Fair Hill Spring Horse Trials!

Fair Hill International kicked off their spring Horse Trials and CIC in Elkton, Maryland this past weekend.  Team Lily packed up the trailer to take over the Training divisions for the weekend.  We were competing in some stormy weather most of the day on Saturday, but Sunday brought sunshine and warmer temperatures!  The footing on the cross-country held up surprisingly well despite all the rain.  The going was deep in many spots, but not as slick as we all expected.

My young riders Abigail Wilson and Eliza Crosby rose to the occasion and performed spectacularly this weekend!  They both had competitive dressage tests, and with double clear jump rides they secured the first and third place positions respectively in the Junior Training division.  Abigail has been working on sorting out some kinks with Fernhill Flag on the cross-country, so it was very rewarding for her to see her hard work paying off.  This has just been the third competition for Eliza on her mount Happy Valley, so a third place finish is very exciting!

I had two young horses entered in the Training divisions this weekend, and they both had good rounds.  I rode Your Lucky Day for Annelise Aurillo in his third Training competition this weekend, and he had a very respectable fifth place finish!  I also rode Kodiak's Moment for Paul and Jane Lawrence, who finished well with a double clear cross-country in his training division. 

I will be taking the younger riders and green horses to the St. Augustine Spring Horse Trials this weekend to get most of them their first start of the season!   Stay tuned to the blog for updates!  Thanks to Sumner Crosby for our own portfolio of photos from the weekend at Fair Hill!  The pictures look great!

Fork Wrap Up!!

Bucky and I have arrived home late last night after a great weekend at the Fork CIC*** in Norwood, North Carolina.  We finished up the weekend with great jump rides to place in the top 25 of the CIC***.  With this finish, we are now qualified for the Jersey Fresh CCI*** May 11th - 15th.  He is looking fresh and full of himself today, and I think very impressed with his efforts this weekend!

The cross-country on Saturday proved to be a true CIC*** test with enough problems spread throughout the course.  Bucky felt great straight out of the start box, and jumped around the course in an effortless manner.  He made my job easy!  He has taken well to every course he has run this year, and he feels like each course experience makes him more and more solid at the Advanced level.  He finished with just 2.8 time faults on Saturday, and we weren't even pushing for time!  I have allowed him to pick the pace he is comfortable sticking to, and with each run he gets a bit more competitive with his pace.  I imagine he will be competitive by the time he gets to Jersey.

I was most pleased with our ride in the show jumping ride on Sunday.  The past few show jump rides we have had this spring have been rough, and on Sunday I wanted to make sure I gave him the best ride I could to get him jumping better.  I set out to have a slower ride around the course to keep him relaxed and focused on the jumps.  We had two rails down that were a bit unlucky in my opinion, but I felt it was by far the best round he has jumped at this level.  I will look to shave a few seconds off my time in the coming courses while still keeping him relaxed and jumping well.  

We will be looking forward to competing at the Fair Hill CIC*** in two weeks and then heading to Jersey Fresh CCI*** in the beginning of May.  Now that I have all my qualifications for Jersey, I am looking forward to fine tuning my dressage and show jumping to get a bit more competitive for the CCI.  I hope you all will come to cheer us on at these more local competitions in the coming weeks!

This coming weekend we will be packing up to make the long drive to Plantation Field Horse Trials.  I have a few young horses competing, as well as a few young riders!  Stay tuned to the blog for updates and results and for now Bucky is going to take a well deserved rest!!

News From The Fork!

The Fork CIC*** kicks off this weekend in Norwood, North Carolina.  Abigail Wilson and I arrived yesterday afternoon and were welcomed by perfect weather!  Abigail and her horse Rory will be competing in the Preliminary this weekend, while Bucky and I have our debut in the CIC***.  We have just completed our dressage about an hour ago and Bucky put in a great effort to score a 56. We have lots to improve on, but his test today was a great start. Abigail will be riding her dressage later in the morning.

