Make Your Own Cheer

Three words: WHAT A WEEK!!!!

Bromont - Absolutley beautiful. Absolutely perfect. Absolutley the best time in 2010.

Sooo.... on Tuesday afternoon Smarty Pants and I packed up the trailer and headed down the 401 speeding over giant pot holes and swerving around  crazy French drivers on our way to the Three Day Event at Bromont in Quebec. It was a glorious adventure, all thanks to some fresh CD's that were solicitously prepared by my great friend Christian Bennett. There's nothing better than having a solo dance party in your truck, singing words that you don't really know, heading to a place you can't wait to get to.  After 7 hours of constant raving, Gavin and I arrived at the newly renovated Facility of Bromont. Boy is this place nice. I was here last year, but it's easy to forget just how magnificent this place really is. As  you drive in along side Bromont I was overwhelmed with the beauty of the Mountains, the perfectly cut grass, the the proffesionalism of the facility, and the butterflies in my stomach. It's been five years since I did my first CCI* on my first One Star horse, Minstral at Midsouth in Kentucky. I was having flashbacks of all the things i've learned since then, and all the heartache that accompanies that, and all the ribbons i've picked up and all the pictures i've run out of room for and all the experiences i've been so lucky to put under my belt. A lot has happened in five years, and I can't help but be proud of where i've gone and the horses that have helped me get to where i am, and where i want to go. I also couldn't forget about the task that I was about to ask Gavin to do with me. I truely feel honored to own such a cool little horse. I often forget that he is only 6 years old this year, because sometimes he acts as though he's done this all his life.  Don't get me wrong, he defffinately has his baby moments... like how i had to ride him 4 times on wednesday.  He really is a ball of energy so i just kept taking him out for rides untill he thought that groaning and spooking at his own shadow wasn't quite necessary anymore.  He's quite the character, but i wouldn't change a thing about him. I've learned his ways, tried to change them, failed, and just came to the realization that people and horses are who they are, and you must just learn to adapt to their ways of life! A great life lesson learned indeed!

I love wearing my Top hat and Tails. There's just something about the outfit that makes me feel like a winner.  I think Gavin felt like a winner too, because we put in our best test of the year! We scored a 56 which is our best score at the FEI level! This put us in 20th place at the end of the day out of 40 starters. Gavin was SUCH a well behaved gentleman. I did shed a few tears as we did our final halt (which wasn't quite square but i didn't care!). We had no mistakes and no blond moment errors that took us off course, and preformed all the movements to the best of our abilities. I couldn't have asked Gavin to be any better and he was giving 100 percent concentration into the job he was asked to do.  I took a sigh of relief as i was very content with all that had just happened. A lot of work and time is spent on this phase of the sport and it's easy to get frustrated when things don't go as planned. It was just two weekends before when competing at Grandview horse trials where i was sitting on what i thought was a firecracker in the dressage ring! Gavin was quite "up" and my arms were quite "sore" by the end of the test and was a little bummed out about the preformance we had delivered. So with only 13 days between that test and Bromont, lots of things had been smoothed and a sense of "calm" had washed over us both on this wonderful day of dressage. I have to thank the warm weather and the heavenly dressage Gods above for that one.

Friday was a nice day. I decided i would go for a trot around the old steeple chase track in the morning for a change of scenery and pace. Pace it was as my calm dressage  horse turned into a fire breathing dragon  cantering sideways, snorting at all xc jumps and jumping over every change of footing. Whoopsie. Not getting any better the second time 'round, i decided it was a wise choice just to head back to the rings! I'm not quite sure if Gavin thought he was back on the race track or what, but i wasn't sticking around to find out! I'm not quite sure where this horse gets his energy but i swear sometimes he also see's ghosts.  So, we had a nice ride once we got back to the safety of the ring and then headed back to the stall for some R&R...who am i kidding, i mean a beer..ok beer(s). 

Friday was also a special day because many friends and family were en route (see my french!?) to Bromont to cheer us on and help out. Mom and Dad were almost here, and Kaitlyn and Christian were also on their way. It's a nice feeling when you know you have great friends and family that will travel hours and hours to support you, help you out, make you laugh, and keep you company. I feel this year is an exceptional year for realizing the obvious and understanding that you can't take anything for granted. A few weeks ago there was an incident involving a very close friend of mine that opened my eyes to life and near death and what everything in the world meant to me. It was almost as if i was a numb living creature before, because now its as if everything has real color and purpose and i truely go through the day being greatful for what i have. I take great interest in how I am feeling, how I want to feel  and how I make others feel around me. I'm not sure why it took me and an almost-tradgedy to figure this out, but i guess things happen for a reason and I was meant to feel this experience as deep as possible to understand the meaning of life itself and all the things i have yet to discover and offer.

