Best.Event.Ever.

Last week Plantation sent out a blast email referring to itself as the Best.Event.Ever. Well, close! I may be slightly biased since I was really happy with the way that Fernhill Whatever performed all weekend. That, combined with the fact that he was the only horse I took, made it feel like a bit of a vacation!

Plantation has come a long way in what seems like such a short time. The arena really does have spectacular footing and dresses up nicely with tents, classy dressage arenas, and beautiful show jumping fences like the wall pictured above! Stabling is very user friendly, and the shuttles up the massive hill are life savers (says the person with a dead minibike wah wah). It would be great if they made one truck lane so we felt like we knew we were allowed to drive up and back instead of stealth dashing here there and everywhere waiting to get busted by Dennis ha. The cross country course flowed so much better this year which is of course the reason we all came!

I'm sorry that Winston's owners didn't get a chance to visit the venue, there was a lot going on for spectators (I mean, mechanical bull riding!), a great vendor village, fair food, all the finer things in life. The weather was incredible. This year I packed a jog outfit appropriate for a freezing cold morning! It still didn't stop me from getting trotted off the jog strip. They do need to give the GJ somewhere to stand other than up against the bushes, as I was not the first nor the last combination to take out the mums and leap off the ledge away from the scary judges! Trisha was the main beneficiary of their absence and ate and drank their fair share up at the Sponsors Tent. But she deserved it! She is an amazing worker, a fun person to spend a weekend with, and makes my grey pony sparkle!

Luckily Winston wasn't very scared of the judges in the dressage, he put in a lovely, relaxed test that was fairly accurate. I was SO thankful to have Karen back in my life lol but seriously just knowing that she is there watching and answering important questions for me like Do I go inside or outside of the tree??? is so reassuring! Even if my way of showing it is by crashing thru the 2' oxer in show jumping warm up but we won't really talk about that. Focusing back on the sandbox, if I had it to do all over again I would have liked to pump up my trot a bit more, and I will be working on that tomorrow in my Linda lesson! Feeling confident in my counter cantering skills on the big guy now at least.

Saturday was a beautiful day for cross country and we got to go first yay! I'm starting to think a little like Winston, building a partnership so I know what is going to be the best approach and option for Winston specifically. After the first minute I felt like my steering really clicked in, and it was by far the most positive and forward cross country ride to date. He was great at both waters, and the first water was certainly spooky with the white rails in. He conquered Plantation's world famous elephant trap so we can check that off the list :) I must admit that everything was really quite pleasant. One more round like that to prove it was skills and not luck and I declare us ready for Intermediate!

Show jumping was a bit the same story. I know him well enough now that I was confident about the distances I wanted to do in the lines, and Karen was very helpful with the technicalities of my turns and what shots I needed into the combinations. For the most part, I was very pleased. Winston jumped very straight and was very game without being obnoxious after a fast and clean show jumping round. I was too aggressive getting the forward 6 done in the first line, ended up pulling the last two strides and an inverted horse equals a rail at a square oxer - these things I know! I promise to do better next time!

And I'm very excited that the next time will be the Preliminary Championships at Morven Park, and then it is off to the MidSouth CCI*. Never been there for that and am really looking forward to it, should feel like a proper test. Many thanks again to Greyside for giving me the opportunity to campaign such a lovely animal. I am really looking forward to a strong finish to our first season together, and for all of the fun things to come in 2013!

Fun at Five Points

Photo credit High Time Photography

Fernhill Whatever was really looking forward to whatever came next on his cross country course! And I am looking forward to a big future with "Winston" to say the least! We had a great time at Five Points last weekend, it was a big Blue Clover Eventing trip since there doesn't appear to be a Fair Hill in our fall wah wah; but I'd say a good time was had by all. Lucky for all of us, Stacy's parents own a condo in Southern Pines and we were living the life of luxury let me tell you. Most excited was the lercher, of course, having an actual floor to sleep on and not reside in the truck for the evening - we all know he prefers the couch but let's not get crazy :)

Horses traveled well and we went straight to dressage-ing on Friday afternoon. I wish I was a bit more prepared, the past few years I've gotten there via Aiken and so I didn't have my food and diesel stops mapped out along the way ha we arrived hungry and without Diet Coke egads! I have only been to the Carolina Horse Park for Southern Pines II and the dressage pad looked so big, only having to hold 3 arenas instead of the crazy 7 or 8 that I'm used to seeing. The atmosphere however was still apparent and all but Tanner had to get ridden down a bit. Good old Tanner, that's precisely why he was Alex's Beginner Novice Rider super star:

There really wasn't much time to dwell on our dressage on Saturday, which is too bad because we were all great! Bailey and Trisha put in the best performance they have had yet, from the moment she stepped in warm up you knew it was going to be good and it was, had them second by the smallest of margins. I was also pleased with Brew, he had a bit of a nervous breakdown at the dressage pad at Richland. And now, after one away show, he is obviously the seasoned competitor because he put it a very relaxed and steady test. Unfortunately it was a bit like the AECs, if you don't get in the teens at Training you aren't in the top ten poor guy! I don't suppose that Brew much cares, however, and he was the first to go of our crew around the cross country course. Half way around I was telling myself that he really needs to move up to Prelim because this was too easy for him. Then I realized what I was saying and I started to focus on what the bleep I was doing before I buried us at a table or something ha. Really though, he cruised thru the water which I think was by far the hardest part of the training, felt like SP II and he cruised in and out and grabbed the bit and took off for the infield. Good pony! Also grabbing the bit was Winston, not always in a great way lol but I did need to be speedy because we were tied for 3rd after dressage. He is such a lovely horse; but I was afraid to do too much with him as he is still lacking fitness after his trip over here and he ran cross country barely an hour after his dressage. I was a little disappointed in the Prelim cross country, I thought the course had some punishing, random turns to it and it lacked the flow that I'm used to feeling there. At least we had our straightness down, he was locked on to the middle of every combination which was my goal. I'm sorry that I didn't meet more of my fences in a positive way and so at Prelim we will stay and do the 1* at Plantation. Trisha and Bailey did an excellent job of  being positive their entire way around, this was a  big course for The B and we didn't know what to expect out of him having to gallop thru and jump out of the barn! He was great and they were the fastest of the Prelim Riders and gave themselves a rail in hand going into the jumping, always a great feeling. We ended Saturday on a super note, Alex and Tanner put in a lovely, boring BN run and managed to get us all finished and on our way to dinner before a massive storm rolled in!

Sunday was a bit hit or miss I'm not gonna lie. Good news was, Stacy and Trisha were packing genius' and we were outta there like a well oiled machine. Good news was my round on Winston, which I declare our best to date by far, it was a lovely double clear well inside the time and every time I looked for a fence there it was. Second weekend in a row he's been 3rd, means he's been saving his win for the CIC* at Plantation! Good news was Alex's double clear on Tanner let her secure a second place! Good news was I managed to stay on Brew when I fell asleep at the wheel at the combination and ran his poor little grey legs right thru it. Good news was Trisha managed to fall next to and not in to the cactus when Bailey jumped her out of the tack at fence 8. 

Good news is, we are off to Plantation and then Morven and then who knows where the rest of the season is going to take us!

Richland Recap

How can you not love Richland Park?? One of my favorite events of the year, totally worth the 11 hour drive thru the nite with a very stinky lercher in the truck. Not sure that everyone else in the truck agreed since it was, after all, my lercher lol. Nonetheless, I do declare a good time was had by all! A huge thanks to Richard who had the yick shift of driving from 11 - 3, and Trisha had such mad packing and unpacking skills (or was it the numerous lattes??) that we were in and out of there in record time. I am one lucky girl! And a big thanks to everyone involved with that horse trials. I learned that they had been watering the grounds for 8 weeks prior to our arrival - unreal. And the corn was once again a highlight of the competitor's party :)

We spent some of that 11 hour drive coming up with a barn name for Fernhill Whatever, now officially referred to unofficially as Winston. I guess it was the moment he was waiting for, having a name and all, as it was his best competition to date here in the US, finishing a strong 3rd in a very big, very tough OP division. For a moment I thought disaster was upon us as soon as the counter canter practice began in warm up. Starting to learn his changes, he really does not appreciate the loops in Prelim Test B! He managed to put in a lovely, relaxed test and was rewarded by the judge. So nice when that happens! Cross country the pressure was on to go clean and fast, which means we had to steer! I had a lesson - FINALLY -  with Karen lol and it was just the kick in the you know what that I needed to start making him my horse. I got to jump a few oxers with David once there to make sure I didn't leave any skills back in MD. Luckily, not the case! He was super and finished well under the time looking for more. I was especially pleased with the water, as a run out at the corner had plagued me the weekend before at Waredaca. This time, we were picture perfect! I do hope, speaking of which, that the photographers were at the Key Hole - Winston ducked his head and pinned his ears back to make sure he was going to fit. So cute! Show jumping was challenging as always out on the rolling hills. I had a rail, I repeat I had a rail, placings didn't change luckily and we finished the weekend feeling very excited about the future. I will be ready for a clean round this weekend at Five Points and hopefully a blue as well!

