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  • Loudoun Hunt Pony Club HT April 2024

    April 29, 2024 And just like that, Sophie and I made a solid return to the green numbers 💚. Words cannot describe the amount of love I have for this little horse, but I will do my best to at least recap the amazing time we had over at Morven Park for this event hosted by Loudoun Hunt Pony Club. Jacqui and I made this plan a few months ago when I was filling her in on my goals for the season. I wanted to do the training at Loch Moy schooling trials as our first outing, followed by training at Morven to see where we were really at to start the season. If that went smoothly, I would continue on down to North Carolina to move back up to modified. If that went well, Jacqui suggested that we should have a go at prelim at this event. I originally planned that after Carolina, I would have aimed for another modified - likely would have been Waredaca in May - but Sophie gave such a confident ride down there that I was feeling good about the plan to jump back up to prelim at this event. Jacqui also really believed we could do it and helped school us appropriately, which helped me feel more confident about the choice. I was so excited to be showing at Morven again. It is just amazing to wake up on a show morning at 6:30am and still be able to get to the barn, bathe and braid Sophie, load the trailer, and get to the stunning venue with just a 10 minute drive. Once again I had quite the amazing crew there to help and support me. Jacqui had a dressage show as well that day, but she organized both her times and another rider she was coaching's times so that they would be going in the afternoon which would allow her to still come help me in the morning over at Morven. So grateful to have had her guidance to walk me through the morning! The morning started with dressage around 8:40, so I pulled up to Morven about 45 minutes ahead of my test to tack and get on to warm up. The trailer parking area was a lot less packed than the show here a few weeks prior, but I still had 18 people in my division - and there were three prelim divisions running - so the warmup was fairly crowded! Sophie and I found a space to work on being forward but soft and stretchy with Jacqui's words of wisdom, and it didn't take long for my number to be called to head over to the ring. The show at Carolina a few weeks ago chose to use Modified test C, which requires the big dressage ring, whereas this event chose to use Prelim test A, which is in the small dressage ring. Boy, did it feel small!! By the time I started my first lengthen trot across the diagonal, I was already realizing I had to work really hard to make it not so obvious that I was trying to wrangle Sophie back in before we reached the other side of the ring. The test rode fairly well for us, and I felt huge leaps of improvement from the last time we jumped to the prelim level, which was about two years ago - and it was this exact same test. I have really been trying to improve my geometry to get us some points to push us along as we continue to work on suppleness in general. Our first shallow loop was so fluid, in my opinion - and the judge gave us a 7 for it, which again is huge for us! I had a harder time maintaining the softness in our second loop, and I made a costly mistake of transitioning down to the trot too early later on in the test, but overall I was quite happy with our final score of 37.6. The judge also left a note that she thought Sophie was a 'lovely, capable horse' - I think so too ♥️ After dressage, I left the best horse husband ever, Drew, to keep an eye on Sophie while Jacqui, my good friend Elaine, her adorable puppy Azula and I made our way over to walk show jumping and cross country. (Drew made mention of the fact that he had heroically tied Sophie back to the trailer after the original knot came loose - shout out to him for saving the day 😜 ) We walked the show jumping first before making our way to the field. The show jump course looked relatively straight forward, and had a few combinations that were set slightly long - which I will talk about in detail in a bit because that became important as we rode the course. Drew and I had walked cross country on Friday night when the course opened and I was incredibly impressed (in the nervous way). I know that the jump from training to prelim is a big one, hence why the modified level exists, but even the modified at Carolina didn't totally blow my mind. This course, however, was a lot. Sophie and I have been fortunate to have schooled some crazy challenging things successfully in the past with Charlotte, and we've had great schooling prep with Jacqui, so none of these combinations were brand new experiences for us. However, putting it all together on a course is a different question. I found the first of two trakehners on course to be quite massive, to which I reminded myself that Sophie has not once ever questioned a trakehner and that it is a rider-scary fence. Jacqui confirmed that thought as we were walking. Then I found the water exercise to be tricky: one house jump towards the first of two parts of the water, which was placed a few strides out to give us an extra step or two to see the water, and then over a small mound and directly into