All of us eventers stuck in the north are filled with pity and heartfelt sorrow from the reports over the past few days of eventers suffering from heat stroke and dehydration in Ocala and Aiken. I am just glad that some people in our sport are brave enough to take on 80 degree afternoons, good footing, and the stress of having to remember sunscreen. Longtime friend of EN, my former fellow Area VIII young rider team mate, and 2013 Ocala training session selectee Lauren Kieffer was kind enough to send us a report from Ocala. For more from Lauren be sure to check out her website. Thanks for writing this Lauren and thank you for reading.
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From Lauren:
So John asked me to write a blog about the glamorous lifestyle of us eventers in the south. Clearly it’s been a long time since he competed and he has forgotten that manure smells just as bad down here in the sunshine as it does up north in the cold. Actually it probably smells worse since its warm…. but that is the price we pay to be wearing t-shirts in January.
But in all seriousness we are living the life down here at Jacqueline Mars’ beautiful Meredyth South. The farm looks great thanks to Justin Showalter’s hard work over the summer and we are gearing up to kick off the spring season.
After the last events of 2012, all of the horses got their shoes pulled (another perk of the sandy south) and had 4- 6 weeks off. They then spent four weeks walking and trotting and then we started up the flat work and jumping.
The horses are all going great and we will start off the season with some of the young horses at Longwood’s unrecognized HT, hit the schooling jumper show at Southern Cross Equestrian, and then Rocking Horse 1 and Ocala 2.
I will also bring you updates from the 25 and under training sessions here the last week of January. I will be riding Ms Mars’ lovely Cosima who I rode in the CCI** at Fairhill this fall and was found by Karen O’Connor and Marilyn Little last summer.
I am very excited about this year, we all start the year with big plans and expectations, but all of us in this sport know that we will be lucky if 10% of what we “plan” happens, but no matter what does happen I have an amazing group of horses to ride and the best support team, owners, supporters, and sponsors backing us.
So until next time, stay warm northerners and bring it on 2013!
