BURGHLEY UPDATE: THE COURSE AWAITS!

The fence we are all looking forward to jumping tomorrow ... 

Greetings from Burghley!  We have had an exciting two days of dressage, with the Americans kicking some serious butt! Sinead is leading the field of 87 horses on a score of 36, with Alison just behind her in second on a score of 40.  

The remainder of the US riders all scored in the 40s, which is great!  Bucky and I had an unfortunate test yesterday, as he got quite tense once he entered the main arena.

We had a chance to walk the cross-country today with the course designer himself, Mark Phillips.  He had some great insight on how certain fences should ride, as well as how we needed to factor the changing terrain into our ride.  The course looks huge and tough (as any four-star track should), but I have a plan of attack for tomorrow and and I'm excited to get out there!

I will keep the updates coming tomorrow! Go USA!

GREETINGS FROM BURGHLEY!!

Sunset Over Burghley House!

I am so excited to be sending this update, and even more excited to be here!  Competition officially kicked off this afternoon with the first horse inspection, and all seven American horses jogged well.  We will start with the first day of dressage tomorrow at 9:30, and our ride time is at 10am EST (3pm UK).  
Thanks to EN for the list of dressage ride times.

Belmont and Bucky made the final stretch of the Road to Burghley voyage yesterday, and arrived to the show grounds early yesterday evening.  They have fully recovered from the trip over to England, and they looked quite fresh when they came off the truck. They are ready for the action!

Ditch & Wall BIG!!!

The show atmosphere seems slightly more relaxed here, with the majority of the horses arriving yesterday afternoon or early this morning.  We had 88 horses present to the jogs today, which is quite a field!  The competition this weekend will be even tougher than what we saw at Rolex! We had a chance to walk around the cross country today, and at first glance it looks ... HUGE !  I am eager to get out and walk it a few more times to make a plan for Saturday.

Stay tuned for our dressage rides Thursday and Friday!  

Just A Little Preview of What's to Come!!!

THEY'RE OFF TO BURGHLEY!!

Our UK excursion is finally here!  Belmont and Bucky hopped onto a truck this morning to JFK airport, where they will be boarding a flight tomorrow to Liege, Belgium.  The boys are looking great, and they were both very excited to load onto the truck !

After a departure Wednesday morning from JFK, Belmont and Bucky will land in Belgium late on Wednesday evening. They will then board a truck to the UK, with the plan to arrive at Catherine Burrell's Maizey Manor by Thursday afternoon.  We will spend our days leading up to Burghley at Maizey Manor, where the horses can recover for a few days while they progress back into training.

Packing for our trip was an experience in and of itself.  You cannot truly appreciate the amount of feed these competition horses consume until you need to package it for a flight!  It seemed an impossible task fitting all our equipment and belongings into a few trunks and bags, but luckily our supergrooms Kaitlin Slimak and Jenn Cain were there to make it all possible.

It seems almost surreal that Burghley is finally here.  The support we have received from the community has been so inspiring and makes this journey even more exciting.  THANK YOU to each and every friend, family member, sponsor, client, student, coach, and member of the community who has volunteered, donated, participated, and mentored us in this process.  We are so excited and grateful to have this opportunity !

Please watch us on the Burghley website www.burghley-horse.co.uk/ as  well as streaming on Burghley TV!  We will keep the updates coming!

MILLBROOK RECAP

Kaelen Speck Winning Blue on Rosenharley Romello!

Team Lily has just finished up a long weekend at the Millbrook Advanced Horse Trials in Millbrook, New York.  Though the weekend had a few bumps in the road that were not part of the plan, I was very pleased with everyone's performance and we all traveled home happy!  

Competitors for the weekend were Kaelen Speck on Rosenharley Romello, Mica Kane on The Cobbler's Son,  Wyn Maling on Stellar's Run, Andi Lawrence on Armani IV, and myself on No Boundaries and Paddy the Caddy. 

