The Paradise Farm Horse Trials takes place over three days, which seems like an awful lot of time to me to ride novice, training, and prelim horses. I tend to prefer the one day format. But today it seemed like a blessing, as the schedule meant that we were all done show jumping before the rain set in. VSOP, Fernhill Ever Ready, and Sand Save all finished on their dressage scores and yet none finished in the top three. At first I thought this must mean that I sang my dressage a bit off key. But on reflection, I think it speaks more to the quality of horses and riders that converge on Aiken in the winter. I was thrilled with each of the horses that I rode. VSOP, who was a bit green in his training debut at Full Gallop, justified my belief that he is a true upper level prospect. Fernhill Ever Ready is as straight forward as I hoped when Sara Siegel bought him to be her next Young Riders Horse. And Sand Save continues to show the scope and desire that will make him exceptional one day. Marie Treiber and her own Auntie’s Echo turned in another great performance in their second Training event together; I think Marie is going to make me take him off the “For Sale” page, and rightly so.

In other news, I’m looking forward to teaching a clinic in Maryland March 17th. It will be a great opportunity to see some of the horses and riders that I helped last year but that didn’t make it to Aiken. Anyone who wants to get in on it should email me as soon as possible. And congratulations to Paula Mcgownes on the purchase of Lucky Lion. Word is that she has re-christianed him “Lucrative.” I hope for Paula that he lives up to his new name!

Though I’ve been having good fun with the young horses, the season really begins when the upper level horses get to come out and play. I think every year that I go to Pine Top’s Prelim/Intermediate event, I spend at least part of the time watching horses and asking myself, “When did the quality of horseflesh get so high?” It seems as if every horse at the upper levels moves and jumps exceptionally. Fortunately, Orion can hang with all of them. We finished 2nd on our dressage score (29.3) in the Open Intermediate today, not a bad first go after more than 7 months off. I didn’t feel rusty today and trusted him more than I would have a year ago. While he is still a green Advanced horse, and his next outing will be in the Advanced, he is a very established Intermediate horse. I only wish I could have gone around the cross-country with two or three more horses!

Today, a day of cold and wind, marked Orion’s return to competition at the Pine Top Farm Horse Trials. Last year he completed Jersey Fresh and looked set for a trip to Fair Hill in the fall, only to get hurt in August and miss the remainder of 2006. But no matter how the rest of the 2007 season unfolds, today was a very good day. I’ve worked hard to improve our flat work, and it seems to be paying dividends. Only two horses were better today, one is a four star horse and the other was Horse of the Year in ‘06 — not bad company. Orion also show jumped beautifully; I felt rusty, he did not.

Full Gallop Horse Trials hosted it’s second event of the year on Wednesday, Valentine’s Day. I’ve been in eventing long enough to remember when both horse trials and entries were hard to find, but that’s not the case today. In fact, Full Gallop added a second day of competing on Thursday to accommodate all the entries. In an area like Aiken in the winter, with so many horses and riders located in one small area, it’s very possible that in a few years we’ll have a schedule that allows the young horses to compete during the week and the upper-level horses to go on the weekends. I thought that my preparation for the horses competing on Wednesday was a little awkward; somehow it felt out of sync. Apparently whatever I did worked, however, as the novice horses finished 1st and 4th, and the training level-first-timer was green but good. Maybe everyone else felt their preparation was off kilter, too!

Marie and Echo moved up to training today, finishing 3rd on their dressage score!

One of the many benefits of the Aiken area is our proximity to George Gibbs’ cross-country schooling course. It is the only place I know of in the US where it’s possible to take a horse on its first cross-country school ever or tune a horse up before going to Kentucky. It is a jumping wonderland, and today I got to school three horses over the course. The first was Orion, who will return to competition Saturday at Pine Top, his first outing since Jersey Fresh last year. The second was VSOP, who will do his first Training on Wednesday at Full Gallop after winning the novice at the last Full Gallop. The third was Sara Siegel’s new horse Red, who I don’t really know very well yet. When I finally packed up to drive home, it occurred to me that I could school cross-country all day long every day and be perfectly content!

Long-time student and friend Marie Treiber and her horse Auntie’s Echo made their 2007 debut today. They were the winners in their Novice class!

Star employee Rachel Goff competed her own horse Pascal today. She was very good in all three phases, finishing 6th on her dressage score.

Today was good day for Craig Thompson Eventing. V.S.O.P. was 1st, Sand Save was 2nd, and student Amy Boyle and her horse Peterbilt were 3rd! All three horses went well and finished on their dressage scores.