the second part of the water over a raised log. This was then followed by a few strides to then angle over this very large half roll top that had brush on it to force the ride to be more like a corner. A similar exercise a few jumps after in the course contained another large roll top set as a horizon fence at the top of a hill, then a few strides down to a drop, which has been something that Sophie has found a bit challenging in the past, and then just a few strides to a brush corner that I found to be quite large. Taking the fact that it was all set downhill into mind, that exercise was going to come up quick, but was set in a way that forward riding was going to be imperative. Jacqui reminded me at both combinations during our Sunday walk to focus on one line, keep riding forward and to not get in Sophie's way. The last tricky exercise on course was a combination of skinny fences after a good uphill gallop towards the end of the course. The first was a skinny raised log on top of a mound, and the second was about six forward strides slightly downhill to a really skinny log. Jacqui again reminded me that micromanaging would not help here, and to let the hill and the mound do the work to adjust the canter instead of pulling. Jacqui and I have spent a lot of time talking about how, even through the training level, Sophie is catty and bold enough that she can climb over fences with tighter distances. But, with the move up to prelim, forward riding is needed to make the larger fences happen correctly and safely. I needed to not be pulling so much and trust that Sophie could make it happen. I think I've mentioned this in previous posts, but Jacqui has been trying to impress upon me that even though Sophie might have still been green-ish to cross country at the start of our partnership, she's been doing it enough now that I need to start treating her like she is an upper level horse. I need to get out of her way and let her make some of the decisions and only involve myself as needed. I completely agree, but obviously it is a lot harder to put into action than it is to talk about!! We finished our cross country walk with these thoughts at the forefront of my mind. After a teeny bit of downtime, I got Sophie tacked for the jumping phases and we made our way down to the show jumping warm up. I still think that the Morven show jump arena is the most beautiful ring I've ever jumped around, so I was excited to do it again. We had a much better warm up than the last time there, and I felt confident heading into the ring. I got a canter I was happy with, and Sophie sailed over the first fence beautifully, but a light tap cost us a rail. Jacqui had said to me that three inches can make a real difference to the horses, so I was not surprised at the first rail, but then Sophie seemed to get the idea and hopped over fence 2 easily. I rounded a corner to set up for our first combination which was a long one stride at fence 3A and B. Now, remember when I said the distances were set relatively long and that forward rides were imperative at this level? That came to really bite me in the ass at our first combination. I held Sophie too much, as I often did at the training level show jumping, and she smartly climbed over the vertical in. But then we were stuck. I made it so she had about one and a half strides to figure out and then get over a large oxer, and I totally left it up to her. I knew I had already screwed with her enough on the in of the combination that I didn't want to make an additional bad mistake on the out. Sophie put a scramble-y extra half stride in and popped way in the air with a massive effort over the oxer out, which rocked me enough that I caught her in the mouth and she came down with a hind leg directly on the back rail of the oxer. A loud crack indicated to me that we had broken the rail, but Sophie felt fine underneath me and we continued on through a bending line to fence 4. The rest of the course jumped phenomenally, and felt like one of our better rounds to date! Jacqui and I checked Sophie over after we left the ring and she didn't have so much as a scratch. As much as it is embarrassing to have broken a rail, and turned a lot of heads as a result, I am glad my horse was fine, and I think it woke me up big time the rest of the course. Live and learn! (Also the volunteers and members of LHPC already had another matching rail ready and waiting on the sidelines to put back in place of the one I had ruined. Sorry to all for the damage!!!!) We made our way over to the cross country warm up, shaking off what had happened early on in show jumping. My plan for the xc was to just focus on each jump as it came to us, and to not focus so much on making time. The questions on cross country were hard enough that I wanted to focus on making sure we could work through it all. We had a few minutes to catch our breath as the riders ahead of us went out for their rides. When it was almost our time to head out, I had a good gallop around the ring and popped over one of the bigger warm up fences. Sophie was feeling more than ready - fresh, even! She had two good kick outs as I was trying to pull her up to a walk on our way to the start box. I think the cheeky girl was pumped for the galloping. As per usual, Sophie was a bit spooked by the ghosts of the start box, otherwise known as the lovely volunteers and their car, so Jacqui led us in to the box to get us off on the right foot (thanks for that, Jacqui 😂 ). 