Samantha L Clark : EVENTING NATION

The Full Peter Atkins Ruling

By John on May 20, 2011 6:19 PM

Pending a defamation suit, Peter has declined to make a public statement on the ruling, but because the court ruling is a public document, we have reprinted the entire 32 page ruling below. Samantha, who has been on top of this story from the very beginning, will write a summary of the ruling shortly because the document is so long, but the entire ruling is presented below word for word. Click on each image for a larger version:

The document is 32 pages long. Read more by clicking the link below or on the post title:

(more...)

Run Henny Run News

By Samantha L Clark on May 20, 2011 2:46 PM

I just heard from Peter Atkins, who told me there has been a ruling from the judge regarding the ownership of HJ Hampton aka Henny. The judge has ruled that there was in fact a partnership between Atkins and Linda Martin that must be dissolved. Henny will be sold to the highest bidder at an auction. Henny has resumed gentle work since colic surgery this winter, and Peter has said he hopes to get a syndicate organized to purchase Henny so that he can stay with his family. There will a full press release and more details coming soon. Thank you Peter, for letting us know the news, and we wish you luck in what will hopefully be the final step in this journey.

Preakness Preview – or rather, an Ode to Animal Kingdom!

By Samantha L Clark on May 19, 2011 6:30 PM

It's been almost a fortnight since the Kentucky Derby, two weeks on saturday which is when we'll get to see Animal Kingdom bid for the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Racecourse in Maryland. Barring his groom and trainer, I don't think anyone has spent more time with Animal Kingdom than our friend Alex Brown, who we spoke to right before the Derby about his fabulous book, Greatness and Goodness: Barbaro and his Legacy, so who better to talk to for all the scoop?

Q: Why do you think Animal Kingdom was such a surprise when he won the Kentucky Derby?

Alex: I think people overlooked him for a couple of reasons. One was that he was a little lightly raced; his campaign going into the Derby I would label unorthodox. He hadn't raced for six weeks prior to the Derby so that sets a historical precedent. If you remember, Barbaro won the Derby off a five week break, and he was the first horse to do that for fifty of sixty years.

Q: Was that intentional, or by circumstance?

Alex: Yes, that was intentional on (trainer) Graham Motion's part. He ran him in the Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park, it's six weeks out from the Derby so his choice would then be to run him back three weeks later to then run him again three weeks later in the Derby, or wait. You can absolutely train up to a race off a six week break, it's just apparently some people think it's not possible which is ridiculous! With a good horse, and if you know how to get them fit, you don't have to use races to do that. So I think Animal Kingdom was overlooked for those reasons, but also the fact that he never raced on the dirt. He had one work at Churchill prior to the Derby which by all accounts was very, very good. In the team, the Motion Camp was pretty confident about the horse, but obviously the confidence wasn't in the general public, he went off at 20-1.

Dave Rock, Assistant Trainer

I saw Dave Rock, Graham's assistant, that morning, with the horse, jogging onto the track, and they were pretty confident. Dave is a pretty quiet guy, but I could tell he thought they had a pretty good shot.

Q: You must have been delighted that the Derby winner has spent the last couple of weeks practically on your doorstep, and you've been able to keep the rest of the world abreast of his every step!

Alex: It's obviously great for me for a couple of reasons: One is that I'm a big believer in a training centre like FairHill and what it can do for horses, so having the Derby winner here preparing for the Preakness is great, it's great for the area. I don't think you can get the same sense in Kentucky because it's just a much bigger horsey environment, but everyone here is rooting for Graham Motion, it doesn't matter who it is, they don't even have to know anything about horses, everyone's very excited. Plus it's great for the people involved.

Graham Motion is simply a high quality dude! He's just an all round super-nice guy, a great horseman, very humble, everything you could want from a human being, so from both those perspectives it's great. Then to be able to see Animal Kingdom train every day is an absolute pleasure. In the first instance, I'm a fan of horses so when you get to see the Derby winner train every day that's just a good thing.

Q: How does he look?

Alex: He looks great. He looks really good; he's training well, the team seem confident in the way he's going. We'll see on saturday. I've talked to Graham a little bit about this - because they're not working him in between races, it's just a short time frame between the Derby and the Preakness, we really won't know until Saturday how well the horse is doing, but all the reasonable cues that we look for as horsemen in our horses are very positive - he's eating well, his coat looks good, he's moving well on the training track, he's alert and sharp. There's nothing that would suggest that he's not ready to run another big race.

Animal Kingdom returning to the barn after training

Q: It seems like he must be pretty well settled in, and I imagine the routine, the groom, exercise rider etc, they all stay as much the same as possible?

Alex: He'd never been to FairHill before so this is new to him, but that being said it's such a lovely place for a horse to relax and ease into their environment so it is home for him now, and he won't leave here and ship to Pimlico until early saturday morning. He's doing super well here, and this will now be his base for his future campaign, but prior to this he's been in florida and Kentucky.

