Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas!

Team Riley is on Christmas Break and can't wait for Santa to come! Riley's list is longer that ever, he wants soooo many treats, carrots and peppermints. Cole just wants furry wolf boots that fit.

And here is the latest holiday edition of Horsin' 'Round



And here is the first ever Team Riley Christmas Card!



Team Riley wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving from Team Riley!

First off, all of us here at Team Riley want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving! Since giving thanks on Thanksgiving is the cool thing to do, I thought I'd share what I'm thankful for today.


What I'm Thankful For:

Of course I'm thankful for the basics- I'm so lucky that I was born where and when I was, to the family I was born to. I have a roof over my head, central heating in the winter, central air in the summer, plenty of food, plenty of clothes, and a good education. Not everyone is so lucky and it's easy to forget just how lucky I am.

Next, and quite obviously, I'm thankful for my horses.

I'm thankful that Riley is currently healthy and sound. He's had a rough year with a suspensory injury and EPM, but he seems to refuse to give up. Not only am I thankful for his health, but I'm so thankful that he was willing to take me back to my first two horse trials since losing Will (and to even win his first training in three years!).


I'm thankful that I'm able to have a second horse to (hopefully grow up and) do what Riley physically can't. I'm thankful that things are finally starting to click for me and Cole. I'm also thankful that Cole is healthy and made it through his bone chip surgery in one piece. 


Most days I'm thankful that my horses are absolutely rotten, because I don't think they'd be so entertaining if they were perfectly behaved. While I could do without Cole eating my nice bridles, martingale, Riley's halter, etc., his antics, as well as Riley's, are pretty darn adorable.


I'm thankful that John puts up with me, and that instead of being intimidated by the horses or trying to maintain a good distance from them, he has taken up riding. I'm not sure what amazes me more- the fact that he comes to the barn with me on weekends (when I spend way too much time out there), or the fact that after spending too many weekends at the barn, he doesn't mind spending the weekend at a horse show (and helping to groom and keep me in one piece!).


Finally I'm so, so thankful to have such an awesome family. My parents are unbelievably supportive through both the good times and the bad. Some parents are ambivalent, but I'm so thankful that mine genuinely enjoy having horses as a part of our family and care about them as much as I do. 


Oh, and one last thing. I think the boys are both pretty thankful that I did make them craft hoof-turkeys and write down what they're thankful for! (We all know they're a bit ungrateful- after all, they work hard and deserve all the love, treats and care they get!)




Wednesday, November 21, 2012

October and November, all rolled into one

Apparently it's been so long since the last update that even Will noticed, and said something about it. In the meantime, Team Riley has been very, very busy with horse things and law school things alike.

October was a pretty quiet month for the horses, unless you count Cole trying to kill himself a few times (what's new?). First, Cole decided he would be a jerk in the bridle, especially to the right. So I scheduled a chiropractic appointment, and when the chiropractor came, she noticed that we had bigger problems than a potentially stuck neck. Cole had swelling on his face, and unfortunately it was in a great spot to be indicative of an abscessed tooth root. The vet came out, x-rays were taken (for the second time in nearly a month), and thankfully like his raging proud flesh that was x-rayed before, it was all soft tissue.
The vet recommended a hot water compress, which meant that I had to hold a hot towel tie a hot towel to his face with a polo wrap for 10 minutes. Cole still hasn't caught on that banging yourself up results in such torture!

A week later, his face looked better, but he was still a jerk, so again the chiropractor came out. Thankfully he didn't have many issues, but not so thankfully he didn't have many issues to blame his jerk-ness on. She also noticed some considerable swelling in his right mandible, by his throat latch, so again the vet came out. The vet wasn't too concerned, and after finding the right combination of goop to put on it (furazone and epsom salts, for those interested), the swelling went down and Cole was back to normal, minus trying to rip out my right arm occasionally.

