Jersey Fresh XC Photo Gallery!

Compliments of Sumner Crosby, who has been quite the photographic contributor.
Thank you Sumner!!  Gallery Link

A Great Weekend at Jersey Fresh!

Bucky has arrived home safe and very sound after an exciting weekend at the Jersey Fresh CCI***.  I am so pleased with his performance throughout the weekend, and I am ecstatic that we have together completed our first CCI***!  

We started off the competition with a great dressage test on Thursday afternoon.  I have been working hard with Silva to put together the parts of the test, and I felt like it all came together in the arena.  Bucky felt very focused and worked hard through each movement of the test.  Since we are both green at this level there is still much room for improvement, but the performance we had on Thursday was a great place to start.  

I could not have asked for a better ride from Bucky on the cross-country Saturday.  The course designed by John Williams proved to be tougher than we expected when the first few horses set out.  Boyd helped me make a plan for the course, as it was most important to me to have a clean and safe ride around our first CCI***.  Bucky was focused and bold through every minute of the course, and despite a few mistakes here and there on my part he jump a very clean round.  I was so thankful to be greeted at the finish by Team Lily to help me in the cooling box!  It was great to have so many of my girls there to support me and cheer me on.  Now that they have a taste of the CCI competition scene, I am looking forward to helping them through their first training three-day in August!

As all of you can imagine I would have hoped for a better show-jumping round on Sunday.  Bucky was jumping really well in the warm-up, and I think I lost our rhythm once we got into the arena.  The course was very winding with a few tricky lines, and I felt that we had a very green ride.  Both Bucky and I are very inexperienced at this level of show-jumping, and I will look to improve our skills in the next few months.  I think some lessons with a show-jumper are in order!

Now that we have our first CCI*** successfully completed, I am excited to announce that I will be training for the next year to compete in the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** next spring!  This has been a lifetime goal of mine and it is finally coming into fruition.  I have been so thankful for all of the support and help all of my clients, students and friends have given me this spring in order to get to the Jersey CCI, and I hope you will continue on with us in our quest to Kentucky!  

Jersey Fresh Kick Off!

The Jersey Fresh CCI kicked off yesterday at the Horse Park of New Jersey with a beautiful first FEI jog. All the horses looked fit and fresh as did the riders! After the jog I had a chance to walk around the CCI*** cross-country, and at first glance it looks good.

The dressage for the CIC** and CCI*** took place today at the horsepark. Bucky and I had our dressage ride later in the afternoon today, and I was really pleased with our test. Though we have much to improve on, I felt it was our best test to date. He was really consistent throughout the test, and we were able to get both of our changes! We are sitting in 9th on a score of 59.6 going into the cross-country. The course is long and a true three-star test, so I am sure the scoreboard will shift on Saturday. 

Tomorrow we will spend some time preparing for the cross-country, and I plan to walk the course a few more times. Stay tuned to the blog for updates and a virtual coursewalk!

MCTA Horse Trials

We had a great outing this weekend at Shawan Downs in Cockeysville, Maryland. The weather cooperated all weekend for a great event at MCTA Horse Trials. We had four novice horses and one preliminary horse on Saturday, and three training horses on Sunday.

Some highlights of the weekend include a first completed Novice outing for Andi Lawrence and Armani, as well as Lori Daneker's mare Peace Proposal. Both had a great day and jumped around the Novice course well. Abigail Wilson and Fernhill Flag had an unfortunate parting of company three fences from home on the cross-country, but were otherwise pleased with the weekend. On Sunday our Training girls had a great day as Eliza Crosby, Annelise Aurillo, and Phoebe Hering had third, fourth and twelfth place finishes respectively.

Thanks again to Sumner Crosby for the great photos from the weekend. We are looking forward to making the trip to Viriginia Horse Trials in two weeks for more excitement!

The Jersey Fresh CCI*** kicks off on Wednesday, so please stay tuned to the blog for updates!

Erin and Bucky are Jersey-Bound!

Bucky enjoyed his last gallop this weekend in preparation for the Jersey Fresh CCI*** (photo credit Sumner Crosby).  We are down to the final days leading up to the event and it's time to focus!  I have had my eye on this goal since last fall, and I am so excited for this coming competition.  As many of you know, this will be our first go at a CCI***, for both Bucky and I!  This will be an educational experience for both of us, and I am hoping to give Bucky a great ride all three days.  I want to thank all of my clients, students, friends and family for all the support through this journey!

We will be heading up to the Horse Park of New Jersey early Wednesday morning.  For those of you interested in coming to watch, the first FEI Jog will be starting at 2 pm on Wednesday, the CCI*** Dressage will be on Thursday afternoon, and the cross-country will be running all day Saturday.  Show Jumping will be held on Sunday following the second FEI Jog on Sunday morning.  More information on times and directions can be found at  http://www.horseparkofnewjersey.com .  If you are unable to make it to spectate, please stay tuned to the blog for updates!


I also just received the videos from the Fork...so check us out on XC!


ESylvester-NoBoundaries-XC-9Apr11 from CatchRide LLC on Vimeo.

281-ESylvester-No Boundaries-SJ-10Apr11 from CatchRide LLC on Vimeo.

Saint Augustine Recap!

Sunday morning we packed up the trailer with the younger riders and headed down to St. Augustine Pony Club Horse Trials at the beautiful Unicorn Farm.  For many of these kids, this was their first outing of the year.  The weather was perfect and the courses were inviting, making it a great opportunity for my riders to get into the swing of the competition season.

These girls have been working hard for the past few weeks preparing for this event, and each rider put their best effort forth on Sunday.  I was most pleased to see that all eight riders did not have one cross-country penalty to post!  All of our cross-country schooling paid off well!  Congratulations to Kaelen Speck on her second place finish, Ada Plumb on her third place finish, and Emma Stradley on her fourth place finish!  As always, many thanks go to Sumner Crosby for some great photos from the weekend.  Please enjoy the slide show!

This weekend we will be off to Shawan Downs for MCTA Horse Trials with the big kids.  Stay tuned for updates!


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