More MLE Clinics this fall

Just a quick post with dates for upcoming clinics:

September 22: Susan Graham White Dressage Clinic (11am - 6:45pm)

October 13: Susan Graham White Dressage Clinic (11am - 6:45pm)

October 20: Stephen Bradley Jumping Clinic (1:30pm - 6pm)

I have at least 1 space available in each clinic, so shoot me an e-mail at margaret@mythiclandingevents.com if you would like more info on riding!

To learn more about Susan, visit her web site www.sgwdressage.com.

To learn more about Stephen, visit his web site www.southerneditionfarm.com.

AEC's Report

Courtney Cooper was the only MLE client to make the trip down to Georgia for the 2010 American Eventing Championships. Nevaeh (pictured napping in her stall) competed in Novice Horse and Who's A Star ("Tag") competed in Open Intermediate. And they were both awesome! Nevaeh led the weekend with a stellar dressage test and double clear cross-country round, putting them in 2nd going into the final phase. Remember that Nevaeh is still only 4-years-old and has her green moments here and there. Unfortunately, she had a silly rail in stadium which dropped her to 7th place overall. Argh! This talented mare is headed to the 4-year-old Young Event Horse Championships in October, so hopefully she'll have a win there! Tag was stellar once again in Intermediate. He's turning into a real powerhouse and I know that Courtney loves every event she has with him. He finished 13th out of 52 in an extremely competitive Open Intermediate division. Go Tag!

Not to be left out, Katie Wherley's student Lisa Warnock made the trip to compete in the Training Amateur division. If you're from Area II you're familiar with seeing Lisa's name on top of the leaderboard at events. While she didn't win, she had a great showing and is now gearing up for the Area II Adult Rider's Training 3-Day later this fall.

CONGRATS Courtney and Tag!

MLE client Courtney Cooper of C Square Farm and her homebred gelding Who's A Star (aka "Tag") have had a very successful summer season! They've been in the top 5 after dressage at their last three events, and ended up winning the Intermediate division at Waredaca in August. Tag will continue at Intermediate this fall, and is aimed for the CCI** at Fair Hill in October. Go Courtney! Go Tag!

Recently Courtney was asked to blog about her experience at Waredaca for the Professional Riders Organization. You can read those here: Saturday and Sunday.

Quick Horse Update

So a lot has happened since my last blog post. Moosetracks did his 2nd USEA Horse Trials at Waredaca. Lo and behold, the horse was awesome! I took him over to friend Julia Beamish's Mayadinya Farm on Friday for a flat and jump school in her lovely arena and it was just what he needed. I was only planning on jumping a few fences, but he was rocketing over everything like it was Preliminary height. So we just kept on jumping until it wasn't quite as exciting and called it a day. After a small mishap while lunging before dressage, he gathered himself together, and put it a solid BN test. I definitely rode quite conservatively, and my coach Kelley Williams (of A Bit Better Farm)told me to really go for it next time. Hopefully this good behavior continues, as after 2 double-clear jumping rounds, he moved from 16th to 7th in a very competitive division of 23 horses. Go Moosetracks Go!

The next Friday, owner Holly Erdely took over the reins and brought him over to a Stephen Bradley clinic I organized at Oatland Stables in Brookeville, MD. The horse did me proud and took care of Holly like a veteran. Woohoo!

Lissell is battling a nasty skin infection that's required daily (if not twice daily) attention. She's such a princess. But she's getting stronger and stronger, and more balanced with each passing day. She even voluntarily cantered out on the trail! Love this mare!

Mid-summer review ...

As the summer progresses, I'm taking a moment to review all my equine charge's progress.

First up we have Moosetracks. The big appy is still going through a bit of a rough patch. His jumping keeps getting better and better, but he's decided that dressage is for the birds. *sigh* One thing I'm learning about this appy/draft-cross is that he has a stubborn streak a mile long. Lucky for Moosetracks though, my stubborn streak is 2 miles long. So after a marathon session in the wretched humidity last night, I think we have progress. He's scheduled to compete at Waredaca next weekend, and after that will probably take a break from competing to re-focus a little.

