The Juniors from Region 3!Alyssa Eidbo, Reserve Champion for the Brentina Cup!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Soaked to the core, but really, really happy!
In the pouring rain they groom and tack up their horse, they get their "game day" face on and they walk the 8 minutes to the schooling arena. Their trainers "coach" them and help fine tune a few movements. The Technical Delegate (TD) calls them up. Whips are dropped and the walkie talkie or other communication device is removed. The coach murmurs words of encouragement and reminders. They exit the warm up and head up the hill to the main arena. They enter the arena completely alone and ready to do their test...
I am in awe. I don't know how else to express it. There is so much determination in these young people to succeed and be the best they can be. And some days they are rewarded. Today, our Region 3 Team was rewarded! The Junior girls received Reserve Champion (Lauren Knopp), 4th place (Katie Dagge), 7th place (Jessica Deimler) and 9th place (Ellen Wall). The Brentina riders received Reserve Champion (Alyssa Eidbo, from our own barn!), 3rd place (Kim Schisler), and 5th place (Devon Kane). We will know tomorrow how our Young Riders fare. McKenzie Jenkins, Mary Cameron Rollins and Caroline Roffman are amazing young women ready to be recognized for their abilities.
With the Festival of Champions nearly over, the girls are turning their sites on the NAJYRC titles in Lexington, Kentucky! We are so proud that Lauren, Katie, Jessica, and Ellen will represent the Juniors from Region 3! They are a group with deep connections and friendships: they were incredibly supportive of each other here in Gladstone and have already turned their excitement and attention to the new competition and challenges looming before them.
Meanwhile, we were organizing for the trip home. In the pouring rain, we packed the trailers, organized our soaked belongings into bags and staged the various items to be packed in the wee morning hours before dawn. My trailer was surrounded by a sea of mud and a wonderful man from the USET helped me to hitch and maneuver my trailer from the grass parking lot to the temporary tents. It made packing so much easier to have it at the edge of the stalls!
Jess and I plan to be on the road before 6 a.m. with a 14 hour drive ahead of us to Atlanta. My husband, Michael, will go with us to the barn and help us with the final loading before he heads back to the hotel to pick up Karen and go to the airport for their flight back to Atlanta. Jess and I already have our book on CD to listen to, but this time we will have to plan our stops to include gas AND food, since we won't have breakfast and lunch packed.
Being at Gladstone and the Collecting Gaits Festival of Champions has been a wonderful experience, again! How incredibly fortunate we are to have experienced this three times with our amazingly talented daughter, Jessica. We are so proud of her and all the young people who were here this week. We leave here tomorrow with heads held high.
And for Alyssa's dad:
A big "shout out" to the folks from Fox Glen! I'm thrilled to hear you have all been enjoying my blog from Gladstone!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Awards pix
Jess and KarenThe Region 3 Junior Riders!
Kati Dagge, Ellen Wall, Lauren Knopp and Jessica Deimler
Kati Dagge, Ellen Wall, Lauren Knopp and Jessica Deimler
Jess, Karen and Michael
Winners: Each and Every One
Game Day! The emotions take over on the first day of competition for the Junior Riders. The girls attend to their horses...grooming and bathing, running through their tests. They are friendly and talkative with each other, but a little more reserved than previous days. The clock ticks slowly by while they wait for their class to begin. It is almost painful because all the girls can do is wait.
Thankfully, the sun came out today and attempted to dry out the footing and the grounds. It partially succeeded. The USET headquarters is such a beautiful place...mud or no mud!
Part of the morning was spent watching the Young Riders. The rides were terrific to watch! I think I find the Junior and Young Riders to be especially inspirational, as they come to a Show of this magnitude with such pride and awe for where they are and for the opportunity to literally "rub shoulders" with the riders of the Grand Prix and I1. They are wide-eyed with hope and expectation...these young people are the future of the sport of dressage!
