I decided to go ahead and move Wanda up to Training at the Difficult Run Pony Club Spring Horse Trials this past weekend. The course is tighter than most and doesn't have a whole lot of gallop room, so I figured it would be a good course to show her the bigger fences without exhausting her with tons of space. I also love it there because I am still a Difficult Run Pony Club member (until 25!) and I have a huge support team there no matter how we do.
The dressage went great, and I was thrilled at her consistency. The Training A test introduces a few new movements, such as 15 meter circles, stretch-down circles, medium trot, and medium canter. I was a bit concerned about the transition from medium canter back to canter, but she was a superstar about it. We even got a 9 on one of our 15 meter trot circles! We ended with a 30.9% which tied us for 1st in the dressage.
I was a little disappointed with our showjumping, because I thought it rode quite well for the two of us. We had been having consistent time penalties at Novice in the showjumping, so I was pushing a bit more to make the Training time. Unfortunately, the push caused her to become a bit flat and three rails were the casualty. I wasn't horribly upset, because three consecutive horses before me were eliminated. I was just glad there were no behavioral issues!
The cross country was an absolute BLAST. I asked her for a bit more of a gallop and tried to let her figure things out for the most part. Still being pro-active, I kept PD in my head who says, "set them up and let the jump back them off". Of course, PD is the xc guru! Wanda didn't look at ANYTHING, even the crazy irish bank, which consisted of a brush fence, 3 strides to a ditch & bank up, down a hill, up a hill, and off the bank on the other side! I just kept my leg on, and she was perfect! We made it clear with no jump or time penalties. Happy mother's day to me!
Overall the 3 rails are what knocked us down, but we still ended 5th. Next up: Fair Hill Training!
Helmet Camera of DRPC Training XC. Warning: It's a bit shaky...
Monday, May 9, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Virginia Gold Cup
Spent the day Saturday at the Virginia Gold Cup in the Plains, VA. It was gorgeous weather until about 1pm, then it got a bit chilly! We had a fabulous time in our big hats watching the horses at the steeplechase.
Monday, April 11, 2011
CDCTA Horse Trials
Two weeks ago I brought Wanda home from Aiken, SC, and was fortunate enough to be able to bring her back to a nearby barn where I could pay board for great care as well as having access to a riding arena with lights. Although not my dream choice (I would just LOVE my parents to put in a riding arena... :) ) it has been the best choice for the situation that I'm in with work downtown.
This past weekend was Wanda and my first event together for the season. Last year we had a lot of run-out problems during the final 3/4 events of the year, so I had to come out with a very pro-active mindset about how I was going to approach these issues.
The dressage was in some muddy grass footing, so I went ahead and put in studs for the dressage portion, and left them in for the entire event (all riding was on grass). I'm thankful that I did, because Wanda's hind legs slipped out from under her standing at the trailer before I put them in, and I can't imagine what it would have been like running without them! We scored a 31.3%, which wasn't too shabby for our first test. We were tied for 1st after the dressage.
ShowJumping went really smooth, and I was thrilled at how rideable she was. There was a two stride combination, and we jumped in in the proper stride, but she's so big that we had a very short two strides and bumped the back fence. Luckily it was just a tap and didn't fall :) So we came away with no jump penalties but 4 time penalties, dropping us to 5th place.
The cross country was the part I was most worried about since we had been having so much trouble with it. Luckily I was super prepared mentally, so I was able to avert the one time she tried to test me. It ran perfect and we came out double clear.
All in all it was a great event for us. It didn't hurt ending in 5th place out of 15 :) Definitely a good step in thinking about moving up soon!
Next up: Redland Hunt Pony Club Horse Trials - Novice - 4/24/11
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Wanda's 2 Months in Aiken
This past weekend a friend and I made the 10 hour + trip from Fairfax, VA on Friday after work to Aiken, SC (with an overnight pit stop in Florence, SC), and returned on Sunday.