3...2...1...have a great ride! As much as I was not too worried about trying for time, I still wanted us to have a proper prelim pace wherever possible. Sophie easily galloped over fence one and two, and fence three is where I started to get in the way and held her a little too tight to the base. It was an open oxer that she just grazed but still was able to climb over. We then rounded a corner to fence 4, a semi skinny barn, which I continued to hold too much too, but Sophie made it over. I unfortunately was distracted by that ride that I then chose the incorrect pathway around the trees to get to the next set of fences, which was our first combination. 5A was a similar house to 4, but then it was about five strides down hill to 5B which was a skinny roll top. Sophie was having enough of my bad riding, and was really strong over 5A which I had set up a terrible ride to since I chose the wrong line. I had trouble getting her up and seeing 5B, and Sophie told me off by smartly running by it. I quickly circled left and got her straight to it and she popped over it no problem. That 20 did wonders to my brain, because I very swiftly changed what I was doing to better the ride for my incredible horse. Fence 6 was the massive trakehner I had been worried about, but it is supposed to be a gallop fence, so I kept riding forward and just supported with my leg and seat and Sophie hopped right up over it. That filled me with some additional confidence. We then had a little bit of time to line up to 7A and B, which was a line of skinnies. Sophie took off from the correct distance to the first, which was a little long for me, but then I listed to her plan and rode forward in four strides to the chevron out and it felt smooth like butter. 8 was a good gallop fence and then 9ABC was the harder water complex. Sophie saw the water from far away, ears pricked, and popped over the first fence, and I then let the ride into the water steady the canter. I lined up for the B element and added a little extra leg and she dove into the second water. I put my eye and her ears onto the roll top out, and she angled over it confidently and easily like a true upper level horse out of a forward stride. A big 'good girl' shout and we moved on to a smaller beam fence at 10 that we scrambled over because I was a little distracted by our incredible ride through the water. We had a little wiggle through over the bridge into the back field, and then we had a good long gallop to a big table at 11 which rode right out of stride. I then started taking deep breaths and steadied our pace to turn to the drop brush combination at 12ABC. Sophie easily hopped over the roll top at A, and then I tried to not pull too hard and just used a lot of 'whoaaaa Sophie whooooaaaa' and heavy seat to slow her to see the drop at B. She saw it and did a little shuffle and scoot off of it, and then I rebalanced and put us on a good line to the corner at C. I rode forward, like I had the last few combinations, and Sophie jumped over the corner like a real champion. I almost cried tears of joy!!!! Another massive 'good girl' shout from me, and incredibly supportive shouts from Elaine who was stationed at that fence, and we powered on. I learned from my lack of focus and our bobble over fence 10 and treated the let up fence at 13 with a little more respect and Sophie hopped over it easily. I then sat up and let Sophie catch herself on a downhill ride to a sunken road exercise that was similar to our last ride here. We had a mim rail fence in, down and out through the sunken road, and then I again allowed us to keep that forward momentum up over the two angled roll tops that rode right on in the forward one stride. At this point I had a smile just absolutely plastered on my face. Sophie went right up and over our second trakehner at 15, and we began our gallop into the last field towards home. We rounded a tree line to a table at 16, and then galloped uphill to that last skinny combination. I let the hill get us to a good pace to tackle the skinnies, and Sophie did some great footwork over the first one, and I just simply guided Sophie on a good line and she locked onto and hopped over the really skinny log out. We galloped downhill to our second to last fence, a big table, and I let her figure out the striding. She backed off a teeny bit and then threw a good shape over the top, and then we turned towards home and popped right through the keyhole at the last fence. The good girl shouts were quite audible to anyone in the area, and I let her have a bit of a canter and a trot to come down from that epic run. This little mare still had some gas in the tank after all of that too, and it was closing in on 80 degrees and sunny no less!! I learned so much from our jumping rides. Sophie really is something special. Not only is she athletic and full of scope, but she wants to be out there. She enjoys it as much as I do, and yesterday we really felt like a true team. In our first year or two of events together, it has been a lot about building her confidence and showing her that cross country is fun and doable. In the last