Brew would like to take this moment to remind everyone that he did finish 4th in a very tough Training Horse division! He absolutely fought his way up from an undeserved dressage score, it is what we love about that little guy. Quite the spirit that one has! Unfortunately it did get him a little rattled in the dressage; but this was a huge trip in the world of Brew. It is a great feeling in show jumping to know that you are going to leave up all of the rails, I don't know how he does it; but you can get the Brewster to a vertical upside down and backwards and he still jumps it with room to spare. (Knock wood prior to my jumping round this weekend at Five Points, please, that I haven't gotten him upside down and backwards too many times.) Cross country was a pretty similar feeling. I thought the training level was big but fair and inviting, and Brew flew around, certainly rising to the occasion of being in company of 3* horses! Let's hope he has an even better finish this weekend at Southern Pines!

Millbrook 2012

All in all I'd have to declare Millbrook 2012 to be a big success even if we didn't come home with any blue ribbons. Millbrook is one of my favorite events of the year, and obviously I was just a little excited to get to ship up there with the new Fernhill Whatever entered in the Open Prelim. Felix Brew Trisha and Gunsmoke were all along for the ride as well. And I cannot forget to mention the Birthday Boy - Richard - who got to ? celebrate ? on Sunday by packing us up in a flash before the skies opened up! Not sure what we would have done without him, Trisha got her arm yanked out of the socket quite literally on Friday and even thru her stubborn denials it was clear that she was in pain. Luckily we had guest working student Catherine helping us out all weekend as well, although her main job was to try to keep Trisha under control and not working too hard! She did a great job, I am so lucky to be surrounded by such great people. And ponies. So more on that!

Millbrook continues to run a fantastic event, I was excited to see the new water complex and I will be more excited to see what they have in store for us next year now that they have the basic layout. The fence and rocks around the water in my area of tent stabling was fantastic, and we refrained from harming those few jerks who still tried to hose off their horses in the blatantly marked "BUCKET BATHING ONLY" area. I was impressed by the fact that the food tent carried a wide variety of tea - I live so constantly discriminated against as a non-coffee drinker ha ha ha - however my big complaint of the weekend is their thought that food and caffeine are not necessary before 730 at a competition!!! aaahhhh!!!!!

If this is my biggest complaint of the weekend, however, I'd say they are doing everything right. And they pretty much are. We had an interesting beginning to the competition, Felix put in a fantastic test and the judge was just a little stingy in the marks department for the entire division. It was still good enough to be his sales footage, so anyone in the market for a nice upper level prospect currently competing at training level, go ahead and check out the For Sale page on my website! Brew let his nerves get the better of him crossing the road to the big main arena. He was accurate and obedient; but obviously not super relaxed. We are still trying to name poor Fernhill Whatever, so you will just have to bear with me, Whatever was lovely in the dressage although unfortunately the judge did not reward him for his flying changes in the preliminary counter canter movements. Poor guy thought he was doing everything right and kept trying to change. His walk and trot were beautiful, not an ounce of tension, so we have some work to do there! I declare, however, the biggest victory of the weekend to be the fact that I walked all horses back unharmed without having to use the alternate route to stabling lol.

We don't think they had these little fellas back in Ireland for Fernhill Whatever!


Cross country was also a bit hit or miss, fact finding shall we say. Felix had an absolutely brilliant start, his personal best by far, and the tracks really flowed I believe on all levels. He got a little rattled by the loop around the new water complex; I slowed down a touch and we ended strong. I then went out on a mission on Brew knowing time was hard to make and ran my little Ferrari like an Intermediate horse. Poor Brew Brew. He had a fly by at 16, I honestly don't even think he knew he was presented to the fence even though I was trying to get him there off of a very tight turn trying to shave off seconds on the last part of the course. Completely idiot mistake and I hope he forgives me. Whatever and I also had a few mistakes. His fitness is so much better, finally getting over his trip and starting to adjust to the heat and humidity and so I went buzzing off out of the start box. He's such a light and sensitive horse in so many ways, that I could hardly believe my lack of detailed steering went I got to the combination at 5. I felt like a bit of a pony clubber pulling on a rein to make a turn and there he went straight ahead just staring at the ditch and flying over it without giving any consideration to the angles rails one stride later. Hmm. We will have a little schooling session involving me, Whatever, and my bit bucket early next week!