My rider, Jessica, had a terrific day placing 4th with a 64.7%. Of course, she wishes she hadn't made those little mistakes... and tomorrow she will work hard to make the corrections her trainer and the judges pointed out to her.
I know this for sure: I am so proud! My child and every one else's child today had strength of character, will power, determination, and hope. They got on their horses and rode into the ring with the hope that today would be "their" day. I think every rider here is a winner just because they are competing at the Collecting Gaits Festival of Champions!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
USET Headquarters...Drenched!
Pouring, unrelenting rain!Raindrops keep falling on my head...
Soggy, soggy, soggy! National Championships and pouring rain are not meant to go together! It has been pouring since early this morning...and everything is wet and muddy! The Brentina riders were incredible troopers and started their tests at 9 a.m. with our own, Alyssa Eidbo from Atlanta and Top Hat Dressage riding first. Alyssa had a clean test and scored a 64.974 which, after all the other riders rode, put her in 4th place. The top 4 riders are only separated by a point and a half, so anything is possible on Saturday, when the Brentina riders go again.
The rain is so hammering and the arena's footing so bad, that the officials cancelled the remaining competition for today. They will start an hour earlier tomorrow and the entire schedule has changed. Jess is now riding at 1:45 tomorrow...Game On!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
What a terrific day! Jess had an amazing ride this morning in a crazy busy arena. I don't know how they didn't all run into each other...busy, busy, busy! Coda seems really settled and confident. And so does Jess....
After lunch at a super diner in Chester, NJ we headed to Bevel Saddlery to pick up a few necessities. We got back to the barn and realized it was much later than we thought...2:30! The Jog was to begin at 4! Jess didn't have her jog outfit on, let alone with her! We HAD to go back to the hotel!
What a depressing trip back...we saw a "Bambi" deer on the side of the road...newly struck by a car. (Bambi = infant deer....) Then, when we pulled into the parking lot at the hotel we saw a beautiful Crow with something pinned. We thought it was eating trash....WRONG!!! Oh My God, it had attacked and had pinned a sweet little sparrow. Jess jumped out of the truck to try to save it...and just as she approached, the Crow took off with the Sparrow in it's beak. We were devastated!
We rushed up to our rooms and I frantically hemmed and ironed Jess's jog pants. She looked absolutely adorable. We flew out of the hotel and drove like mad to the barn only to realize they had extended the start time for the jog from 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Whew! We had a little more time than we realized! Jess braided Coda and then the Region 3 girls got a little crazy...some serious Bonding was to commence. (Check out the photos!) I gotta tell ya, that the Region 3 Girls ROCK! They are friends, supportive of each other, teammates, crazy fun, full of life, and amazingly talented young women. I am in awe of them all!
The jog was the most frightening I've even attended. There was serious testosterone surging and some very scary Stallion moments! It is wonderful that no one and no horse was injured today during the jog!
The crazy day ended with a terrific dinner at the Gladstone Tavern with Annaliese Vogt-Harber, Ellen Wall and her mom, Emily, Kati and Birgitt Dagge, Karen Lipp, and our family (myself, Mike and Jessie). We had a blast!
Tomorrow, our own, Alyssa Eidbo, starts the entire competition off with her ride at 9 a.m. in the Brentina Cup Championship! Wish them lots of luck!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
More photos from Gladstone
Devon Kane
Jess riding Coda! Check out that mane!
Debbie McDonald
Stacy and Jimmy Jenkins (McKenzie's parents)
Karen Lipp and Michelle Gibson
Michelle (tired of me taking pictures...)
The trailers came marching one by one...
The wind shifted today and everything started to change. It wasn't so quiet and peaceful anymore. It didn't feel like we were on a camping trip...Trailers arrived all day long, unloading horses and riders. Folks set up their horse's stalls and their tack stalls. Riders tacked up their horses and got them accustomed to their new surroundings. Everyone rode up in the Show arena. There was lots and lots of activity!