I had originally taken Wanda to Aiken for a few reasons, with the greatest being the fact I have no arena at home and the ground was making it increasingly difficult to ride. Not to mention the fact I had just gotten a new job downtown, and the hour and a half commute to work made it near impossible to get home in time for riding daylight. Wanda and I had been having stops cross-country last year, so I decided it was best to send her to work with Ryan Wood, Jennie Brannigan, and Phillip Dutton, a pretty great threesome of tough event riders. If anyone was going to straighten my mare out, it was going to be them!
I entered Wanda in the Paradise Horse Trials on February 20th with Jennie as the rider (Phillip was unable to take the reins at the time), and she had a chance to compete her at Novice for the first event of Wanda's season. Unfortunately they had a stop xcountry, but Jennie did a great job on the correction and they had a steady finish. I spoke with her after the ride, and we talked about the fact that it is purely a mareish behavioral issue, since Wanda decides to shy left more than 3 strides from the fence. Mares! Jennie assured me she had Wanda's number, and worked with her over fences for a while afterward.
Jennie Brannigan and Wonderbaar, Novice at Paradise Horse Trials 2/20/11
Unfortunately, Wanda became sick with some kind of horsey flu, so she was out about 2 weeks. In that time, Jennie had a horse land on her while schooling and snapped her collarbone, so Ryan took over riding completely.
When Wanda was better, Phillip took her Novice at Pine Top to see if he couldn't work out the kinks. He said she went pretty straight and forward, and they ended 4th. I talked with him for a while and we talked about what I needed to work on with her attitude and how to make her an easier ride xcountry. I've entered her in CDCTA, so hopefully I will be able to try out the new 'shoes' to see how she goes :)
Phillip Dutton on Wonderbaar, Pine Top HT 3/20/11
Saturday I had a great jump lesson with Jennie (she's such a trooper with her broken collarbone!) and Wanda felt fantastic. I'm really looking forward to this competition season. Let's see how it goes!!
I had originally taken Wanda to Aiken for a few reasons, with the greatest being the fact I have no arena at home and the ground was making it increasingly difficult to ride. Not to mention the fact I had just gotten a new job downtown, and the hour and a half commute to work made it near impossible to get home in time for riding daylight. Wanda and I had been having stops cross-country last year, so I decided it was best to send her to work with Ryan Wood, Jennie Brannigan, and Phillip Dutton, a pretty great threesome of tough event riders. If anyone was going to straighten my mare out, it was going to be them!
I entered Wanda in the Paradise Horse Trials on February 20th with Jennie as the rider (Phillip was unable to take the reins at the time), and she had a chance to compete her at Novice for the first event of Wanda's season. Unfortunately they had a stop xcountry, but Jennie did a great job on the correction and they had a steady finish. I spoke with her after the ride, and we talked about the fact that it is purely a mareish behavioral issue, since Wanda decides to shy left more than 3 strides from the fence. Mares! Jennie assured me she had Wanda's number, and worked with her over fences for a while afterward.
Jennie Brannigan and Wonderbaar, Novice at Paradise Horse Trials 2/20/11
Unfortunately, Wanda became sick with some kind of horsey flu, so she was out about 2 weeks. In that time, Jennie had a horse land on her while schooling and snapped her collarbone, so Ryan took over riding completely.
When Wanda was better, Phillip took her Novice at Pine Top to see if he couldn't work out the kinks. He said she went pretty straight and forward, and they ended 4th. I talked with him for a while and we talked about what I needed to work on with her attitude and how to make her an easier ride xcountry. I've entered her in CDCTA, so hopefully I will be able to try out the new 'shoes' to see how she goes :)
Phillip Dutton on Wonderbaar, Pine Top HT 3/20/11
Saturday I had a great jump lesson with Jennie (she's such a trooper with her broken collarbone!) and Wanda felt fantastic. I'm really looking forward to this competition season. Let's see how it goes!!
Monday, March 7, 2011
Disappointed
In the way a certain organization has been communicating with me about certain things. I am paying a significantly large amount of money from my paycheck each month for a certain service, and that service has not been happening for a few weeks. Today I received a bill for an extra service which was not communicated ahead of time (even though I would have done it anyway), but now that the service is over people are finally communicating with me about the service that already happened. So now I'm extra broke, and extra misinformed, and extra unhappy with the original service I was paying for. End rant. :)
Thursday, February 3, 2011
The King's Speech
GO SEE IT!!! NOOWWW!!!! That's all :)
Oh, they're talking about cutting down the language to lower the 'R' rating so youngins can see it. Totally going to ruin the funny parts!! See it quickly! By far the best movie I've seen in a while.