I rode at the crack of dawn on the Saturday morning of cross country. It was one of those days though where i really didn't feel like i belonged in my body! I set sail aboard my trusty steed aiming at the green numbers in a mind set where i wanted to make time today. I knew we were capable but i started off a little "Picky"  and a little slow, but finally got my **** together by the time i got to the coffin. Thank goodness because after climbing Mt.Everest you had a nice turn to a virticle log, one stride to a ditch, then 4 strides to a corner - a pretty decent question for a one star i thought. Gavin was perfect. He really is a xc machine, and he's so good at the technicle things i swear he doesnt even need a rider.  We then struck off in a wonderful gallop across a huge feild which took us to a trekhaner heading into the woods. This was a much easier effort than the year before on Gavins part as we didn't hit our head on the trees above this time around!  He then cruised around the next few fences before leaping ever so boldy and largely into the first water! i was shocked... he was a real xc horse now! we then galloped over  some angled coops and then towards quite a large ditch and brush which i hit at a sweet distance and sailed over wich a smile on my face. It was then up to a table turning up a steep lip on a hill to a skinny toothbrush. Check check! jumped it amazing! Gave Gavin lots of pats as we headed down to the second water. It was at this point i realized my horse was getting a little tired and was leaning on me for balence. We had a little argument about which speed we should be going. "Gavin, i think we should slow down" "Kelly, i think we could speed up here" "Gavin slow down" "Kelly, hold on" . Things weren't happening as quickly as i would have liked so i ended up having a serious discussion which resulted in a head toss, a large spook at the crowd gathered at the water a loss of concentration and a bit of a hop over the "A" element of the water. This then lengthened the 4 strides to the goose in the water, where i had to sit tight and let Gavin figure things out, which he did just fine and then three more strides to the skinny out. It wasn't the ride I had originally planned, but that's cross country for you, and we went away with a little tap of the whip to intill some confidence that may have been lost. We then jumped a little bench on our way to a log to a corner and then on to the last fence. We made it through the finish line 8 seconds over the time and in good shape. I wasn't 100 percent thrilled with my preformance. I thought i could have given Gavin a better ride, and i was disapointed in my lack of decision at the water. I was upset and stewing over this while my team of Kaitlyn, Christian, Felicia and my Mom cooled out Gavin in the Vet box. It then occured to me that my 6 year old actually took care of me. This made me happy. This made me proud. And It made me realize that I have given him the confidence and skills necessary to carry on when things aren't perfect. But i guess the only way you really get better is to get a little upset at yourself when you ultimately know you could have done a better job. Gavin has a heart of gold, and he has a talent that matches perfectly with his heart. I was pleased with his fitness and his recovery and gave him well deserved pats on the way back to the stall.  

Everything looked good Sat night. No bumps or brusises and Gavin jogged well in hand.  So i tucked him in for the night and gave him many kisses and a little bit of beer for a job well done and wished him the best of dreams. I returned early the next moring to bathe and braid and go for a nice hack before the jog at 8. Everything went well. Gavin was happy and feeling great. The show jumping course was set, so i suited up and heading down to the ring.  SURELY this was the two star course. Nope, it was the One star. Holy smokes was it big! The course was tough with a lot of related distances which I love because i CAN count!!! There were two in and outs, many bending lines and the oxers were wide!  I was 22nd in the ring as i moved up to 14th place after xc. I was fortunate enough to watch some early rides so i knew what to expect and  which lines were riding in what. There were decisions to be made and lines to be held and I felt as though I was ready to preform at my best today. I walked the course twice and stood by the side to visualize myself jumping the fences in pefect form, getting all the right striding and hitting all the right distances. God i looked good in my head! I do this often. Even for dressage and xc. I visualize myself riding the way i want and don't move on until it's perfect. It's weird, because i actually feel like i'm doing it as i picture it in my head. I can feel the saddle and the reins and how much pressure i have. I feel where my body is and i can hear my horse breathing.  Once my round was perfect, I took Gavin up to the warm up and started warming up. My coach Vanessa Fenwick texted me a few reminders for my round which i then relayed to Christian who helped me warm up. "hold your shoulders, keep your hands up, sit in your saddle". Seems basic, but it's easy to forget the little things when the nerves kick in. I was thankful that CB was there to kick my butt and remind me of these little things. I then headed down the shoot to the final phase of the weekend. I was actually quite nervous. I wanted to do well. And i wanted to give Gavin a well deserved ride.  Things were going well. I had a nice ride down the first line of 6 strides and Gavin was jumping great. I held my shoulders at the next virticle and he jumped it well. It was then 9 forward strides on a bend to a humungoooo square oxer. He jumped it so freaking well he nearly jumped me clean out of the tack! It was then on to another square oxer two strides to a virticle. I got nice and deep to the oxer but didn't have quite enough support off the ground to help Gavin jump up enough. He just nicked it with his toe and we had the rail. Shoot! but we put that behind us. He backed up well to the virticle out of the comination which has been difficult for him because he's such an exuberant jumper he forgets how to harness his power! We then had a nice 9 strides to another virticle and hit the next line bang on of 8 strides to another huge oxer. Things were great. We were both confident and doing our best. We then sailed down the next line of 6 to another in and out, and then on to the last fence. Great! done!!!!! Just one rail which was ok because it was my fault. I was extremely happy with the way things went. I thought my horse jumped his socks off and i thought i rode really well! We had a good team effort and i felt we worked together today to make each other as happy as possible! Even with our rail we moved to 9th! There were quite a few rails being dropped as the course was seriously tough! Gavin and i then entered the ring once more to recieve our ribbon and take part in the victory gallop. It was great! I loved the cheering squad of my three BFF's (hahah!)  and was happy that my parents got to see a great round too!

