The Need For Speed

by c.j. bahr

Robert Kellerhouse & Ian Stark

January marks the annual fundraiser for Galway Downs, located in Temecula, California.  Galway is the site of four recognized horse trials, two International events, and the only Southern California location to host a CCI3 event, drawing riders from all over North America.

Conceived and organized by Robert Kellerhouse, this weekend clinic consists of two days of cross country schooling, stabling and a Saturday night dinner.  All clinicians donate their services and all proceeds go to the maintenance and running of Galway Downs.  Clinicians consist of West Coast Trainers and usually a "headliner" such as Scottish Olympian, Ian Stark (also course designer for Galway).

2013 marked the 15th annual running of the fundraiser and also a new headliner - British Olympian and Rolex Grand Slam winner, Pippa Funnell.

Pippa Funnell

Pippa was scheduled for five groups ranging from Training Level to Advance, and had professionals such as:  Pam Fisher, Barb Crabo, Hawley Bennett as well as amateurs riding.  Saturday started with stadium jumping and concluded on Sunday with cross country.

If there was one theme to pull away from from this information over-loaded weekend, it was:

Speed is NEVER the answer.

The stadium exercises set the tone of the weekend.  Pippa had the riders working on straightness, balance, and responsiveness to aids.  First up was the "puzzle" poles, which consisted of ground poles scattered and set at different and non-related distances.  The riders first walked then trotted their mounts over the poles, using only their upper body and legs, never the reins (yet keeping contact, but not steering by them).  The goal was for the horses to figure out their own footwork.  It was eye opening to see how many horses, even Advanced Level ones, just wanted to run through the exercise.

The exercise increased in complexity with offset, unrelated distance "brick" boxes (about one foot high), set in a line that the horses and riders had to jump over in trot.  Many horses had trouble being rated back to trot between the boxes.

Susan Friend & Cali jumping "over" the oxer they had trotted "thru"

Perhaps my favorite exercise for the day which worked on straightness were three horse width oxers that the rider negotiated.  They passed between the length of the oxers between the standards at first, but then Pippa added boxes (about 2.6 high), between the "outgoing" standards to be jumped at trot.  Again, speed wasn't allowed, and after each jump, the horses were asked to return to trot.

By the end of the day, all riders had their horses straight, obedient and willing as they negotiated a serpentine course that consisted of the offset brick boxes, figure "S" over the oxers, then "thru" the oxers, or "parallels" as Pippa would say.

Hawley Bennett and Gin & Juice

Sunday brought beautiful weather and cross country day.  Again, the day was about the horse and rider learning that speed was never the solution.  It was about keeping impulsion by "adding leg, but not length of stride", and responsiveness.

Sandra Donnelly & Belshaggar
with "allowing" hands as Pippa watches

With the added pace of cross country, new problems were discovered, particularly on the enthusiastic horses.  Many riders, while trying to "contain" their horses, were locking in their contact.  

Pippa was all about the "allowing" hand, which retained rein contact, but didn't throw them away.  It was amazing when riders started to allow instead of hold, letting their horses use their heads and necks, to watch the trust and partnership develop.  By the end of the day, each group of riders and horses saw great improvement.

Myself giving a "lift" to Pippa across the pond

Pippa joked on the way back to the barn that next year, "I'll find all the riders with massive time faults."  We laughed along, but knew the truth, the riders all learned important lessons that will carry them successfully to their competitions.

Here's to Pippa's return next year!

Area VI Adult Camp - So Cal Style

You remember how fun summer camp used to be?  Hanging out with old friends, making new ones and in general just having a blast?  Back in the beginning of August I got the chance to reclaim that simple joy at the Area VI Adult Riders Camp and I have to say that camp is even better in the grown up version. 

Though they’ve had them before in northern California, this was the first year for southern Californians to enjoy this educational and social experience close to home.  Held at beautiful Shepherd Ranch, we were given the option of either roughing it by camping on the property or staying at one of the local hotels.  Since I’m trying to squeeze as much out of my horse money as possible, Carolyn Bahr and I opted to camp out.  Surprisingly, even thought Shepherd doesn’t have the luxury of showers, we weren’t alone.  Of course, our little pup tent hardly compared to the “Teton Suite” next to us – a ginormous three room tent with pink shag carpet and blow up hot pink chairs on the screened in “veranda” – but it was (almost) enough to keep out the unexpected rain shower we got on Friday night. 

Wheee! Me & Reese. 

