August 26, 2011

I have been having an amazing time here in NY! My days are crazy busy but I'm enjoying every minute of it. Now that I've been here for a while my schedule and day to day tasks have become more consistent. On a typical day, I arrive at the barn at 7 AM. I help feed, turn out horses, clean my assigned stalls and take care of Cookie. Once my morning chores are done, I teach an adult amateur rider at Sunnyfield. On the days I don't work with her she lessons with Lendon so it's been very educational for myself to watch her lessons and later apply the same concepts in the sessions I have with her.

I am loving the horses I've been getting the opportunity to work with. In addition to Cookie, I ride Amalie (Intermediare 1) and TJ (4th level) 6 days a week. I'll have other horses thrown into my rotation but on a regular schedule Cookie, Amalie and TJ are the horses I ride when I'm working. I am incredibly grateful to get to work with such great horses who are teaching me so much in addition to what I am learning from my lessons with Lendon on Cookie.

Throughout the day in between rides there is laundry, sweeping and tack cleaning to be done, as well as other tasks such as inventory and shopping trips to the hardware store, tack store, ect. I usually wrap up my day between 4 and 5 PM and head back to the house where I'll do work for Lendon whether it be house chores, filing, or computer work. Tonight after I got home from the barn I prepped Lendon's house for the incoming hurricane!  It shouldn't cause too much damage because we are inland but the wind and rain are going to be intense so everything that can be brought in has been and the cars will likely have to be parked across the street at the grocery store out of the way from trees that may fall. I will be staying at the barn tomorrow (Sat.) night and possibly Sunday night with some of the other working students because the roads won't be drivable.  I'll post again once the storm has passed and I have internet connection again!

* Also for those reading my blog who aren't on facebook, Cookie and I received our invitation to compete at the Junior National Championships at the 2011 Collecting Gaits Festival of Champions in Gladstone, New Jersey Sept. 8-11. Wish us luck!*

Thursday August 11, 2011

Had another great ride on Cookie today. Lendon has me working on getting him very forward and through, particularly in the canter. His trot work is fairly good so she has me working on keeping the cadence and energy in his gait from extended trot to collected trot so that those transitions become more seamless and his quality of the trot stays the same. His canter however, has always been a trickier gait to manage. If he is too collected he gets slow with his hind legs and creates almost a rocking horse feel making our lateral work and changes labored and incorrect. If he gets too forward though, he can get strong and stiff through his body and ignorant of the aids. To work on his adjustability and control in the canter, Lendon is having me ride him in a forward (faster) canter and riding him round, deep, and straight through his body. Once he is comfortable being supple and adjustable in a more forward canter, bringing him back into a collected canter is more successful because I am taking the forward canter I began with and collecting it back into shorter, higher steps but with the same amount of energy and throughness we maintained in the forward canter stride.  Our changes (which have a tendency to be labored and late behind) have been clean and accurate and his responses off my leg and seat have been sharper. Though I am riding him deeper than I would in a show ring because of his tendency to be too open and against my hand, it has been crucial to my rides that he stays deep from his obedience to my half-haults and not because I am holding him in with my hand. If he is truly through and supple, he will hold his frame and balance if I release my hands for a moment. If he stiffens or comes above the bit he is not through and I will continue to ride him forward and deep, all the while using tools such as shoulder in, counter flexion, and sending him forward and bringing him back while maintaining a soft neck and body.

I apologize if this sounds foreign to any of my non-riding family and friends. I'll continue to update my blog with posts about things other than my lessons as well. I will be reading back on these posts to remind myself of key points from my lessons. Hopefully these posts may be helpful to other riders reading my blog as well... Goodnight!

Wed. August 10, 2011

Had another great day at the barn today:) Im loving it here in New York! I feel completely settled into my day to day routine now. I had a lesson with Lendon today and it went great. I'm looking forward to all the progress me and Cookie will make over the next month. She is such a great coach and I'm so grateful for this experience. I've got another early morning tomorrow but I just wanted to post a quick update and I'll post key points and notes from my lesson and more details of my days tomorrow evening. Thanks for following, Goodnight!

Bedford, New York!

First of all, let me apologize for not posting in a while. Thanks everyone who has been following my posts! Things have been crazy since I got to New York. We pulled out of the Kentucky Horse Park around 7 AM Monday morning.  The drive from Lexington to Bedford went smoothly but took longer than expected and we arrived at Sunnyfield Stables 14 hours later. Cookie had an unexpected trailer mate for the haul to Sunnyfield. We took a horse belonging to a student of Lendon's that was competing at the NAJYRC as well. Monday night was a late one, we didn't get checked into the hotel until midnight. I drove my mom to the airport at 6:30 Tuesday morning, stopped by Lendon's house to drop off my bags, and then it was on to my first day at Sunnyfield.

