Tuesday, March 27, 2012

What a Weekend at Southern Pines II !!

Photo Thanks to Gayle Hughes!
During a weekend that saw plenty of top riders find challenge and disappointment on a tough XC track, our team of Erin & Bucky showed us that they can rise to the challenge!  With a solid dressage, clear XC and only one rail in stadium, they moved from 11th to 5th to edge out some of the top competitors in this country!  Bucky was great from start to finish & they're off to The Fork next weekend.

Wyn also had a great weekend finishing 10th in a competitive Training division, and Andi had a very impressive weekend finishing 3rd in the JYROP division on a score of 34.8!  Abigail had an educational weekend, popping out of the tack on the corner, but she was no worse for the wear!


Full Event Scores

Erin & crew are in the process of moving, so Lilybridge Eventing is a busy crew right now.
More updates after next weekend!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

PINE TOP RECAP AND A VISIT TO PA!

Photo credit Livvy Saber
We wrapped up our last competition in the Aiken area this past weekend at the Pine Top Farm March Horse Trials.  Six horses and five riders competed from our farm in the novice through preliminary levels.  Pine Top is one of the best competition venues on the southern circuit, so it was suiting to finish up our season there with a great weekend!

Andi Lawrence and Armani IV brought home the blue ribbon of the weekend in the JYOP.  Andi lead her division from start to finish, which is quite a feat on her mount as he is not an easy ride in the dressage.  She has been working hard this winter developing a partnership at the preliminary level with George, and her hard work is clearly paying off.  She has now qualified herself for the CCI* at Virginia, and has her eye on NAYRC this coming summer! 


Annelise Aurillo and Julie Henk rode in the Training with their new mounts, the Cobbler's Son and Merry Sioux, and despite a few hiccups in the jumping phases they had a good weekend.  I had another outing on the young ones, Peace Proposal and Paddy the Caddy.  They both impressed the crowd this weekend finishing second place in each of their divisions!  Following the wrap-up of Pine Top cross-country, most of our horses made the trek home Sunday evening to Pennsylvania.

I had a slight change of pace Monday as I had an opportunity to squeeze in a quick cross-country school at home with a few of my students.  Lucie Hughes, Miranda Webb, and Cassidy Heitzenrater rode their horses while I rode Eliza Crosby's new mount, Woodstock Rawley, in his first cross-country school.  The weather and ground were perfect at Judy Jefferis' Laurel Hill Farm, lending us to a great cross-country school.  All the horses were surprisingly well behaved, and it was great to see the progress each rider has made through the winter.  These riders are all looking forward to kicking off their spring season next weekend at Morven Park, and I am excited to get them going!

We are off to Southern Pines on Thursday morning, so stay tuned for updates and results!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Aiken March Update

Abigail on Fernhill Flag, Photo Credit Mark Lehner, Hoofclix
It has been some time since I last posted and what an exciting few weeks it has been!  We have had successful weekends at the Pine Top Advanced Horse Trials, Sporting Days Horse Trials,  as well as Full Gallop Farm Horse Trials.

Beginning with the most recent competition, Full Gallop Farm held their March Two-Day event this past weekend.  I rode the two youngsters Peace Proposal and Paddy the Caddy in the Training and Novice, and despite a one bank complex that was out to get me, they were both great.  
The highlight of my weekend was coaching Abigail Wilson and her mount Fernhill Flag through their second Intermediate with two clean jumping rounds!  The ground was very hard, so Abigail chose to take the course quite slowly which added some time faults.  Otherwise, both her show-jump and cross-country rides looked foot-perfect as both of them cruised around confidently over the large Intermediate track.  
Abigail is a full-time student at UD, so she is only able to come down on the weekends to ride.  It is quite an attribute to her ability that with just two to three rides per week, she is able to ride her horse so confidently and precisely in competition.  With her great ride this weekend, she has laid the groundwork and created confidence in her horse for the tougher tracks she will be seeing as the season progresses.  Good work, Abigail!

One week prior we had Sporting Days Farm March Horse Trials, with just three horses entered on that weekend.  I rode Stonewall Winters in the Training for Dennis Glaccum, who had a great weekend to finish fourth in a competitive Open Training division.  Once again the highlight of my weekend was my students' performances, as Julie Henk and Mica Kane rode their respective mounts Merry Sioux and The Cobbler's Son in the Novice.  Merry is a new mount for Julie, as we have had her for just a few weeks.  Julie has only had a handful of rides on her, so it was very impressive to see her finish second on her dressage score of 31 in an open division.  With a fifteen point improvement in the dressage from Paradise just two weeks ago, I am excited to see what they will be able to do in a few months!  
Mica Kane also impressed me greatly, as she finished 6th on her dressage score with a 36.  With the exception of a few short rides over Christmas, Mica has not been in the saddle since mid-August of 2011.  She had a cross-country school and a dressage lesson in the two days before Sporting Days, and then cruised around the novice like she owned it!  These two girls made me so proud over the weekend, and I am excited to see what they have in store for this competition season!

Continuing on with my reverse chronology of the recent weekends, Pine Top Advanced is the last (but certainly not the least) of the events to recap. Andi Lawrence had her third start at the Preliminary level on Armani IV, Abigail Wilson had her first start in the Intermediate on Fernhill Flag, and our most recent edition, Wyn Maling, rode Stellar's Run in the Training.  Despite very inclement weather in the beginning of the weekend, all three girls had a good wrap-up to the competition.  Andi rode two clean jump rounds to third place in the JYOP, and Wyn had a third place finish as well in her Training division.  Abigail experienced a few bumps in the road on her first Intermediate track, but nonetheless finished her first intermediate competition with new goals and improvements to achieve.

My big star, No Boundaries, had his first Advanced start of the season at Pine Top as well, and it wrapped up as a great weekend for him.  We have been working with Bettina Hoy in the dressage and the results are showing as he is more confident in the arena.  He sat in the top six in his division after the dressage on a score of 40, just a few points off the lead.  He put in a great show jumping effort, completing his first double clear show jump round of his Advanced career!  We have been frequenting the PSJ Jumper Shows at Highfields in Aiken this winter, and that effort has been paying off!  He cruised around the cross-country with ease and moved into a fourth-place finish in the Advanced C division.  I am cautiously moving forward towards the " Event we don't speak of " coming at the end of April. . . so far, so good!  Bucky's next start will be the Advanced at Southern Pines, so stay tuned for updates!

Spring Schedule!!

Our spring HT schedule is going up on the website. Take note of the April 25th - 29th date!!


March 23-25 Southern Pines

March 31 - April 1 Morven Park

April 5-8  The Fork CIC***

April 14-15 Plantation Field

April 20 - 22 Fair Hill International CIC

April 25 - 29 Rolex Kentucky CCI****

May 12 - 13 Plantation Field 

May 24 - 27 Virginia Horse Trials and CCI