Q: Does Graham Motion have a steeplechase background?

Alex: Yes, and in fact my recollection is that he worked for Jonathan Sheppard for a number of years and looked after the horse called Flatterer who was a champion steeplechase horse. He was then an assistant to Bernie Bond, a trainer down in Maryland and then started training on his own from there. His assistant trainers, Adrian Rolls and David Rock have been with Graham pretty much from the get-go. One thing Graham does very well is build a great team, of which Dave and Adrian are fundamental aspects, along with his wife Anita.

Graham Motion talking to the media.

Q: I noticed on your twitter feed today that you said Animal Kingdom had a gate school this morning (thursday). Why would he need that?

Alex: They all do. Before a big race, pretty much any horse will gate school. You want your horse to be as quiet as possible in the gate before the gate breaks open in a race, that way they break the best. It's a myth that you want a horse all standing on it's toes, alert and ready - you want them very quiet. You'll see most horses preparing for a big race gate school a day or two out from the race. When I worked for Steve Asmussen we gate schooled our horses every week; every week, one day a week each horse would go to the gate no matter which horse it was, and that would include horses like Rachel Alexandra or Curlin. It's just a normal thing to do. It's also a bit of a different thing to do, instead of galloping a mile and a half every day, if you take them to the gate one day a week it gives them something different to think about.

Q: Who could be at threat to Animal Kingdom in the Preakness?

Alex: I don't know to be honest! I think one thing about Animal Kingdom's win in the Derby is that I don't think any of the horses behind him had an excuse. Last year Looking at Lucky had a pretty good excuse as the Derby favourite getting beaten, and he came back and justified his Derby favouritism by winning the Preakness, but I think Animal Kingdom won pretty fair and square. Nor do I think that the new horses coming in are particularly any better than what went in the Derby, in fact I don't think they're better at all. They do have an advantage because they're fresh, so one of them might actually step up and run really well. However, if Animal Kingdom runs his race, I'm really excited, I think he's got a really good chance of winning. It's a fourteen horse field so there's certainly no guarantees, but he'll be a legitimate favourite on Saturday.

Q: Does drawing post # 11 have any bearing?

Alex: I don't think it makes any difference. If he was buried right on the inside in the one hole then it might not be so good, but I think with his running style, I wouldn't worry about the 11 post at all.

Q: Will you be at the Preakness?

Alex: I'm planning to be. My current plan is to leave FairHill early Saturday morning and to follow the horse van down, that way I can take some pictures of him when he arrives at the track and so on and so forth, but I haven't absolutely committed yet. We're only an hour north of Pimlico.

Team Valor CEO Barry Irwin

Q: Are you nervous about Saturday? You've spent the last two weeks following Animal Kingdom pretty closely, and it's the five year

anniversary of Barbaro's injury, does that affect you at all?

Alex: I'm very excited. If Animal Kingdom wins on saturday it will just be absolutely fantastic. I'm excited that it's a distinct possibility. I'm nervous, yes, but nervous in an excited way!

Q: What about your future plans?

Alex: No idea! Clearly we're living in the moment right now, just rooting for this horse to run very well and hopefully win the Preakness.

Alex is not alone in wishing Animal Kingdom well at Pimlico. These are Good Luck cards made by second graders at Southside Elementary School in Cynthiana, Kentucky.

Thank you again to Alex for his time, and for all the photos in this article. You can follow him on twitter at @AlexBrownRacing for every last detail of Animal Kingdom's schedule, pictures, and other racing news. Wishing all the jockeys and horses on saturday safe runs, but crossing my fingers that Animal Kingdom finishes in front! Thank you for reading, go and place your bets and buy a copy of Alex's book if you didn't already, I promise you won't regret it. Go racing, and eventing!

Oh, and another reason!

By Samantha L Clark on May 17, 2011 10:53 PM

Lexington in the spring is undeniably magical - foals on the ground, green, green bluegrass, and definitely a sense of excitement, re-birth, possibility?!

I feel incredibly lucky to have made such wonderful friends here in Kentucky who substitute for my family, and was thrilled to be invited to dinner with one of my best friends to admire her new foal.

He's by Tiznow, out a Belgian mare, Alliance, who represented the USA in Europe with Aaoron Vale in show-jumping, and he's all that, isn't he?!