The first weekend of November, Cole had a great adventure at the Jimmy Wofford clinic. Besides an episode in which he reared while being tacked up at the trailer, he was a very, very good boy. He even stood on the trailer like a grown-up while we watched one of the other groups ride. The clinic itself went really well- Cole jumped everything he was asked to on day 1 and seemed to process the gymnastics well. On day 2 brakes and turning in the open was quite questionable, so I was pretty nervous about having him do XC. But he stepped up to the plate well and jumped everything we asked him to (even if he did refuse the roll top once or twice).

Sadly John's camera died after taking three pictures, so this is the best photographic evidence we have of the clinic.

The best part of the Jimmy Wofford clinic by far was riding Cole afterwards. I jumped Cole over a little  gymnastic in the indoor on the Friday night following the clinic and he seemed quicker to process the question. On Saturday Riley and Cole both went to Lakeside for a jumper show and Cole really stepped up to the plate. I hadn't ridden him over a course for some time, but he got in the ring and was looking for the next jump. The difference between jumping Cole before the clinic and jumping him after the clinic was amazing. He's definitely given me a lot of hope that he's going to be game and smart about the jumping.

Cole did not enjoy dress-up time, even though he won a blue ribbon and reserve champion for his 2' division!

Riley was also a super star at Lakeside, winning 3 of his 4 classes! He got champion in his schooling jumpers division and was tied for champion in the children's/adult jumpers. Sadly, though, he was even more unhappy than Cole about dress up time. We didn't really get a good picture of him in all his ribbons (plus I kind of forgot to pick up one of his blues... but I think we have enough Lakeside blues that we were ok without it).

The day after Lakeside, Cole had to load up in the trailer again to go take a dressage lesson. Not only was he very grown-up about getting on the trailer and being tied to it, but he was VERY good in the actual lesson. We got a refresher on the spiral-in, spiral-out exercise which helped Cole a TON and Cole successfully cantered many 20 meter circles. At the end of the lesson he learned how to stretch and it's now his favorite thing- I'm sure he also likes to rub it in Riley's face that after practicing it once he was much, much better at it than Riley.

The Tuesday after our big horse show-dressage lesson weekend, Riley decided that he'd worked too much and needed a few days off. Presumably while rolling, he did something to really tick off his eye so that it was swollen and light-sensitive. I think that I'm going to need to invest in one of those signs, the kind that say "it's been __ days" since the last accident on the job site vet call. I think we were at a little over two weeks until Riley ruined it.

On Wednesday we stayed busy with a farrier appointment. For possibly the first time ever, Riley got compliments on his feet. Cole got his shoes pulled in anticipation for his big surgery this week. While chatting with the farrier about Cole (and how no one believes he's a Thoroughbred), I found out that he also shoes The Cliff's Edge, who is Cole's sire. Apparently Cole not only gets his good feet from his dad, but also gets a bit of his inquisitive, mouthy personality from him.

This past weekend, I took the opportunity to savor my last two rides on Cole for the next two months. On Sunday, John and I took the boys on a big walk around the back hay field after I helped John jump his first stadium course (ok, mini-course, but it was a good 6 or so jumps strung together). I can't wait for John and Riley to tear it up at beginner novice once they get their dressage game on!

Monday was the big day that I've pretty much been dreading since the day I bought Cole. We found a small bone chip on his pre-purchase exam and decided that it wasn't a big enough problem to not buy him, but that it ought to be taken out if I wanted him to stay sound in the long-term for an upper level career. My dad came down to Lexington on Sunday night and we woke up very bright and early to load Cole on the trailer and have him at Lexington Equine Surgery by 8 AM. It was a pleasant surprise to see someone that I'd once boarded with at the clinic and she made me feel at ease about the surgery. In fact everyone involved, from the surgeon to the anesthesiologist to the vet tech, was super nice. The vet was happy to answer questions and explain everything to me. I stuck around to watch and while some points were a bit scary (seeing Cole on his side was a bit terrifying, until I realized that I could see his barrel rising and that he was indeed breathing), the surgery itself was quick and went well.

Cole immediately post-surgery, before his leg was wrapped all the way up.

