Midsouth Pony Club horse trials

June 24, 2009 on 10:17 pm | In Events | No Comments

It was a hot weekend in Lexington for the Midsouth Pony Club horse trials! Susie Gertz competed Practical Magic in the Open Training division and started the weekend with one of the best dressage tests that I’ve seen this pair perform. They set out on XC with a respectable 35.8. An unfortunate run-out early in the course over the challenging course at a Trakehner dropped them down a bit. However, they finished Sunday just adding a few time penalties (like many of the other entries) to the final score and landing them in 10th.
As if competing one horse in the heat wasn’t hard enough, Susie also competed her mare, Zooby-Doo, in her first BN. I was very pleased with their dressage test and, unfortunately, disappointed that their score wasn’t better. Such is norm many times – just when you think it’s a good test, it seems the judge never seems to agree. However, they continued onto stadium w/ a very nice, hunter-like round w/ the exception of one greenie glance-off at the second fence. Sunday morning, they set out on XC and were rolling around their first BN course with the confidence of a pair that had been competing much longer. It was definitely a confidence-building weekend for the pair and I’m anxious to see how they progress through the season.
Next up is Gemwood events right in our backyard at Twin Towers.

MayDaze Horse Trials

June 3, 2009 on 7:23 pm | In Events | No Comments

A little overdue on my update but a quick note on how everyone did at MayDaze Horse Trials in Lexington on May 22-24. Susie Gertz and Practical Magic competed in their 3rd Training Level to finish very solidly on their dressage score in 4th place. Jayne Whitton and Grace’s Star had a really nice dressage test and a clean stadium, but an unfortunate greenie moment at a road crossing before a jump on XC dropped them down a few places. Brooke Lundberg competed Sierra’s Sexy Model and is showing very solid improvement in the dressage but had a rough time in stadium. However, they redeemed themselves on Sunday w/ a clear XC round.
Next event will be MidSouth Pony Club Horse Trials where we’ll return to the glorious Kentucky Horse Park.

Greater Dayton Horse Trials

May 18, 2009 on 4:39 pm | In Events | 2 Comments

Everyone had a fantastic weekend at Greater Dayton Horse Trials which is held just a few minutes from the farm at Twin Towers. It was nice for me to be able to go just to coach and being able to focus on my students instead of trying to squeeze in riding and coaching!
Susie Gertz and Practical Magic took on their second training at this first outing of 2009. They have worked really hard over the winter on the dressage as well as fine-tuning their jumping. They had a really solid dressage test followed by a clean stadium round. One rider error on Sunday’s XC course dropped them down a few places but overall they had a smoother, bolder ride around the Training course.
Brooke Lundberg competed her mare, Sierra’s Sexy Model, in the Beginner Novice division and was very solid in all three phases to finish 3rd. I was thrilled with their solid dressage test as Brooke has been working extra hard on this phase.
Susie Gertz also competed her young mare, Zooby-Doo, in her first event and finished 5th. Susie bred and raised this lovely young mare so it was very exciting to see how much she’d grown up. A little inconsistent in her first dressage test but Susie did well to keep her together and then they moved on to stadium which could have easily been mistaken for a hunter round! Zooby got a little distracted on XC and had a couple of very uncharacteristic run-outs but I hear she was looking for the next fence by the end of the course so, all in all, the goal of making her an eventer was accomplished this weekend with great things to come in the future!
Jayne Whitton competed Grace’s Star in the BNH division. I saw snippets of all three phases and they looked really solid for their first event of the year. Jayne has done a great job bringing “Sadie” along and her patience is really starting to pay off. I believe they finished 5th in their division.
Bill Rollins and Penmerryl’s Moon Shadow competed in their first event at the starter level and were also very solid in all three divisions. A steady dressage test was followed by a lovely stadium round wrapped up by a bold XC ride landed them in 4th for the weekend and feeling ready to move up to BN at the next event.
Finally, Stephanie Williamson had a good weekend w/ her first recognized novice event on Spy Music. I’m not sure how they finished up but this pair continues to improve every time out.
So, as I said, I stayed plenty busy keeping up with everyone’s rides and was thrilled to see how the winter’s work really paid off. Looking forward to MayDaze this coming weekend.

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