Eventing Nation had a strong presence at the O’Connor Eventing Camp last week, and one of our readers was kind enough to share about her camp experience. In this article, McKenna writes about everything from David’s favorite drink to the infamous mechanical bull incident. Thanks for writing this McKenna, and thank you for reading.
Well I figure before I start in on the details of camp you should know a little bit about me….
My name is McKenna Oxenden and I am 13 years old (14 on the 24th) and I ride a 13.2 bay and white paint pony named Dorito Cooler Ranch AKA Dorito. We go BN, and just did our first Novice last weekend. It went really well (more on that later!). I ride and board at Tara Equestrian at Chapelview Farm in Woodbine, Maryland and train with Ashley Beheler. Now the camp report:
A line….commonly used at camp! I’m not hard to spot the smallest one on the paint!
Well camp was pretty amazing, actually spectacular and awesome…or well there is no way to describe it! Everyone is soooo nice and down to earth it’s amazing. Whether I was riding or on the ground or during a discussion or playing a game it was Fantastic!!!!
I figure I’ll give a brief over view of each day just so you get a prospective of what we did and also include what we learned…. I apologize in advance for the lengthy report!
Sunday was an introduction to the staff and campers, we learned each other’s names camp style and then had to go around in a circle and say stuff about us…wow okay, gather your thoughts….hmm think think think oh crap it’s my turn! Uhhhh okay…I say stuff about me and then say I just moved up to Novice last weekend, Karen asks “how did it go?” and I say “Very well” Karen responds “very well??” and I say ” uhhh yeaa…..well I had a few scary jumps…” and that got a laugh…okay wheeww it’s over…oh man did I make a fool of myself? You see the things that run through your mind? After all introductions we headed up to the pavilion for some food and games. The food was amazing BUT it was time to get down and play softball O’Connor style! With my flip flops as bases and rules that who knows if they were technical or not 😉 we soon had almost everyone playing and had our teams split… Karen and Cathy’s team verses David’s team…and David’s team whooped butt!!!!!! Yayy us! Did you know if you put your right foot back you’ll hit the ball to right field?? Yeah, I learned that from David :).
Monday I was up bright and early learning about the 4 main yields-hind end, front end, head down, and back up. I also learned the importance of YOU being the leader to your horse and about applying pressure but making sure you APPLY THE RELEASE! After our discussion of those topics we headed over to the bull, our little red machine that teaches us how to ride a drop and up a bank. After everyone had a turn we then headed to get our natural horsemanship equipment. We learned what the various items were for, how to use them. We had our 12 foot line, rope halter, carrot stick along with a savvy string that was attached to it. We practiced on people on how to handle the rope and then we took what we learned on the ground without horses to with horses! I have been doing Parelli for 4 1/2 years ( at least I think) and I found this to still be quite interesting. I learned I need to get more insistent quicker and I need to watch my posture, Karen was a big help with that. Later that afternoon we put our ground stuff to use and put it together while riding the horse, so we were doing all the yields along with leg yields around the ring. My temporary group worked with Cathy and then when we finished working on our 4 yields along with the leg yield we all headed back to the main arena and got in a huge group that were doing leg yields all around the ring. Though it was fun, it got quite confusing as you had Karen, David, or Cathy yelling at you and you just weren’t quite sure who was talking to you! At one point I had both Karen and David instructing me! So day one was all about the 4 yields and learning to RELEASE the pressure. Oh and by the way…rein back has 2 beats! And that night we had a wonderful talk from Ecogold about the boots and pads and why they are so excellent!