I had to leave for class before he got up and was fully awake, but my parents stuck around to make sure he was ok and to take him back to the barn. It was so, so nice of them to keep me company during the surgery- my mom had to come later, but she managed to make it in time to see everything and to make sure it went well. 

Back at the barn and all settled in to his stall! Thanks to my mom for sending me this picture to confirm that he was ok.

Thankfully everything has been very quiet since Monday and I'm hoping it'll stay that way through Cole's recovery. I'm very pleased with the end to the season that we had- a successful clinic, a successful horse show, and a successful dressage lesson. More importantly, I'm SO relieved that this surgery, the prospect and logistics of which have been like a black cloud following me around, is done. Cole had minimal joint damage, but it sounds like it was good to take the chip out before we started doing any really hard work. There's still some risk with his recovery, but the worst of it is over and hopefully it will be smooth sailing to January, when we can start back up. 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Slackers

Well, since mom and John are being such slackers lately, guess I'll write a little bit. First I'd like to start by complimenting everyone on their Halloween costumes. If you all didn't see the latest Horsin' 'Round; Riley was a unicorn with an awesome rainbow horn and rainbow tail, Cole was Harry Trotter, I'm amazed the wand was still intact considering how much he chews things, and I was a Pirate. I really liked John's Lawn Jockey costume, he may have looked like a jockey, but I know he would have had a hard time riding my gallop. I was really sad to see that Maggie didn't get to dress up though (she had a 15 page paper due for law school the next day) she always makes the best costumes.

Horsin' 'Round Halloween Edition
 


 

John as a Lawn Jockey
 


I tried to go haunt Riley and Cole that night, but they wouldn't let me. They said I had to wait until next year. I guess since they had just moved into their new barn mom didn't want them to get scared of the place right away. I just wanted to hear Riley's girly neigh once. Oh well, at least I got tons of carrots and Willie Muffins trick or treatin', no razor blade apples though, I hear you have to watch out for those.

Lately I've been envying Riles. Since he has never had to work his butt off in the winter like I did, he hasn't gotten clipped yet. He gets to roll in the mud all he wants, good lord he's always a mess. I'll have to get John to snap a picture of him soon. If you didn't know it yet, John has taken up a new job with Team Riley, (with the help of me of course) he's the new head of social media too. If you didn't know yet we now have a facebook: Team Riley Eventing, and a twitter: @TeamRileyEvent. I do most of the tweeting, I still don't understand why its a "tweet". I think it should be a "neigh" but they never asked my opinion.

Looks like the holidays are coming up fast! Lucky for me they don't start playing Christmas music up here until December. Why would anyone want to pass up Thanksgiving, all the carrots and veggies you can eat. I know Riley will be pigging out, probably going paddock to paddock looking for leftovers. It's a shame Maggie can't decorate Riley's and Cole's stalls anymore. She did a great job for the Fourth of July and I loved the pumpkins. I really would have enjoyed seeing Cole trying to eat a string of hand turkeys for Thanksgiving.

Well I'm off to go eat the last of my Halloween treats. I have to go on starvation diet tomorrow so I can pig out on Thanksgiving. I still have to keep my figure to impress the ladies up here.

-Will

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Practically Perfect Ponies and Pretty Ribbons


Life has been rolling on at an extraordinarily fast pace, so unfortunately the updates have been a bit fewer and farther between lately (that pesky law school thing gets in the way). But since the last post, Cole has decided that he doesn't like the idea of being Coleslaw and Riley has really stepped up to try and fill in Will's shoes. 

I was a bit distraught about Cole after taking him to KY Classique. He was so badly behaved, and he's been so badly behaved on other off-the-farm outings that I was beginning to wonder if it was more of a I-hate-being-off-the-farm thing than a green-horse thing (some horses are just like that). Thankfully over   the past few weeks he's been trying his best to behave on field trips and convince me that he's just green, and he'll hopefully grow out of it. 