He was born last thursday and already has a ton of presence. My friend got the idea to breed Alliance to Tiznow because a Tiznow 2 year old ( I believe) had won the best confirmation in hand at the big show in Middleburg, Virginia a year or two ago. This year she will breed back to Donna Miller's connemara stallion,

What is wonderful about Lexington though, is that you can go to an impromptu dinner, and find yourself in the middle of a fascinating debate about the genetics and direction of breeding of the racehorse, the impact of the Southern hemisphere cycle, and much more, with the manager of a high-profile farm, a distinguished vet, and extremely knowledgeable and experienced representatives from the breeding, pin-hooking, sales, and thoroughbred retirement communities. We compared thoroughbreds to human athletes, in team sports and individual runners; we talked about the differences between European and American racing, and of course the breeding and training, and I just kept thinking how lucky I was to be amongst such wise, passionate people with a wealth of experience behind them who really enjoyed the debate as much as I did. Even though they all came from different fields and backgrounds, they all had one common goal - the best interest of the thoroughbred. I think we will see more shows, awards and overall recognition for OTTB's. I think we will eventually, and perhaps sooner rather than later, see drug free flat racing here in the US. I think, most importantly, that there are many people who really care; and also not quite as importantly, out of a very few polled personally by me, the majority think Animal Kingdom will win the Preakness on saturday!

Thanks for bearing with me on my rather rambling rant, it's the wine talking! Thanks to my generous hosts for putting up with me taking pictures and asking questions, and for their unending generosity and friendship which I treasure. A special thank you to everyone who rides OTTB's and loves them - especially the ones we don't hear about, feel free to write and tell me all about your horse, I'd love to know, even if your horse isn't the next Courageous Comet, Wonderful Will, or Mensa etc - if you love him/her that's enough! Thank you for reading as always - go racing, hunting, jumping, dressage, eventing....

A couple more reasons to love Lexington

By Samantha L Clark on May 17, 2011 11:15 AM

Reason #1: This is what we saw on the way to school this morning. We live about ten minutes from downtown Lexington, and as we pulled out of our driveway we spotted her...and her two friends.

Actually I have no idea if they're stags or does, but the kids and I got out the car, and stood and watched transfixed. They waited (graciously for my pictures) for a couple of minutes, and then loped off towards the reservoir that lies behind those trees and shrubs. We wish them safe passage, there was a busy road between us otherwise we might have tried to get closer.

I took advantage of a break in the rain to take Leo the Labrador for a quick walk this morning and saw this beautiful tree, one of quite a few out on the Legacy Trail, which once you get past the interstate, is quiet and tranquil, and they have recently planted more.

As you can see from the grey skies, it's raining again already, which if nothing else will make for perfect going on sunday at the High Hopes Steeplechase, can't wait for that. I'm also looking forward to catching up with Alex Brown before then so we can bring you a Preakness Preview, with news about Ky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, and of course, where you should be placing your bets on Saturday for maximum returns! Thanks for reading, hug a tree, and go eventing!

Jim Koford–onward and upward

By Samantha L Clark on May 16, 2011 12:45 PM

Jim Koford caught the eye of many last year when he received the $25,000 Anne L. Barlow Ramsay Annual Grant from The Dressage Foundation to train in Europe. On his return he duly won the finale of the Dressage Under the Stars Series in Wellington, Florida, dressed as Batman, which garnered even more press and attention! His lovely horse ~~Robin~~ Rhett, belongs to Versailles, KY based equine chiropractor Shirley McQuillan so he's been based here in Lexington for a couple of months, and when my eventing friends started raving about him, and driving from as far afield as Louisville to take lessons with him, that's when I sat up took notice too.

Sadly for us all here in Kentucky though, Jim is en route to Virginia now,

"I say I'm from North Carolina but I haven't been there for a while. I've been a bit of a gypsy for the past few years. I'm going to Middleburg for the summer, and then back to Germany in the fall."

Jim spent his grant money training with Michael Klimke in Germany, where he said he discovered EventingNation.com.

"EventingNation was my lifeline to all that was happy and good and American, while I was in Germany where everything was quite serious and intense. I just loved it and became addicted! Now I read it all the time."

This isn't as random as it sounds because Jim has a not quite so secret eventing past. I'd assumed that he was an eventer turned dressage rider but not at all...

"I've always been stronger in the dressage than any other phase, but I did a bit of everything. After college I was living in Northern Virginia and working for Equus magazine, and doing a bunch of serious, professional jobs while doing dressage on the side. At some point I decided I wanted to give horses a go, so I took a sabbatical from work. With dressage you spend your life in a 20 x 60 m box, and I went to Badminton to watch on vacation, and then I went on one of those cross country training holidays, and I thought, this is what is missing in my life! So I came home and bought a horse from Peter Green and got on with it! At that point I'd been working in Washington DC for ten years and I was ready for something completely different. My whole eventing career was so ill-advised really, I didn't have a coach, it was just something I did for fun. Back then ( late 90's, hardly the Stone Ages!) you didn't really need to qualify I was just an arrogant dressage rider who would put up a couple of rickety standards at the back of the barn and go over them back and forth a few times and think that was great. It wasn't like I took lessons, or thought perhaps I should get some advice: I did one preliminary, a couple of intermediates and then moved up to advanced. I had no idea about how to get a horse properly fit, I just did everything I'd been taught in pony club!"

