Smell The Honeysuckle!

The last week and a half has been quite stressful and interesting! Having just graduated there are about a hundred thousand different things going on and going through my head. Add to that the stress of your horse doing her first CCI* and reattempting intermediate with Clif and you have a brain of mush and a stomach of knots!

I went up to Sharon White's on Saturday. I was able to get a dressage lesson with Tess on Sunday and Tuesday, we worked on making her very forward, obediant and relaxed. Clif and Tess both went for a hop around XC on Monday and a last little gallop..they were wild! Tess was fabulous, she has this totally new attitude, she is finding the jumps whether you are or not....soooo you had better hold on tight! Clif was great, I learned a bit more how to ride him, he needs such a different ride than Tess it can be very hard for me to switch between the two with all three of us being so green. He was really quite good and seemed to gain some confidence throughout his school, which he most definitely needed. Clif had a flat lesson on Tuesday and was really lovely; he's a little dressage horse these days. Both horses had a lighter jump school on Wednesday working on shortening their strides and angling fences. Clif was really great, he lovessssssssssss to add strides (he hates to leave them out!). Tess was super, she was jumping me way out of the tack. Thursday morning we left for Virginia Horse Center.

Tess playing around during her less with Sharon!
Thursday was a good day for the horses. They arrived at the park early, had light flat schools and Tess did her in-barn check for the CCI* (Note to self: send passport in 3 months in advance!). I also walked the courses Thursday night, and holyyyyyyyyyy moly was I needed some direction! But on a happy...ish side note, while walking the course all you can smell is the honeysuckle that is everywhere. It smells so good!

(Clif jumping with the big kids!)

Friday was dressage for Tess and dressage and show jumping for Clif. Clif did his dressage first and poor guy only had about a 20 minute warm-up. He seemed to enjoy that though, he was absolutely super in the ring; there is still lots to improve, mostly his roundness through the transitions, but he was great and got a 28, putting him in first out about 13! Good Clif! Tess then did her dressage, she was as good as she could possibly be for this stage of her life, she just lacks the strengh and muscle to really come round and through. However, I was really really pleased with her, she got a 55 (which is basically mid 30's in horse trial scores). It was probably one of her best tests to date, she was quite pleased with herself...but she usually is, your opinion does not count with Tess. Clif also show jumped in the afternoon. The show jumping looked quite good, but was riding absolutely horrifically for some people, rails were flying! I know Clif does just about everything in his power to jump clean so you really have to try to just let him do his best and stay the heck out of the way. He tried so so soooooooo hard and was absolutely perfect until I ran him into a vertical...brilliant of me, I know. He was very good, he just had the one rail, but since everyone else was having serious rails he stayed in 1st :)...lucky guy!

(Tess looking happy after her dressage test!)

Saturday was the big XC day! I walked my courses and knew what I had to do....LOTS!!!! Tess was first out. She was awesome, perfect, super, great..you pick any or all of those words. Her ears never went anywhere besides forward and her legs never stopped moving. She had never made time at a horse trial, so I had some serious doubts about her ability to make the time, especially on a nearly 8 minute course with massive mountains to gallop around on! I told her to go a bit early on, and boy did she go. I really just let her bounce around the whole time, I was more or less just along for the ride, she never blinked around the course I don't think. She was on a mission, that's for sure! She flew around the course perfectly nearly 25 seconds under the time! She was super and recovered really well which was exciting. Clif went out around lunch, he was foot perfect around the first few fences. The 6th fence was a big brush fence to a corner, sharp turn to a triple brush skinny; he ducked out at the corner, which was very naughty of him!, but jumped the corner great on the 2nd try....little brat, we then went to the skinny, where Clif was just still so rattled from his runout that he ran right into the skinny, not understanding what was going on.. BLAH!!!! He came right back around and jumped it fine. The rest of the course went really well, he was very on and enjoyed himself, I think. We did have ANOTHER run out (AH!) at two very steep angled canoes, but I asked for one stride and should have known he would do two strides, he slammed right into the 2nd canoe....dumb rider! He actually is on one of the Eventing Nation Videos (http://www.eventingnation.com) --just find the VA HT intermediate XC video, we are near the end doing about 5 fences, including the very scary water!

(Tess enjoyed her attention time!!!)

Tess was the only one to do anything on Sunday. She had her jog at 8 a.m.. She was wild for her jog, and super sound and fresh. She then jumped at about noon. She was great! She tried soooo hard to leave the rails up; she was kicking up so high behind I nearly pulled out her braids trying to hang on! She had a double clear round, I think everyone was very proud of her! She was in 15th place after dressage, after her double clear XC she moved into 9th place, and after her double clean show jumping round she moved into 6th place!!! And, most importantly, I finally got a neck ribbon! HA! She was soooo good, if had told me she would do this last week, I would have laughed at you. I know she is a super horse, but you never know how great they are until they start rising to the occasion, and she did more than just rise to it. She is now getting some well deserved down time (which will probably lead to me being bucked off!).

