Hi Guys, Im sorry that I was a terrible blogger for all last week. The truth is that it was too hot down in California to do much of anything other than the necessary competing and recovering from competing. I dont understand how people can stand it down there! Dry, hot, thistles, central valley dust, no grass for the horses to eat…. terrible! Please dont get all offended, all you Cali-natives (Jordan and Mark), I just cant see the draw of that state this time of year. Suzy and I could not have been more excited to head north… our last day read 107 on the temp gauge. We had had enough!

OK – now the details. Dressage: was pretty good. I thought he could have done 7 points better if he had been more receptive to my legs in the lateral work. He basically crowded me out totally there. We got a 9 and an 8 for our medium trots, but maybe the canter mediums were a little too conservative. That was my first test in temps like that, and I just did not know how much to ask for from Taco. The three loop canter serpentines were after the mediums, and I wanted to get those right without him being wild. So, I was conservative.  Oh well, we were 7th after dressage.

Cross Country: was GREAT! Taco was fantastic and was really brave and straight everywhere. Its super fun to learn more about him, and that is his BEST phase for sure. He did not chuck his head up once, remained extremely rideable to every corner and skinny. Super fun. We ran at 2:30 in the afternoon! and it was around 100 so I did not go really fast, I thought we were both going to pass out. Fortunetly, Suzy went on a search for clippers around the grounds and found some. I did not do his whole body, but the saddle forward and his entire belly. I wish I had done the whole furry body, but it was helpful to just have done that much. When I clipped him on Thursday, I probably did not have a clear idea of just how hot it was going to be over the weekend. He stayed in 7th after cross country.

Taco recovered pretty well from that hot day, but he looked a little tired after the heat. I held ice on his neck for both ice bootings, and on mine too. I think it was helpful for both of us.

Show Jumping: as you know, that is his difficult phase. He has been king of the wild for Jordan for the last few years, and he over jumps everything. He does not take communication well either. So, knowing that…. I was VERY happy with him. The scoreboard does not reflect that improvement, it looks like a disaster: 12 jumping faults and 17 time. He had one very cheap rail, that just rolled off after a toe tick. He was almost completely rideable for most of the course!!!!!! The first 4 jumps were really soft and nice, he over jumped the oxers of course, but it did not result in wildness on landing. We turned and came to the triple and he was on a soft connection. I waited for him to overreact and go forward….. and he stopped. He was confused as to how he was supposed to jump the sea of rails on a soft rein, and I was a little late in realizing that he needed me to immediately help out in that situation. We circled and jumped through perfectly, and the remainder jumps were actually pretty alright. He never blasted through a jump like at Caber, or over reacted to my leg. I learned that for now, he gets a bit of bravery from the contact in the combinations, as that is what he is used to. Well, if you call blasting as contact. But for now, we need to transition slowly to a softer ride, and that will come along nicely over the winter. Thanks Scott Keach for setting me on the right track!

This morning I was crawling around my horse trailer organizing stuff for my California trip, when my phone rang. The number came up something crazy: 353 54 148. (or something similar) And I answered it very curious to whom it was. I was greeted with a slaughter of my name and a “Cheers!!” in a deep Tipperary accent. It was the assistant trainer to Tommy Stark calling excited to have received my card to them saying I had acquired Cochlear. He was so excited to have heard that Cochlear is happy, sound and being trained to a new job. They had actually recieved word from the trainer in California that Cochlear had broken down and had been euthanized. He said that their head girl rider was extremely upset about this news, as they all were. Cochlear was a loved horse! He cleared the mystery about his name, Tommy Stark was stricken with menengitis 7 years ago and was left deaf by the disease. The owner  had named her new horse after the implant that helped restore some hearing to Mr. Stark, which must have been a life changing positive thing for him. So, how could we change the name? Cant. He has run well under that name, and was named for something dear to the owner and trainer’s heart. So Cochlear it is… even if it is odd to have a horse named after the inner ear. I’ll get over it when he proves he jumps as well as he races.

Otherwise know as: Putting your money where your mouth is. I think the story goessomething like this: Trav is spinning some yarn about how “Anybody can do Novice level” (include eye roll in that), duuuuh. And I believe that Jonathan Elliot raises eyebrows and sees an inviting opportunity arising in front of him, oh yea??? Back at Polestar Farm, Mark and I get a whiney phone call from Trav to see if there is ANY way that he can borrow a sensible sweet horse for one single cross country round, above 15 years old preferable and half asleep. Im thinking that Trav is sweating bullets at this point because the possiblity for massive loss of face is big. Im thinking Panda, and I wonder if the EMTs will still be onsite.