Jim has a great sense of humour and is a very funny story-teller, happily poking fun at himself, (unusual for an american, and even more so for a dressage rider?! ) he's very laid back and gregarious, but mostly it's obvious, he really enjoys horses, all horses and all aspects of his life with them. But back to the eventing.. how on earth did he get on at Rolex...

"I was pretty psyched! I only fell off once! Otherwise I made it around the course. Then I had to retire that horse because of a stupid injury in the pasture, and I got another funny little horse from Elizabeth Iorio, that didn't work out for her, so she suggested I give it a go because I was bitten by the bug. I kept on and took him advanced and did the long format 4* at Rolex with him, but before that I had done a 2* and several 3*'s, and this time I made it round Rolex and didn't fall off!"

I wondered if people tried to offer Jim advice on his eventing career choices,

"No, because I didn't really tell anyone what I was doing! I just snuck out on weekends. I'm still a mild-mannered dressage professional during the day, and then I would sneak out when no one was looking and run an event on the weekend, and for me I didn't really care how I did, I mean I tried to keep my penalties under 100, that was like a big thing for me! I didn't really have any problems jumping, and I figured I could always fix the dressage, except I never could fix the dressage, they were complete nutters, it was hideous! I think I probably put in the worst rides at Rolex ever performed, honestly! I was riding at Grand Prix dressage though, literally the weekend after Rolex I was going out riding Grand Prix dressage.

I'm busy all the time with students and horses literally all day long in my dressage job, with things that have to be done, so my poor event horse got put on the back burner a bit, he wasn't such a serious thing for me. I wasn't trying out for any teams, I wasn't trying to impress anybody. On cross country, I'd come round the corner, if I wanted to swing wide and take an extra tug to make sure it was right, I was going to do it, because once again, it was all about a good time, it wasn't about me needing to be Bruce Davidson!"

Plans were tentatively to go to Burghley after Rolex, but horses being horses

"My horse was in a trailer accident on the way home from Kentucky in 2000. I'd ended up bringing another person's horse home from Rolex because we were going to train together, and I was going to fix the dressage, once again, (!) but he never recovered from the trailer accident."

...and Jim hasn't evented since,

"I do miss it, but when I look back I shudder to think of the things I did! I had wonderful, funny good times though, and wonderful, funny, good horses, and every weekend was like a great adventure because I had no clients; I didn't have to impress anybody, dress up or be on my best behaviour, it was was more about getting together with my friends for the weekend and it was a giant, funny good time, and you got to go cross country, and it was a really magic time in my life, and it felt like nothing bad could happen, and fortunately it didn't! (Jim laughs!) I zipped around the courses, grinning ear to ear, and hung on. I was on super-talented horses that luckily saved the day for me. The horse that I got from Peter (Bank on It) is now 30, and when I ran Rolex, I ran down to the biggest jump I'd ever seen and just missed badly, so so so badly. I grabbed the mane, let him do it and landed on the other side; he didn't touch wood and he almost bucked me off on the other side and I told him, 'you have a home for life'. That's one of the things I miss about eventing: I can go into a line of pirouettes, or a line of tempi changes, and if I don't give the exact right cues it's not going to happen. In eventing you go to that fence and it's not something you do together, that horse has to say, 'gotcha, got you covered', they do it FOR you. It's the most amazing, humbling thing to ride these horses that give you so much. You try to prepare them and train them, but when the rubber hits the road, it's the horse doing the job and you're just there with them, letting them do their job well. I do miss that."

I asked Jim if he would ever consider eventing again?

"I could definitely do it better, and faster, but it was totally a fun thing for me. I was never planning to go professional. It was my avocation, not my vocation. To do it again wouldn't be the same. The horses sort of came to me, they kind of fell into my lap. I wouldn't do it unless it was on a very special horse. When I was on a magic, special horse like I was then, I felt like I could jump anything so I was up for it, let's do it!"

Jim still enjoys teaching the eventers though, and even some jumpers,

"When I lived in Southern Pines that's what I spent all day doing, riding event horses, helping event riders get ready for their dressage, and I think there's so many unbelievable horses and unbelievable riders that are really gifted, and to help them find their way a bit in the dressage is great. One of my first students was John Williams, and I couldn't believe anyone would take me seriously when I had just been so appalling at the events! I do love teaching event riders because I look at the physical talent of the horses and the riders, and it's really impressive, and the thing is they're not always polished, but they're always effective. It's interesting how many event riders compartmentalise the riding; for instance they're so capable of getting a horse balanced up, like if they came around the corner and had to jump a big vertical they'd be sitting, balanced and straight and then give it a good ride to that jump, yet they'll go in a dressage ring and for some reason they'll often leave their effective riding in the show-jumping ring. We'll be in the dressage ring, and say half-halt and they don't know what to do! As a dressage coach I just try and make them take what they're already doing and just put it in their dressage test; then they can get their horses straight and balanced, uphill and active - for me it's easy to just shape them up a little bit, they already know how to do it. It's making eventers re-think and re-focus on how to ride just as effectively in the dressage ring as they do over jumps. It's a completely different standard now too, especially shortening the format, the type of horse that can be used many times can focus and handle the pressure of collection, and the demands of the dressage test. The sport has become so serious that there's fortunately less people like me in it that do it ( I disagree !), the level of professionalism is really astonishing to see, the growth, and just how good these horses and riders are."

