Rider Profiles: March 2010 Archives

We have the best readers ever!  We say it all the time, but we really want to get the point across.  One super duper fan was nice enough to send us some videos from the CIC** at Poplar Place Farm last weekend.  Thanks to Mary Kate Mallory (GA) for sharing them with us, and her mom for shooting the footage!  MK competed in her first CIC** competition at Poplar Place Farm this weekend aboard the experienced gelding, Kilaughton.  They jumped double clear in showjumping to finish 15th!  We appreciate you sending in these videos MK, and thanks for supporting Eventing Nation.  I also hear we might be getting a very special shout out this week.  Since we love getting to know our readers, we asked MK a few questions about her first two star competition.

Let's take a little break from Rolex hype and March Madness, with another introspective look at the readers of EN.  So far we've met Holly, McKenna, and today we will be acquainted with Chrissy.

If you would like to be featured in an upcoming profile, please fill out the Questionnaire and email it to VisionaireEN@gmail.com.  Thanks again to all our participants...there are many profiles to post, and hopefully we will get to yours soon!



Name: Chrissy

Age: 19

Location: Highland, MD

Primary horse's name: One More for the Road (Martini)

Age, breed, pertinent info:
15, OTTB, was a multiple stakes race winner on the track and earned over $680K before being abandoned in a field and then rescued by New Vocations


Level currently competing: Training

Short term goals this spring/summer:
Qualify for USPC Champs in Training level eventing.

Year-end goals:
Training 3 Day at Waredaca!

Overall goals?
For Martini, to successfully complete a CCI* and maybe even a 1* at Fair Hill.


What's the best thing you've learned recently?
 My biggest epiphany with Martini was to learn to open your thighs while not taking your leg off. He has a lot of trouble lifting through his back because of the way he's built and the difference between his movement when I'm focusing on my thighs and not focusing on them is enormous. A Dutch Warmblood creatively named Dutch helped me to realize this.

That being said my biggest weakness is that and focusing too much on my hands when I ride. When I'm always thinking about them is when they tend to move around and accidentally jab Martini in the mouth but if I just let things be they stay quiet and steady which helps Martini to stay quiet and steady.

Favorite eventing moment/story? 
I am a proud Pony Clubber and I always try and attend the D level rallies to support the kids in my club and to help coach them. At an eventing rally a couple of years ago I was walking the cross-country course with one of the kids during the competition and we saw two competitors riding within 100ft of each other go towards the jump. The first girl fell off and hurt her arm so she was caught laying in front of the jump with the other girl coming towards her. I was readying myself to jump in front of the horse when the the little girl riding, who had been pulling the whole time, turned her horse to the left, did a perfect games dismount and landed almost right in front of the girl who was hurt the whole time asking her if she was okay.


Photo(s) or videos:

You want Lower Level Rider Profiles?  You get Lower Level Rider Profiles!  Last week we met Holly, a 52-year-old from Delaware competing training level.  This week, we feature a rider of slightly-less years, on an absolutely adorable pony.  Can we get an  "awwwwww"??

If you would like to be featured in an upcoming profile, please fill out the Questionnaire and email it to VisionaireEN@gmail.com.  Thanks again to all our participants...there are many profiles to post, and hopefully we will get to yours soon!


Name: McKenna

Age: 13

Location: Columbia, MD

Primary horse's name: Dorito Cooler Ranch  "Dorito"

Age, breed, pertinent info: 10 years old, 13.3h  Breed: "Pony" (it says it on his coggins! :)  Bay/white pinto


Level currently competing: Beginner Novice

Short term goals this spring/summer:
Improve Dressage and get better with spotting the optimum time.

Year-end goals:
Go Novice successfully and to get a dressage score in the 30's

Overall goals?
Kind of the same as the others, Stay in the lower 40's (and maybe get any score in the 30's!), get better with the optimum time, go Novice, and have at least one double clear! I know it's a lot! :)


What's the best thing you've learned recently?
Lateral work really helps with getting Dorito loose which helps him get round :)

Favorite eventing moment/story?
That's tough.....there's just so many!!  Well I would probably say at our last event of the season, Full Moon ( It's a kind of a "tradition" at our barn to do it...) I had a great Dressage test (even though the score didn't reflect it) and an awesome stadium despite one dumb rail.  And XC was amazing, Dorito responded so well and came back to me wonderfully! And if I was to say another eventing experience that wasn't riding related I would say going to Rolex, it's the best thing ever!