year, it has turned more into getting stronger as a team and forming a relationship founded in trust to get through the bigger questions. I think that really came to light at this event. In the show jumping, I made a big mistake and I trusted Sophie to make a good decision to save us. She jumped it and tried so hard for us, but even if she had bailed at the oxer I would have praised her. I think she jumped it because we have, more often than not, felt quite strong in the show jump ring, and I have always been there for her supporting each step, even if I am too much at times. I think she knew I would still be there no matter how we got to the other side of that oxer, so she was confident enough to try. The rest of our ride in that ring was seamless and we just felt so in-sync. Out on cross country, Sophie was the most focused she has ever felt. Even though we had a few sticky jumps early on, she communicated to me that I needed to trust her and let up a little. When I did, she rode on like a seasoned event horse. I only had to make minor inputs as needed through the rest of a tricky course. She trusted me enough to be there to support her, and I trusted her to make good calls, which we both did for each other. I can't properly describe how incredible the ride felt as we rode the course from fence 6 on - the partnership we are developing is one of the greatest feelings I have ever experienced. My amazing team was right there with me at the end of the course, and all of them were just as elated as I was from that round. Throwing it back to one of my other blog posts, our round might not have looked great on paper, but man were there so many huge wins for us from this event. Our second prelim, a better dressage test than the last event, a beautiful show jump after I fixed my riding mistakes, and similarly a freaking phenomenal cross country ride after I fixed my riding mistakes. Sophie was fit for it, she did not find anything taxing or hard, and I learned so much about how I need to be riding at this level for us to continue to find success. It was also sunny, I didn't forget to pack my favorite sun shirt for the jumping phases, and I had amazing people by my side all day. I also think that simply riding around at Morven Park is a reason to smile in and of itself - just a beautiful place. So grateful for Drew, who was of course there as my ever-present support system, and my lovely friend Elaine, who made the trip over from DC to come and hang with horses for the day with her adorable little Azula in tow. And of course I am thankful for Jacqui's continued support during our time down here. I also know that I had several long distance score stalkers that made time to check my results alongside the excitement happening at Kentucky over the weekend - very appreciative for that!! I am so grateful for such wonderful family and friends in my life. Now Sophie will get a well-deserved few days off, and then we have a show jumping clinic scheduled for this Friday to help us prep for fun things happening at the end of May 🤫 Can't wait for what's next!! K

  • Longleaf Pine HT April 2024

    April 15th, 2024 Aaand we have our first modified since 2022 behind us now! Sophie and I had an absolute blast down at the stunning Carolina Horse Park this past weekend. This trip doubled as a visit to see our good friend Kristen who resides in Southern Pines and so graciously provided housing for me and grooming services for the spotted unicorn all weekend long. You are the BEST, Kristen!!! I also snuck in a visit to her beloved Finn while we were there, which was the cherry on top :) We arrived Friday afternoon, and it took me a few hours to get us all set up and settled in. The permanent stabling on the property is great. I tried to put together my area in a way that was neat and organized, but definitely didn't mind that we did not have direct neighbors on either side of us, as that allowed me to take up a little bit more space. Shavings were spread, hay nets and water buckets were filled, the trailer was unloaded and picked out, and the stall card was filled in. I grabbed my dressage tack and took Sophie on a brief hack out to the dressage warm up rings after our stall was set up. She was a little bit suspicious of the painted ponies on the property, but nothing else seemed to impress her too much. She felt fantastic. After our ride and a brief bath, Kristen met up with us. I threw Sophie her dinner and then let her have some alone time while Kristen and I course walked. The ground at the horse park is so incredibly well maintained, and it is clear that every single piece of this property is cared for. The jumps were beautifully painted and decorated, and I was feeling confident in our choice to move back up to modified after seeing the course. It had some challenging but fair questions for the level. I got to experience some true North Carolina weather during our walk too - when we started, the sun and blue sky were shining through the clouds, and about two thirds of the way through our walk, the skies opened up and severe thunderstorms overtook the park. Kristen and I hid out under a convenient tent with some other course walkers with our same unfortunate planning. You can see in the pictures below the weather difference! Once the storm