Considering this month’s heat wave, the weather was amazing for all three days of riding.  Each rider got the chance to work with both Bunny Sexton and Val Owen throughout the weekend, depending on the schedule.  (Click here to find out more about these wonderful riders/teachers.)  Friday was dressage day, Saturday was stadium-jumping day and Sunday we all hit the cross-country field.  Personally, the biggest lesson I learned was that both Reese and I need to up our games, pushing ourselves harder to be the best we can.  (Ironically, I’m going through some of those same issues in my non-horse life so it was inspiring to see how upping your game can pay off, at least on horseback.)  It was amazing to feel and see the difference in both horse and rider when you’re challenged in such a supportive environment. 

Of course, it wasn’t all just about being a serious student.  We had a lot of fun playing silly games on Friday night and were treated to an entertaining and yet useful talk on Saturday by a sports psychologist.  The food all weekend was simply amazing, and it was great sharing a few adult beverages with your fellow riders at the end of the day, exchanging tips, advice, and a few entertaining stories.  There was even swimming with your horse in the lake because, as our friend Darla Opava said, what’s camp without going swimming? 

It was my first foray into the Adult Rider program and I’d encourage everyone, no matter what Area you’re in, to check it out.  The driving idea behind the program is to encourage adult amateurs at all levels of riding to come out and have fun.  They also have fundraisers and encourage more adult team competition and lots of great educational opportunities for adult riders like clinics and the upcoming Worth The Trust Educational Scholarship.  Considering the discounts you get for Adult Rider activities, the $25 membership dues seems a steal at twice the price.  You can also find them on Facebook!

 

Big, huge thanks to Dawn Robbins, the Area VI Adult Rider coordinator, for organizing this great weekend and Suz Roehl for her role in arranging camp and taking amazing pictures from the weekend. And of course Bunny Sexton, for hosting the weekend at Shepherd Ranch.   Oh, and an extra huge thanks to our trainer, Susan Friend, who chauffeured us back and forth while the BWT is on the mend!

Day 3 XC Day

by Nahmi Jones

Master Instruction

Cross country is dressage at a high rate of speed.

Rushing to get ready to ride is a recurrent anxiety dream for me. I do my best to give myself plenty of time to get ready for important events, so I can tack up and warm up methodically and calmly. But the early morning beat the heat schedule on cross country morning, maximum green spot abatement and fussing with Susan's borrowed air vest for the first time and oh no!! suddenly we were late for the fun of cross country day at the Wofford clinic!! Rushing through my warm up was no way to lull the fire breathing dragon into submission.

Jimmy pointed out that my strategy of throwing my shoulders back, standing in the stirrups and hauling on the bit was probably not the most efficient way for me to put on the brakes in the inviting open spaces of Eventful Acres. He had me practice instead holding 2 point position while asking for downward transitions to the halt and all the way through the reinback, just as he describes in the current issue of Practical Horseman.

He suggested a single bridge as my fire breathing dragon is rather strong. That way Simon pulled against himself and not me. He reminded us that just like in dressage, we need to be quick to reward and release the pressure on the reins once the horse softens, even at speed.

When I stabilized my shoulder position and found better body balance, Simon was happy to oblige with more sensitive brakes and we both got a little softer between the fences. Fire breathing dragon placated for the moment.

Simon was brave and bold and definitely up for the challenge of Rod's Intro to Prelim course. The gentle progression in degree of difficulty at the bank, ditch and skinny combinations gave me confidence when we moved up to the prelim sized questions. By the time we got to the water complex we were ready to tackle the whole exercise without any rehearsal. Jimmy's comment? See how much fun Prelim can be on this horse?

I finished the weekend confident and satisfied and clear on what areas I need to improve on at home. It is rumored that Jimmy might have mentioned Simon and Kilkenney's names in the same sentence. Whoa boy, I'm really going to have to get my homework done and raise my game. The fire breathing dragon's going to extra cocky if he gets wind of that kind of nod from the master.

When we were finished, after Simon was hosed off and iced, we snuck into the perfectly manicured Stadium arena for a post XC roll. Up drove Rod in his gator. Uh oh Simon, we're busted for screwing up the footing! But no, Rod just chuckled, "Spoiling your Ferrari? Good, he deserves it!"

Thanks Rod. Good job pony. I hope we can do it again next year!

First Outing of the Year!

Congrats to all the Twisted Eventers who met up at Meadows of Moorpark Equestrian Center on Sunday for a great day of schooling.  Though a little chilly (perhaps I should ask East Coasters if that's true?  :0) the footing was perfect for a fun and - best of all - safe day of cross country.  Kudos to Randee, Tammy and their crew for grooming their new and improved footing to near perfection.  Considering all the rains we've had lately, it was amazing.

