Being a die-hard romantic, and knowing there was nothing more that my kids would love than a horsey morning to break up their few days winter beach holiday (NOT!), I called up Sharon White of Last Frontier Farm, who very kindly agreed to a last-minute visit at her ‘Wellington,West Virginia’ base as she called it. It turned out to be a wonderful Valentine’s Day morning. Sharon has been based down here in Florida for the last six weeks, cramming as much training as possible into every minute, be that dresssage with Linda Zang, or jumping with Ian Millar or George Morris by day, and replaying her rides via video at night so she can glean even more from each lesson.
Sharon had considered going straight from Wellington to Aiken; she told me it’s so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of everything that’s available nowadays, and of course you feel like don’t want to miss out on a thing, but sensible as she is, and with the horses’ welfare always first and foremost, she decided that although Reggie might benefit, the younger horses definitely need to go home and process, take a deep breath, and that after all it is only February, in what will hopefully be a long, busy and productive year. Sharon has three girls helping her – Alissa, Caitlin and Marley who quietly and efficiently got things done around us, but were also friendly and helpful – the atmosphere in the barn is definitely a very happy, relaxed one but with eleven horses all going in different directions during the day, the schedule is tight and the organisation is supreme. I watched Sharon take a flat lesson with Linda, and was so impressed by all three of them, or should I say five – Clarke, (named after Stephen Clarke), and Vivien (Leigh, of course, the redhead, can’t you tell?!)
Vivien and Clarke
Linda has a quiet teaching style using plenty of positive encouragement, often asking Sharon what she was feeling and for feedback. I love to take and watch lessons, I love how good instructors can spot those subtle nuances, how in this instance telling Sharon to pick up her left side, in the tiniest degree that I was barely aware of watching, made a huge difference.
Linda is, of course, one of the best of the best, and will also be judging at the Kentucky Horse Park later this summer at the Young Rider Championships, as well as training several other high profile eventers. Linda kindly took a few minutes during a walk break to chat about the importance of proper dressage training for eventing; how wonderful to hear her extol the virtues of the event horse having to think for himself, the importance of the dressage horse always moving forward and being in front of the leg, and with so much empathy for all their little quirks, and such horsemanship, I could have stayed all day, (all winter!) but my kids couldn’t…!
Practically, Linda also discussed warming up at the events, working at home (Sharon returns to Last Frontier Farm via Rocking Horse this weekend) and Reggie’s character and how best to deal with it, she obviously knows him well – “there’s always going to be a bit of the gangster in there!”, which is why, Sharon is quick to add with a laugh, he’s so fabulous cross country!
Gangster, moi?
Joking aside, Rafferty’s Rules, aka Reggie, looks fantastic, and, as Sharon told me, is thriving on the intensity of the last couple of months, he walked into the dressage ring as if he owned it, and his work now compared to at Rebecca Farm last summer looks much more confident and established. I managed to take some video of them both riding with Linda and if you can be patient, the very noisy truck does move after a couple of minutes!
Reggie and Sharon ran through their test after this, very nicely, and then as he was jumping later that afternoon they called it a day on the flat. Reggie was Sharon’s third horse that we saw her ride that morning, and although we brought plenty of treats for him, Boston Cremes, his favourite, I’m embarrassed to admit we came empty-handed as far as his rider and our hostess was concerned – many apologies!
We all had such a super morning – Sharon of course is a treasure, but Linda was also wonderful to meet and talk to, as were the girls and of course all the horses – a testament to the programme. Each horse definitely has it’s own personality and my kids plagued them got to know them and picked out their favourites while we there. In her calm, efficient, friendly way Sharon has indeed traditioned a little bit of West Virginia for herself down here in Wellington, a little orange space happy space! Although she’ll be happy to get home I know, we could easily have stayed all day (all winter!). Many thanks to the whole team for putting up with us, thank you for reading, a belated Happy Valentine’s Day, Best of luck this Spring, and Go Eventing!
