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, the summer eventing season is rolling on, and things are moving at a hard and fast pace here at TPF! I originally had seven rides entered in the Maryland Horse Trails this weekend, with Wauwinet (Wyatt) moving up to preliminary, but I’m excited to say that this number dropped down to six when Wyatt found himself a fabulous new home at Birch Hill Farm in Vermont!
I know he’ll be very happy with his new life, and his new owner will enjoy him very much. I’m sure Karen Lorenzo will be missing him very much, since she imported him from Germany as a 2-year-old.
Well it was good to be back in the States, and we wasted no time getting back into the competition ring. I had four horses entered at, as I call her, Big J.B.’s (A.K.A. Jan Byyny’s) Surefire Horse Trials this past weekend near Middleburg, Va. I always look forward to this event and Morven Park because they’re so close to Middleburg, where a lot of my old friends are. But unfortunately the weather is always super hot in Middleburg this time of year.
Well, I have to say that I’m terribly disappointed about the outcome of Luhmuhlen, as you would expect.
I was so happy with how Ping went on the flat; even though the arena blew down before the dressage and it unnerved him a little bit, we got our groove back a couple of movements in and then really went for it a bit more in the ring.
Well things are getting underway here at Luhmuhlen, and I have to say that I’ve been a little hesitant to write any blogs due to the fact that everyone here is in some sort of blog war with each other.
I’m choosing to opt out on the whole situation. And I’d like to say that’s because I’m focusing on other things, but in reality, I just have no chance whatsoever against the likes of Nat and Kelley, since their blogs are far more entertaining than mine have ever been.
I hear it more and more these days—“Horses will break your heart.”
I’d say with some experience that yes, that statement is very, very true. But what most also know and don’t really talk about quite as often is that riding and competing these unbelievable animals really helps you heal as well. So when everyone at TPF and Windurra USA set off to compete this past weekend at Waredaca in Maryland, I knew that it would be the first step on a long road of recovery, especially for Boyd and Woodzy.
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