Jim is rather good at the dressage game himself, and is making a serious bid for London next year, but I have to drag that out of him!

"I have a super horse, Rhett, bred right here in Kentucky, I think he's the only US bred horse in years to have done anything. Again, he sort of fell into my lap, I got a phone call from a friend to say she had a horse that wasn't really working out, and I happened to be in the area, had a slot open in my trailer, so I told her if he loaded, I'd take him. He did load, and we got on like a house on fire; we moved him up to Grand Prix in Germany last year. He's 11 this year, and bigger and larger than life - huge movement, huge power, huge personality, when we focus it, amazing things happen! Our challenge is keeping everything stuffed in the box so that we can channel all that energy."

Jim also seems lost for words when I ask him why he thinks he seems to find the keys to horses other people tend to give up on,

"I don't know...I get bored easily? I don't know? People shop for the perfect horse but I sort of let the universe provide what I needed..I had had a super Grand Prix horse before this that was like My Friend Flicka, my favourite horse ever, and he was doing super and then life unraveled and he got EPM. He was small and black, this little ferarri, so I had said to myself I wanted big - big head, big feet, hybrid bigger, everything completely the opposite of this horse, and my friend gave me a call about this other horse, and I was like, alright, this is exactly what I ordered! Really though, I'm just grateful for all the opportunities I get."

Jim will take 14 horses to Virginia with him, "they have a way of multiplying", as well as "the best young rider in the country: she's dynamite - focused, hungry, wants it badly." That would be Holly Shook, Jim's new assistant, "she's my assistant, she can help warm up, cool down, unbelievable rider, and unbelievable to have her as my eyes on the ground, and hopefully she'll bring her horse and come with me to Germany in the fall to compete in the Young Rider World Cup." When he returns to Europe Jim will take Rhett, as well as hopefully another up-and-coming Grand Prix horse, "don't get me started, he's just the coolest thing ever!" and this time they'll be based with Edward Gal. Don't expect Jim to settle down anytime soon, but you can cross your fingers to watch him ride in London next summer. Thanks for talking to us, Jim, safe travels! Thanks for reading, go have fun and go eventing!

Schooling at the horse park

By Samantha L Clark on May 15, 2011 10:08 PM

After temperatures near 90 degrees last week, a cold rain on sunday with the mercury hovering around fifty, and a couple of hundred horses schooling cross-country at the Kentucky Horse Park was a recipe for some friskiness! It was important to stay alert to avoid accidents, which may have helped to add some adrenalin to the schooling sessions, which I always used to find hard: difficult to replicate a competition atmosphere, hard to not want to "protect" your horse.

There were some large groups schooling, some individuals, and some small lessons. Everyone who rode needed to sign in to get a pinny for insurance and safety purposes, and there was medical staff on site, as well as stewards to make sure things didn't get out of hand.

I was thrilled to bump into Dorothy Crowell who'd ridden two horses earlier and was now busy schooling, and very kindly let me tag along for a while. Dorothy was helping a rider hoping to move up to Prelim at Maydaze in a couple of weeks time. I was relieved when she told me she also found xc schooling a bit of a conundrum, and found teaching it just as tricky,

"I really like to try and put at least six or seven fences together, rather than stopping and starting and stopping which makes it hard to get a rhythm going. The riders might get over the fences and they might do the right things with their bodies to get over the fences but it's still a little bit different when you're out there galloping. For instance, the adjustment you have to make is probably bigger than you think: If you're galloping at 600m per minute, which is fast, and you have to jump a fence at 350mpm, that's a huge change, so you might go from 600mpm to 400mpm, and think you've got it, because that's still a huge change, but it's still not good enough to jump the fence, and that's one of the main things we have to work on when you're moving from training to preliminary."

Dorothy's husband had rigged up a couple of walkie-talkies so that she could speak to her rider via earbud while she rode, and after a quick talk about the basics they started with some simple fences, before moving on to the water and coffin complexes.