The weekend started off with the Novice and Training horses competing first, with the dressage on Thursday succeeded by the cross-country Friday and show-jumping on Saturday.  Kaelen Speck proudly brought home our blue ribbon for the weekend in the Novice on Rosenharley Romello,  moving from fifth place after the dressage to win her division on her dressage score of 25.  Her division was very competitive and the courses were tough, so I could not be more proud of she and Weasel's performance. 

Mica Kane rode The Cobbler's Son in the Open Training, having her first double clear competition weekend of the year to finish in 9th place.   Paddy the Caddy put in a solid performance to finish on his dressage score in 4th place in the Open Training. 

Andi Lawrence and Wyn Maling were our preliminary competitors for the weekend, both riding in the JYOP division.  Andi added just a few time faults to her jump rides to finish 3rd, and Wyn had a good performance for the weekend to finish 10th.  Both riders are aiming at the CIC* at Plantation Field in September, and judging by their performance on the weekend, they are looking ready to go!

My weekend with No Boundaries did not go quite to plan, but we ironed out a few issues and finished the weekend well.  He put in a great performance in the dressage with a score of 32 to sit in 7th place.  The cross-country track looked great and the footing was some of the best conditions we have had this year, so I was very excited to have a strong ride on the course.  I very unfortunately had a misunderstanding of striding at an early coffin combination on the course, which resulted in an unplanned dismount from Bucky.  This was very disappointing for me, as I did not even have a chance to ride around the course with this problem early on.  I was fortunate enough to be given permission to show-jump on Sunday, and Bucky jumped very well with a double clear round.

I am obviously coming away from the weekend a bit disappointed that I did not have the ability to ride the whole course on Saturday.  After consultation and some assistance with my cross-country riding from Phillip, I am pleased to say that we are still on track and on our plan for Burghley!  I plan to have a few more cross-country lessons in the coming weeks before my departure, and with that we should be well prepared. 

Stay tuned for updates and a recap of Fair Hill this coming weekend!

New Jersey Recap

Eliza Crosby on Woodstock Rawley

We have just wrapped up a busy weekend at the Horse Park of New Jersey with many successful rides!  We had very turbulent weather over us on Saturday, but the rain held off for a rather cool Sunday.  We had eight horses from the farm competing in levels Beginner Novice through Training. 

Saturday was rather quiet with just two competing from the farm in the Training.  Jenn Cain had her first outing on her new mount, Wild Genius, as Lucie Hughes accompanied her in the Training Rider division on Kitty's Topez.  Both riders had pleasing results in the dressage and show-jumping.  Jenn had a great ride on Wiley, as he proved to her that he is ready for some bigger fences.  Lucie's ride on Kitty was not as smooth, as Kitty reminded us that she is still a green youngster!

Sunday brought six horse and rider combinations to the Horse Park of New Jersey;  three in the novice and three in the Beginner Novice.  Eliza Crosby brought home the blue ribbon for us this weekend, winning her division adding no jump penalties to her dressage.  Annelise Aurillo finished well on her new mount in the Novice as well, while Kaelen Speck had a costly piloting mishap in the dressage that cost them disqualification from the competition.  Luckily the TD allowed for her to jump, so she was able to finish the weekend well.  Olivia Saber had a great weekend on her new mount, Stonewall Winters, finishing on her dressage score in 8th place.  Nicole Spiropoulos also had a great day on her mount, Regal Dancer, finishing on her dressage score in the Beginner Novice in 7th place.  


My ride of the weekend was aboard a lovely young horse named Campground, owned by Marnie Kelly.  This was his second competition, so I was very pleased with his great jump rides and a 4th place finish.  He looks like a promising one for the future!

Team Lily has arrived safe and sound to the Millbrook Horse Trials in New York for this weekend's competition.  Stay tuned to the results, as No Boundaries is running in the Avdanced as his last run before Burghley!  I am accompanied by riders Andi Lawrence, Mica Kane, Wyn Maling, and Kaelen Speck who will all be competing this weekend as well. I hope we will be reporting on Sunday with great results!