I sat yesterday reading Sinead Halpin’s latest Chronicle blog and was quite impressed and inspired by what she wrote. My heart broke for her when I found out a few days ago that she lost her dad suddenly. I can't imagine what she's going through. The timing of reading that and then her dad passing is just devastating.
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| Jennie Brannigan and Cambalda, aka "Ping," on their way to winning the inaugural Land Rover Great Meadow CIC***. |
I know it's been quite a while since I've blogged, and to be honest there are so many things I'd like to share with you all that it's a little bit overwhelming to think about where to start.
It's hard to say what the most special part of a memory is when every part of it is something you’ll remember for forever... And it's great when it's one that memory is a good one, but with horses and life there are a fair few that are the other variety... The not-so-good ones. They say you need to experience those bad ones to appreciate the good, and I would say from my personal experience thus far in life that that statement is true.
I was lucky, at a young age, to get a job working under show jumper Susie Hutchison, a woman who had a profound effect on my riding career and life.
I remember going to work for her at Indio, Thermal, Showpark and a lot of other venues in Southern California. I very honestly was completely out of my depth and at first quite overwhelmed by the experiences, but I grew to love the scene of it all and truly enjoyed jumping the young horses for her.
Well it seems like just yesterday that I was writing the closing of the season blog here on the Chronicle.
Time sure flies by, and I really have had plenty of reasons I should have been writing in the off-season. I would love to announce that Nina Gardner now officially owns Indie!
The USEA Convention was amazing and a wonderful time as well as very interesting, and I was thrilled with Cambalda (Ping) being named Horse of the Year and Indie being training level Horse of the Year.
Well, as I sit here on Hawley Bennett’s couch, a lot is rolling on through my mind about how the last few days have gone at the Galway Downs CCI*** in Temecula, Calif.
Today was quite the day at Galway Downs with dressage and show jumping in full swing. I started off my day by hacking Ping out and watching Livingston show jump with his new rider doing her first preliminary. I would be pretty pumped if I was her!
After my warm-up hack I jumped on the Ian Stark course walk, which was wonderful and very informative. He also gave me some new insight to some of the cross-country efforts and how to ride them.
Greetings everyone from sunny Southern California! The competition really started today with the jog for the Galway Downs CCI***. All the horses were truly in good form, as they all passed the first hurdle in a long weekend.
The weather has been fairly unreal except for a fair bit of Santa Ana wind. It's been pretty neat to be back home for the first ever CCI*** on the West Coast, and I would lying if I said I'm not loving being here. Nina Gardner flew in last night, and she is very excited about the weekend as well.
My friend Jimmie Holotik and her Aussie lover Dominic Schramm are getting married this weekend, so instead of competing at the good old ‘Daca I am currently on a plan to be a part of this wedding. It's pretty neat how horses can bring people together, and this is another example of it!
Sitting on the plane has given me some more time for reflection as I think about how Fair Hill went for me this year.
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