Tuesday, started out again with our bull friend and another talk. This one was about the 4 (5 if you want to get technical) Rider Responsibilities along with the conversation of just not more leg but more leg to do what? You get EN Karma and bragging rights if you can name the rider responsibilities as David would/did explain them! Shortly after our bronco ride and discussion we headed up the (giant) hill to do more natural horsemanship. We worked on the same thing as yesterday except we had a better concept of how to do it along with that we worked on lunging (parelli term- circling game) After and 1 hour or so of that we bridled up and mounted, we then got in our groups and headed off to the arenas. Group 3, my group, had David for flat. This flat session was about 20 meter circles…you set tennis balls up on a 20 meter circle and you have to go through them as straight as possible….you know what you learn…you usually bow out way too much on a circle and are not straight enough, yes I know how can it be possible to not be straight enough on a circle?! Basically what most of us learned is that you need to say go here not YOU BETTER GO HERE or nagging or as David referred to it as “yelling”. That afternoon was jumping with Cathy and we were just doing a simple exercise but we were focusing on the basics and striding…it’s amazing that when you scale back on your jumping like not doing a course that amount of little things you screw up on. That night our lecture was from the wonderful Max!!! She was talking about studding and what the main types are and big no no’s and she also talked about boots they use Ecogold boots for XC and equifit for stadium.
Wednesday brought on XC!!!!!! WOOOHOOOO!! We were having more conversations of XC and what to do and stuff we also had the bull with the saddle on. The big idea of XC…HAVE YOUR KNEE STRAIGHT!!!!!!!! I can have a camper, (known as the camper who shall not be named), attest to that as you’ve all seen the picture!! Woo that gave us a good laugh…ohh the things that happen at camp! We got straight to things and headed up to the arenas to start with jumping! We had Karen and I learned so much!! As I have a pony I learned how to make his stride bigger at the trot…the rounder he is the bigger it is! During those lessons I also learned the importance of being straight to a jump and not angling it and also getting your lead in the air/the stride before the jump. Later that afternoon we had “man from snowy river”!!!!!!! And XC positions!!!!! WOOOHHOOO!! We had David again and I learned how to improve my prepare position before the jumps…they call it raising the sail. After some galloping position we headed up the hill to gather as a group to do man from snowy river….wow that is sooo much fun! The first time your horse tends to back off because your cantering along and then all of a sudden your at the summit of a very large steep hill….but the next time they’re pretty good and then when you go again my big brave pony decides that he doesn’t need to slow down so needless to say halfway down the hill I was going a bit faster and then when I hit the bottom he takes off like a rocket….I then came back around and got a talking to “what are you doing you’re going to break him!! I don’t want to hear his hoof beats or huffing! Come again! Micro manage him to contain his craziness!!” That time went much better! After that we headed to go pop over a log and then we headed back to the barn. Max gave us another stable management talk about show turnout with the wonderful Mandiba (Doodle) I also learned a lot like how to do quarter marks, a better cheaper “green spot remover” spray, and a different way how to braid! We had our other BBQ that night and it was also amazing! We had an interesting game of jeopardy…I must say that with out some of the OCET’s help I wouldn’t have had some of those questions! Trivia Fact: The first American women to compete in eventing in the Olympics was Hannah DuPont! Our team lost miserably but we weren’t allowed to use our secret weapon, the vet….we had a vet who was in our group and we were banned for using him in the Vet Medicine questions!! To make the night even better we got our awesome photo of the camper who shall not be named and Karen personally autographed by the both of them 🙂 mega score!
Thursday was natural horsemanship with horses who had XC issues along with watching Karen riding Quin (Quintus 54) Cathy riding Simba, and Cathy’s groom Amanda riding her Intermediate horse Teddy (Ready Teddy). Wow. Okay why must they be sooo amazing!? Karen is sooo quiet with her upper body all she does is move her hips, must she make it look so easy?! Others headed off to watch natural horsemanship while a few of us stragglers continued to watch…I learned so much also from just watching the 3 of them ride. Amazing! Did I say that enough? 🙂 After that was lunch with a talk from Pennfield a long time sponsor of the O’Connor’s. After that was XC with Cathy!!!! It was awesome also! There were 3 stations- banks, ditches, and water. Our group did a mini course through the water including jumps into and out of the water, with the banks we did a down bank to an up bank one stride to a roll top and with the ditches a 1/2 coffin. Everything was spectacular and jumped awesome!! That night we got invited to a BBQ at someone’s house so we went and it was some of the best food I’ve ever had!
