Catching up...

Hello everyone,

I have not written on my blog for sometime, my apologies.

To catch everyone up, I started Fair Hill with a bang with Who's A Star finishing in 2nd place after dressage.  He was attentive and active in his work, and his test was very good.  The canter still needs some lift and expression and the trot work was wonderful...still working on those darn turn on the haunches though.

Cross country day was beautiful, although the going was heavy after several days of rain, it was Fair Hill after all!

He was very good overall, however he jumped into the doubles of angled brushes well and then he just was short in his step to get across the distance and instead of taking 1 stride took 1 and 1/2 and bounced off the second element.

At this point there was still much work to do and he was fabulous on the way home.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning he was quite full of himself and acted as if the cross country had taken nothing out of him which was great.

He jumped a super show jumping course only marred when he shied from the warmup arena in the triple and had the first oxer down behind.

My overall goal for Fair Hill was to ride like I knew how and to not leave anything on the table.  There are times I know as a rider that I can look back at a cross country round, or dressage test and tell you everything that happened and this was one of those weekends.

Although it would have been nice to have won the whole thing, I am proud of the work that Tag and I did, disappointed by the placing but not the work.

The girls, Hope and Nev, did the young horse classes at Fair Hill as well and they were both good performing as well up to their abilities.  Hope ended up 4th overall, the same placing as her brother Tag when he was a 4 year old so hopefully that bodes well for her future.

We have one last event on Sunday at St Augustines with Nev, Hope, Vegas and Chocolate Martini and then I am headed to Ireland to look for a new partner.

This year has been a developmental year for me, lots of good, and lots of work...I enjoyed the process of being considered for the Pan American Team and my search in Ireland is going to work towards that end.

I have heard of a strong prospect for the World Championships in Fontainebleu in 2014 and am trying to work to put together a group of up to 10 owners for this.  If you are interested let me know...it will be quite a ride.

I want to work on putting the goose bumps I feel when I hear the national anthem to good work with an eventual podium placing in a major international competition and realize I cannot do it alone.

I hope all of you and yours are doing well and are now enjoying the beautiful Fall weather after our Halloween snow!

Talk to you soon, and let me know if you are interested in being part of the Ireland group...

All the best,
Courtney