Dorothy stressed keeping the rider's eye up and concentrating if not on the next jump, then on a focal point, be it a tree or telegraph pole in the near distance straight ahead and after the jump, and this really helped, especially jumping skinnies out of coffins. She also talked about adjusting your position as you get closer to the jump,

"From about 15 to 10 strides out, you're using the motion of the horse galloping underneath you, but you're still out of the tack. From 10 to 5 strides out you're moving into the tack, so that the move for cross country is: unlock your back, then in that rhythm, you're moving your seat under your shoulders, but you're still out of the tack, then over the next five strides you move the weight into the tack, and then the next two or three strides you look up at your next destination, and you move the saddle as needed. Now, during that period when you're going from 3-point to actually in the tack, you maintain the canter we created 15 strides out, or you can create a better one. If it's just a matter of straightforward fences then it's all about maintenance. My more experienced horses now have got to the point now where when I go to make that first move with my back, then that's their half-halt and that's all they need"

Dorothy compared riding your horse cross-country to driving your car, especially where gears and speeds were concerned in relation to approaches to different types of fences,

"I relate it to gears: if fifth gear is a gear you would never jump from, it's just flat out gallop, then fourth gear you would only ever do a true steeplechase course with, something that has a really generous ground line and nothing hard in it. Third gear is where you would do most of your straightforward, with a sloping face, galloping fences. Second gear is where we spend our lives. Second gear is all about anything vertical or anything with a combination. Within second gear you can do a hard second gear or a soft second gear, depending on what you need."

The earbud system was a godsend, it meant that Dorothy could give instructions, compliments and a running commentary, all without shouting, and we joked that it would be wonderful if we could have her riders compete with Dorothy in their ears at the same time! Dorothy is unfailingly genuine and positive, and really gives her all to the lessons; it was a horrible, cold rainy day to be honest, but nothing dampened her enthusiasm, her obvious delight in making a difference, and just still enjoying what she does. When things didn't go perfectly, she remained calm and drew on her vast experience to fix the problem, and the schooling session ended with a confident horse and rider who'd tackled some fairly meaty problems in trying conditions, and who I think should quietly be looking forward to their first prelim.

I'd like to thank Dorothy and her student for letting me tag along; but especially all the volunteers who gave up their sunday to spend it it in the cold and the rain so that everyone could enjoy the wonderful facilities. Also, big up to the eventing community, I had to drive through the jumper show to get the schooling, and stopped several times to let riders, grooms trainers etc cross the road, but did not get a single thank you, or even acknowledgment. The very first person I stopped for at the cross country session gave me a huge smile and a wave, from under her raincoat, a lovely girl, she's lucky I didn't jump out of the car and hug her right there and then, and I discovered later she's Juliette, Dorothy's daughter!

Incidentally, Juliette saw this jump by the trailer park and calmly told her mother, "No, I won't be doing anything like that!"; she has dressage dreams after seeing Totilas at WEG last year.

Good luck to her with that, and to everyone who rode yesterday, and indeed all eventers. Thank you for reading, and thank you for waving and smiling. Go schooling and go eventing!

Iroquois Hound & Puppy Show

By Samantha L Clark on May 15, 2011 9:20 AM

A very generous, and last-minute invitation saturday afternoon saw us at the Iroquois Hunt Club, feeling decidedly underdressed, at their inaugural Hound and Puppy Show, a prep for the "big one" in a a couple of weeks time in Middleburg, Virginia. Hound and puppy shows are quite popular in England, sometimes as part of the county shows and horse shows, sometimes they stand alone, and as soon as I saw the refreshments I felt right at home!

Pimms!

Despite the genteel surroundings, dress code, manners and traditions that are upheld within the hunt,

the Iroquois is innovative and on the cutting edge in a number of ways. I'm surprised and proud to discover that that the Iroquois is one of very few hunts that has an active Hound Welfare Program. As Huntsman for 8 seasons, Lilla Mason explained to me,

"If we can get more people involved with the hounds, and to love the hounds then that's great. If they come on the summer hound walk, and there was Hamlet, for instance, and then next year we culled him or shot him and Hamlet's not there...they know."

The fact that the Iroquois Hunt keeps the hounds for their entire lives, (Master Miller has 13 retirees living in his house, Lilla told me!) also provides a unique research opportunity.

Scientists at the University of Tennessee and the University of Wisconsin are using the Iroquois hounds to support a study on the effectiveness of a newly developed vaccine for Blastomycosis.

Small children who have cancer and need bone marrow transplants can get Blasto and it is fatal. The fungus is indigenous to the Ohio Valley area.

Hounds can also contract the disease but survive it with treatment, and because the Iroquois maintain detailed health records on generations of dogs, the kennel is uniquely positioned to aid their efforts.

My daughter Lily was thrilled to be asked to help with the special class for retired hounds, and Lilla wanted to assure me it's a complete myth that hounds do not make good pets once they've finished hunting. Lily and Glog, made a beautiful couple, and we can now add Glog to the list of things, "please please please can I have..."!

It's love!: Lily and Glog!

The Iroquois Hunt encourages involvement from it's members who were out in force at the puppy show, and I was impressed how many of them knew so many of the hounds' names and characteristics, as well as breeding. Lilla told me,

"At our hunt we really try to encourage members, once they enjoy riding with us, to expand their knowledge and get an interest in hounds as well because it just enhances your enjoyment of the sport."

