The winter season is now officially over, the spring season upon us. At least in my mind. The difference? To me the winter is a time to practice new skills, break old habits, get to know new horses, see old friends. I view January and February as a chance to revisit my own Walden Pond, and though I’m no Thoreau, I enjoy the opportunity to focus on practicing, looking inward, and forgetting about the rest of the world. Now it is time to see if our work over the winter can pay dividends at the major events soon to come — The Fork Horse Trials, The Virginia CCI, The Jersey Fresh CCI, for some Kentucky.

As a brief side note, Thoreau was accused of stealing a pie, and Margo, who cleans the house every other week, brought me a sweet potato pie at no charge.

When I think back over the last couple months, a few things stand out. Watching my groom Rachel compete her own horse was a pleasure. I’ve never had a better right hand and seeing her ride at Sporting Days was way cool. I’ve also enjoyed helping Sara Siegel and her mom Paula with their horses. I wish Sara had been able to spend more time here riding and competing, but I feel confident that she is well poised to have a very successful year. Young horses are one of my favorite things, and helping Lisa Malek with hers, who were quite green when they arrived and are less so now, was good fun. I look forward to Lisa returning in September to stay for a while. I don’t ever get to see enough of Wendy O’Brien and the Trout Walk Farm crew. Not only do they have great horses and a great attitude, they deserve success as much or more than anyone. I’ve missed a few — Carrie, Nancy, Amy, Barbara, Jane, Helen, Marie, Alana, Kate, Lauren. I hope I don’t have to wait until next January to see everyone again!

May 6th Clinic at Fox Hollow Farm in Dickerson, MD. Please fill out this form for more information or to sign up!

A few years ago I heard the prediction that in the future horse trials would mostly be held at horse parks, not private farms. Well, the future is now. Poplar Place Farm is as nice a private horse park as I can imagine and is one of my favorite places to compete. No, it’s not perfect, but the commitment to constant organizational and infrastructure improvement is obvious. My hat is off to everyone involved, and I didn’t even win a division. I wish we had a comparable facility here in Aiken.

Poplar runs seven rings of dressage, which must set some kind of record. For the upper level horses, who do their tests in the main arena, it is a great opportunity to practice in a setting that actually has atmosphere, complete with flowers and amazing footing. The show jumping, designed by Jan Brodkin, makes sense at each level, something generally missing at horse trials. Given the commitment to improvement evident everywhere, it appears only a matter of time before the footing on cross-country and in the cross-country warm up is brought up to par. Right now the green grass and rolling hills hide the fact that the red Georgia clay is rock hard. The cross-country courses themselves are lovely, and I think the Advanced is right on the spot for the time of year, which is to say not too hard and not too easy. Tremaine Cooper, who has designed Poplar’s courses from the beginning, is one of the three best designers practicing in this country, Mike Etherington Smith and Derek DiGrazia being the other two.

The fact that Ralph Hill and Laura Van der Vliet both sustained season ending injuries points out the obvious risks inherent in our sport. As riders, we try to make something very hard look easy. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t. I have no doubt that both Ralph and Laura will be back in the fall, as eager as ever to come out of the start box.

Though I did not fall off over the weekend, I did come close at the first water on Orion. He “pecked” on landing a bit and slightly unseated me. As good as he is, he didn’t miss a beat, never lost his focus on the next element, and jumped out well. I wasn’t as fast as I wanted to be, which was disappointing. On reflection, I attribute the time faults to a couple things. One, I have to go faster between the jumps. Orion is inclined to coast, but he is not fast enough to just coast, and needs to be kicked on. Two, the ground was brutally hard and did not encourage horses to gallop or jump well. Three, I need to remember that Orion is actually an advanced horse, not just a puppy anymore, and is ready to attack courses at this level.

In the training level, VSOP and Sand Save were great. As the results showed, Sand Save is really a novice horse who just did his first Training, while VSOP is an established training horse who is getting closer to being ready for a Preliminary. Sand Save galloped well between the jumps, which has been hard for him, but was surprised by the first combination and stopped. VSOP’s additional experience showed and he jumped around beautifully, finishing on his dressage score in 5th place.

Next on the schedule for Orion is The Fork Horse Trials, which is quite a tough event. Fingers crossed!

Saturday March 31st I will be teaching a clinic at Fox Hollow Farm in Dickerson, MD. The format will be gymnastics in the morning and courses in the afternoon. Please complete this form if you would like more information.

Sand Save, who is known as Birdie to his friends, produced his first win on Wednesday at Sporting Days. He is one of my favorite horses because he always tries, sometimes too hard. I think if he were a kid taking the SAT he would score terribly. Not because he isn’t smart, but because he would get stuck trying to answer each question perfectly, only to find that time was up and he had only answered half the questions. I also have a special place in my heart for Birdie because he missed last year with two injuries, looked terrible at times, and had a questionable future. Now he is coming into his own. Who doesn’t love rooting for an underdog?

By definition a night owl is “a term for a person who tends to stay up until late at night.” Counted among the ranks of notable night owls are Bill Clinton, Winston Churchill, and J. R. R. Tolkien. Perhaps it’s time to take note of another, a horse named Night Owl. A bay TB gelding with an appealing white snip on his nose, Night Owl won his first novice outing for me this weekend at the Jumping Branch Horse Trials. I would say that his performance was good, but I also know that I have yet to scratch the surface of his ability. His best performances are still to come.

For horses aimed at Kentucky or Jersey Fresh, this weekend’s Pine Top Horse Trials offered the first Advanced outing of the year. I’m a big believer that we as riders must always be willing to change and tune our riding. This isn’t easy, as it means giving up habits that we are accustomed to and comfortable with in an effort to develop habits that are more effective. In hope of doing something better, we take a chance on doing it just plain wrong. It’s a hard thing to try at home when we are practicing, it is even harder to try in competition. Nonetheless, I gave it a shot this weekend with Orion and was pleased. Not perfect, but pleased.

In the dressage, my friend Mara Dean’s help has continued to show rewards. Orion and I produced a test that was well beyond our ability last year, due entirely to Mara’s help. If only she could have ridden him in the warm up for me! In the show jumping, I wasn’t quite as successful. In an effort to keep Orion relaxed and jumping well, I’ve been trying to slow things down a bit while still going fast. Unfortunately, I just slowed down all the way to the third fence, found no distance whatsoever, and put Orion in a terrible predicament. He handled it with his usual professionalism and we had just one pole down. I believe it was his first pole since Millbrook in 2005, and entirely my fault. The cross-country was not big by any stretch of the imagination, but the course asked enough good questions. I think we answered each well. I would still like to be faster, but we were faster than most and finished third behind two very good horses. In all, a good weekend. The Advanced season begins!