Kristina Wang, a young rider this year, and her mom, Tracy came over to say "hi". We met them in Gladstone for the 2007 Festival of Champions. It was great to see them back with Kristina's beautiful mare, Belladiva. Kristina has been working with the Barteau's in Illinois while taking a year off from college.
Jess rode up in the Show arena at 10 am. It is about a 10 minute walk from the tent stalls to the Show arena. A beautiful walk through an amazingly lush and green meadow. There are bleachers surrounding the arena and the usual judges huts. There are plants and flowers and banners. It is a lot for a horse to take in and not be freaked out by! Jess entered the arena and because we have been here since Saturday night, Coda has been in that arena 2-3 times a day walking around and exploring all the stimuli. He was terrific today! Karen schooled Jess surrounded by the likes of Debbie McDonald, Adrienne Lyle, and other riders and trainers from Juniors to Grand Prix riders. It was fun and interesting and humbling. Karen, Jess and I were reminded of how incredibly fortunate Jessie is to be here for the third year in a row.
Alyssa's lesson was after Jess, so we headed back to the tent stalls to give Coda a bath. We iced him and hung out and talked. Melody decided she had to find one of my amazingly versatile portable electric generators. So, after feeding Coda lunch, we headed for the nearest Home Depot to get one for Melody and one for Karen. We all enjoyed a fun lunch together and then Karen announced it was time for us to "entertain her". We went shopping at the mall! It was actually lots of fun and Jess found an adorable dress and really cute shoes for the Competitor's Party tomorrow night.
After having about a half an hour at the hotel, we headed back to the barn to feed and do our chores. Fellow Junior rider, Ellen Wall and her mom, Emily and trainer, Annaliese Vogt-Harber had arrived, so we greeted them and heard about their trip from Atlanta to New Jersey. We had dinner reservations at the Gladstone Tavern, so we rounded up Melody and Alyssa and made our way to the main barn to check in and get out registration materials before we went to dinner. We had such a fun time at dinner! We laughed, told goofy stories and enjoyed delicious food.
Night check was quick! We picked the stall, gave Coda a few flakes of hay, put on his blanket (it is still only in the mid 50's at night...brrrrrr!), and filled his water buckets. Then we headed back to the hotel for alone time.
Tomorrow is the Jog and Competitor's Party! A Huge Day!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Trainer "High"
I slept like a rock last night! Nothing like lots of fresh air and hard physical work to help you sleep!
Jess and I made a Starbuck's run (thank God it is across the street from the hotel) before we headed to the barn to feed, walk and graze Coda. He had a super night...ate all his hay, drank another bucket and a half of his water, played with his lickit, and laid down again (we could tell because of all the shavings attached to his blanket-it got cold last night!). Jess walked Coda with our friend and fellow Atlanta barn mate, Alyssa Eidbo and her horse, Johnny Cash. Afterwards, Jess and McKenzie Jenkins piled in my car and Alyssa and her mom, Melody Moore-Jackson, followed us to Bevel Saddlery. What a super tack store! We had fun browsing and buying...but not too much! Then, Jess, McKenzie and I headed to the grocery store to stock up on apples, carrots and bananas, Coda's new favorite fruit!
We headed back to the barn to unload and meet up with McKenzie's parents, Stacey and Jimmy. We toured the main barn with the Jenkin's family...took photos with the Show Secretary, Patsy Albers, and then headed to lunch at the Gladstone Tavern. YUM! This was our favorite restaurant when Jess and Sion's Shadow competed here in 2007. It didn't let us down!
