Even if you weren’t aware of Steph’s lengthy list of accomplishments upon meeting her, you’d still walk away from the conversation with the impression of a nice, hardworking, and positive horsewoman. Those qualities, along with her accomplishments in 2010 as a top finisher at both Rolex and later the World Equestrian Games, are what makes Steph such a valuable asset to the Canadian Eventing Team at the ripe age of 22. Steph’s horse, Port Authority, has carried her from the Young Rider ranks, to the World Equestrian Games, and now hopefully on to Badminton this spring. This is the second of her entries as a spring guest blogger, so be sure to check back and follow Steph on her next big adventure. To make it easier for family ,friends, and all others interested in supporting her on the upcoming adventure, Steph has added an online donation tab to her website, which can be accessed here.
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So, Eventing Nation… good to be back with you all again from Sunny Ocala. I can say with absolute certainty that we are some of the luckiest people in the world, even those readers with broken down trucks, sidelined horses, and bottomed out bank accounts. We are lucky to be safe(ish) and (mostly) happy and have a roof (of some kind, even the barn roof) over our heads tonight, and I hope that everyone has thoughts and prayers for those in Japan who have seen their entire lives literally swept away this past week.
I know that a lot of us (myself included) get so consumed in our own lives that I don’t even know whats going on in Aiken, let alone in Japan. But, the reason we get such tunnel vision is because we are passionate about what we do. The sport, and the horses, and the lifestyle that we live are so much a part of us that it doesn’t even occur to us to think past that lesson at 2:45 this afternoon, or to think of what things we could be doing over spring break if we weren’t busy riding (I was just recently reminded that Spring Break even existed for some people).
I know a big thing for me in my life right now is the huge focus on my next 3 competitions, Poplar, The Fork, and Badminton. You would think by looking at my email in box, my recent text messages and listening to any of my conversations during the day that life itself depended on which flight to book across the Pond, and in a way … I guess it kind of does!
Everything seems to be coming together fairly well on the organizational front for this trip. The folks at Peden’s Bloodstock Shipping and Mersants shipping agencies have been incredibly helpful in guiding us through this process, and we’ll definitely need their help every step of the way. It’s so nice to have such experienced professionals to help me on my first trip across the pond, and (speaking of experienced pros) you can bet I’ve been picking KOC’s brain as much as possible about flights and dates and ways to cut corners on expenses (which is being done in as MANY places as possible!! Who knew this trip would be so expensive)
But, there I go again. Getting carried away with thoughts about Badminton, when really I have a ton to do between now and then with both Kojo and Ollie. Thursday, Elizabeth Johns’ little Kojo man went to the Equiventures Derby Day at Jon and Jen Holling’s Willow Run Farm and had a super time. Kojo has been competing Novice in USEA events, but he did the Training level derby course (big scary show jumps, full coffin, and bank out of the water to a coop included!!) with only a couple of sticky moments. Novice level cross country at Poplar next weekend should feel like a breeze! Kojo will go home to Virginia after Poplar and have an easy 5 weeks of turnout and occasional hacking. The move up to jumping the Black Numbers at events will come sometime mid May!!
After the derby I rushed home in time for a lesson on the super fabulous Ollie with dressage trainer Gunnar Ostergaard. Ollie was very good, moving great and making several improvements on our run through of the Badminton Test! Dang. There’s that pesky B word again. Anyways, it was great to spend such a beautiful afternoon playing in the sandbox with my wonderful horse, and it really got me thinking about how I need to take moments to just be happy and enjoy all of this. It might be hard work, and it might be stressful to the point where we sometimes don’t sleep at night, but the bottom line is that we do this because we like it (hopefully) and that we are so fortunate to have the opportunities that we do!
Thanks a lot for reading, guys. Go Eventing!