All in all it was a fantastic weekend with some of the "best's", the "ok's" and the "fantastic" parts of the challenges of eventing.  I'm pretty tired today as some of the high has worn off, and the thought of unpacking has prevailed. My truck is a disaster, which for anyone that knows me isn't news to you, but really, it has reached an entirely new level of nasty.  You know it's bad when I think my truck is dirty.

Well, i better get a move on.

Thanks for stopping by.


                                                            Don't miss a thing.



Love, Kelly

Smarty Pants Rocks My World.

So, I’m not going to lie…I was a bit concerned when I arrived at Wits End this morning. I hopped on Gavin a while before our test do have our “pre dressage buck “ ride which was going quite well, until the 100 m/hr wind decided to whisk on in!! If you’ve ever ridden in some serious wind, you know the term “wind up their ass” and the movements that usually follow whilst on horseback… Gavin had a miniature moment of this, but I kindly whispered to him that it would be EVER so kind of him to keep his special moves in a box for another day, and preferably a day when I’m not on him. Thankfully Gavin listened to my pathetic cry and decided to keep it together. As we trotted down the hill and back up to the new and beautifully built dressage ring I thought “ wow, this horse has come pretty far since last year as I could have easily been sitting in the dirt because he dumped me in the warm up”. And then I chuckled and told myself to shut up because we weren’t even in the ring yet. And we still had all three phases to go. ( ! ) He was quite spooky going ‘round the outside of the ring and got a little stronger than I’d like, but I was going to deal with what I had and make the best of it. We had some good moments and some really great ones too, and only one “oh my god, did I even do that move?” I also had a serious blond moment and managed to do an extra 20m circle (which I may add was BEAUTIFUL!) in the wrong spot, at the wrong time and definitely NOT in the test at all. I’ m going to blame it on the wind…totally understandable… right? So, we ended up with a pretty decent test. BEST intermediate test we’ve ever done .


After the show jumps were propped up with sticks, rakes, sandbags, and anything else that would keep them anchored from the wind, Gavin and I were ready to tackle the course. This ring is HILLY. And my horse was feeling EXUBERANT. And my nerves were a bit shaky. Thankfully my show jumping coach, Vanessa Fenwick made the trek to Wits End to help me warm up. And I thank her for that. She really does make me ride the best I can. I had one of the best rounds I’ve ever had on Gavin !!!! Unfortunately, I got him a bit too close to the base of the fence which was quite a big oxer going uphill and we had the rail. I couldn’t have been happier with him though. He was truly a great boy and had a round I can’t help but be proud of.

Then, I started tacking up for xc, and I felt slightly ill. I knew the course was well within our capabilities and wasn’t really worried about not being able to do something. I was nervous because I didn’t want to mess up. And I was nervous because I wanted to give Gavin the best ride possible. And I was nervous because I haven’t aimed at the Red Numbers in quite a while! Luckily my friend Hilary came along to be part of the cheering squad and just as they were heading out to find a good place to stand she turned and told me “don’t worry Kelly, you’ll be able to feel your legs soon!”. Thanks Hils!!! I once told Hilary to remind me to tell me this exact thing when I was doing my first Advanced in over a year. And she was right as usual. I felt my legs just fine as we sailed (but spooked HARDCORE) over number one which was followed by a “wabang, a waBUCK a waBANG buck BUCK” by Gavin. Boy was he feeling good!!! After he realized the jumps were a little bigger than usual, he started paying less attention to the birds and his bucks and started to listen to me. Man is this horse good on xc. I thought Minstral was a solid citizen, but this guy is something else! He was jumping everything I pointed him at confidently and well, with only a minor green moment at quite a large bank to a huge brush off. There was a brief moment in Gavin’s mind to say “holy smokes mom are you SURE you want me to jump off that?” and I said “absolutely yes dear, please proceed”. And after that was smooth sailing and confidence building and just plain FUN! I love this horse! And I love him even more now looking at the possible things we could accomplish! I also had a great time jumping into the water. I could have used a seatbelt but Gavin was sure not to touch the brush on the way in as that would be poor jumping form in his eyes. He was quite brave into the water which I was very proud of him for. Gavin has had some difficulty becoming brave enough to just take a leap of faith into the water… not having any major issues, but just being a little on the sticky side in the past. So I was absolutely thrilled with his effort to trust me.