Many of them join them out on exercise during the summer months, as Cecilia explained to me,

The Iroquois Hunt is also active in protecting the habitat, and has won awards for it's conservation efforts. The Hunt was founded in 1880, and named after the first American horse to win the English Derby. It now has 52 and a half couple of hounds, and hunts three days a week during the season which runs from September to March.

However for Lilla the hunt season really begins at the end of March,

"That's when we beginning training the new entries, so from the end of March until the first day of Hunt season we walk the hounds every day. We start the first two months on foot; that's when the hounds learn commands, get individual attention, and we address their individual personalities. By the beginning of september, when hunting starts they need to not be individuals anymore but need to work as a pack and to be in symphony, so it's sort like an orchestra - you tweak the horn players and the violin players, so that when hunt season opens it's a symphony, they're all on the same page, everybody's together and when you go out it looks seamless. It's just like anything else, if it looks easy it was really hard to get there"

Lilla talks from experience, because she's also an accomplished eventer and more recently pure dressage rider, she says in her spare time, but as she combines her huntsman duties with a full-time office job in public relations, I'm not sure how she has any!

Although I'm beginning to feel right at home, there are some key differences between the hunting here in Kentucky and in back home in England.

"We hunt mostly coyotes, so the hounds don't get as much learning time as hunts that just hunt foxes. For instance the hounds could find a coyote the first day of hunt season and they run very fast so puppies have to know to keep up, the first day of hunt season we could have a six mile point, it's not like English hunting where you have cubbing. The coyotes are a different quarry to foxes; I enjoy hunting coyotes because they don't go to ground, they're very clever, and they're really fun to chase. They do a lot of things foxes do but the points are longer because they stay above ground."

Timing is also different here because the Iroquois hunt on Sunday afternoons, which my daughter and I did last year for her birthday present, and it struck me as quite civilised!

"Well, here in America we couldn't hunt during church time, many people go to church in the morning on sundays and you know how hounds are, we'd probably end up with hounds in fully cry by a church and offend a lot of people! It offers more for the members too though, especially for those with children; at 2 o clock it's a bit warmer by then, those aren't usually are hardest days because it gets darker sooner, but it's easier on families that way."

Lilla has fond memories of hunting in England and Ireland,

"I was blessed to be able to hunt with some of the best hunts in England because when the coyotes came into our hunt country in the late '80's we had the wrong kind of hound to chase them, we had a low sitting, trailing fox-hound pack and it wasn't working, the coyotes would get our hounds at bay and they weren't doing the job. Master Miller decided to go all over England, Ireland and France looking for just the right kind of hound that would suit our country. Fortunately I needed to go to organise his horses. We spent many, many hours in kennels with kennelmen and huntsmen, talking to them and watching the hounds. Some of my best memories are of sitting in the valeting rooms in the kennels with the cigarette smoke and the coffee smell and talking to those guys for hours because I learned so much that way. It's just fabulous to have had that opportunity."

I'd like to thank Lilla Mason, and all the members of the Iroquois Hunt Club for talking to me yesterday, and for being so kind, welcoming, and knowledgable about their hounds and heritage. Please click on the link to find out more about the Hound Welfare Programme, or check out the Iroquois Hunt. Thank you for reading, and go out in the countryside and go eventing!

No Rain (was not playing today)

By Samantha L Clark on May 14, 2011 2:50 PM

Sadly for the Sayre School Horse Show, an annual event at Masterson Station Park here in Lexington, Ky, it hasn't stopped raining all day. Of course this wasn't enough to deter most of the hardy eventers who like to use it as a schooling show, coming as it does two weeks before the Maydaze Horse Trials at the Park, but spectators were definitely a rare breed today, although we did see lots of umbrellas. And rain gear....

I'm afraid I can't give you any scores or anything useful, BUT, I did learn all about the latest wet weather riding apparel available, and I was pretty gobsmacked. We've come a long way from the crackling, smelly, heavy head to toe Drizabone that I used to sport for about 9 months of the year in England - Thank God!

This is my friend Kathleen, modeling her waterproof, lightweight, and very good-looking show jacket that she bought last year during the WEG. It's made by an Italian company called Animo which explains why the cut is so stylish, and the material is very breathable and stretchy - it feels like something you'd put on to go running in, if that was your wont!

Check out the nice flat pockets, and the zip beneath the buttons. As usual excuse the second rate photos,( where IS Nico Morgan when you really need him, oh yes, he's at Windsor, hobnobbing with royalty, from his twitter feed: "@nicomorgan Feeling rather self-conscious: being asked questions by The Duke of Edinburgh and being papped. #royalwindsor ) but we took these with my phone in a rather soggy trailer! Of course Kathleen was completely dry!

But wait, there's more.....

No point in being dry on top and having wet legs - Kerrits have got you covered.