When we got back to the barn, we hung out chatting with fellow riders and their moms until Karen arrived. (Karen Lipp is Jessie's trainer.) About 2:00 Michelle Gibson pulled in followed closely by Karen! Jess had Coda in the cross ties tacked up and ready to ride, but we weren't sure if she was going to have to lunge him first. Often at Shows, Coda gets pretty wild and crazy. If he is "hot", we need to find him an outlet for some of that energy. It is like having a three year old child that needs to go the park, or swim, or do something physical so he or she can be in control again. But, Coda was terrific and Jessie had a super ride and a great lesson. I think Coda feels comfortable and doesn't have a lot of pent up energy and anxiety because Jess has been hand walking him three times a day, all around the grounds.
Karen, Michelle, Devon Kane and I hung out talking while Coda was being iced. Jess caught up with her "people". This is what I love about Shows...you get to connect with people. No one is in a hurry, running to a meeting, needing to do this, that or the other thing. Folks are on "barn time" and happy to sit and chat.
At 5 we departed for the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. It was just Karen, Jessie and I, but we had a great time and had a delicious dinner at the hotel restaurant, T Bones. Afterwards, Jess and I did night check for Coda and Johnny Cash. We filled their water buckets, gave them hay, put on their blankets (it is only going to be in the mid 50's tonight!) and gave them a treat. Sleep tight, boys!
Tomorrow we get to sleep a little later because Alyssa and Melody are doing breakfast!
more photos
Alyssa Eidbo (Brentina Cup rider from our barn in Atlanta) and Jessie coming out of the Show Arena.Jessie and McKenzie Jenkins just outside the Show Arena.
Alyssa stringing a power cord to have electricity for Johnny's fan!
Photos!
Jess in front of the United States Equestrian Team's sign at the Entrance.
Karen Lipp and Michelle Gibson (Trainers Extraordinaire!!!)Sunday, June 14, 2009
Sunday...not exactly a walk in the park!
Jess and I rewarded ourselves a little and slept until 7:30 this morning. We also got room service for breakfast...which ended up being a mistake. Oh well!
We drove the brief 15 minutes to the USET headquarters and found Coda covered in shavings, a sure sign he was down during the night. A great thing! Lying down to sleep means a horse feels comfortable and safe. He had consumed much of one water bucket and 1/2 of the other one! Also a great sign! There were lots of "buried treasures" to discover, too! (Coda has a lovely habit of burying his potty in the shavings...Jess and I like to joke that they are "buried treasure", as we have to hunt for them.)
Following breakfast, Jess took Coda on his first walk of the USET warm up arenas, grounds, and main Show arena. He was full of energy and whinnied in search of other horses during the entire walk. He actually got lucky and got a few return whinnies! The grounds are absolutely beautiful...lush and green. Coda also greatly enjoyed munching on the grass and clover. And the walk through the grounds is quite a workout for the horse and the person doing the hand walking!
Jess came across Adrienne Lyle in the warm up barn. We met Adrienne at the Festival of Champions in San Juan Capistrano, CA last year. Adrienne has trained with and been the assistant to Debbie McDonald, who retired from competition earlier this year. Adrienne won the Brentina cup (named for Debbie's famous mare, Brentina) at last year's championships and this year is competing as a professional. She is a terrific rider and a really sweet young woman.
Coda is housed in temporary tent stalls. Nothing fancy, but they work! The bad part about them is that we aren't near any electrical source, so plugging anything in isn't possible. There are lights strung through the tent that are run off a generator, but the generator can't really support much else. So, we went in search of a portable generator. God, I love Home Depot! You can always find one and the people are so incredibly helpful! We had this wonderful woman helping us figure out which size we needed and settled on a very basic model that was rechargeable and I could plug our Game Ready icing machine into it directly. It didn't break the bank, either. (I only spent $100, Michael!)
We headed back to the USET to ice Coda's legs. This is a ritual we do after every ride. Coda has "wind puffs" and the icing is really helpful in reducing the swelling he experiences in his legs. (I have no idea what "wind puffs" are other than that they are little pockets of fluid in his legs that feel squishy. I do know they don't hurt him or cause him any difficultly...probably because we take such good care of him by wrapping his legs at night and icing him after work.) Coda LOVES being iced. He gets lots of attention because we hang out with him! And, today, we actually were IN his stall with him cleaning the inside of the tent walls. He was so happy to have the company!