We took a walk around the preliminary and CIC*** courses last night and both courses looked good. The preliminary looks like a confidence building course which will be great for Abigail and Rory. It has a few tough questions with lots of open galloping in between each combination. The three-star looks nice and open, so Bucky and I should be able to get a good rhythm going early on. It has some new questions on it, one being a downhill brush to double corners late in the course. This combination sits directly in front of the main water and sponsors tent, making it tough for the horses to focus on the jumps.  I imagine this combination will demand a precise and accurate ride to get the horses onto their line.  I took some photos on my walk last night, so enjoy the virtual course walk! Stay tuned to the blog for updates throughout the weekend!


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AIKEN WRAP-UP

Photo Gallery

We have just arrived home from our eight week stay in Aiken, South Carolina.  Though we had a great start to the season down south, I am relieved to be back at home.  Despite the colder weather, the horses seem happy to be back on their home turf.  We will be looking forward to the coming events in the next few weeks being closer to home!

Team Lily (as Trevor has named us) had a successful outing at Southern Pines last weekend on our way back home.  Eliza Crosby finished in second place with Annelise Aurillo close behind in eighth in a competitive Training level division.  The Training cross-country was one of the toughest tracks I have seen for that level, and the girls rose to the occasion and rode really well on Friday afternoon.  Abigail Wilson also competed in the Preliminary, and discovered a few kinks that I am confident she will iron out before her next outing.

Bucky and I had our third start at the Advanced level at Southern Pines this past weekend, and we continued our streak with another sixth place finish!  He put in a great effort the entire weekend, and despite a minor pilot error in the show jumping, he finished out the weekend really well.  We will be spending the next week training for the Fork CIC*** coming up April 7 - 10 in Norwood, North Carolina.  

I am excited to get back to the lesson program and start working on all the students and young horses that are gearing up to compete in the coming weeks!  We have a busy spring schedule planned for competitions, and we are already off to a great start so I am confident we will keep moving in the same direction.  Stay tuned to the blog for a recap of Morven Park Horse Trials this coming weekend and for the Fork CIC*** next weekend and thanks so much to Sumner Crosby for his great photographic contributions from Southern Pines!!

Ready for The Big Weekend!!

Eliza, Abigail and Annelise take Bucky, Leroy, Rory, Wex and Kodi for an afternoon walk. They are ready for the big weekend!

We have just arrived this morning to the beautiful Carolina Horse Parkin Raeford, North Carolina for Southern Pines Horse Trials.  I have spent the past week with Annelise Aurillo, Abigail Wilson, and Eliza Crosby training in Aiken with me to get ready for this exciting

weekend. 

We competed at Pine Top Farm last weekend and worked out all the kinks to get ready for Southern Pines.  Eliza and Annelise will be competing in the Junior Training division this weekend, while Abigail will be running in the Young Riders Preliminary.  These girls have

been working very hard all season to get ready for this big event, and they are looking ready to go! We examined the courses today and they are ready with a game plan for the competition tomorrow.

I am excited to embark on another trial at the Advanced level this weekend with Bucky.  We have been working hard on the dressage and show jumping, and he is feeling great.  I walked around the cross country this afternoon and the course looks like a challenge for us!

I am also riding Andi Lawrence's Kodiak's Moment in the Training division.  The courses and competition look tough, but we are ready to go! 

Please stay tuned for updates throughout the weekend, and enjoy the virtual Advanced course walk below!

Results from Red Hills!

This past weekend I packed up the truck with Bucky and headed south to Red Hills Horse Trials in Tallahassee.  Bucky and I were entered in the Advanced division there, and I am pleased to say we finished up our second successful start at the Advanced level!  
Live Scoring

The dressage was held on Friday afternoon, and the competition in the Advanced division was quite stiff.  Bucky put in a good effort scoring a 37, however he was fairly nervous with the level of spectators and atmosphere around the ring.  The test had some good parts to it, as well as some parts in need of improvement.  This event was the first time we saw a high level of spectator attendance and atmosphere, and I will look in the future to find a way to keep him more relaxed in that type of situation.  