passed, we headed back to stabling and I took a few minutes to braid Sophie's mane and get her looking her very best for the next day. At this point it was close to sunset, so I refilled hay and water and gave her one last cookie before Kristen and I left for the evening. I wanted to give a brief shout out to Kristen for being an amazing friend and hanging out with me all weekend, but also for putting together the nicest gift basket ever which was thoughtfully created by The Local Mixer. I mean just look at how cute this is!! The next morning started with Sophie getting her breakfast at 7am, and I spent some time rehearsing my test and getting everything organized for the day ahead. Sophie kept all of her braids in overnight and just needed a quick freshening up before getting tacked. My test was scheduled for 9am on the dot, so I headed over to warm up a little after 8:30. The warm up area is quite spacious, and they have small dividers that cut halfway down the middle of the warm up ring to essentially create two usable rings. It felt like there was plenty of space even with a bunch of horses warming up at the same time. Sophie felt super solid in the warm up, and was really moving forward into my hands and feeling fluid in changes of direction and in lateral work. I know Sophie well enough to know that it all could change the moment we step out of warm up, but I was hoping for the best. Fortunately, I also try to prepare for the worst when it comes to the flatwork. As soon as we started making our way around Ring 2, where our test was to be performed, Sophie put her eyes, ears, brain, and everything else onto the driveway behind the trees that lined the ring. Trucks and trailers were entering and leaving, but the line of trees blocked most of the viewing of that and so all we were left with was the sound. I usually put Sophie in a 'sound proof' bonnet, but I am not sure how effective it is 😆 . I tried to remain heavy in the saddle and very workman-like to try to get her to follow suit, but she is a strong little horse. Our centerline was lovely and straight, our first lengthen trot was conservative but fine, but then it started to fall apart during our first leg yield when Sophie and I began to go to war. She was super tense and tight, and I was getting firmer and firmer with my aids to try to combat her pushiness and the rest of the test kind of stayed like that. She got away from me quite a bit in both lengthen canters, and in looking back on it I know she needed a hell of a lot more support from my outside aids that I was not providing in those movements. She ended up being so wound up towards the end that our final attempt at a lengthen trot was powerful, but not a true lengthen. I was still pretty impressed with the look of it, though! Definition of 'has talent, needs direction (from rider)' 🤣 . We saluted and left the ring on a score of 41.2 and slid humbly into last place. We had about three hours between leaving the sandbox and heading to the start box, so Kristen and I went to walk some of cross country one more time. There were a few lines to jumps that I wanted to solidify my plans for - and obsessing over this shot Kristen took that highlights my favorite KMA white competition breeches 🥰 We had so much time that I actually was able to find it in me to eat some lunch before jumping. It's a rarity to find me eating at a show until I'm done for the day, but there was so much time and the food truck on site was too good to pass up. If you've been to Carolina Horse Park, you've probably eaten at 'Roasted and Toasted' - SO. GOOD!!!! Following lunch, we packed up all of my dressage tack and took out everything for cross country. The footing was great even with the bit of rain that had fallen the night before, so I opted for smaller studs. Sophie stood quietly while she was studded and tacked, and it wasn't long before we started our walk over to cross country warm up. I was a bit early, so I took a few minutes to just walk around the warm up and watch a few riders before me head out on course. The whole park is just so stunning, so there was a lot to look at and appreciate while I waited. I didn't spend a ton of time warming up, as Sophie and I had a great schooling a few days before our trip and I knew she was ready. We jumped a small log, a larger table, and then angled over a mid-size house in the same way we would be angling fences 6A and B on our course. We were definitely ready! On our way over to the start, I saw a woman holding a very handsome corgi. I considered that a sign of good luck :) 3...2..1 Have a good ride! I started with a steady canter over fence one, and then picked it up a bit over fences 2 and 3, of which were good gallop fences. Fence 4 was a wedge that Sophie saw one more step than I did to it, but she padded off the ground and hopped over it smartly. After a gallop table at fence 5, we headed into the woods, down a hill and abruptly came to the angled houses at 6A and B. Sophie is catty and smart about jumping fences at any angle, but she was wholly distracted by the volunteer's car that was near the jumps. A little bit of 'Sophie do we see it?!' and an abundance of leg and Sophie saw the jump almost as we were on top of it and she clambered over it and put in 4 punchy strides between the jumps