I think the long trip got the best of us this afternoon. We came back to the hotel to take a break and I fell asleep for about an hour. Jess texted me at 5 to see if I was ready to go back and feed Coda dinner. While we were doing our evening routine, our friends, Jimmy, Stacey and McKenzie Jenkins arrived from Tennessee. I helped them get their stall set up, while McKenzie walked Tsarina around the "barn". McKenzie is competing as a Young Rider this year.
After we fed Coda, we headed straight to dinner at Maggiano's, across the street from our hotel. Who knew there'd be a wait at 6:45 on a Sunday evening? Luckily, Mary Cameron Rollins and her mom, Jo, Molly (M.C.'s trainer), and Caroline Roffman were there and had been waiting for a table. They invited us to join them! We had so much fun! We talked, shared pictures of our dogs (of course!!!), laughed, told stories and enjoyed a yummy dinner. Then, we all headed back to the barn for night check. It is supposed to be in the 50's tonight so we decided to put a cooler on Coda. We didn't bring a proper sheet (who would have thought it would be so cool...), so we used the cooler because it has a belly strap. We did our chores, gave Coda a few treats and headed back to the hotel for a shower and good night sleep!
Karen arrives tomorrow after lunch!
A long day...
The alarm sounded and it felt like I had just closed my eyes...but, there it was beeping, and when I looked at the time, it was 4 a.m. Time to get up! I rolled out of bed, brushed my teeth, got dressed and grabbed my toiletry bags. (Yes, bags! After 40 it takes two to carry all the things I need to save my skin and make myself look presentable! Haha)
Jess and I were in the SUV for the 45 minute drive to Top Hat Dressage. We were MACHINES! We loaded the hay we soaked overnight to help Coda stay hydrated, transfered our stuff from the SUV and loaded Coda. We were on our way in 30 minutes! Now that's teamwork!!!
We decided to bring along Jessie's summer reading books from Woodward, although we got the on CD to listen to in the car. What a great idea! We listened to the first book the entire way and really enjoyed it. Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle, is the book. It is a terrific exploration of illegal and non illegal immigrants (mostly Mexican and other Central and South American folks) and their efforts at survival in Southern California. The book is a fictionalized story of several American's and their encounters with these folks. I will tell you this, it really opened my eyes to the struggle these people go through when they choose to come illegally into our country. It is heartbreaking and heartwarming!
Jess and I drove straight through with only stops for gas/potty breaks and to adjust Coda's hay. We made it in 14 hours and arrived at the USET headquarters before dark. That was our goal! Karen will be proud of me, because I FINALLY used those 60 plus pounds of rubber mats in Coda's stall! I'm glad I brought them, because the ground is all crush and run and gravel and Coda is a digger! As soon as we got him in his new stall he began pawing the ground to see what kind of a mess he could make...HA! Fooled him! He gave up and played with his lickit(hanging horse treat), instead! We were relieved that after that many hours in the trailer, Coda drank, pooped, pee-ed and ate his hay and grain like it was just another day at home! What a good traveler!
We worked till after dark unloading and setting up the tack stall and then I parked and unhitched the trailer in the dark. It was 9:30 when we finally left to go check in a the hotel. Thankfully, the hotel was only a 15 minute drive away! What a day!
Friday, June 12, 2009
The night before departure
The truck and trailer are loaded and hitched and we are ready to go! Tomorrow morning we depart for Gladstone, New Jersey and the Collecting Gaits Festival of Champions. Jess will be competing against 11 other girls in the Junior division on Saturday, June 20th and Sunday, June 21st. This will be my first foray into the world of blogging...my high tech attempt to let you all know what we are up to, what a show of this magnitude is like and how Jess and Coda do in their quest.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