All in all I really thought the day couldn’t have gone any better, and that Gavin really gave it his all. I am so happy with my little Smarty Pants I could just squish his cute-as-a-button cheeks! We drove home with our nice 4th place ribbon (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and will now have a smile plastered on my face for several days at least ! I also can’t wait until my personal photographer/super awesome friend/groom/driving buddy/singing partner Christian Bennett posts pics of the weekend! And thanks to Hilary, Maegan and Vanessa for coming to help out too! I love all of your support!! Oh, and thanks to CB’s mom for making delicious snacks for us to feed on during the day!!!

Pics to come soon!



Be known for your smile,

Love love love,

Kelly

nothing like an old shoe

Today was absolutely perfect. The alarm was late, or atelast my ears were quiet enough to not hear it. The air was thin, and everything seemed in place. Everything moved as it should have and i felt as though things would go the way i planned.

I couldn't ask for better horses. Every day i realize what great friends my equine lovers have become. I feel as though i am making significant progress with my young horse, Gavin aka "Smarty Pants". We've been busily preparing for Gavin's big upgrade to Intermediate this weekend at Wits End Horse Trials and i'm pleased to announce that the butterflies are back and are keeping me from getting a solid nights rest! There's something about competition. A competitive thirst runs through my veins like a heroin addict. A few months back i came to a fork in the road where i was questioning myself, my abilities, and my main goals in life. For a small moment in time i thought of what it would be like to try something completely different than anything in the horse world. And for a short while, i almost convinced myself that maybe i should give it a try. Thankfully, i never went through with my minds glitched plan and stuck to what i know best and what i've wanted for so long, which is competing at the highest level of Eventing. This second guess came in to play shortly after my Advanced horse "Minstral" who's better known around the barn as "Danny" (or Danimal as i like to call him ... he really is a raging animal on xc!) injured himself after the Fair Hill International CCI*** three day event in the fall of last year. As any horse person, athelete, competitor can relate, i felt lost, defeated, hurt, minimalized and depressed. I felt i had done everything i could to prepare for this event, and i knew we could be fierce competitors in a tough feild of horses and riders. But as all horsemen know, things never go as planned, and you have to take the good with the bad, even if the bad leaves you in the mud (fellow Fair Hill competitors will understand!). But after a long winter in Ocala enduing the early stages of recovery i realized that this is truely what i want to do. During the endless hours and miles of walking down the road with Danny, I thought and spoke and listened to him, and i swear he told me he was in this for the long haul as long as i was. Call me crazy, but i actually spoke to a "spiritual elder" back in November and asked him about Danny. He told me he had something to prove and he wasn't going to give up until we reached our goals and dreams. So, i'm going to listen to this spiritual guy, because he's had the best outcome of the years to come yet!
Anyways, things with Danny are looking great. The injury is healing beyond belief which makes me cry with happiness on a daily basis. You've got to know that i LOVE this horse to absolute pieces. There's nothing in this world i wouldn't do for him. I would lay on a road and take a bullet, and climb super steep hills BOTH ways just to say hello to him. He is my world, and without him i would not have gained any of my education, knowledge, bravery, skill or heart. It is to him i owe my small, but exponetially growing, mighty eventing career. I've learned absolutely everything from this horse, and i can't wait untill we get back to competion next year, with our sights set high on competing at Rolex in 2011.

Well, i think i've poured my heart out for tonight. Don't worry, there will be a lot more oogling over my horses in days to come. I just love them so, and i feel the need to spoil them rotten and share to the world just how great they are.

Take care for now, I'll be back.

Be known for your smile.

Kelly

Joining in!

Well, after reading endless blogs from friends around the world and wiping tears from my eyes as well as laughing outloud by myself, i wanted to join in on the world of blogging!

First off, I wanted to say hello to all and thanks for stopping by to read about my daily life! I hope I can keep you entertained, which i don't think will be too diffucult...