Oh, they're talking about cutting down the language to lower the 'R' rating so youngins can see it. Totally going to ruin the funny parts!! See it quickly! By far the best movie I've seen in a while.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Job & Aiken Adventures
My last update was December 2nd, and boy has a lot gone on since then!
The holidays went without a glitch, and I was lucky to be able to spend Christmas with my family at Millwood this year. Last year I was working in PA, and had to work that morning so I wasn't able to make it in time for the Judy family Christmas.
New Years was by far the best I've ever had. It seems to get talked up so much every year that I end up spending it alone at my house with my own bottle of champagne! (Of course, I usually fall asleep by midnight). This year I was prepared.. with a date! I went ahead and made reservations through OpenTable.com for a place in Arlington called Extra Virgin. We wanted to keep it a pretty low key night since it does seem to get over-hyped, so the plan was to have dinner and return to his apartment to watch the ball drop in NYC. After our AMAZING 4-course meal at Extra Virgin, we decided to stick around the area and ended up hitting a few of the restaurant/bars nearby. Since we were still there by midnight, we ended up at a dive of a place dancing to some goofy music and ordering champagne from a bar to cheers. It ended up being one of those insanely random nights, and we were both exhausted by the end of it!
Post-holidays, I had a few interviews after being recommended to them by my internship job. My first was for an Executive Assistant position at a PAC, and the other was for a Press Assistant position for a House Rep. Unfortunately, I received a callback from the PAC saying they LOVED me, but thought I would hate that job. The House office never called. So, I kept on trucking :)
In January I volunteered at the Republican National Committee Annual Meeting at National Harbor, MD, as a WHIP-runner for (then) Chairman Michael Steele. He was running for re-election, and I thought it would be a great way to get involved in the whole process. It turned out to be SUPER educational, and it was amazing to see how sheisty it can get in politics! It was more interesting because it reminded me of high school elections. Almost a popularity contest at the end of it all. Anyway, Steele didn't win (as you know), Reince Priebus did- my least favorite candidate! Oh well. I was definitely bummed, but it didn't impact me as much as the rest of his team. They were pretty devastated to lose their jobs! Overall, I probably wouldn't do it again, but it was a great learning experience!
Nearing the end of the RNC meeting, I got an email from the PAC. They were interested in interviewing me again for another position with the company, one which they thought I would be perfect for. So I went in, and it was a unanimous decision to hire me on :) Starting January 18th, 2011, I became the Development & Marketing Assistant at a Business PAC in Washington, D.C. My first real life big girl job!! It's been exhausting, but also thrilling to learn new ways of building a department in such an established company. I'm really looking forward to working there!
This past weekend a friend and I loaded Wanda up in the trailer (after my parents and I spent 3 hours in the snow digging out bamboo so we could free the driveway back to the barn!) and drove the 9 hours South to Aiken, South Carolina. I haven't been able to ride Wanda very much since the ground has been so terrible and I've been so busy with work, so I talked the guys at Phillip Dutton's Aiken barn, Red Oak, in to conditioning her for me where the weather is much better! When we arrived there, it was about 65 degrees!! A pretty nice change from the 30 degree weather we've been having here in VA. Wanda was SOOO excited to be there. When I turned her out, she ran off bucking and prancing like a stallion. I hope she's not too much of a handful!!
My friend and I stayed at the Hotel Aiken, which I have ALWAYS wanted to do. It is a historic hotel in the center of the city, so we could just walk downstairs to the super popular bar, the Polo Tavern, and the Hotel Aiken's restaurant, 100 Laurens. We ate at the restaurant, where they only serve Tapas but they're amazing, and met up with all my horsey friends afterward at the Polo Tavern. It was so great to see all the people I worked with last year and it definitely made me miss being there!