I got the chance to look at the cross-country course on Thursday afternoon, and I have to say it looked tough!  The course at Red Hills has been historically difficult, as it is designed as a CIC course for each level.  The Advanced course had a few breaks from the CIC*** track, but it was still quite difficult.  When it came time to ride the course on Saturday afternoon, I set out to give Bucky a good, confident ride.  I am pleased Bucky made my ride easy!  He took to the track really well, and was not in the least bit distracted by the spectators.  The time had been impossible for any rider to make at the Advanced and CIC*** level, so I was pleased when we finished around a minute over the optimum time.  I let him gallop as fast as he wanted to in between the fences, and I took my time at the jump combinations that required tactful riding.  After a few ice sessions, he was looking well recovered on Saturday evening.  

The show jumping course on Sunday was beautifully designed and proved to be a difficult one.  There was a high level of spectator attendance and atmosphere at the ringside, and it made for a tricky ride.  Bucky was still buzzed up from his cross-country ride on Saturday, and I had some difficulty settling him in the jump warm-up.  I unfortunately was unable to relax him in the ring, and we had three rails down in our show jumping.  I was still pleased with the way he jumped the bulk of the course, and he just had rails down when he got too forward at the fences.  The next few events I will make a bigger effort to get him in a better mindset prior to the show jumping so he can focus on jumping well 100% of the course. 

With this sixth place finish in the Advanced at Red Hills, Bucky and I are now qualified to compete in the CIC*** at the Fork Horse Trials in April.  We will have one more Advanced run at Southern Pines in two weeks before that, and I will look to give him another confident ride there.  We are both still green at this level, so day by day we are working out the kinks!  Please stay tuned to the blog for updates at Southern Pines in two weeks!

Photos courtesy of Lisa Thomas

SPORTING DAYS RECAP

Sporting Days Farm Horse Trials in Aiken just wrapped up, and we had an exciting and fairly successful weekend.  


We packed up the truck in PA with some horses and young riders that would be making their debut out of the indoor arena for their first event of the year.  Andi Lawrence, Abigail Wilson, Eliza Crosby, and Annelise Aurillo were all down for the long weekend to get some cross-country schooling in and get their first competition under their belt.  


Kate Hick's student Veronique St. Maurice has also come down to spend her spring break in Aiken.   She has a young horse in need of some cross country and jump schooling, so she will be staying with me for the week so we can get her going!

We had a cross-country schooling day at Lellie Ward's Paradise Farm on Friday, which was very successful.  All the horses and riders were jumping around like they have not missed a beat all winter.  They were looking ready to go for the weekend!

Unfortunately, the weather did not care to cooperate with us this weekend at Sporting Days.  It was raining most of the weekend, which was disappointing  for all students and parents who migrated south in hopes of warmer weather.  


Most of the riders had a great outing on the weekend; Abigail Wilson and her mount Fernhill Flag finished sixth in a competitive Junior Training division, and Eliza Crosby finished eighth in the Junior Novice on Happy Valley.  Annelise Aurillo was so excited about her new air-vest that she decided to give it a test ride on the cross-country, having an unfortunate parting of company early on in the course.  She came back with good reviews on the product! 

I had two great rides this weekend aboard Tessa and Peace Proposal.  Tessa finished eighth in her Open Novice division with two double-clear jump rounds, and Parris finished fourth in her Beginner Novice division.  Both of these horses will compete at Pine Top Farm in two weeks before they make the trip back up to Pennsylvania.

Bucky and I will be headed to Red Hills in Tallahassee, Florida this coming weekend, where I will be competing him in the Advanced division.  Red Hills has historically tough cross country courses and stiff competition, so it should be an exciting weekend!  He has been feeling great and jumping well, and I think we are ready to go!  Please stay tuned to the blog for updates!