One Hell of a Weekend (no pun intended)

The Virginia Horse Trials went about as well as a horse show could. I'll just go one by one.
Chuck Akre's Take Two won her preliminary division from start to finish which has been a long time coming for this mare and Mr. Akre. She has always been one of my favorites and Mr Akre was my first owner and a huge supporter. 
I rode Annie Yeager's Quick Proposal in the preliminary while she was busy graduating. He is a steady Irish type and improved throughout the weekend finishing 2nd behind Lillian Heards lovely mare. 
Courtney and Kylie Ramsays Czechmate won his training division by a whopping 9.9 points.
Ron Reagan led his Novice division from start to finish at our first event together and Jacqueline Mars Landmark's Monte Carlo, Landmark's Ginger Rogers, and Landmark's Legendary Romance were first, first, and third in their divisions.
I don't think I have ever had this much talent to sit on and it's hugely exciting. These horses are young but each one of them has more natural ability then any other horse I've competed (sorry Maggot ;)) and now its my job to nurture that talent and the hardest part will be to not let my ambition push them too quickly, but in the long run it will pay off.  
One thing that everyone should sit up and take notice of is the talent that is coming out of Ms Mars breeding program, it is only going to get bigger and better and it's an honor to be involved in that program. 
I can't thank Jax, Shannon, Max, and Barry enough for their help this weekend, they kept everything running like clockwork in the barns and Karen and David showing up for my rides even though Karen had her own horses to compete and David keeping up with his course designing responsibilities. And of course Mama and Papa Kieffs for keeping us fed and truck tires inflated!

Northern Migration and Difficult Run

The Great Migration North has finally concluded with the first load coming up on Monday and the last arriving last night. I absolutely love the farm up here and my wonderful house on top of the mountain. All the horses settled in great and are mowing down the thick grass.
I had 4 horses at Difficult Run this weekend, Take Two in the preliminary, Czechmate in the training, and Landmark's Legendary Romance and Landmark's Ginger Rogers in the beginner novice for their very first event. I was very disappointed with the footing on the preliminary and training courses so I just ended up doing the combined test with Take Two and Czechmate. They both did good dressage tests and were third and first in their divisions and left all the rails up. There was an incident with screaming children at the end of the ring during Czechy's round, and although he has the same instinct as me at the sight of small children (turn and run) I made him deal with it and circle by them during our round.
Roma and Ginger were exceptional for their first event and finished 3rd and 4th with very brave clean rounds.
I have to give a shout out for OCETs great showing at Rolex with Hannah and Olivias fantastic cross country rounds and Karens great weekend on one of my favorite horses, Quintus 54.
I am competing Rocket in a dressage show this weekend and then Jax and I are off to Virginia Horse Trials with a bunch the next week. I hope everyone had a great Mothers Day weekend and check back in soon!