that’s me, and happily so. I had the delightful opportunity to head over to Courtland, VA to River Birch Farm to judge last weekend. We had finally gotten some much needed rain, but due to excellent preparation and attention to detail, the show went on without a hitch or detriment to horse nor rider. The ring was supremely groomed, jumps decorated in honor of fall, and good eats for everyone. If you haven’t had the pleasure of visiting RBF or attending one of their shows, be sure to soon.
When not riding, teaching, grooming the ring, picking up pastures, or routine daily barn chores, I spent any spare time this left for me, some “fall” cleaning around the barn, as my great friend, Jana, recently posted in her blog, I much rather clean my barn than my house. Spiffing up some non-routinely used tack, dusting shelves, preparing blankets for laundry day, and setting aside items that I don’t need anymore to pass along to those who do have use for them. It was extremely rewarding.
I also spent [too much] time on the phone with Ticketmaster, planning our time at WIHS in late October. I’m excited to have my mother joining us at the show this year, along with our newest edition to Team Brydelle, Cheerie. We always gain such wonderful inspiration from the beautifully talented horses and riders.
Happily, Glenda is home from her several weeks of travel for work, and she was able to pop on her handsome boy this week for a quick refresher before her lesson tomorrow.
Cheerie has been steadfast in her dedication to improving her riding, and it shows in her progression. Her muscle memory and stamina is noticeably bettered. Over the last two session together, she has been working over small jumps.
I’m also thrilled that personalized embroidery for the farm and the Team will be ready next week. I’m very grateful to Neysa Bryant of SewPersonal located inside of Horse and Hound in Carrollton, VA. Pictures will be posted ASAP. What a sight we will all be at WIHS.
Knocking on wood, we are having exquisite weather here in good’ole Virginiy, are we possibly going to have a reasonable fall season, let us all hope and pray it is so. I was up early this AM, prepping the arena for lessons. I waging a small war against the pine needles, though I’m very grateful to the trees for shade, often times, you do have to take the bad with the good, and this is one of those times.
Simone had a great lesson today on Miss Alley. After warming up on the flat, with lengthening and shortening, shoulder in, and counter canter work, we moved on to practicing the three releases, short [crest] , long [crest] and automatic release over a low combination of a short 2 to 2 stride, by alternating between them, as I called them out. They both executed this exercise beautifully. Simone and Alley both prefer the more equitation type course, so I laid one out for them to tackle. Off the right lead, they were to jump a natural vertical on the quarter line, roll back to the right to a vertical with bright yellow sunflowers on the outside line, around to the combination [1 stride to 1 stride] of airy verticals w/o ground lines down the long side, around to a natural gate on the diagonal riding a broken line the fence 1 the opposite direction, continue cantering around to the left, and halt on the quarter line, then counter canter outside vertical.
Go Team USA
I think that catches me up on many of the happenings here and around the farm. As many of you are, I’m keeping a finger on the quickening pulse of WEG, as it approaches rapidly. With lots of travel for judging in the upcoming weeks, I wasn’t able to justify being away at WEG, so I will be glued to the web and TV. May all the horse and riders be safe and perform their very best.
“What you want to do, and what you can do, is limited only by what you can dream.” – M. Melville
