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?

The Derby was a total success! We had 70 people (or thereabouts) entered and hadconstant rounds throughout the day on cross country. Lots of people used the course as I intended, to help train riders and their horses. I encouraged trainers to let their students take second rounds and try moving up to a different course as student’s confidence improved. We also had new jumps, Mark has been motivated to make a few new ones that were beautiful out there. But outside the horse part, the most obvious  improvement were the concessions: El Rey taco truck and also an espresso cart. I partook in both. The beer garden was a success as well, I imagine that next year the word will spread and we are going to sell tickets.

I was the jump judge all day long and I love that job. I get to see all the rides and enjoy watching the riders and horses have fun. Watching a little girl on a beautiful horse who knows his job and takes care to be safe…. is priceless.

The Don Sachy clinic was fantastic. He motivates me as a teacher not only because he is very knowledgeable and experienced, but mostly because he loves his job. Im pretty sure that he wakes up every day and says how lucky he is to have this job. I have to agree, but sometimes its nice to have someone else refresh my love of horses and teaching. Jordan and I had great lessons on two green horses, Kat and Arnie. Both are very inexperienced and he gave us exercises to help the horses become “bird dogs” in their view of jumps. They were both hunting the jumps down with joy, AND getting lead changes!  That was exciting. The horse’s owners were there for both lessons and I think that they were having as much fun as Jordan and I were. I am really looking forward to watching two riders at Aspen, Mckena Knott and Abby Schatz. Both girls ride with Jessica Heideman and they rode in the clinic. Don gave Mckena huge advice on how to help her small strided horse bound around Prelim show jumping, which he finds challenging. And Abby has a talented horse who has a challenging personality. I wish them both luck at Aspen HT!

Ok – there, my confessional is finished. And now the details of the weekend: Taco had what I thought was a very good dressage test. Apparently, the judge thought differently. We placed 10/20, but I was happy with him… Taco, not the dressage judge. We had a clear xc and had a fantastic water jump. He had two green moments at the road crossing and the coffin – both jumps where a ditch thingy surprised him while he was in the air of the A element. Both times I reverted to cowgirl riding at its finest and Taco waltzed away a better, more educated horse. It was super fun to feel him gain confidence from each tricky combination. He was perky and acting up later that night during our walks, so apparently he thought he was some hot s#i*!

Show jumping was TRICKY! I was attempting to get a forward canter for him to approach the jumps with (he tends to love the quiet, underpaced canter)…. and encountered some rideability problems that I had not felt at prelim. He jumped me out of the tack at least 5 times, he jumped some jumps fantastic, and two were Bowling for Onalaska. Ive always been taught to let the jump be your hand, ride foward to the deeper distance to help the horse develop their own sense of self preservation. Not this guy – I rode him forward to the deep distance twice and had pick up sticks! Fortunetly, show jumping is almost my favorite phase, so I am motivated to get him rideable.

We have a busy week because we are getting ready for the French Creek PC Derby.. should be a ton of fun and we hope some of you, out there in internet-land, are going to come enjoy.

I think that I would be MUCH more inclined to go to a show if it were a two or one day event. I am very disappointed that Area VII seems to be stuck on the 3 day affair, which is really 4 days because you arrive on Thursday. I would like to get a competition done, and go home. I have heard the excuse that its because everyone drives for such long distances here and therefore we need the 3 days to properly compete. Bologney. (or however you spell that). Most of Southern Pines NC eventers would slog up to Surefire, Loch Moy, Plantation, which all run over 2 days. That is a 4-6 hour drive. Our horses did fine, and if we needed an extra day to recover, then spend the night on Sunday and drive home Monday. Event Organizers Hear My Plea!!!!!  Can we just try it for one season, where some events pluck up the courage to be different and run over 2 days??  Please???

On another note, French Creek PC had a few lovely members who came out and helped me paintjumps for the upcoming Derby. I hope we have a great turnout this year! Beer Garden!! Bring the dads.

Also, congratulations to Kasey Moore for getting her B rating yesterday!  I am so proud of her!

In a nutshell: Dino had a great trip to Montana. He was top 2 in his conformation score, top 3 in his jumping score…. and dismal in his dressage score. Sadly, he was wound up from the atmosphere and I showed off his best tense trot. But otherwise, I was thrilled with him. He spend the rest of the weekend being hacked and worked in and amongst the busy warmup arenas. Dino is finished showing for the rest of the year, so he has lots and lots of homework to do here at the farm. I have a clear picture of where I want him to go, now we just have to get him some edjumacation to get there.

Taco and I had a pretty poor dressage test. I was expecting to be down in the pack after he exploded in one medium canter and would not do a walk – trot transition without cantering…. three times! Bad boy. We were in 4th after that, surprisingly, but that should have been the writing on the wall for our cross country ride. He was very resistant in the bridle and chucked his head WAY up into my face on several times. Same thing from dressage, just exacerbated hundred fold. Long and short…. I fell off. Tacos head was in my lap at a corner and I could not recover. The most interesting part is that my vest exploded and it was hard to breathe!! I did not expect that it would be so difficult to move with that thing in its full form.  Later that night, I was talking with Karen O’Connor and she offered to help me figure out what was wrong with Taco and I. The hightlight of my week at Montana was on Sunday afternoon with her. It was a productive and helpful lesson that has me motivated to get some better acceptance from Taco. Homework is to do an entire Intermediate test in a two point gallop position. I am going to start today!

That last one might seem like it is a standard question and not worth asking, but we discovered the hard way that Rosie’s fuel tank is very very very very small. Or perhaps, if we had not packed half my house in the truck and trailer, fuel consumption would not have been such a big problem though. We were two days into the trip and I was bristling with irritation that we had to fuel up about every 4 hours on a 3000 mile road trip!!! My new F-550, Rosie, has a flatbed and not only was the tank a miserly 40 gallons, but the intake tube was flat. This resulted in fuel flopped onto your shoes, pants, the ground, endangered butterflies and poisoning rare mice every time that we filled it. It was more than annoying. So, mid way through South Dakota, we made the horrifying discovery that we were going to run out of fuel. We panicked (I panicked) and we pulled over and tried to fill up the tank with a canister of diesel, but it was impossible because of the flat intake tube. Several farm boys, slowed down just enough to hear the cussing coming out of our mouths, and sped off laughing.  If you go to Unkiedunk, SD now and eat at the local diner, you might still be told the tale. Realizing that we just had to try to get to the next gas station as best as we could, we limped along at 50 mph because I had read somewhere that you get better mileage that way. But it really only slows the torture. Somehow we managed to get behind two of the largest combines that Ive ever seen and followed them down the exit ramp at 2 mph when Rosie’s luck ran out. She read: zero miles to empty. I suppose everyone always wants to know how accurate that is. Im here to tell you that they mean every single bit of ZERO, and not a teaspoon over. She was sputtering and stalling as we pulled into the gas station and I was shite as a wheet. The extra fuel tank was the first thing I bought when I got to Washington.

That night we were treated to beautiful storm thunderheads rolling over the prairie, and it was worth it. I wanted to stay in that town for just one more day and attend the weekly lawn mower races. It was a toss up, make it to Rebecca in time or possibly get a catch ride on a Kub Kadet? Next installment: when someone with dreadlocks gets hit by lightning, do the dreadlocks stand up?