A Trip to Leesburg
- Kailyn Stephens
- Oct 15
- 13 min read
10/15/2025
My goal for this season was to ultimately contest the 2*S at Morven Park International in October. I love Morven as a venue, and Sophie and I have run around the training and prelim levels at the national events there fairly successfully over the last few years. After the start of this season being so strong, I felt that this goal was more than achievable.
And then, the season became what it has been. And that goal was shuffled about 100 times until we landed on me still going but contesting the 1*S instead.
I know that in 10 years I will look back on this season as one of important personal and professional growth, and it will (hopefully) be just a blip in my career with horses, but when you are in the middle of it all, it is a challenge to have that outlook.
After a tough go around any cross country course this season after Fair Hill in April, I took Sophie over to Course Brook to bebop around the novice a few weeks ago as a last prep before heading to Morven for the 1*. She came out super strong, and I intentionally rode each fence in a way that I was asking her to take me there. As the fences get bigger, I want her to be confident that she can take me there and I do not have to hold her hand so much. She was bold, confident, and only had one bobble where she was too spooked by the construction area around a jump to read the jump itself. I also didn't force her onto the jump, even though she could've walked over it. I needed her to be the one to take ownership of finding the fence. On the second approach, she shot over it well and we continued on.
I played my cards a bit better for Morven this month than I did in the spring. I drove the trailer down on the Sunday before so that Sophie had ample time to settle in after a long ride. I stabled at Chapel View Farm for the week, so Sophie could be a normal horse in between competing (especially wanted her to have the ability to be turned out at night!!). I took a few lessons with Jacqui including a cross country school over at Loch Moy during the week as final preparation. I had her on her final doses of a round of Adequan and Legend, and I had Fred come out for a chiro appointment for her right before we left for VA. Sophie was looking good, feeling good, and I was feeling prepared.
Our flat lessons with Jacqui were breakthroughs for me that week. I spend so much time trying to contain the beast that Sophie sometimes brings to the table, and we instead focused on me using that energy to really push her neck forward and through. These are concepts I teach to my clients, but of course practicing what you preach is somehow always 10x harder than it looks!! Sophie was feeling so loose but powerful, and I was thrilled with how the rides were going. Jacqui is an incredible coach, and her ability to get through to me with the flatwork has been hugely important for my growth. I learn something new every time!
Our cross country school left a bit to be desired. After a few strong warm up fences, I started to freeze up. I have been having so many demons in my head during the cross country phase as this season continues to be void of success, and I let it really come out and get to me at this schooling. I was embarrassed with how in my head I was being, and Sophie is a horse that will not do the job on cross country if you are not with her. After a few sketchy fences midway through our schooling, I did eventually get it together and we finished better than we had started. I felt my good going xc horse by the end, but it took a lot out of me to get there.
Drew and I walked the course at Morven on the Thursday night with Wally. As I walked it, there was not a single fence or question that intimidated me or gave me cause for concern. Everything was fair, approachable, and...dare I say...looked like it would be a lot of fun to ride. I kept telling myself how much I like Morven, how much Sophie has enjoyed running around Morven, and hyped myself up for the fact that we were going to have such a great run that weekend.
We jogged Sophie on Friday morning, and I even had Jacqui braid her and I dressed up myself for the photos. Of course since we were "only in the 1*" and not the big 4*L or S divisions, they had a separate, private area for us to jog instead of the pretty pathway by the grand prix arena. But, this was my Olympics, so I wanted to dress for it! Who knows how many times I will be able to get to a point like this.
Friday afternoon I had one more great flat lesson, followed by watching Reese, Miranda and Jacqui take a few horses over to Oatlands for a cross country school. It was awesome to watch Reese learn in real time on a horse she'd never sat on before.
Saturday morning we brought Sophie over to Morven, braided to perfection once again by Jacqui, for the dressage and show jumping phases. Dressage warm up was so quiet, as they had the 1* dressage scheduled on its own with only one ring going. It was super calm, and Sophie was a bit lazy feeling, which I always appreciate. It usually means she's comfortable and not anxious, which translates to her being a bit more rideable.
I practiced everything Jacqui and I had talked about throughout the week, and I left warm up feeling solid and ready to put on a good performance.
From when I trotted down centerline to when I halted at G and everything in between, I kept reminding myself to push forward and not hold back, no matter what feeling Sophie gave underneath me. What resulted was my first true attempt at a lengthening in the canter all season, a beautiful stretchy trot (for us), and a relaxed horse as we walked out of the ring on a loose rein. I was beaming throughout the whole test. Now I cannot guarantee that every environment we end up in will allow for such a calm performance, but having a better grip on the type of ride I should be aiming for will stick with me.