Karen schools Quin over the “H” excersise
Friday was the last day 🙁 we had what I think may have been the best discussion all week. we just talked about the various things about XC like safety, the point two airvest, frangible pins, the rule about falling, TE’s, dangerous riding, abusive riding…..am I missing anything? We then headed up to the ring to help finish setting the course and walk it. We had to walk it by our selves and then we walked it with Karen and got our order of go. You warmed up with wither Karen or Cathy and then headed over. I warmed up with Cathy and got a little of Karen at the end…. I had a pretty good WU and was feeling good as I headed over to ride my course. As I walked into the ring I talked with David and started my course it was pretty good, I got told I needed to keep it the same, not to take back or mess with him, keep a better rhythm, and stay out of the tack!! I went back and re-did the course and it was a lot better but I still needed to just leave him and stay out of the tack so I did 2 lines again and then I was done. I was really happy with the way it .Once we had finished we headed to our luncheon which had the most amazing food!! We were having quite a conversational piece at our table… Blue’s Clue’s….yes Blue’s Clue’s we talked about the thinking chair and then I shared about how I had one….from when I was little… and then I got asked if I sat in it often…gee my new friend’s are nice! David and Leslee sat there wondering where education went wrong and then David said you know if you guys would’ve had this conversation on Sunday it would’ve explained a lot this week…. 🙂 oh the things that happen at camp. The groups did skits which included a song about camp, a fairytale with Queen Karen and King David along with their duchess Cathy, and our skit…a typical riding lesson from that week. Awards for most improved rider, all I’ll say he is a Canadian who needs to wear his new point two airvest to breakfast! And a prize for stable management was given out and that went to one of my new very good friends…it was a free lesson from Karen or David!!!! But have no fear we did not walk away empty handed as we became members of the OCET with our saddle pads! We had also collected goodies through out the week such as mugs, hats, free samples, coupons, and other things!
This past week was amazing. I was having the time of my life. And I also learned soooo much! I learned that I need to be out of the saddle a lot more, in half seat. I learned how to better my XC position and show jumping exercises’ to do at home. I learned how famous people can be the most down to earth people you know. I learned soooooo much!!!! This camp is the bomb and I highly recommend it! It was a huge accomplishment for me to be able to go there because my mom said I could only go if I raised 800 dollars, and I did. It was totally worth it and I’m doing it again next year…. I’m already saving again! It’s an awe inspiring experience that gives you a whole new prospective and learning experience!
So here I give you some tips if you decide to go….
Things to Know
– Go with the flow
-if you drop your crop you have to get off and get it
-make new friends! Talk to people!
– make sure you pay attention. make eye contact!
– eveything the schedule says add about a half hour to it
-David’s obessessd with Diet Coke (apparently also nacho cheese doritos?)
– Karen really likes her rubberbanded crop
Dogs to know- Brew=Karen’s
Cuppa=Cathys’s
Boston=Max’s
-Don’t say biscuit to Brew because he expects one
-Cathy likes Merlot
-David like Bourbon
-Karen likes Chardonnay
-Max likes “home brewed” beers
– remember the favorite alcohol for when you fall off or want to suck up 🙂
Quotes from the Week
-“O’Connor Camp sponsored by Advil!”~DOC when Cathy runs over Amanda while playing softball
-“How did I get dope on a rope”- Karen on your horses thoughts
-“Leave him!” – a common thing heard from David when you’d mess with your horse too much
-“Max fix that” – David or Karen when they need something
-“You gotta get that fixed” – David on an abscess or something bad
-“Lieutenant Dan you aint got no legs!” – David ‘nough said.
-“Are you listening to me!?!” – Karen, David, and Cathy when someone’s ADD kicked in.