I was very proud of how all my boys handled the hustle and bustle of Millbrook show jumping. Felix was excellent, put in the quietest, most focused round yet. We had a cheap rail in the triple, he was trying to make sure he had enough room in the one stride that he came down just a touch too early. I will never fault him for trying to be too careful and jumping too big! Brew was back to his normal go go bunny self and it was a good thing. They were running behind and we grossly over-calculated my adjusted time. I got into warm up on deck! I picked up a canter and jumped the oxer a few times and Brew acted like this was completely normal, went in and jumped a beautiful clear round. Way to go Brew Brew! Whatever also had a beautiful round. Time was quite tight and you really had to go for it and I was slightly nervous that I was going to have a loss of steering; but I went with the same bit that I used on cross country and bigger spurs and had no issues. So that's good and bad :) I will get the pedals figured out soon enough in the jumping department, he has this giant stride this is so casual all at the same time, and he is so careful. I am a lucky girl to have the ride on such a lovely horse, so I've put quite a bit of pressure on myself to figure out this ride quickly. 

We are gearing up for a big end to the month, Waredaca and then Richland. Yay! Hope to see everyone there! Everyone knows that Kalamazoo is the place to be at the end of August.

Lovin' Loch Moy!

I have so many positive things to say about my experience at the MD HT II at Loch Moy Farm. I realize that I might be ever so slightly biased by super excitement to compete Fernhill Whatever for the first time. I say with all confidence, however, that I could not have picked a better first competition for my dear new boy!


I have been competing at Loch Moy since the very very beginning - parking in that lower area and nearly dying trying to hack to and fro will forever haunt me ha. In all seriousness, however, I don't know of a venue that tries harder, and here it is a small family owned and operated dream barely an hour from my barn. The layout of arenas is fabulous - did you notice all of the bleachers and tents for spectators?! The way that it flows for food, vendors, scores and parking? The amenities for horses also amazing - cooling tents and fans for even beginner novice! Watering and dragging of arenas during all breaks! A gentleman in a gator picking up poo from warm up and horse paths HELLO where have you been all of my life!! Add in a top notch secretary with Mary, and a fabulous vet crew (unfortunately my working student had to deal with them on Sunday and even that experience as good as it could possibly be) and I'm happy to go back. And I did. I went schooling there today! And might I add when we got there a crew was picking and raking rocks from the side of the arena and one of the staff was able to plug my flat outside dually tire - another story in itself.


I know that sounds like a paid advertisement, I promise it came from the bottom of my heart. And so does the praise that I have for my horses students and owners that attended the MD HT II! Obviously the headliner would be the newbie, Fernhill Whatever. It was a complete fact finding mission, poor guy gets here from Ireland in time for a heat wave and even though I had him in the prelim he had jumped maybe twice and done not even an entire trot set for fear of killing him in the humidity. He rose to the occasion, like any great Irish horse I believe would do lol, and absolutely turned heads from the moment he walked off the trailer, literally. He was a dream in the dressage, the right amount of puffed up from warm up that stayed with him into the test. So fabulous to have a horse so straight forward in there. For so many, the performance anxiety creeps in well before the 1* level so what a lucky girl I am! I thought the judge was a bit tough on him, and I realized that all of the scores in that arena were a bit grumpy so not going to dwell on that. I learned in show jumping that I need a slightly different warm up strategy. My only complaint of Loch Moy is that the SJ warm up area is too deep and I find myself not wanting to jump more than 5 times. And then the efficient side of me galloped into the arena and promptly thru the start flags, I think my boy needed a moment to acclimate. He jumped fine; but he is a superb jumper and I need to find a way to make that happen in the ring. I started changing my plan en route and that resulted in my absolutely burying him at the skinny, my rail, he forgave me. Good boy. That's what he gets the carrots for ha ha ha. Cross country was like running a horse in the last two minutes of a 3 day track. His ears were up, he was happy to do the job; but there was no extra spark in the tank. He was honest, obviously loves it, just needs more fitness work. The courses were fair for an early season test, with most people getting going again for the fall. There were enough questions that I got a feel for where he is, and I think I'm gonna keep him in the 1* ranks for a bit until I can school him more and determine when his move to Intermediate will take place. And hopefully Linda and Karen get home soon from that Olympic thing and I can have a lesson or two :_)~


The other highlight of the competition would be Trisha and Bailey absolutely being awesome in their 2nd prelim! They finished 5th in an Open division!! Her dressage was so smart, rode the entire thing and got even point out of the test that she possibly could - well done! Show jumping she was a little lucky here and a little unlucky there, so with a 4 fault round I think we should be pleased. Cross country, they really were fantastic. She's been working so hard on finding her distances and making the job easy for Bailey, and it looked like they were on their second trip around the course! I don't think I've ever had a girl work harder, for me or on her own riding, and it is certainly paying off for her now. I'm very excited about the future things to come from that pair. 