The Sunday after Classic, we trailered over to the KHP for XC schooling. Cole let me know that he's going to have issues with changes in footing (i.e. grass to gravel) and light-to-dark. Other than the not-jump-issues, though, he was perfect! He jumped several starter fences and didn't bat an eye at the water. My goal with him has been to take it easy, since there's no reason to push him and risk backing him off, especially since he had almost no jumping experience when I got him. We brought Riley along for moral support for Cole and John was able to jump him over everything that Cole did. John even hacked Cole around for the second half of our schooling while I made Riley jump big boy things to see if he felt ready to go training again.

Riley loves XC schooling when John's the rider!

Cole also went to his first "horse show" the weekend after schooling. We went up to the Oldham County Fairgrounds for a small, local schooling-type show. It was no KHP, but he saw bleachers, screaming children, and plenty of other horses going in all directions around him. There were no Vietnam-style track flashbacks, and he was almost well-behaved enough to place well. I think he could sense when the judge was looking, though, because those were the only times he threw some bucks. 

Looking deceptively well-behaved.

Second! (...out of two.) He was a total champ for being so well-behaved though- he even cantered for this class.

This past weekend, I loaded both boys up on the trailer for round two of Cole's KHP show adventures. Cole was my non-compete, and Riley was signed up for training(!) at Jumpstart. This weekend was Riley's first attempt at a training level event since 2009, when I gave up on him and bought Will as an older brother to Riley who would actually jump the scary fences. Sunday was also the 6 month mark since losing Will, and I can't help but think that he was giving Riley some of his bravery on cross country. 

Friday night was a whirlwind of baths and schooling, and thank god my mom was there to help. We took both boys down to the dressage fields so I could school one after another, which was the only way I could've gotten both ridden. Riley was pretty good for the super crummy, swampy footing, and Cole was actually safely rideable above a walk (a huge improvement over Classic).

On Saturday, the footing had dried up a bit, but not very much. The warmup was complete slop, so we opted for a dry-ish grassy patch to warm up on. My warmup was pretty good and my test would've gone well if I didn't let Riley snowball out of control at the end. It was definitely better than it has been in the past, but I botched the last 4 movements. My goal was to score under 40 and we just barely squeaked by with a 39.6. 

I didn't have much time between dressage and XC, so I headed back to the barns and started getting Riles ready. The footing was a bit sloppy and the air was somewhat muggy (and Riley was borderline fit enough...), so Riley got to sport some of Will's big kid studs as well as a Flair strip. Warmup went well, although it's never very encouraging to see a fellow competitor crash into the warmup fence. 

We left the start box and Riley was rocking and rolling, albeit in his trademark giraffe style. The first few fences rode very easy and set him up well for the meat of the course, which started with a formidable double brush for #5. #6 was the clover cutouts on a 1 or 2 stride line, which I knew wouldn't be a problem. #7 was called the "fern display" and was a shared fence with prelim. I kept telling myself it'd ride fine, but it certainly was a little bit looky and VERY big when I walked it. Of course Riley being himself, it rode great, and the stone wall-ramp right after it was like a twig after he cleared #7. The next fences I had to worry about were #12A/B and #13A/B. #12 was a relatively small log, but was placed at the top of a small hill where I was concerned Riley might slip, and had a sharp turn to the B log. Of course slipping wasn't an issue, and there was tons of time to turn to the B and get a nice jump over it. 

Giraffe face before fence #2.

His belly barely cleared the straw rack, fence #10.

The bunker, fence #11.

#12A and down the hill.

Turn to #12B.

#12B.

The scariest fence on course was next, and consisted of a HUGE ditch and a couple strides to a skinny-ish brush. The ditch lives right next to the Rolex sunken road, and I heard rumors that it was on the prelim and intermediate courses at Classic. It was definitely both wide and deep, with tons of room for horse eating monsters inside. It's probably a good thing that the photographer didn't get any pictures of Riley jumping the ditch, because while he was a very good boy and ignored the monsters trying to eat him, it wasn't exactly pretty. We came up to the ditch in a fastish coffin canter after I'd shown him my whip to make sure he knew I wasn't scared of beating him. He got up to the ditch, thought for a second about jumping, then thought again about running out to the left, and then finally decided that he'd better go ahead and jump it. We landed well to the left of our line to #13B, more on track for the prelim skinny/C element or a total runout of the complex. But we got it together and wiggled our way to #13B and jumped it from what felt like practically a stand still. I was so proud of him, but the rough-and-tumble riding there carried over to the next two fences, after which we got our groove back.