I will add a little side anecdote - if you follow my blogs, I had some real trouble in the dressage at GMHA a few months back where I felt I was wrongly given an error on my test by a judge. That same judge was one of my judges this weekend, and after my final salute and on my way by saying 'thank you' to them for judging, she said to me "No tears today like you had at Vermont?". I am sure she meant this in a positive teasing way, but it came off as a bit rude and uncalled for after a test that I was really proud of. I smiled and just made a comment about how much I appreciate my horse and thanked her again, but felt like we could have done without that bit of banter, especially considering we don't know each other at all and have no rapport. But, we move on.
Sophie was so relaxed on our walk back to the trailers and Jacqui praised me on my performance. She felt that she could see the moments where my head was processing the horse under me and how to respond correctly based on what we had talked about all week. I ended up with a respectable (again, for us) 39.7, which I was very proud of.
My team and I then walked down to show jumping to watch the last of the 2* and then walk the 1* course. I love the grand prix arena at Morven. It is so massive and gives all the pomp and circumstance you'd want in a big show jumping arena: flags, huge sponsored standards, all of the colors in the freshly painted poles, exceptional footing that is watered and dragged numerous times per day between divisions, and the backdrop of the green hill painted with the namesake of the property and lined with VIP seating and tents. It is just spectacular. I was excited to get Sophie in there.
The course walked well, and soon we had thrown on Sophie's Ikonic saddle (thanks to Meg at Redwood Equine Services), and made our way down to warm up.
Sophie in dressage warm up versus Sophie in show jump warm up were two very different creatures that day. She was fiery and bouncy as I had a trot and a canter before popping over fences. I was a bit nervous in the warm up, as I was surrounded by all the big timers and their bred-for-the-top horses and Sophie was not on her most amenable behavior, but we kept the bucking under wraps at least. After a few good warm up jumps, I started getting in my head a bit and had a few funky approaches that did not help the 'who is this girl and what is she doing' allegations I swore everyone was thinking about (spoiler: they weren't). But then after a breath I got it together and Sophie popped hugely over our final warm up fence. We were ready.
Sophie is so laser-focused on jumping when we are in a show jump ring that even though I took a tour before the bell to let her get a bit close to the VIP tents and all the spectators, she didn't pay them any mind. If this was a dressage test, we'd be halfway across the continent. She's so funny for that.
The buzzer rang and we rocketed over fences 1 and 2. I settled for 3 and 4, and then a rollback turn to a one stride caught my eye a bit funny and I rode in a little too hard for the one but kept myself balanced so she could make the decision on how to get out and my smart horse patted the ground and popped out of the combination easy. The next few fences felt seamless and on another rollback turn to a skinny I made a forward decision that I knew was wrong and then just kept my shoulders up with my leg on and Sophie chose the right distance, even if I made it ugly. A quick 'good girl' exclamation and she easily managed the last line. I landed over the final oxer off of a clean, quick round with a huge smile on my face. There is truly nothing like jumping this horse in a ring like that. Just incredibly fun.
Our clean and fast round moved us up 13(!!) whole places at the end of the day in a very large and competitive division.
After taking care of the good girl, we went over and walked around cross country again but with Jacqui in tow, and we walked through the finish flags with our entire team feeling confident in our ability to tackle the next day.
My team and I celebrated over some great sushi on Saturday night, and I got a good night sleep before the final day.
I was a bit nervous the next morning, but not nearly as much as I usually am. I felt prepared, confident, and like the questions we were about to be asked were clear and attainable. The nerves were hitting me from putting pressure on myself like I needed to perform well or else. (Or else what? I couldn't tell you. Just where my head was at.)
I ran over to watch my friend Sara jump around the 4*S when we pulled into Morven that afternoon, where she ended up finishing 4th (queen) and then I ran back to get on a ready-to-go Sophie all thanks to Reese.
Once in the tack, my mind settled a bit. We were prepared. We had this. It was going to be fine.
Sophie warmed up spectacularly, in my opinion. She was incredibly responsive to all of my aids, and went forward politely when asked. Bucking was minimal, jumping was strong. She didn't bobble at any of the warm up fences. Things felt good.
I took several deep breaths as we walked over to start.
5...4...3...2..1 have a great ride!
I kicked on and on the way to fence 1 I could feel Sophie be a bit distracted by the audience on the hill. I showed her the line to the jump and kicked on hard. She jumped it, but not well. The line to fence 2 was a bit of a shallow curve away from home to a very friendly roll top lined with brush. I saw the line, but Sophie still felt distracted. I gave a similar ride as I did to fence 1 where I attempted to show her the line and kicked on hard. I saw the ride, I was confident we could power over it...but Sophie was not.
In a second I was sitting on the jump facing her, air vest popped and mind numb. I held onto the reins and quickly slid off the jump to console her, but the sound of the air vest deflating was spooking her real bad. She eventually got out of my grip and slowly loped towards the nearest spectator who grabbed her and handed her off to Reese. I was fairly dumbfounded...but was trying to process every moment of what had happened.