where there should have been 3. I kicked on and we tackled the corner at 7 with ease. We hopped up a bank at 8 and were presented with the first water complex, which Sophie pushed through confidently. We turned back into the woods and I slowed our roll quite a bit to a sunken road exercise and a trakehner. The stickiness at the first set of fences in the woods early on provided me the information that Sophie was finding the environment impressive, so I didn't want to risk rushing and causing a run out due to not seeing a jump ahead of time. It worked out in our favor, and Sophie completed all the jumps in the woods properly. We even had a half coffin with probably the most impressive ditch I've seen in a minute, but Sophie didn't think so and popped over it like it was a ground pole. The second water complex offered a bit more to look at than the first, so I once again slowed our roll way down to make sure she stayed on task. She ended up hauling me over the jump into the water, and rode the wedge out of the water like a proper event horse. I didn't do a great job of picking a line out of the woods (there are SO many trees), so we had a wiggly line into our last field but she still locked on to our last two jumps like a pro. We crossed through the flags with a lot of 'good girl' and 'you're the best horse ever' exclamations leaving my mouth. A spectator passed us as we came to a walk and asked if we had fun, to which I said 'Always. Everything with this horse is fun. I could be watching this horse stand in her field and I'd be having fun!' 🤣 The good girl received a bunch of her favorite cookies and got a good hose down. Once again she proved that her fitness level was up there - she had barely broken a sweat! I gave her a few minutes to just hang out in her stall and drink and eat while I started cleaning up my cross country tack. Then she got her icing time in our favorite Drew Boots while Kristen and I shared videos and pictures from our round. The course was challenging enough that the standings were shuffled quite a bit after cross country. I was not even remotely surprised to see the 10 time penalties added to our score. The time for modified is more challenging than training, this time was clearly a bit tight as only one rider managed to finish within the optimum time, and I purposefully kept us slow at a few combinations to risk time instead of risking a run out. It worked out in our favor, and I think if we came to this venue again we'd be ready to really push it. Between now and our next outing, we will work a little on pacing (and continue working on our flatwork, as always!). Before we left the park for the day, Kristen and I took a trip over to the vendors that were set up for the weekend. While we were discussing my ride, a lovely volunteer overheard us and asked if I was the rider on the spotted horse. She told me that while she was fence judging the modified rounds, the radios were full of volunteers discussing how 'number 236's horse has a ton of sweat on their neck, we might have to say something'. They were keeping concerned eyes on us until someone realized that the 'sweat' was actually just the markings on her neck 🤣. We laughed and I expressed how glad I was to not have been accidentally pulled up for that!!! Our day ended around 2pm, so Sophie got the afternoon to just relax and be left alone while Kristen and I did normal people things like go out to dinner. The Southern Pines area is so nice, and it was a gorgeous weekend to be down there. Sophie got her dinner at night check, and we looked forward to jumping the colorful sticks the next day. Sunday was another gorgeous day at the park, and after taking Sophie on a little hand walk around stabling, we spent the morning loading what we could back into the trailer for the trip home. Sophie fell in love with the boy stalled behind her that weekend, so she spent the morning obsessing over every move he made. My jump round was scheduled for 10:20ish, so I made my way to warm up around 10. Show jumping has historically been Sophie's strongest phase, so I never spend too much time in the warm up. Kristen so kindly helped set fences for me, and we popped over a few verticals and oxers to get us feeling ready for the ring. We actually had two uncharacteristic stops in the warm up, but to no surprise they were first from me riding like a maniac, and then second from Sophie telling me she wasn't confident in what I was doing after the first one. The third and fourth pops over that jump were effortless and as if the stops didn't happen - but you know what they say, a bad warm up often leads to a successful show, and that held true for us that day. We were one of only two combinations to finish show jumping with a double clear! I could tell that Sophie felt a bit tired from the weekend and all the travel, as she wasn't pulling me towards the fences as strong as she usually does, but she picked up all four of those long legs with ease over the picturesque Carolina Horse Park course. We put in a very methodical, evenly paced round. It was a huge improvement from the chaotic round we had at Morven a few weeks ago. A very nice volunteer complimented our ride on our way out of the ring ❤️ Our jumping efforts moved us from dead last all the way up to 5th at the end of the weekend!! Like I've said before, finishing on a number alone is huge, and bringing home a ribbon is a massive added bonus. I am so happy Sophie got rewarded for her work. At some point we will get the flatwork to a place where we can start in a better position, but I am just thrilled with the results from this weekend. A very impressive venue didn't rattle us too much, and Sophie was clearly prepared for the move back up. Huge thank you to Jacqui for helping us with some proper schooling to prep for this! I am grateful for every ride behind those ears, and I am once again looking forward to what's next. Another MER in the books 🙌 And once again a huge shout out to Kristen for being an amazing photographer, videographer, groom, and friend ♥️ K