Over the brush!

Just a little long...

Galloping on.




The rest of the course rode beautifully. The last big questions were the bank complex and water complex, where of course he had no issues. Besides jumping the ditch, I was most proud that he came in 20 seconds under optimum time because that was an issue for us the two times we actually completed training level events (it's kind of obvious when riding him on XC why he wasn't a very good race horse!). We were 7th after dressage, but a few of the top horses had trouble making the time, so we moved up to 3rd after cross county. 

That afternoon I was able to ride Cole again and he was much better with Riley there as moral support. I figured out that he's fine with everything in the dressage fields except the big buildings on the far side and the arena closest to them- the Museum of the Horse, the Visitor's Center, and the USHJA headquarters all seem to collectively freak him out. Elsewhere around the KHP he had no issues with the Big Barn, the old indoor, or tents pitched in some of the arenas in anticipation of the Kentucky National - it was isolated to that group of big buildings right by the dressage complex. I'm not sure if it reminds him of the racetrack or what, but that seemed to be the only issue. Otherwise he was a very good boy and was much better behaved all around the park.


Riley was working very hard while babysitting Cole.

On Sunday, I was the last division to show jump in my assigned arena, so we had most of the morning to relax. I had enough time that I quickly re-braided Riley and then John and I took the boys around for a walk and to graze. Sadly we missed the Pony's show jumping round, but we were able to catch his awards ceremony. 

We got Riley ready and headed up to the SJ arena, where I was a bit early. I went with my normal early warmup protocol and jumped several fences before giving Riley a break. I picked him back up with only a few rides in front of me and suddenly turned my brain off. My warmup turned into a bit of disaster, and I even had an unplanned emergency dismount at the warmup oxer (although in our slight defense, I'm pretty sure the front rail was actually taller than the back rail). Thankfully that knocked some sense into me and I had a few good jumps before heading over to the competition ring. 



My show jumping round itself wasn't that bad. We chipped in to the second fence and maybe had one other ugly fence, but overall it wasn't the kind that makes people gasp and think "wow, they're still alive!" at the end of it. I had plenty of faith in Riley, but was still thrilled when he left all the rails up, especially because rails had been flying all morning. 









All that was left was to see where we ended the weekend- whether we kept our third or had managed to move up. The announcer took a moment to give out a special award to the lowest-scoring senior amateur in the training rider division, and I was VERY surprised when I heard my name called over loudspeaker! 


After the Play For Keeps award was presented, they still had the division left to place. At this point I'd realized that Riley had won, but was still in a bit of disbelief. I've definitely never led a victory gallop before, so I wasn't sure how to start things off or how to go about it. All in all, Riley won a cooler, a lunchbox, a saddle pad, a basket full of apples and peppermints, and a big blue ribbon. I was so proud of him for being such a good boy the entire weekend, and the first place was just icing on the cake.




Stupid-Pony Picture Time!

Riley's favorite part of winning!

Later that afternoon Riley took John cross country schooling while Cole went around and jumped several starter and beginner novice fences. I could probably do without some of Cole's enthusiasm (especially about yanking out my left arm), but I was very proud of him for jumping everything I asked him to. 

Overall the weekend was very successful and I was very proud of both boys for being so awesome. Riley's had an easy week since and has been sure to eat several of the apples he won each day I've visited him this week. 

Monday, September 24, 2012

Willard Plans a Jump Start Party

Wow, I'm soooo proud of Mom, Riley and Cole, its hard to even put into words! First, Riley and Maggie bring home 6th place (John's favorite color ribbon...Green). Second, even though Cole got the crazies left over from me, he did great out at the Horse Park schooling. Last, Cole went even further and brought home his first two ribbons for Team Riley!