Now that I look these up on the Kerrits website, I see that they're actually called knickers, which means something completely different where I'm from, but anyway, you pull them on over your breeches, you honestly can't tell they're there,

they're completely waterproof, very lightweight, sticky on the inside so you're not sliding around on the saddle, or sweating too much, and then when you're finished....

Ta-da! You just unzip to reveal, well, whatever you like really! Genius!

Thanks to Kathleen of course for being such a stunning and patient model. We may follow her more closely in future in a diary fashion if she'll let us, because not only is she a very discerning shopper as you now know, but she is also the consummate horsewoman. Prior to earning a living not on horseback, Kathleen competed at Rolex several times, has finished the Tevis Cup 100 mile ride more than once, arguably the toughest endurance race there is, as well as turning her hand to jumping, and is a hard woman to hounds, having fox-hunted in Ireland and lived to tell some very amusing tales about it. For now, she has a beautiful chestnut gelding that she competes at training/prelim level, and combines that with a very high-powered job in the financial field, a beautiful but high-maintenance German Shepherd, and a wonderful husband who has taken up foxhunting with her in the winter, I think so that he can spend some time with her! Thank you for reading as always; stay dry and go riding!

High hopes for High Hopes

By Samantha L Clark on May 13, 2011 3:02 PM

Next Sunday, May 22nd, will see a happy return to the Kentucky Horse park for the 44th running of the High Hope Steeplechase after a year's hiatus because of the World Equestrian Games.

A wonderful day out for the whole family, John Nicholson, Executive Director of the Horse Park admitted it's his favourite day of the year. Not only are there some legitimate races, (eg a $25,000 Maiden Hurdle) but so far the HIgh Hope Steeplechase has raised more than $1.5m for good causes, and this year will benefit Central Kentucky Riding for Hope, Secretariat Center, Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital, Kentucky Horse Park Foundation and other local equine charities.

There are lots of ticket options, from general admission trackside parking at $25, preferred taligating $250, a spot in the members pavilion $75 (includes parking, admission, open bar & gourmet lunch), or a corporate entertainment tent for $2,000 - tent admits 40, says admits, not sleeps (!), includes sign and 8 parking passes. I think this is what EN signed up for!

As well as the hurdle races, I'm really looking forward to watching Hall of Fame, two time Kentucky Derby winner Chris McCarron's North American Racing Academy jockeys ride in their own designated race, the "Catch a Riding Star", and of course I'll be cheering extra loudly for Nick Milford who we spoke to way back in February, and who I caught up with briefly this morning.

NARA graduates have gone on to win over 750 races and have purse earnings of over $10million. The NARA race is the final race after which of course there'll be a rendition of My Old Kentucky Home, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for Glennyglenn, my 2010 radio show co-host and Horse Radio Network head honcho to see if he's tearing up in a corner somewhere, gets him every time!

The High Hope is much like a day out at an English point-to-point. There's drinking and picnics involved, lots of dogs, and of course you may see the odd horse race. There's a parade of the Woodford Hounds, and lest I forget myself and imagine I am back home in Bicester country, ha ha, there will be a singing of the national anthem, I'm pretty sure that will be the US version after the Presentation of the Colors (note spelling!) before the first race. There's plenty to keep the kids happy - Cambo the Clown, Arts and Crafts, Hobby Horse Races and Lurcher and Terrier Races (not strictly for kids). The fourth race will be the popular Timber race, the $15,000 Jay Trump Timber, presented by The Friends Of High Hope, and the course is designed by none other than "Wild" Bill Wofford.

Bill brought one of his horses to school around some of the jumps today, and a very good looking horse it was too. Although it's only been barely a fortnight since Rolex, and we've had plenty of rain in the meantime, I was really surprised at how firm the track is already. When the jockeys galloped past us it sounded pretty hard, and it already feels quite unforgiving to walk on compared to ten days ago. The hunters and jumpers who are here for the spring shows are supposed to stay in the infield for hacking, and off the track, but they are mainly a law unto themselves, and one jumper inadvertently nearly got caught up in the race whilst walking his horse back to the barns unawares along the steeplechase track! I was very happy to meet Bill briefly while he was waiting for his horse to come back, and I now have an inkling of why they call him "wild" Bill!

Thanks to Wild Bill, and to Nick Milford for talking to me, and thank you as always for reading. I can't wait for all the fun next sunday; please do come out and enjoy the day if you're even halfway local, it's terrific fun, and supports lots of good causes. Go steeplechasing, eventing, and Animal Kingdom!

Former Eventer, NPR news anchor, & most recently co-host of the 2010 Radio show. Now armed with social media, camera, video & smart phone & knows no bounds. Thrilled to have EventingNation as an excuse to satisfy an incurable curiosity about anything to do with horses, but especially eventing, wanderlust and a determination to cling on to my English roots (!). Often accompanied by two small children - sometimes helpful, sometimes a hindrance, and almost always by a beautiful, black labrador - perfect company!