On the last Sunday of August, I took Falcon, and Rachel with Gitano, to the last EI Schooling Show of the season. The primary purpose for taking Falcon was to see if doing a full show campaign next season would be in the cards. Falcon has been doing solid work in his training the past couple of months where he
I’m 2 weeks out from Championships and Neo is going great! That’s all-check back in 2 weeks to see the full show report.
Going into the Whidbey Summer Show I was extremely motivated to show well with having the disappointment of the Devonwood Show in the back of my mind. I was able to make some small adjustments in my riding and in my general health. Following the Devonwood Show I enlisted the help of a chiropractor, Dr Mitresh Parmar, who began some
Devonwood was one of the big shows for me this season. Next to Championships this is the second “biggest” show in the region. I took down Claudius and Neo to show at the Prix St Georges. The short story, and that’s all you are going to get, is that while we didn’t have a bad show, we didn’t ride as
Next weekend I have the 2nd biggest show of the season (Championships being the biggest) at the Devonwood Dressage Show. Devonwood is hands down the best facility in the region. The biggest reason why I’m taking my guys down to this show is the fabulous footing in all the arenas (show rings and warm up rings). Some of the other
Over Father’s Day weekend I took the Sabu and Sharon, and Nick and Deborah up to Whidbey Island for the June Dressage Show. I rode/showed on Friday and then Sharon and Deborah showed their respective horses on Saturday and Sunday. I rode both Nick and Sabu at 3-3. Going into each ride I knew the flying changes would be a
This past weekend (6/13-14) was the Beaujolais Show. This marked a big event for me as I was returning to the FEI show ring. This happened a lot quicker than I expected when I created a list of goals over a year ago. What was exciting was, I was able to show two horses (Neo and Claudius) at Prix St
This past weekend we took some of the horses to the L’Apertif Dressage Show at Bridle Trails. What’s nice about this show is, it is a 20 minute drive from the barn and has a very low key demeanor (think a dressed up schooling show). This was very good as I took Falcon out for his first ever show. We
This past weekend I traveled down to Devonwood for the Heart of the Valley Show. I went with Claudius, his owner Cindy, Julie and Piero, and Wendy. The previous weekend I had worked with Karla Spiritus and we had some really good work with Claudius (Neo too) where we got Claudius to lift his back up and come through. This
The 2009 show season is just upon us and here’s where I’ll be this summer: May 9-10: Heart of the Valley Dressage Show, Devonwood Equestrian Center . I will be showing Claudius 4-1 and 4-2. May 17: L’Apertif Dressage Show, Bridle Trails. I will be showing Falcon T-3 and T-4, and coaching Sharon and Sabu, and Anne and Fox. May
The past week and a half I spent 4 days clinicing with one of my instructors, Henrik Johansen. I was able to clinic 4 different horses. Claudius:I was able to take Claudius in two lessons. Henrik knows Claudius quite well and Claudius has a reputation of not fulfilling his potential. I have been working with Claudius for about 6 months
The past two Sundays I’ve attempted to take three of my young horses to the EI March Schooling Show and each Sunday we have been met with uncompromising weather. Last Sunday we had snow on Saturday night and today we had snow, wind and rain. We actually made it to Bride Trails today and when we were within a mile
Congratulations to Rebecca Chatfield on the purchase of her new horse Neo! Neo is a 16.1h, chestnut, 13 yro Rhineland Warmblood. Rebecca and I have been looking for a horse for about 8 months and I think we have the horse we both want. I traveled to Denver this past weekend to try out Neo and have him vetted. Neo
Over the last weekend of January I traveled down to Wellington, FL to go watch the Exquis World Masters Dressage Masters CDI 5*. It was held at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. The start list was filled with world class Grand Prix riders: Steffen Peters, Anky Van Grunsven, Edward Gal, Hans-Peter Minderhound, and Lars Peterson to name a few.
With sad news to report, Vienna will be out for the 2009 season. At the end of November, Vienna’s left fore began showing swelling after two rides. We immediately stopped riding and had a the vet out. An ultrasound showed there may be a small tear somewhere around the fetlock, but nothing specific. We decided to stall rest her and
So today is the third straight day that I’ve ridden since the injury; and so far, so good. I wasn’t planning on beginning any sort of riding until next week, but it started feeling good enough to try. I’ve done limited riding, only 2-3 horses a day, and not doing full work (20-30 minutes in duration). I’m very happy to
The title says it all. We have finally got out of the deep freeze that sabotaged the last two weeks of December. However with the warmer weather and heavy rains we now have a new monumental issue on our hands: floods!! As of today (1/8) River Run is completely flooded. The Snoqualmie River reached 8 ft above flood level about
The past week and a half we have been experiencing some “wonderful” winter weather here in the Seattle area. Looking outside my window I can see about 10 inches on the ground. I cannot remember when I grew up here, such a long sustained period of sub freezing temperatures and snow storms. Because of the snow, and more importantly the
A little late on this post: over the last weekend of November, I traveled down to Gardnerville, NV to teach a clinic at Mandolin Dressage. It was a very successful weekend for everyone!! In late March I went to the Rancho Murrieta Horse Show with some of these guys. It was a real treat to work with them again and
This past Thursday and Friday I rode with Heinrich Johansen again. I was able to ride three different horses this time. I would have had four, but with River Run flooding again, we weren’t able to get out there for the clinic. First things first, this clinic was one of the best I’ve been to and I was able to