Next up is Lissell (aka Mythical, aka Pretty Princess, aka Queen B*tch). I won't get into Lissell's full history, but here's the brief version: I got her when she was 11, evented her for a few years, then she hurt herself so I leased her out as a broodmare, that went sour after a few years, and now I have her back at the age of 18). Lucky for Lissell, she's my only horse right now, so she gets to re-enter the world of the working. Lucky for me, she doesn't seem to mind and actually seems to enjoy the attention. The rest of the summer will be spent trail riding, and then we'll see what happens. To say I missed this mare is an understatement. People keep asking me how she's doing, and my standard response is "perfect."

Finally, The Ponies! Once or twice a week you'll find me at a neighbor's farm exercising their ponies. The ponies are meant to be for the family's children, but thus far the kids don't have much interest in riding (I'm hoping that will change this fall!). In any case, Pony #1 is named Swift (paint pictured). Swift was a champion games pony and I'm guessing his age to be at 30+. Naughty is his middle name, and I approach every ride with him expecting to fall off. Thus far, I haven't actually fallen, but I figure I should keep my expectations low with this one. His latest trick was flipping his tongue over the bit, resulting in the addition of a flash to his little bridle. Pony #2 is named Snowflake (grey pictured). Snowflake is 90% lovely. But she is a pony mare, so if she's having a bad day, WATCH OUT! I could go on and on about these little guys, but work is calling. More later!

Courtney Cooper on SportHorseNation.com

Check out MLE Courtney Cooper on SportHorseNation.com as she shares her Top 5 Tips for Selling Horses. Courtney has already sold close to 40 horses this year, and shows no signs of slowing down!

Big Steps Forward, Small Steps Back

Horses are such humbling creatures. My ride for the weekend was Holly Erdely's Maine Moose Tracks. As I said in an earlier post, I started riding Moosetracks regularly when Holly was recovering from surgery this past winter, and continue to help develop this talented big guy as he goes through a bit of the terrible teens. This horse has made huge steps forward in his training over the past few months (with the help of super trainer Kelley Williams), so I had reason to look forward to his first recognized competition this weekend.

Then comes the small step back. Any competitor can tell you that one of the biggest challenges is recreating the brilliance from home in the show environment. For whatever reason, Moosetracks didn't want to play the game yesterday. And let me tell you, when you're 5'2" and your 17.2h draft cross decides he doesn't want to play, there's only so much you can do! Thankfully I avoided taking out a few pony clubbers as I tried to settle my partially rearing and lunging beast. After my somewhat embarrassing dressage test, I came out the ring and continued working until good behavior was re-established.

Stadium was another step forward. Warm up went according to plan and he jumped quite well, although a bit green, with me taking the time to do simple changes to ensure he was balanced to the fences. Cross country started out as planned. A nice easy canter over the first few fences. I knew I needed a little extra encouragement going into the first water and promptly dropped my whip. Argh! Not what I wanted to happen at fence 5! But onto the next challenge. Moosetracks continued to jump well, but I could tell he was getting a little tired. I stayed super strong in my rides to each fence, determined to give him no excuse to do anything but jump the jumps in front of him and then let him cruise at his own speed between fences. Then we get back to the little girl on a big horse syndrome, and Moosetracks quit on me at fence 10, for reasons unknown to me and my friends watching. But he finished the course and cooled out well.

As Holly (aka super owner!) cooled out her spotted pony, I changed into my trusty purple crocs and went fishing for my whip. Some people have lucky socks ... I have my lucky whip. And I've had it since I was a pre-teen, and wasn't so happy at the idea of leaving without it. I think everyone shook their heads as I went off to search. It only took a few minutes, and a few weird looks from jump judges, and VIOLA! My beloved whip lives to see another day!

So onto the next step. More lessons, more schooling shows, more conditioning. See you all at Waredaca!