The end result is this video: Trav’s Eventing Debut. Sorry for the crazy videographing – Kat and I did our best, but that is still pretty bad in the back of a gator.  I want everyone to know that Linus was not harmed in the process of making this video, but Suzy was. Ask her about her butt and maybe she should wear a helmet while in the gator.

Enjoy the video and comments welcome!!!

I am finally home from the long Aspen “weekend”. And what I learned is that I might be one of the most stupid people ever. I thought that I could coach at Aspen HT all weekend and come home and sleep in my own bed at night. But I brilliantly forgot that it is Labor Day weekend and I had at best, 2 hours to kill on I-5, 4 hours at tops. It was terrible! My girls, Kasey and Chase, did great however, so at least I arrived to cheery riders.  But, note to self: Dont do that again.  I am comparing the last 3 weeks to strip mining my soul:  from the pre-Derby prep, Derby, Don clinic, Aspen HT and Scott clinic… its been rough on my humor and fingernails.

But I did have a fantastic time with Scott Keach. If you dont know him, he is a new US transplant from Oz, and living in NH/FL. He rode in Seoul Olys and competes at Grand Prix in show jumping. Knowing that he was obviously very good at arena work, I knew I needed his help with Taco.  He gave me some very, very helpful tips to ride hot Taco and they really jive with my own views of riding.

Most clinics I go to (which are not all that frequent) I find it is important to take some aspects of what you were told to do and see how it integrates into your own way of riding. I am a soft rider by nature, and that has its pros and cons. Ive been yelled at plenty of times for not being strict enough with my horses, and I have also been praised for having a soft, instinctual feel of the horse.

All that being said, I found that I liked most everything that Scott told me, and also most everything that he told my comrade, Suzy Elliot. I feel like he took our riding and gave us some key hints that we could digest and integrate into our own way of going. He did not try to remake our approaches, rather he took what we had and gave us concise points to take the next step. Because he rides at GP for show jumping, he knows that us eventers tend to have our own unique style over fences, which is very different from the show jumpers.  We ride in a very light seat (perhaps he means an American trend here) and there is a reason why the pure show jumpers sit the way they do… because it produces a better jump out of the horse. His point with Taco was that my half seat is causing me to overly use my hands to regulate my hot Taco. Where if I use my seat and cause Taco to maintain self-carriage all on his own…. well, then that will produce a quieter, softer ride. And it was true, it did. I need to practice it and own it myself, so that will take time. But I do know that the way I jumped Taco around Caber was NOT the ticket. He was blasting through the bridle with the slightest indication from me – causing me to tiptoe around him and then haul on him.  Not good. I hope to show yall the improvements soon…. after hours of practice!

Suzy and I are joining powers for the trip south to Twin Rivers HT in a few weeks. I think that is going to be my last event of the year. Suzy is moving Uno up to Advanced and I will be affirming our intermediate skills. Should be a vacation for us, one horse a piece and no students?! amazing. Maybe we will go wine tasting and do stuff that I hear other people do when they travel.

I am really excited about a new horse who just came into the barn. His race name is Cochlear, and he is from Ireland. I got him through Shirley Aronson, who is well known for picking lovely sporthorses from the race world. The real mystery here might be how in the world I trusted someone to send me up a horse that I have not seen, but there you go.  Trust I did, and so far (granted I have not ridden him yet) I like him a lot.  Cochlear raced in Ireland under Tommy Stack, a well know flat and steeplechase jockey and trainer. Cochlear raced 24 times under Mr. Stack’s guide, and was listed as one of his exciting 4 year old winners in 2008. He won just shy of $150k, and he went through the sales in October 09, and was not sold with a bid of $42k.

The real mystery is how is it that he is not a successful racehorse here in the US? He came to US, and was presumably bought for more than $42k. And Im going to assume that he was ready to start racing in California in early 2010. He has no starts here stateside, and I dont know who he trained with, but Shirley said that the trainer called him “God awful at running.”

How does that happen? How does a horse with that good steady record in Ireland come here and flunk out so supremely?  I gave him a shallow vetting yesterday and he was very sound on the longe, longeing on the hard rocks, and the worst his flexions were 0.5/5!!!!  I have not had that good of a vetting for years!  So possibly, this speaks for Mr. Stack’s training. Cochlear was run only once per month, and in August of each year he ran twice. He had all winters off, presumably on break in a field? Anyway, if anybody is in Ireland and knows Mr. Stark, can you ask him about the horse’s  details? Who was the trainer here in US who tried to run him? Diaz, are you out there? can you sleuth down the answers?