Sunday morning we packed up and headed back up toward VA. We made a quick stop in Cary, NC to visit my friend's parents (and his giant rottweiler!). They made us lunch, which was a much-needed rest stop since we were pretty tired of driving, and we got back on the road. We arrived home at about 7:30pm, and after I made some Easy Mac, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow!! I slept like an absolute rock. Now it's back to my real life job!!
The holidays went without a glitch, and I was lucky to be able to spend Christmas with my family at Millwood this year. Last year I was working in PA, and had to work that morning so I wasn't able to make it in time for the Judy family Christmas.
New Years was by far the best I've ever had. It seems to get talked up so much every year that I end up spending it alone at my house with my own bottle of champagne! (Of course, I usually fall asleep by midnight). This year I was prepared.. with a date! I went ahead and made reservations through OpenTable.com for a place in Arlington called Extra Virgin. We wanted to keep it a pretty low key night since it does seem to get over-hyped, so the plan was to have dinner and return to his apartment to watch the ball drop in NYC. After our AMAZING 4-course meal at Extra Virgin, we decided to stick around the area and ended up hitting a few of the restaurant/bars nearby. Since we were still there by midnight, we ended up at a dive of a place dancing to some goofy music and ordering champagne from a bar to cheers. It ended up being one of those insanely random nights, and we were both exhausted by the end of it!
Post-holidays, I had a few interviews after being recommended to them by my internship job. My first was for an Executive Assistant position at a PAC, and the other was for a Press Assistant position for a House Rep. Unfortunately, I received a callback from the PAC saying they LOVED me, but thought I would hate that job. The House office never called. So, I kept on trucking :)
In January I volunteered at the Republican National Committee Annual Meeting at National Harbor, MD, as a WHIP-runner for (then) Chairman Michael Steele. He was running for re-election, and I thought it would be a great way to get involved in the whole process. It turned out to be SUPER educational, and it was amazing to see how sheisty it can get in politics! It was more interesting because it reminded me of high school elections. Almost a popularity contest at the end of it all. Anyway, Steele didn't win (as you know), Reince Priebus did- my least favorite candidate! Oh well. I was definitely bummed, but it didn't impact me as much as the rest of his team. They were pretty devastated to lose their jobs! Overall, I probably wouldn't do it again, but it was a great learning experience!
Nearing the end of the RNC meeting, I got an email from the PAC. They were interested in interviewing me again for another position with the company, one which they thought I would be perfect for. So I went in, and it was a unanimous decision to hire me on :) Starting January 18th, 2011, I became the Development & Marketing Assistant at a Business PAC in Washington, D.C. My first real life big girl job!! It's been exhausting, but also thrilling to learn new ways of building a department in such an established company. I'm really looking forward to working there!
This past weekend a friend and I loaded Wanda up in the trailer (after my parents and I spent 3 hours in the snow digging out bamboo so we could free the driveway back to the barn!) and drove the 9 hours South to Aiken, South Carolina. I haven't been able to ride Wanda very much since the ground has been so terrible and I've been so busy with work, so I talked the guys at Phillip Dutton's Aiken barn, Red Oak, in to conditioning her for me where the weather is much better! When we arrived there, it was about 65 degrees!! A pretty nice change from the 30 degree weather we've been having here in VA. Wanda was SOOO excited to be there. When I turned her out, she ran off bucking and prancing like a stallion. I hope she's not too much of a handful!!
My friend and I stayed at the Hotel Aiken, which I have ALWAYS wanted to do. It is a historic hotel in the center of the city, so we could just walk downstairs to the super popular bar, the Polo Tavern, and the Hotel Aiken's restaurant, 100 Laurens. We ate at the restaurant, where they only serve Tapas but they're amazing, and met up with all my horsey friends afterward at the Polo Tavern. It was so great to see all the people I worked with last year and it definitely made me miss being there!
Sunday morning we packed up and headed back up toward VA. We made a quick stop in Cary, NC to visit my friend's parents (and his giant rottweiler!). They made us lunch, which was a much-needed rest stop since we were pretty tired of driving, and we got back on the road. We arrived home at about 7:30pm, and after I made some Easy Mac, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow!! I slept like an absolute rock. Now it's back to my real life job!!
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