On Sunday the training level crew showed up ready to strut their stuff, which mostly they did. Brew got robbed, robbed I tell you! in the dressage although typical Brew didn't seem to let a thing get in the way of finishing on his dressage score and winning a ribbon. He is just the most game horse I have ever ridden and he is such a blast to just bomb around on here there and everywhere. Felix put in his usual lovely dressage test, and it was probably the most focused he has ever been on cross country. Proud of him for that. Unfortunately for Stacy her weekend came to an abrupt end when Snick injured his hock galloping in between fences out on cross country. It was ultimately quite serious, we got him over to Spurlocks where they took excellent care of him and he is now back with his mom wondering why he's missing out on the fun. We are wishing him a speedy recovery and keeping Stacy very focused on her future! She is a very good rider and I'm sorry she didn't get to prove that to the world at MD HT II. Lots of time, however, to prove things to the world and it means we were just saving it for a later time and place :)


We are enjoying no competitions here for a bit as we ramp up for Millbrook and everything else happening in August. Stay tuned for Whatever may be!!!

A Summer to Remember!

So far, I'd say that the summer of 2012 is going pretty well for Blue Clover Eventing:

 A great time was had by all at Fair Hill, especially if you ask big winners Sarah and Alex! Luckily they competed in separate divisions so we didn't have to have a Grace/Tanner show down ha ha ha. Nicholas and Tatanka also rocked their division, finishing a super second and were by far the smartest looking pair in their division:

 I was proud to call each and every one of them my students, they were well turned out, prepared, and looked like they knew what they were doing out there! Even though we had some exciting moments, I think that we were excited for all of the right reasons by the time everyone came home safe and smiling through those cross country finish flags. I can't wait for their next outings!


We've also been busy doing circles and more circles. Last weekend I had the opportunity to compete another lovely Beall Spring Farm horse, Beall Spring Baccarat, for owner Steph Sullivan. He's been very rewarding to train and compete and made his Second Level debut with rock star scores at the PVDA show last weekend at the PG Equestrian Center. This boy can really move!

We have new horses, new students, people and ponies going here there and everywhere. I'm so lucky to have Trisha and Stacy working for me right now, I don't know what I'd do without them and I hope the feeling is mutual lol. I'm looking forward to competing Fernhill Whatever this coming weekend at MD HT II at Loch Moy. We have a bunch of first time dressage competitors going to a competition later in the month and I can't wait for great scores! Then it is off to Millbrook before we know it. Can't wait!

Welcome Whatever!

Congratulations to Greyside LLC on the exciting purchase of Fernhill Whatever! I am beyond thrilled to have such an amazing horse to compete. Thanks to Carolyn Jolley, in nothing less than whirlwind style, I was on a plane and back again with arrangements made to bring a new pony to Blue Clover Eventing! Not just any pony; but a gorgeous grey 16.2h Irish Sport Horse...and I assure you he knows it!

Carol and Fraser at Fernhill Sport Horse Centre both did an amazing job of finding this guy and bringing him up to win at the the 1* level. His breeding, movement and jumping ability all scream upper level event horse and that's exactly what we had in mind with his purchase. He's been here two weeks literally to the day, and I've set a schedule that would get us to the 2* at Fair Hill, I'm anticipating that he's as much of an over-achiever as I am :) I feel badly that the poor guy leaves an unusually cold and wet Ireland and arrives in the North East in the midst of a record breaking heat wave. Trisha did one of her 'usual' amazing clip jobs and that combined with the fact that he is just an amazing athlete has allowed him to make the adjustment fairly easily to life in the States. He seems to approve of our chow at least! and seems to respond to us even though we don't have nearly as cool of an accent as did his former humans. He was highly suspicious of treats although we seem to have gotten over that after the first week, group effort ha ha ha.

I look forward to a little cross country school tomorrow at Morven Park, and if that goes well off to Loch Moy we go this weekend to run the prelim at MD HT II. Can't wait!