Sophisticated Willard Scott

How I like to view Willard while he is enjoying Frosty Biscottis

-John

A Day in the Life of Will

It's a little foggy over the Elkorn this morning, kind of spooky if you aren't used to it, especially if you can hear the zombie cows on the other side of the creek. Today will probably be like any other day, hang out in my stall all day waiting to see if Maggie comes out to ride me...I really hope she doesn't. All she does is make me work, usually that fancy footwork stuff. Doesn't she know I just wanna jump? I try to piss her off every time we do this dressage stuff (I think that's what its called, at least thats what I've overheard). She never gets the hint. Guess I'll just sit and munch on my frosted mini blades until they come get me. Julie is usually the one to bring us up, unless it's a weekend, thats when I get nervous, if Maggie shows up early, I'm headed to a show or the track, I hope they never take me back to the track, I have nightmares about that place. The gates, the crowd, th...oh look, Julie, breakfast time! 

I wonder what they'll be playing in the barn, usually country, I always hope one day they'll throw in a little Bassnectar or Pretty Lights, that'll never happen, I only get to hear that at shows, possibly one of the only good parts about shows, that and treats, especially when John is there, I get double! Riley always wanted to listen to Ke$ha, what girly pony, kinda miss him though, him and the dumb face and giraffe neck. Maybe I'll just nap part of the day see who comes in and out, just sit and wait...wait to see if she shows up.

Yes, dinner time already and no sign of Maggie, maybe I have the day off, just maybe.

Slop slop slop, why's this taste so good when I dunk it in water, slop slop munch munch.

Done! can I go out yet?

Can I go out?

Is it my turn?

Me next!

Where's everyone going?

Oh no.....oh no oh no oh no, they left me up, guess I don't get the day off.

Now I get to wait up here all alone.

There she is, maybe it'll be an easy day, maybe a hack, if not that, hopefully jumpin', please of please not that dancing stuff.

Ok, good just a nice little walk around the farm.

That wasn't too bad, I enjoyed that. Now I finally get to go out, and yes there's carrots involved! The best part about getting kicked out late, at least I get some goodnight carrots.

Goodnight Mom!

A Team Riley Debut!

Yesterday, Team Riley loaded up the trailer and went down the road to the Horse Park for the February Snowbird dressage show. Will was entered in prelim A, prelim B, and intro B. 

The prelim tests were outdoors in what I can best describe as the warmup pad for the fenced-in ring right outside the covered arena. The footing was deep, sloppy, and a bit slick, which may turn out to be good practice for the wetter spring horse trials, but it was not what I expected. 

I was so distracted by the footing during prelim A that I didn't ride my best or even adjust my ride so that it was successful in there. Prelim B was equally distracting, since despite having ridden that test a MILLION times (because I was terrified of it all last season), I went off course. I can't blame Will though because despite being a bit backsore last week, he was really good and did everything I asked. I ended up with a 59% for 5th place in prelim A and a 64% for 2nd place in prelim B. 

Stupid Pony-Picture Time!

Then came the extra special debut I mentioned.... John's first dressage test! John rode really well for his intro B test. Apparently Will didn't want to turn across the short diagonal so he was a little inaccurate on that movement, but his 20 meter circles and halts looked great.

I had told everyone that if they wanted to watch, they better bring signs. Julie went above and beyond and made "10" signs for everyone to hold up at the end of the test. Unfortunately John pretended to not see his  cheering section, but it was still pretty awesome.

John ended up with a  69% (kicking my butt!!) and 5th place out of 18 riders. 

Will actually looks cute for Stupid Pony-Picture Time with John, further proving how much better he likes him.

Despite my "learning experience," all of us had a great time at Snowbird. My parents were nice enough to come down from Louisville to watch and we had a great tailgate going on the side of the horse trailer. I think my mom also got some good pictures, including some of Will's flames. Will didn't seem any worse for the wear when we visited today and I'm definitely starting to get excited about horse trials!

- Maggie

Plans and Alternatives

One of the best parts of being an eventer in the winter is making obsessive plans once the spring Omnibus comes out. Over the past month or so I've been pondering Team Riley's spring plans and giving lots of consideration to the various options.

Things were looking great for popping my first USEA entry in the mail tomorrow until I found out over the weekend that one of the best events I've ever been to, FENCE, cancelled its spring horse trial. I don't know who was more excited- me or my dad- but we LOVE this event. How can you not love an event that has a beautiful venue, great early spring weather, a killer competitor's party, and water troughs full of free beer (and other less alcoholic beverages) at the XC course walk? The answer is that you can't.

Which brings me to my next point- one of the greatest characteristics of eventers and equestrians in general is that we're pretty flexible. Never mind that FENCE was cancelled, I didn't like that event anyways (ok, that's a lie). But the Ark looks pretty cool and I had briefly thought about going there when looking at the Omnibus. Not to mention they apparently have zebras and other "exotic animals," which means Will might get to meet and be inspired by one of his more badass relatives. So if everything hopefully falls into place I'll be popping an entry in the mail in the next week or so.

So the revised, tentative spring schedule is as follows:

February 18- Snowbird Dressage (watch out for an extra special Team Riley debut...)
March 10- Lakeside Arena H/J (?)
March 11- Covered Bridge PC Combined Test
March 17- Snowbird Dressage
April 1- Spring Horse Trials at the Ark (?)
April 7-8- Spring Bay Horse Trials
May 12- Sayre School Combined Test (?)
May 19-20- Greater Dayton Horse Trials (?)
June 1-3- IEA Horse Trials
June 8-10- Spring Run Horse Trials (?)

All of this is of course assuming that I can fund these endeavors and that Will doesn't come up with any more of his sneaky plans to avoid horse shows. In the meantime, though, this thankfully gives me a lot to think about and distract me from the nasty weather outside and the pile of law books dying to be read!

Stupid Pony-Picture Time!

Will not enjoying dress-up time before getting turned out

The first time I took Will in a jumper class at nearby Lakeside Arena, it wasn't exactly pretty. Will had no issue clearing the jumps themselves, but we wasted so much time leaping and rearing between the fences that I don't even remember if we made it over all of them. My dad (and perhaps Team Riley's #1 Fan) kindly said that Will was "not as smooth as Riley," and more "up and down," but I'm pretty sure what he really meant is that Will looked like he was trying to kill me. 

Thankfully those days seem to be behind us. Will's only acrobatics in the jumper ring lately have been clearing the rails, slicing the jumps, and turning on a dime. He didn't do too shabby at November and January Lakeside and this past weekend we braved the nasty rain to bring home another Schooling Jumper division champion ribbon, a 1st, and a 6th. If I'd balanced him better it'd probably be two 1sts, but I'd much rather have that lesson drilled into me over the winter at schooling shows than at a horse trial where it really counts. 

In the mean time we're going to keep up with our exciting and ongoing game of dressage bit roulette and hopefully work on moving back up to 3'6" courses (as soon as I convince myself the height I jumped all last year is not scary). February Snowbird is in a week and a half and with all luck there will be more dumb dress-up pictures to post on the blog!