Here at EN, we aim to please our audience.  Ask, and ye shall receive!  The most popular new suggestion from the Census was a segment featuring lower-level event riders.  What a fantastic idea!  And the response has been wonderful.  I am greatly impressed by the questionnaires I've received so far-- so interesting, thoughtful, and fun.  Our readers rock!!

If you would like to be featured in an upcoming profile, please fill out the Questionnaire and email it to VisionaireEN@gmail.com.  Thanks again to all our participants...there are many profiles to post, and hopefully we will get to yours soon!





Name: Holly

Age: 52

Location: Greenwood, Delaware

Primary horse's name: Rugby

Age, breed, pertinent info:
13yo TB, 16h grey..."Sparkle Pony" when he is clean, braided, and good...
Also The Red Horse (still no name) a young chestnut, and Unbridled Lad


Level currently competing: training level


Short term goals this spring/summer:
Figure out that "release" the reins thing and work on more and more roundness


Year-end goals:
Move Rug up to prelim


Overall goals?
Be the rider my horse needs me to be -- to get a few prelims back under my belt -- last prelim ride was over 20 years ago. I want to get all of my horses going forward. I need to get them all rounder and extending and collecting upon request!


What's the best thing you've learned recently?
That the contact is the way, the truth, and the light. Horses have to accept it, and live by it and the riders die by it! Soft hands, ready legs, and contact.
Ed. note: Truer words have never been spoken!


Any big epiphany or light-bulb moment?
That contact thing!


What are your strengths/weaknesses?
Dressage, probably, and competitiveness -- I usually can get a horse over the obstacle the first time and never give up trying to get there when I can get my leg
on. I had a terrible warmup for stadium at MCTA last year and my trainer was holding her hand over her eyes when I went in the ring, but I managed a double clear and clinched a win -- she's a believer now.

Favorite eventing moment/story?  (can be anything, something you did, felt, witnessed, realized...?)
Oh this is a favorite. Eventing in Oregon many years ago at Kevin Freeman's farm -- they had a water jump that was, well, really a cattle "lounging" (well, think relaxation) area. The bottom of the water jump was, well, bovine excrement. Nice landing for horses, but not so hot for people with boots and breeches on....my ex show jumper knew NOTHING about water, and I finally got him over the log and down into the water, a huge maximum drop. He stuck on the landing and off I went. Got up, got back on, finished the course....had to drive home. Didn't have any other shoes to wear so had to drive back up to Seattle four hours with the window rolled down and my head stuck out in the wind. I could not get the wet boots off....and breeches that smelled like cow poop.... That smell was in the truck for YEARS. I have pictures some where of this exciting loss of proper vertical order, but thankfully the years have hidden them from all my friends! Ha ha!

Link to blog or website, if applicable:
http://retreadeventer.blogspot.com


Ed. note: Holly's blog is great fun to read, full of lessons for riding and life.  Here's an excerpt from 2/27/10 entry about riding her new project horse, Unbridled Lad:

He excitedly hopped up and down when I clumsily gave him a canter aid. I can see now he must be saying something like this to himself:

"There she is up there in the saddle again, that fat one. My goodness, why does she kick me. I can feel her leg but it's nothing like the nice long leg I used to have on my sides. I appreciate the treats and grooming, but lady, you have got to get your s**t together up there. I don't WANT to bend, or get under myself. That's for dressage sissies. I am an EVENT horse, you heathen!" So he gave me a little warning about thunking down in the saddle and being clumsy with the leg aid. I will watch out and control it a bit more next time, but until the ring is a bit better I don't plan on cantering him. I need to set it up a little better so I can have a bit more success.

Thanks for the profile, Holly!  Good luck to you and your equine partners this year.  And may you always stay afloat in cow ponds!  If only the inflatable air safety vests were around back then...