The first day was kind of hectic meeting everyone and learning the ropes but today (being my third day) I feel fairly close to being settled in. I've met all of the grooms, clients, and other working students and everyone has been very helpful and nice. I'm still trying to learn all of the horses by name and by stall but with 50+ horses it might take me a while. A typical day for me so far had been getting to the barn around 7 AM and doing barn chores and riding until about 4 or 5. From there I head back to Lendon's house and help her with filing and house chores. The days are long but I'm loving it here. The weather is perfect, low 80's and sunny, everyone I work with is great, and it's so beautiful here! There only thing I could do without are the biting flies. Lendon left today for a clinic and will be back Monday. I took my first lesson with her yesterday, and will start posting notes from my lessons on my blog as well. That's it for now, I'm off to bed. Goodnight!

Individual test

Cookie put in another solid test today. I preferred today's test to yesterday's test although I could feel Cookie was more tired today. He was given IV fluids last night just as precaution and I gave him a shorter warmup with frequent ice breaks today but this heat and humidity had been extremely taxing on all of the horses. All that taken into consideration, I was very pleased with our ride and we turned out a 62.9%. It was lower than what I wanted and wasn't enough to out us in the top 15 again but I was happy with Cookie's performance. He was a saint (98% of the time) and worked so hard for me despite of the heat and that's all I could have asked of him.

The rest of the team did great as well! Talia paced 11th with a 64.5%, Brooke placed 9th with a 65.3% and Devon placed 4th with a 66.0%!! All of the horses will be enjoying a well deserved day off tomorrow! Thanks for everyone's support. This experience has been incredible to say the least... Goodnight!

Region 5 Juniors - Silver Medalists!

Today was an amazing day to say the least. I was nervous going into this ride today because of some of the trouble I was having with Cookie earlier this week. I watched my teammate Brooke Santangelo compete early this morning and she had a beautiful ride on her mare Daylight, earning a score of 65.757%. It was nice to start the day with such a strong ride from our team, but I was also feeling pressure to have a good ride, and not let down my team. It came time for my ride at 9:20. I gave Cookie about a 30 minute warm-up, with breaks in between to ice down his main veins to keep his body temp cool. I used a bucket of ice water with rubbing alcohol, a sponge and a sweat scraper. It was a good way to refresh him before our test.  I make my way around the arena to each of the 5 judges booths and Cookie is feeling great and I'm really trying to focus on keeping him supple and attentive because in a test, it can take a split second for Cookie to escape my aids and the movement I was doing could go from a 7 to a 4. All throughout my test he was quite consistent... A few times he stiffened in the poll but nothing too detrimental to our score. He was a true professional and when I was exiting the arena after my final salute I saw our score of 64.575%! I was so happy and soooo relieved... It was at this moment that thoughts of a possible team medal entered my mind.

(Brooke, Talia, Taylor, Devon... thats David O'Connor in the white polo, so cool!)

It was a long day but after two more good rides from my other teammates Talia Hershaft and Devon Wycoff, we secured our standing as 2011 NAJYRC Silver Medalists! It was an unexpected victory. Although I knew we had a solid team going into the championships, I hadn't thought at all about medaling or placings. I think all of us had our minds occupied with thoughts of how to produce the best performances out of ourselves and our horses but once we saw the scores coming in, it all became a reality that medaling at the 2011 NAJYRC was a tangible possibility. I think I can speak for everyone on the team when I say that we were beyond thrilled, and all of us being first year attendees to the Championships made it that much more exciting!

Also a congratulations to Region 5 Young Riders Brandi, Maddi, Catherine. and Aylin on team gold!

Taylor had a wonderful ride today. 64.865%. Her best team test ever!!! (Mom's humble opinion)

July 26, 2011

The show has begun! All of the horses are now on lock down at the park. There is fencing surrounding all of the barns to strictly regulate the people and horses that come in an out of the stabling. Competitors, trainers, grooms, and owners are required to wear photo identification to enter the stabling area. They are attached to the same lanyards that were used for the 2010 World Equestrian Games.

(2011 Region 5 Juniors)

Trot ups for the dressage teams were today. All of the region 5 horses passed and are ready to compete tomorrow! Cookie has been doing well. Although he was particularly difficult during yesterday's ride, but we ended on a positive note and worked through a lot of our issues today and had a much better ride. He has been fairly energetic here in Kentucky which can on occasion manifest itself in micro tantrums... nothing terrible, but not anything I would want in any of my tests this week. This extra energy however is also giving Cookie some extra competitive edge which we'll need if we want higher scores! It's a bit of a catch 22 so I'll need to be extremely attentive during our tests and ride every stride, being careful not to push him over the edge, but also not playing it too safe and taking a lower score for a lackluster performance.

