I came home from the National Finals and braced for impact. Two things happen to me every autumn: first, things slow down. People give their horses, and themselves, a break, and it means that I don’t teach as much; combine with the holidays, and my whole world hits the brakes.

It’s fun for a few days, but then I start to twitch, as idleness does not become me, but I’m so tired that it’s sort of frantic, directionless energy. And that’s usually when Thing Two happens: I get really, really sick.

But 2015 was different, for whatever reason. Things didn’t slow down. I got to teach some clinics in some incredibly cool places, and made wonderful new friends along the way. Thanks to an amazing client, I’ve got an opportunity to shop for a young horse for us to own together, so I travelled around meeting baby horses. And my clients kept riding, bolstered by a big group that are all in the Prix St. Georges 2016 Or Bust Club, as well as by unusually balmy Virginia winter weather.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!

On Sunday afternoon, I was sitting in the warm and sunny concourse of the Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park, charging my phone and killing time while I waited for Fender’s Prix St. Georges awards. This is the one thing I don’t love about the USDF Finals—it seems like no matter what I qualify for, it will be on Sunday afternoon, and a part of the 5 p.m. awards ceremony.

Fortunately, this was our third year here (and our third year in the same boat), so we’re pretty much professionals at it. After my ride, my working student, Daisy, and I ran off to lunch at the movies (we saw The Martian; it was fantastic), where I surreptitiously checked my phone every few rides to see if I stayed in the top 10, and that led me to the sitting, killing time.

I had to keep my eye on that scoreboard because Fender gave me the best 10 minutes of our career together… in the warm-up. It’s a struggle with any young, still-developing horse—how to make them fit without burning them out—but I’ve had another factor to consider over the last few months for Fender. That this is our last show together, before his new owner takes the reins. I wanted Fender to stay fresh and fun to the work, and not be too fit coming into winter.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of The Horse!

I LOVE the USDF Finals. This is our third trip here, and once the scary drive through the mountains of West Virginia is over, it’s just the best show. The Kentucky Horse Park is lovely. The staff running the show is an all-star team, hand picked from the country’s best. The decorations in the indoor arena are left over from the previous week’s National Horse Show, and it feels huge and prestigious and special.

So it’s worth extending our long competition season for, even though this time of year I’m at the tail end of about a month of wall-to-wall insanity, teaching clinics, riding a ton, starting a whole bunch of young horses on their changes (who all insisted on leaping around this week, making my back sore as hell, grumble), and just generally running around.

But I felt really good about both Ella (who qualified for the Grand Prix and Freestyle) and Fender (who qualified at Prix St. Georges and Intermediate I), and how they prepared for the show. So we were off!

Read all about the rest at The Chronicle of The Horse!

Back by popular demand! We’ll host an Adult Dressage Camp September 19-20, featuring private lessons, cavaletti, lunge lessons, a catered lunch lecture and more. $150 gets you three private lessons, an overnight stall and all our luxurious amenities. Email Lauren to learn more!

Congratulations to our FEI Junior Reserve National Champion Kristin Counterman!

Read all about our trip to the National Championships (with HUGE congratulations to our Reserve National Champion for FEI Juniors, Kristin Counterman!), results from local shows, some terrific horses for sale, and some exciting educational opportunities in our most recent e-newsletter. And sign up to receive it directly to your inbox!

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It’s been nearly a month since my last blog, and a ton has happened, and none of it has been bad.

But you haven’t heard from me because in the last month, a ton has happened, and even though none of it has been bad, it has been a ton. I am grateful for the work, so, so grateful. I have terrific horses to ride, for which I am also incredibly grateful. And I have about two more weeks to push through before I get to take a three day vacation, and man-oh-man, am I ever grateful!

I had 11 hours between coming home from our triumphant Dressage at Lexington and leaving for the NAJYRC, during which I discovered that my air conditioning in my apartment had shut off while I was gone and so it was 93*; I did about five loads of laundry, had a beer, went to bed, had some coffee, and hit the road.

What should have taken 8 hours took more than 10, due first to a tractor-trailer flipping over and shutting I-81 down for an hour and a half (where I had a delightful chat with the Quebecois truck driver stopped on the interstate behind me, and also cleaned out my car), and then as devastating thunderstorms moved through Kentucky and threatened to chuck my little Honda off the road, so I hung out in a gas station parking lot until they passed.

The NAJYRC itself was fantastic. It was a glorious, good-weather week after that; the show ran smoothly, and Region 1 is so lucky to have some of the best Chefs de Equipe around. My student, Kristin, is a fantastic rider, and also has amazing parents, and we had a terrific week independent of Kristin’s successes, but it certainly didn’t hurt that she was 9th in the Individual Test and 5th in the Freestyle on beautiful rides that made me cry like a little girl.

On my way home, the air conditioning compressor gave out in my car, the last in a series of $1000+ repairs I was willing to make. So after the remaining five hour drive with the windows open on a 93* day, and with the helpful liquidation of my retirement fund (again), I’m on new wheels. It’s fine, I didn’t want to retire, you know, in this lifetime anyway.

Also, a week of nothing to do but watch Kristin ride and then eat and drink things plus the reality that my pending vacation will require putting myself in a bathing suit equals terrifying. And so the diet begins.

I think I was home for a whole week before the chaos descended again. Michael joined us for a clinic, and the timing was actually fantastic, nuttiness aside—I was really feeling like all the horses were going great but that I was a little stuck on what came next. I had a HUGE epiphany on Ella after Lexington, and Michael was incredibly helpful in making that solid. The more I just sit still and get out of her way, the better she gets (duh, I know, but there it is.) Danny needs to be straighter; Dorian needs to be better in his bend. Johnny needs to get off my hand, and Fender needs to go to my outside rein, no matter what direction we’re tracking. And Fiero just needs to keep soldiering on.

That brings us to last weekend, a small show for us at Culpeper, where Fiero had his best Prix St. Georges tests to date, and Ella and I had our best passes at my Grand Prix Freestyle, on 71 and 72 respectively, and with a better plan for both the riding of the test and for the warmup each time. I feel really ready, and as such, I’ve entered my first CDI, which pretty much guarantees that everything is about to go to Hell in a handcart. Outstanding.

We returned home from the show—after our first tire blowout of the year, a pretty good run for us!—only to have one of the working students step out of the trailer just wrong and break her ankle. So with another show this weekend, then me at the National Championships with Kristin next week, we’re down a set of hands in some of the hottest weather we’ve had, and all with a full barn.

T-mins 19 days till vacation. I think I’ll need it.

Understatement of the year: life in the horse business ain’t easy. The ups are terrific but the downs can be so, so down–achingly long days, dirt and sweat and blood and tears, life and death and crushed expectations and placing hopes and dreams in the hooves of 1200 pound prey animals on lean legs.

But those ups. The days where the horses go well. The days were the clients make progress. The big wins. Those are the good days, and the universe has this funny way of handing them to you exactly when you need them.

Read the rest at The Chronicle Of The Horse!