Summer Update

The summer has been great since we came back up from Florida,  Ms Mars young horses have been racking up the ribbons, most especially Landmark's Legendary Romance, winning her last three outings, Meadowbrook's Scarlett continues her training level domination, currently leading points in the nation, Czechmate had a dominating win in the preliminary at Seneca, Lucky Devil and Ron Reagan had their first run at Maryland HT since the CCI*, finishing 1st and 2nd respectively, and Vermiculus and Morton made the move to training level, also finishing 1st and 2nd.   I am hungry to be back at the upper levels but I am beyond excited about the talent I have in my barn right now.

We couldn't find pen and paper, so we got inventive....

At the farm we are all so excited for Karen and Mr. Medicott and really rooting for the team.  I'm sad for those that didn't make it, but what a great problem for the US to have, too many talented horses and riders to choose from.  As an eventing community let's make sure the rider's that did make it know how much we are rooting for them, the hard part about this sport is we have to rely on our small community for support because a good chunk of our nation doesn't even know our sport exists, so let's make sure we all cheer loud enough for everyone!  I think this country is well on it's way to becoming a dominating force again.

I will be off to Millbrook next with a big group and a couple will be stepping up a level which is always exciting.  Let's hope these regular rain storms continue and keep the footing good, we have certainly been blessed this summer, I have never known the footing in Virginia to be this good this time of the summer, fingers crossed!



I realize this is far overdue, but if any of you are regular eventer blog readers you already know the excuses so I won't bother.
It's been a very good month and I'll just stick to the highlights.  We'll start back at Poplar where Landmark's Monte Carlo won the novice, The Ramsay's Czechmate was 4th in the Preliminary (my fault I had time faults), and Shannon O'Roark's Lucky Devil was 2nd in the CIC*.  From there we were off to Rocking Horse where Meadowbrook's Scarlett, Carlingford's Bouncer, and Secrets of my Success all won their divisions.  Then we were back on the road to The Fork where Landmark's Legendary Romance won the Training B and Czechmate won Preliminary A.  And THEN off to Ocala Horse Properties International, Meadowbrook's Scarlett won the YEH-5 yr old with an 85%, Secrets of my Success and Landmark's Monte Carlo came 1st and 2nd in the Training Horse, and Ron Reagan and Lucky Devil finished 3rd and 10th in their first CCI*.

                                                              Look for Ron at 0:54

To say the least it has been a busy month but now we get a nice break, kinda.  We will spend all this week packing up and getting ready to make the great migration north.  Everyone always asks "which do you like more?  Florida or Virginia?"  I love both and am always excited to head to each every 6 months, but also ready to leave.  Clearly I am a gypsy at heart so good thing I chose this lifestyle.
On a sadder note, the entire eventing community was shaken by the news of Amy Tryon's passing this past weekend.  I had the opportunity to ride with Amy during the Developing Rider training sessions and several times while she had her horses based at Karen and David's a few years ago.  Amy was an incredible horsewoman and could truly bring out the best in every horse.  Her accomplishments were lengthy but I learned and respected her most from the months I watched her working with her horses on a daily basis.  She will be deeply missed and my thoughts and prayers are with those she left behind.
Rolex is coming up quick and I wish everyone the best of luck.  Keep checking in on Facebook for updates!

Privilege

While perusing Facebook the other day I came across an interesting article/blog that was shared by a friend.  (Yes, if you sift through all the hourly mood updates and Farmville requests there occasionally are legitimate things to read on Facebook).  It is a professor's thoughts on privilege and the guilt, consequences, and responsibility that come with it.  It really struck home for me and really should for anyone that even has the ability to read it because that means you are even in the smallest way privileged. 
Yes, we all know that someone has it worse off than us no matter how bad a day we have, and he does touch on the normal ideas of privilege like wealth and health but also the privilege of talent.  That the worse thing you can do with your privilege is waste it or be ashamed/ guilty of it, you were given that talent so make use of it. 
We as eventers are part of an elitist sport, (yes I know we are trying to change that image but we wear a top hat so we don't have much of a leg to stand on in that argument), so we are privileged in every definition of the word. 
Wealth- sure most of us are "poor" but only because we buy a horse and all the things that go along with it.
Health- this is a "chicken or the egg" kind of situation but we are healthy if we have the ability to go outside and ride our horses everyday
Happiness- we wake up every morning wanting to go to work, except when it's raining, then I envy the office job, but not for long
Talent- we all have it, but how we use it is what matters
I strongly recommend giving it a quick read, Professor Petriglieri explains it much better than me.  http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2012/01/privilege-a-users-guide.html

On to the horses!  2012 has started off great and the horses are better than ever.  I made a really big effort to give all of the horses at LEAST a month off this winter, most more than that, and it really made a difference in them mentally and physically.  It's tough, especially with the young ones that don't do a three day at the end of the year to give them that time off.  When you head south for the winter the weather is so beautiful that you feel guilty not riding them and like you are going to be behind the game, but I think at the end of the day it is more than worth it. 
Check in to Facebook and Twitter for competition updates and until next time embrace your privilege and enjoy it.