These are the saddle pads we won from Horseshow.com for the video submission contest. The Region 5 Junior team is pictured here in our team trot up outfits. 

I am very excited for the team test tomorrow. These scores will be used for the team results only, and the lowest score of the four riders will be dropped. A mandatory ban has been placed on riding coats for tomorrow because of the heat wave. It's unfortunate but necessary. I'll post about the team rides tomorrow as well as my own and hopefully it's good news... Wish us luck!!

The Region 5 Junior Team won the horseshow.com contest with the best team online dressage tests. They won a check for $2,500!!! The real show starts tomorrow!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

I rode Cookie for the second time this morning. Yesterday when I took him out we mostly walked and did some long and low work at the trot and canter. This morning we added some more collected work and tomorrow he will be back to doing his full workouts. He feels great! Both days that I rode him he was fairly fresh and at times couldn't resist giving me a little bit of trouble but for right now I'm happy to have him feeling so exuberant because come competition day I will need as much energy from him as I can get! Granted I'll be asking him to channel that energy in a more productive way during competition days, but as I said, right now I want to keep his work load easy so he can build up his "reserve tank." The weather has been hot and humid, but inside the barn aisles it's not too bad. The horses and riders are staying cool in between rides thanks to all of the fans. I'm in the hotel room right now and off the top of my head I can count 10 fans that are being used just for the Region 5 team.

Since we arrived here Thursday night the barns have been mostly empty except for the show jumpers from Mexico and a few other dressage regions but a lot of horses have been arriving this afternoon and by tomorrow all the competing horses will have arrived at the Kentucky Horse Park. From that point on, all of the FEI horses will be contained to a fenced area surrounding all of the barns.

From left to right: Devon Wycoff (JR), Talia Hershaft (JR), Catherine Chamberlain (YR), Maddi Birch (YR),  Taylor Lindsten (JR), Brook Santangelo (JR).

Not pictured- Brandi Roenick (YR) & Aylin Corapcioglu (YR)

Everyone's horses on the team are looking fit and ready and we are all so excited for the week ahead! I will try to make a posting every evening and when I make a new posting I will also copy the link to my facebook wall.

Taylor fixing Cookie's dinner.

Sent from my iPhone

Cookie's first ride in Kentucky!

Kentucky Horse Park

Friday, July 22, 2011

Today was a fairly laid back day.  I spent the day doing barn chores, hand walking Cookie, and watching a few early arrival horses in warm up. Cookie handled the haul out to Kentucky better than expected and I will be taking him out for a light hack early tomorrow morning. He has been adjusting very well to the intense Kentucky heat and the fans have been helping a lot in keeping him cool... and entertained. He spent most of the afternoon playing with the bars covering the fan, his stall door, the chairs, my ponytail... just about anything within his reach. It's good to see how much energy he has, especially coming off such a long haul. I'm expecting him to be a bit of a handful tomorrow when I take him out for his hack but his freshness will work to my advantage when I start putting him to work this week because he will need the extra energy with all of this heat! I'm off to the barn at 6 am tomorrow morning. Goodnight everyone!

Barn aisle. One side has a giant evap cooler and the other has a giant fan in front of Cookie stall. Each horse has fans blowing in their stalls. Not too hot in the shade & in front of fan.

Aww!

Taylor & Cookie trying to stay cool.

Moving into the barn. 9PM. Thursday night.

Lexington at last!

Just pasted the St. Louis Arch!!! Very cool.

Dang! Miscalculated my ETA into Lexington. We have 5 more hours to go.

Driving through St. Louis, MO. About 4 hours to go. We cross through Illinois, Indiana, Louisville, KY. then Lexington!

Cookie and Chance waiting to get back on the trailer this morning. We only have a 9 hour drive today. Piece of cake. Taylor is doing a lot of the driving. Sarah

Elk City, Oklahoma. 14 hours and counting. Will arrive at Big Cabin Horse Motel in 4 hours. Cookie & Chance are traveling great! Will send pictures from Big Cabin, OK tomorrow.

taylor and cookie, doing their thing!

Oh dang. We just entered into Oklahoma. Nice family taking their picture in front of the Welcome to oklahoma sign. Taylor won't stop! Another photo op missed!

Just outside of Amarillo, Texas! Taylor didn't read the memo about stopping at all boarder crossings for photos. We missed beautiful photo op with Welcome to Texas sign!