Getting there?  Well, that was a whole new adventure but let's just say it only cements the idea that if you aren't sure where you're going, DON'T ASK ME.  I get lost getting out of the back of the trailer, for Pete's sake!  All was well eventually and we even managed to find our way home without (much) incident.

Sadly, my still camera ran out of battery power almost as soon as the horse & rider combos took to the course.  Even worse, I missed the shot of Boy sleeping in the most awkward position in the truck on the way home, but without the sound affect of his snoring it probably isn't the same anyway.

Schooling Day at Shepherd Ranch

All the cool kids from Sapphire Eventing went up to Shepherd Ranch yesterday to school the cross country fences as a prep for the upcoming show.  It took 3 trailers (and a little bit of persuasion to get Junior into one) but the group got there in time for what felt like the highest temps of the hottest day of the year.  Still, everyone had loads of fun.  Sherry, LOVE the Aloha pad - I'm voting that as the official barn show pad!

A big "thank you" to Dusti for catering the schooling and taking one for the team when someone left the door open and killed her SUV battery.  Sherry came to the rescue by being one who actually KNEW how to use jumper cables.

Important to note: Barkley cannot be trusted loose on his own.  His spirit of adventure caused him to go missing twice.  At least he didn't eat a tent...

In the first group, Gordo and Michelle E. look good and on their way to a great partnership. Tina & Destino are getting more and more professional - like, been there, done that.  Chris and Prince had some tough rides, but both preserved (my money is always on Chris).  Our adopted German exchange-working student Isa had perhaps the most interesting ride on Vinnie, who returned to his racehorse roots after having not one, but two pasture horses gallop at/past him.  Fortunately she met the challenge with a smile and laugh!

While waiting for their turn, Junior and Poppy amused themselves by taking turns splashing in the water bucket, forcing Sherry to refill it at least four times before it was their turn at cross-country. 

(Is anyone else seeing a pattern here?  Seems like Sherry was doing all the work!  ha ha)

In the second group, Michelle E. was up again, this time on Junior who was a super star!  The new place, the loose horses and of course, being well-hydrated brought him out a little wound up, but from the very first log he jumped you'd have thought he'd done this a hundred times before.  His mummy was very proud!  Michelle C & Jack put on their big girl pants and showed their stuff by going over some Novice jumps with ease.  Each time Sherry & Poppy go out, they just keep getting better and better - it's so exciting to see the baby of the group grow up!  (and Poppy too - ha ha).  Have to say that with Isa giving Louie just a brief warm-up, Madison and Louie were just adorable.  They are turning out to be quite the young event team!

(Evidence that Marla was not there -- no G&T, all business that day!)

click here for more pics

Jimmy Wofford at Eventful Acres: Sunday

Jimmy Wofford Clinic:  Day Three by Dr. Nahmi Jones

Last day of the clinic. Cross country! The fun stuff!! Time to play on the Hisken's beautiful property and sample Rod's creativity in fence building.

My videographer and now professional dog wrangler Carolyn was still hanging in there. Invaluable as a groom, networker and drinking buddy also, I shall forever be in her debt for allowing me to drag her along on my little summer vacation.

Of course since things had been going far too smoothly so far, I had to find a way to complicate things. I spent most of the morning worrying about my double reins...keep the snaffle rein? yes or no? Brian Sabo had suggested them the weekend before. They seemed to be working well and the emphasis so far had been on a softer feel with my hands so far but Jimmy was working on a hand slap technique for shortening reins after a drop. Geez, that was going to be complicated with four reins....

In the end I decided not to change anything but still had the choice on my mind. Several times I thought of asking Carolyn to remove my snaffle reins since Simon was more than high on Canadian goose impulsion. You know that kind of impulsion? The kind where you don't know which direction you're going to go next? Jimmy's generous description of our warm up? "Like a hog on ice".

What happened to my co-operative pony of the past two days? The professor had gotten the memo that it was cross country day...no doubt. Perhaps after 18 months off from cross country jumping, the four XC fences we did last weekend with Brian may not have been enough to knock the rust off.  Perhaps I was just overthinking everything as usual.

Jimmy's sage advice had nothing to do with riding position today. " Are you riding this horse?"
"Yes" I answered meekly, unsure of where he was going with this line of questioning.
"If you're riding  this horse then you're going to be ok"

Clearly Simon, now nicknamed the professor, had earned Jimmy's approval, although I'm pretty sure my abilities were still suspect.

