a long day!

Today was a very interesting day. It started by my waking up at 6:20 with one eye swollen shut. I called Kelley (the head honcho while Emma is away) and got her permission to miss this morning at the barn, and drove to the Jennersville Hospital to get things checked out. Turns out I got a bacterial infection in my eye. Awesome. The thing that really ooks me out is the fact that there has been an eye "thing" spreading around the horses that I've been treating lately. Sick.

After my ER excitement this morning, I made it to work with a slightly sore eye and a lot of commentary from the barn folks! Just a minor setback :)

Nina came to watch all of her horses today, so that was an adventure! I was elected to set jumps, so I worked through 9 horses of different jump heights. I enjoyed watching the horses jump, as I'm usually stuck in the barn area most of the day and don't get to see the horses go. They're pretty talented!

We had a few little lameness issues and a mare gashed her leg on a stall waterer, but health-wise it was an okay day.

Jennie finished her rides today and headed off to join Phillip at Burghley through a grant she was given. We are all pretty jealous! We found out today that after day 1 of the dressage, Phillip is in first.. at BURGHLEY!! You can definitely tell that everyone who works here is pretty proud.

After work, I looked at a mare at Bruce Davidson's barn for a possible fun project while I get Sully going. As with everything else, the more you look around the better, so I'm still keeping my eyes open for a good little project horse.

Time for bed!