Its been a hoof biter up here watching over the Team, but what can I say? I'm extremely happy. Riley and Mom pulled together at Kentucky Classique. I'm so proud of Maggie, she had been soooo stressed before hand, but I knew she could do it. And I'm so happy that Riles was the one to help her make it, I wouldn't have put that on any other horse in my eyes. I knew he would get her through it, and I was very glad to see her out on the cross country coarse again. I know it was stressful for her, but she needed it, I always had a blast running XC but it was also blast watching her ride XC. Thats why we keep Riley around though. When the going gets tough, he's right there to take care of everything.

I got a little nervous though seeing Mom on Cole that weekend. He had no idea what he got himself into. At least we know when the time comes he can piaffe, lets just see if he can do it on command.
It looked like Cole redeemed himself though and it looks like he's going to love running cross country too. I'm trying to send him some of my vibes, but I'm still trying to figure out how to send the good ones, not so much the crazy ones. Just look at the two, already bringing home two ribbons! Looks like I did a good job at teaching Maggie how to rein in a wild and crazy beast.

Of course I have to say how impressed I was with John, going cross country schooling for the first time. Finally starting to get the hang of cantering. I'm a little sad though that he never got to take me schooling. I'm happy he got to jump me once or twice, but it would've been fun taking him over some logs, mom probably would have been nervous about, but I would have taken care of John.

Last but not least I'll be cheering on Riles and Maggie this weekend at Jump Start. My baby brother is growing on up, going Training! I get to watch all the shows I want on my new big screen. Lets just hope that belly of his doesn't get him stuck over any jumps. It'd be hilarious to see, but I want mom to make it all the way around. Maybe I'll get John to head out there early in the morning and grease the jumps so he'll slide right over. All my new friends are coming over to cheer on all our friends from the barn. We've got the fridge filled, the bar stocked and an endless supply of carrots and squeezy buns to munch on.

Keep up the good work Team Riley! I'm always watching!

-Willard

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Riley's Coming Out of Retirement Tour

This past Friday was a big day for me, Will, Riley, and even Cole. As of Friday, Will's officially been gone 5 months. Looking ahead to September from five months ago, I would've thought we'd have a few more prelims under our belt and be looking ahead to AECs and the CCI*. Riley would've still been on lease with his little girl. Two months ago, I was beginning to settle in to the idea that Riley just wanted to retire. And I was definitely convinced that I might never find a new show horse. A few weeks ago, I crossed my fingers and entered Riley in the open novice at Kentucky Classique and signed Cole up as a non-compete horse.

The jumps this past weekend were maxed out at 2'11", but I feel like we made it over some much bigger hurtles. For one, we all know Riley's dreamed long and hard about retirement. He started thinking about it before he even began showing, when he tried to kill himself before his first two events (#1 he tried to eat an electrical outlet and #2 he got a huge puncture wound in his shoulder). When he was diagnosed with kissing spines, his future seemed bright, but he was determined to prove otherwise (by dumping me in a few ditches and telling me that as much as I'd love to go training, it just wasn't his thing...). And this spring he'd almost talked me into turning him out once and for all, when it seemed that although his suspensory strain had healed, something else just wasn't right. Thankfully I didn't give up on him and was able to figure out that it was EPM, and he's come back as strong and healthy as ever. Riley's last show was in October of last year, before the suspensory and EPM issues.

As for the other hurtles, last Friday was also, obviously, the 5 month anniversary of my last show. At first I'd missed showing desperately, and was so jealous any time someone at the barn left with their horse for the weekend. But the longer I went, the easier it was, until showing just seemed like a terrible idea. My mental demons told me that Riley is terrible at dressage and that we'd be stuck at the bottom of the pack, because novice tends to be a glorified dressage competition. The show jumping demons were even there, reminding me that the last time I show jumped I had to rely on my wonderful horse to save our butt when I couldn't see or ride the distances. And worst of all, the thought of a cross country start box made my mind go wild with all that happened the last time I galloped out of one. I've had more than a few breakdowns over this whole first-show-back thing in the weeks leading up to it.