In the times that I have fallen off of Sophie, although few, they have happened all within the last year.
August 2024: galloping aimlessly towards a big table, I had no half halt and she saved both our asses and I only ended up with a broken foot. This one I completely understood.
This summer at home: Threw my body at a jump. You know, the thing you tell your students to never ever do. No excuse, I was just riding like an idiot.
GMHA Festival: I really wanted to jump the water jump. Sophie never saw it until the last moment where she physically couldn't make it happen. I still tried to jump it without her. My bad.
This fall: Dogs ran by the indoor and completely caught both of us off guard. She spun, I rolled. Silly, avoidable, but shit happens.
Now Morven: what happened?
As I walked with Sophie and Reese over to the finish to get checked out by the vet, I was processing a whole host of emotions at once. I was upset, angry at myself, sad, confused, a little flabbergasted, and feeling like I was about to experience all the stages of grief over this incident. I held it together until we got back to the trailer and then I allowed myself to have a moment of tears in the privacy of my driver's seat. It's hard to have had this goal all season, then to have to adjust it a billion times, only to not even make it past fence 2. Really, really tough.
I gave Sophie cookies as she stood in her ice boots. I find it nearly impossible to be mad at her in general (unless she's spooking at the far corner of the indoor for the 194th time during a winter ride), and today was no exception. I was happy to be taking my horse home no worse for wear physically, and I was so proud of Reese for taking such great care of her all week long. A friend of mine, Marlene, that I had met when working at Jan's stopped by the trailer during that moment to say hello and ask about the ride, and I was already able to laugh off that I didn't make it past fence 2 but that nobody was broken.
Riders who have been doing this for decades know: this shit happens. Literally all the time. I tell my own clients this! I think I am taking it extra hard because Sophie is my one horse that I have grown with up to these levels, with the two of us relying on each other for experience when neither of us really had much of it leading up to this point, and I hate the feeling of making such continuous mistakes. I want to always do better and be better for her and I wasn't able to pull through this weekend.
After much mulling, I believe what happened was that she was distracted and spooking off of the people on the hill by the start of cross country, and instead of holding her to the base of the jump which is her comfortable place and what she looks for in the ride especially early on the course, I pushed her to get over it and she didn't have the built up confidence to just do it like we might have been able to later on the course. I rode fence 2 like it was fence 12 on my horse that I know doesn't build up confidence until after the first several jumps out on xc. If I could go back and do the ride again, I would've held her to the base and, I think, popped her over it. But, we'll never know if that really was the reason. The jump was not scary, mean, or set up in any way to be a challenge - I believe I provided the wrong ride for the moment in time and the horse I had with me at that minute.
I annoyingly apologized to my team for letting them down, to which all of them basically said shut up this happens and there are so many highlights on the weekend aside from that. And Jacqui remined me of how amazing it is to even get to the point in the sport that you have a horse you can enter into an FEI. I appreciated hearing that.
The afternoon ended with Reese having a lesson on one of Jacqui's horses, and then Drew, Reese and I grabbing some pizza before dropping Reese at the airport.
It truly was a wonderful week. From some great lessons, to continuing to learn from Jacqui by watching her ride her own horses, to a few field trips for Drew and I to visit our favorite spots in the Loudoun County, to watching Reese learn and grow as a rider and a groom - I had a lovely time in Virginia. The only thing I would have changed was the final result on cross country day. And all things considered, if that was the only bummer from the week, then that's not too bad of a week.
I am so, incredibly grateful to my team of people. Reese was an exceptional groom all week, looking after my horse and keeping tabs on things better than I do on my own. I'm still laughing over how at Course Brook, I couldn't decide if I wanted to use my air vest and she reminded me that the saddle I was sitting in did not have my air vest strap on it, so if I wanted the vest we needed to move some things around. I used to be so on top of these things, but Reese is so good I'm letting my brain relax a bit too much!!! I am so thrilled that she got to have this kind of experience thanks to Jacqui for letting her stay at the farm and ride some awesome horses, and thanks to Addie Mae & Ryan for supporting her coming for the week. Not too many kids get to skip a week of school to go hangout with horses in a different state all week!!
Jacqui is a great coach, which should be obvious since I seek her out for virtual lessons and fly her out to shows - but I leave a better rider and horse woman every time I learn from her. I feel very fortunate that my roads led me to Chapel View Farm.
And I don't need to continue to go on about how lucky I am to have someone like Drew in my life who supports all of this insanity with Event Entries loaded on his phone eager to tell me my scores and where I am in the results. He even took a hind shipping boot off of Sophie at one point this week.
Thank you to everyone who supports me near and far, and everyone who always pulls for team Sophie. I am not sure what's next for us, but I have homework to do and now lots of education to bring back to my own clients. Onward and (hopefully!) upward.
K
Your blogs always have the best outlook on everything and are so inspirational!