"It's ok to be nervous, after all you do need to feel  something while riding cross country. But try to organize your butterflies so they fly in formation"

After a few bad jokes and a couple of deep breaths, I was able to coax my butterflies all to fly in the same general direction and the rest of the day went pretty smoothly.

Most of what Jimmy was trying to teach on XC day will have to wait until I can practice at home: quiet galloping position without posting the canter, the transition from 2 point to light 3 point in front of fences, slipping and gathering the reins efficiently, proper position on up and down banks.

But perhaps learning to being still in my mind was the most important lesson. After all, as Jimmy pointed out, my horse knows me better than I know myself. Maybe I can control the agitated energy that gets in the way of finding my version of Nirvana, jumping out of stride at 520 mpm now that I've had a glimpse of how being an intelligent passenger leads to a happy horse.

Thank you Jimmy Wofford for your patience and generosity with this duffer. I was amazed by the individual attention I received at your clinic. Your attention to detail and useful insights are very much appreciated.

And a huge shout out to Rod and Karen Hisken for hosting this clinic at their beautiful facility. 

Cross-Country Schooling at Twin Rivers Ranch

Thank God the Starbucks in Moorpark opens at 5am so we could get caffeinated up to get our horses ready in the pitch black for a 6am departure. Still, there isn’t enough Toffee Nut Latte in the world to make the frigid temperatures pleasant (and for future reference, Nahmi doesn’t get any latte at all – don’t ask). Thanks to everyone’s efforts, we got the ponies loaded up and only left twenty minutes late for the four and a half hour drive up to Twin Rivers in Paso Robles.

The drive up went smoothly (except for Nahmi’s issues with coffee – ha ha) but we were stunned when we pulled into Twin Rivers – there were so many trailers it looked like there was a show going on! It’s a tribute to how well Connie Baxter and her daughter, three-star eventer Andrea, run the place that the big crowd was no problem for them. It also shows how popular the events up at Twin Rivers are since it seemed like every eventing barn in So Cal was trying to squeeze in a schooling before they shut the course down for the show at the end of February.

The excitement level was running pretty high as we unloaded the horses and settled them in. The only veterans of the group were Nahmi on Simon, who used to live at Twin Rivers, and Nick on Buck. Midnight, Vinnie and Reese were all newbies, facing cross-country for the first time. Oddly, it was Simon who bellowed his head off the entire afternoon as everyone else settle in just fine.

It goes without saying that Buck was his usually show-stopping, spectacular self (ok, Nick was pretty good too) and the Nahmi/Simon combo offered a few hair-raising moments but other than that were stellar. But how did the “virgins” do? Here’s the shakedown:

• Reese -- SUPERSTAR! Ok, maybe being the mummy I tend to exaggerate but I couldn’t be happier. He even took me over a couple of fences on the second day and seemed much more in tune with the job now that he’s getting a handle on it.

• Vinnie – All things considered Vinnie held it together extremely well. His leap into the water is something that only Michelle, his mummy, could ride but other than that he seemed to learn quite a lot from his field trip as well.

• Midnight – John and Cathy have had this mare for a long time but have never asked her to do cross-country before. She seemed to take to her new job really well and quickly learned that jumping natural objects was a lot of fun.

• John – That’s right, John bravely went out on Angelino, his 20 plus Grand Prix dressage schoolmaster who’s been there, done that on elementary level cross-country jumps. On day two, John even abandoned his western saddle and tried out Cathy’s Antares. Hate to say it, but I think he’s hooked.

At the end of day one, we were all relaxing with gin & tonics and various snacks when there was a call for help. One of the horses who live on the property got cast but in a most unusual way; basically, the horse’s rump was sitting up on the top of the fence that divides the two stalls. John gave a mighty heave, with the rest of us basically serving as back up, and freed the stuck horse without any further ado.

Day Two was noticeably lower key. Maybe it was the early mornings catching up, adrenaline burn-out, or the disappointment of knowing that we’d be packing it up at the end of the day and returning to “real life” but even the other groups seemed quieter. Everything went really well and other than a couple of tough moments trying to get the horses loading back up (either Reese didn’t want to leave or he REALLY didn’t think he’d fit his bulky mass in the last stall of the trailer) the day couldn’t have been better. In fact, the whole weekend was about as perfect as it could possibly be. Thanks to one and all who made it such a memorable weekend.

Pictures and video montage to follow!