So with that being said, this weekend was the one to start moving on and getting over those awfully big hurtles. On Friday, both boys got a bath before a short trailer ride over to the KHP. John thankfully unpacked everything while I took Riley for a spin around the dressage fields, which turned out to be more nerve wracking for me than it ought to of. When I stopped showing, my nerves were 100% under control and I was able to tune out everything to get the best out of my horse. When I rode on Friday, it was like all of that had gone down the drain and I was back to square one. After my ride I attempted to make braids of Riley's 3 mane hairs and tucked the boys in for the night.

Despite nearly having a breakdown on the way down to dressage, I was able to pull it together and get a decent warmup before what I thought was a very nice test for Riley. I could've been a bit more ballsy in some of the moves, but I thought it was a pretty good test, and although it put us 12th out of 14, I thought a 34.5 was a great score.

Dressage judges never like Riley much, but I thought he put it a pretty solid test!

Next up was cross country, which I was kind of dreading. The course was tough, and I knew Riley wouldn't have any issues, but it still didn't keep me from worrying. Worse yet, the first 3 people out on course had refusals and run-outs. I kept telling myself that those were green horses, but my racing heart didn't want to believe that. We took off out of the start box and Riley ran around the course like the old pro that he is. He easily cleared every jump and was happy to gallop along at a pretty fast pace. I let him choose his own pace for the first half of the course, which meant that at the halfway mark I had to make him trot for a bit to avoid speed fault penalties (we were almost 2 minutes ahead of time, agh!!). Running through the finish flags gave me the biggest feeling of relief as well as gratitude towards Riley. Riley knows his job, knows that he doesn't have to do his job if he doesn't want to, but was still happy to pack me and all my baggage around the XC course.

Beka and Caesar made it just in time to see our XC! It was really nice of them to come down, plus we found out that Caesar likes horses- and really likes shavings.

I had been a bit concerned that Riley wasn't fit enough, but that certainly wasn't the case! I love this picture because I didn't even know Riley could get all 4 feet off the ground, let alone tuck in that big ol' belly of his!

I asked Riley to take off a bit long here, causing him to rub his hind feet on the fence, but he was still happy to clear it, even with the extra effort it took

Riley has his XC smile back!

Getting a bit excited and not wanting to slow down...

The A/B Red Forts were some of the biggest jumps on course, so of course Riley made them feel easy

Riley through the Head of the Lake!

After XC

As a side note, I attempted to ride Cole around on Saturday, but he doesn't like a) the KHP in general and b) the KHP when he's all by himself in the dressage fields. I found out that Cole can apparently piaffe, although I think in pure dressage they like the horse to be round and collected, not hollow and freaked out. We joked about blowing Cole's mind, but apparently it was actually blown. Cole's just going to have to have lots of outings before his first real show, starting with XC at the KHP this Sunday.

Sunday brought stadium jumping and a double clear round on what was apparently a tough SJ, judging from the scores. I missed two distances, but Riley didn't have a problem with saving my butt and clearing the fence regardless. He was actually pretty cute, because he kept getting his eye on other fences in an attempt to make the course a bit harder and more like a jumpers course. Riley might be accompanying his little brother to some winter jumpers shows to keep him entertained.



Riley thinks he looks stylish in Dad's new hat!

Despite being utterly terrified of every phase, I survived the weekend and finished in 6th place on a dressage score of 34.5. I even was able to throw a few smiles, particularly when I managed to move up from 9th place AND not get a poo brown ribbon (for those readers not in the know, 8th place is poo brown), which I have thankfully thus far avoided in my 6 year eventing career. Riley also seemed content to be back at work, even though I'm sure he'll regret it as soon as he remembers what being the Team Riley Work Horse entails (all that conditioning! the dressage! getting his belly to clear jumps! so much work!). On Sunday he was almost too tired to chew up his carrots.

Not poo brown!?

Not poo brown! Me and Riley both seemed a bit concerned about the ribbon flying on his face and the impending victory gallop.

Post-braiding fro-time!

So very tired- poor little guy.

For more pictures from our successful weekend, be sure to check out the flickr (the link is in the top right-hand corner of this page)!