Everyone take care and hang on! (I will be riding the babies this week, hang on is my motto!)

Hillary

Yippe, Skipppppppe!

How time flies!


I have officially graduated from college (although they don't give you your diploma for two weeks!)! Not sure quite how I got here, but it has been an interesting trip. I started out at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which is a great school as everyone already knows. I decided that it was most definitely not the place for me, and being so far from the horses killed me....literally, I was not such a happy individual. I then took a year "off" (I'm not sure working between 65 and 75 hours a week while taking 13 hours is a year off but whatever floats your boat).

(The family at Graduation!)


I went to the community college in Southern Pines and started out working for David and Lauren O'Brien; I took my first lesson with David when I was 8 years old on my 13.1 hand pony Mima (THE COOLEST PONY EVER!), and first started working for them when I was 13 (not sure I helped so much then!) and had just gotten my first real horse Kilkeel (who was a bit nutty, but a great learning experience none the less). I decided it was a logical decision to work for them since I had been seriously riding with both Lauren and David since I was 13; it was a great experience, I learned a lot, but in the end decided I needed to branch out. It was an incredibly hard decision for more reasons than I can count, I owe a lot to them; David taught me so much about young horses and Lauren is the lameness queen (seriously, if you ever see her advanced horse Guinn, his legs look like he is 3, not a blemish to be found!).
(Kilkeel won the Sandhills Series in 2003 @ Training level)


(Fannie, holds the record for sweetest horse and worst canter in the history of world)

I then started working for Charlie Plumb in the winter of 07/08, who is one of the nicest people you will ever meet, and riding with Jim Kofford and Bobby Costello. Charlie was always very supportive of anything I did while working for him; I had a nasty fall off Clif in February and was very seriously considering selling him asap (Good thing I didn't huh!?) and just playing around with Tess at novice/training, and Charlie was always there for me to talk to about my thoughts, no matter how ridiculous. Jim was the most fabulously positive person you could ever hope to do dressage with; he was always so encouraging and helpful with Clif (who was still a bolting, bucking disaster at this point!) which was great because as we all know, my self-confidence is not exactly solid or high. I owe quite a bit to Bobby, he never had a doubt about Clif's abilities....even on the day when I had to jump about 2 feet because anything higher led to Clif bolting off and pitching a holy fit. Bobby also seriously addressed my position and my training of the horses; I will never forget what he told me, you can ride them all day long, but it doesn't you a darn bit of good unless you train them!".

(Miss Jemima Puddle Duck..yes that was her real name and yes she had a fan club!)

After taking my year "off" I started attending App State in beautiful Boone, NC. It was a really great change and experience. I loved the atmosphere, so laid back and friendly. The professors were GREAT, always willing to help and very knowledgeable. I would go here again in a second. It was while here that I found a bit about who I am and the person I want to be. I think all of this has been quite obvious in how happy I have become and how happy my horses are, I dare say you will not find much more happy horses anywhere (I am a firm believer that your horses reflect you a lot of the time). Riding wise, I started riding with Sharon White, who absolutely one of the greatest people you will ever hope to meet, much less ride with! She is a great influence on me and I feel like she is the type of person the sport needs, someone who works incredibly hard and seriously cares about their horses, their friends, and their family. I also think her help has been quite evident...my horses are going the best they ever have, and I am riding the best I ever have.

(Clif after his CCI* Test, looking very please with himself..big surprise there!)

Andddddddddddddd all of this had led me to right here. I am Happy with where I am..but a bit nervous! I am currently figuring out my fall/life plans at the moment, scary! I am hoping to let Clif do the Fairhill ** in fall if he wants to go that direction and letting the little monster princess do her first intermediate in the fall, exciting! I have to say, I am so glad I was never bought a "made" horse ( not that it was an option :) ), because I know my horses would not be where they are or even the horses that they are if I had. They both have taken some seriously scenic routes to get where they are, but they are two of the most fabulous horses..that is totally unbiased of course.

(Tess getting a Jimmy Wofford lesson....he was the first one to call her the Princess!)

Clif and Tess have both been great this last week. Tess has continued to jump like a freak. Clif has been jumping quite straight and accurate, hoping that holds out for his intermediate at Virginia HT in 2 weeks! Tess is also WILD, she is super fit, but most definitely does not look it, she still looks fat and happy (which I am grateful for!). Everyone galloped today and had a blast going up the mountain (literally I galloped them up a freaking mountain!)..Clif tried to run away..HA, he found out that wasn't working going up the ski slope!

