The clinic on May 6th has been cancelled.
On May 8th Craig will be teaching lessons on the x-c course at Shawan Downs. These lessons will be $75/horse plus the schooling fee.
Craig will be teaching lessons at Tricia Tripp’s Fox Hollow Farm in Dickerson, MD on May 10th.
Please let us know ASAP if either of these opportunities interest you. Space is limited!
It’s a good thing Craig Thompson Eventing isn’t all about Craig Thompson. Sometimes it’s all about the students that I help. At the Pine Top Horse Trials April 14th, Lauren Campbell and Lisa Malek stole the show. Lauren finished 2nd in the Preliminary Young Riders division and is headed to the Virginia CCI*. Lisa’s work all winter paid off with a 3rd place finish in the novice. Equally exciting, Lisa will be back in the fall as an employee…unless I can convince her to come back sooner! And until the Virginia CCI*, Lauren is helping out as a working student.
At the Fair Hill International Horse Trial last weekend, it was more of the same — less about me and more about students. Sandy Felker, in her first outing since winning at the Virginia Horse Trials last November, won again in the Training, and Marie Trieber was right behind her in 4th. Sara Siegel put together a good weekend with both her horses, finishing in the ribbons at both Training and Preliminary. For me, I was pleased to pick up a ribbon with Marshall Cody in the Prelim. Marshall, who is aimed at the Virginia CCI*, is a catch ride that I picked up from Laura Vander Vliet while she recuperates from a fall. And what a funny Advanced outing. I finished 3rd with Orion, despite having a stop late in the course. That’s the type of day it was for the Advanced horses and riders — even with one stop Orion and I were still in the hunt. I was especially pleased with Orion’s performance — he did a great dressage test, show jumped beautifully, and was both quick and rideable cross-country. The stop was totally on me — a bit too aggressive at the A element of the last combination and couldn’t make the turn to the B element. I hope I got that out of my system!
Now it’s a bit of training and toil until going back north for Plantation Field in two weeks. Fingers crossed!
Wow. That seems to be the only word to describe the The Fork Horse Trials. The organization may not be quite perfect yet, but what a great place to compete. How often do any of us get to come around a turn to the water jump and actually have spectators? And Mark Phillip’s cross-country course seems just right for the time of year — neither too hard nor too soft. Maybe if I had fallen off my opinion would be different, but Orion was just so good all weekend that it’s hard to complain.
Usually I’m a man of few feelings beyond hunger and fatigue, but I’ve had trouble writing about the Fork because I have so many impressions beyond just the venue. I hope someday people will notice that the same weekend the world’s best golfers are going at it in Augusta, the world’s best riders are squaring off in North Carolina. I hope people stop to notice that not only was there a top notch CIC*** last weekend, but there were two divisions of it. Thanks to Mara Dean’s ongoing help, we did a very good dressage test which put us in the hunt right from the start. Not only was it competitive, it included two egregious spooks on Orion’s part, which means it can be even better. One of my goals last weekend was to go fast across the countryside, which I did. I hope I can do that again. I’ve ridden Orion since he was a 3-year-old and didn’t know anything. I noticed after the 6th cross-country fence that he, now 8-years-old, thinks it’s easy. I tried a hackamore for the first time in the show jumping. That was fun. I think I’ll try it again. I wish the Jersey Fresh CCI*** was next week; I want to go now. I had fun competing Laura VanderVliet and Kathleen Overbaugh’s preliminary horse Marshall Cody. I hadn’t jumped a cross-country jump with him before coming out of the start box. We know each other better now. We might not be on the same page, but we are in the same book and can be ready for the CCI* at Virginia in a month. And what may be the most amazing part is how Sarah, Rachel, Lisa, and everyone else behind the scenes make it all possible.
I can’t wait for Night Owl and Sand Save to join the ranks of advanced level horses, too. Though they are just going to Pine Top for the Training level this weekend, I think they’ll like competing at the Fork when they get there!