Last and certainly not least the new babies are here! Irish (who I HAVE to rename!) and Tuc (Tess's sister) have settled in quite well and are enjoying life! They are such sweet horses, I think we lucked out! Irish has a personality rebound rate of about 3.5 seconds, which is fine except she is constantly wanting to stand on top of you to say hi. Tuc is very shy, but very sweet and cute when she isn't being bitten out of the way by Irish. They are both quite clever, Tuc was watching me in the house (their field is about 10 feet away from the house) this morning, little busy body (wonder where she gets that from!?!?..TESS!). Tuc is now living with Clif, Tess and Sam; Clif and Sam think she's the best thing since Ms. Pastures, and Tess wishes she had never been born! Irish had also made new friends living with two other boarded horses, the three of them are becoming good friends as well.

Also, in exciting news is the #1 Preliminary Am. Rider ranking on the USEA leaderboard. Check it out here: http://useventing.com/competitions.php?section=leaderboard&lb=preliminary . Also equally as exciting, I (or we!) are now Kerrits Ambassadors! We have a fun little profile complete with pictures and all :) on the Kerrits website. Check it out here: http://67.199.81.95/Equestrian-Apparel/pc/Hillary-Irwin-d194.htm .

Next week I am heading for lessons at Sharon's farm and then will head straight to the VA HT, where Tess will run her first CCI* and Clif is headed to the intermediate! We will update from there!

Enjoy this nice cool weather and remember where you came from got you where you are :)

Hillary

What's A Road Without Some Pot Holes?

Not really sure why I chose that title, but hey just in case you were wondering, a road without pot holes is SMOOOOOTH! (Boone could really take a lesson in smooth roads). You will have to excuse my slightly flu like sick, over-tired sense of humor this time!


(Tess @ Chatt Hills 3 weeks ago!)



I learned some fun facts about my horses this week. Clif will nearly kill himself and you if a frog jumps out of a lake (even if it is the size of a half dollar and nearly terrified of you). Tess thinks everything about her is fun, how could I possibly narrow it down to one thing!? Clif enjoyed his time off. I have been riding him on the flat with a dressage whip this week...eeeek! He is almost unwilling to forgive me, even with cookies, this is a true sign of disaster people! Clif would totally be an underwear model if he were a person..weird comment, but just hang in there for a moment while I explain. I have never seen a horse that will adjust the amount of food they eat on the amount of work they are doing; if he is in normal work he eats his mountain of food in 10 minutes max, but this week while not working, he didn't finish his entire dinner once, and it took him over an hour to manage that! What a strange little horse. Tess is good as well, she is a wild woman these days...at Loudon when she finished XC and I pulled up, she promptly reared and spun back towards the XC..yes I know what your thinking, someone has replaced my horses personality, my thoughts exactly :)! She is jumping like a f-r-e-a-k these days, I need a seatbelt! She is truly the happiest she has been in years, it has taken a long time to undo some seroius anger that girl has bottled up inside!
(Clif doing his first intermediate SJ!)



On a bit of a fun note I will be getting 2 babies this summer! One will hopefully be sold quickly and the other will be my mom's horse...since I maybe, kind of, may have sorta taken Tess from her..opps, although really not thattttttt sorry about it :)! One is just an unraced TB, her name is Irish (which I am not a huge fan of, but it is bad luck to change names!) that my grandparents bred, but does not look as though it will be too quick in the dirt ;). She is super cute and seems to be quite sweet..we shall hope she stays that way! The second baby I am most excited to sit on! Her name is Tuc, she also is a product of Snooty Fox Farm..it is the Princess's half sister, they have the same mama....god help us all. She is very cute though, looks quite a bit like Tess, has that cute face and a bit of a long back (both my horses have long backs, I'm a fan them, they have worked out well for me!). Both of these two have been at a cowboy's for the last month, learning to be ridden and going on trail rides, such is the best thing in the world for babies! I'm excited to get them and will post pic's as soon as I am able to get them from Florida!



This is my LAST week of UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, I am so excited! I will finish up my last exam on Tuesday, yayyyy! I graduate the following Sunday..super exciting. Tess and Clif would rather I stay in school, they feel as though they see enough of me as it is.

Oh...quick side note! The ponies have been so good this season, I am on the Preliminary Am. Leaderboard as the #1 Preliminary Adult Am. Rider! Pretty Sweet! Clif has actually won 3 out of 5 of his events this year.

Until next time...everyone be smart and wear a helmet (that brain costs a lot of money!)

Hillary