  • Product Spotlight: The Drew Boot

    If you are involved in any horse sport, chances are you care a lot about the health of your horse's legs. Particularly for a sport like eventing, taking proper care of the legs is paramount. I remember learning so much about different jumping boots and their purposes when I was growing up, and the importance of protecting the legs. As I was really getting involved in the sport, I was taught varied routines for aftercare following any strenuous work, particularly following cross country. Right now, my aftercare routine following an event consists of icing and wrapping. The level of wrapping depends on the level of work, but that's for another post another day. I have a few pairs of velcro-wrap ice boots that I will use if we do something that would be considered moderate work for Sophie, which includes a local jumper show or even a lighter cross country schooling outing. However, after a full horse trial, an even a more intense cross country schooling, or a gallop, I will want to put Sophie's front legs though a little bit higher level cryotherapy. Meet The Drew Boot: an incredible newer choice of boot for icing your horse's whole leg, knee to hoof. Prior to these, I would borrow a trainer's old school whirlpool boots, and I had even considered trying to train Sophie to stand in a muck tub full of ice water. I think that after harder work, it is crucial to make sure that the hard working tendons and muscles receive cryotherapy to reduce inflammation, to get the blood flow back to a resting amount to reduce excess fluid to stressed areas, and to prevent injury (or re-injury). This article by Heather Smith Thomas for Equus does a great job of defining all of the benefits of cold therapy for horses. The Drew Boots do everything I could ever need when it comes to full leg care and more. The regular ice wraps that I have work fine to apply some cold pressure to her legs after light work, but Drew Boots allow for cold to be pressed evenly and consistently from above her knee to the bottom of her hoof. Regular ice wraps don't often apply perfectly even amounts of cold, they do not stay cold for very long, and they usually don't cover the hoof. Having access to a boot like the Drew Boot assures that her legs and feet are receiving the maximum amount of cryotherapy after hard work. Beyond the region of the leg they cover, they are so incredibly easy to pack, store, clean, and use. The material is sturdy enough that I don't worry about it tearing, but is also so flexible that if I am taking them off and Sophie spooks or moves in a way that she steps on them, they will fold easily and move out of her way as to not cause additional problems. Most of the old school whirlpool boots are made from super thick rubber that is very heavy, and does not fold easily if the horse missteps or spooks while wearing them. If the idea that the Drew Boots are made from a thinner material than the thick rubber causes concern about durability, let me reassure you that this material is akin to that used to make bounce houses - it is fascinatingly strong, and can withstand immense amounts of pressure and still feel and look new after each use. The material is unique in that they can stand up on their own, but also fold neatly to be stored easily in a tack truck or trailer shelf. I folded mine and put them in my cooler in my trailer for future use, and when I take them out and unfold them, they stand right back up. Each side of the boot has a nylon pull strap for easy handling when putting them on and taking them off of the horse's legs. The boots also come with a strap that attaches the outside of one boot to the outside of the other going over the horse's back for additional support if needed. Another problem I ran into with the old school rubber boots was keeping them clean. They are so thick that it is hard to access the interior of them in order to get them fully cleaned and dried out, and I can't count on one hand the amount of time's I've come across mold in dealing with them. Since the Drew Boots are made of thinner, more flexible material, I can fold them down and access all of the interior points easily, including the cushioned bottom. The material is also water-wicking, so they dry quickly after each use. Sophie used to be challenging to work with when we first introduced her to the old style boots, and she would often try to get out of them during her icing session. There were even a few times where she panicked and would run backwards when the thicker material would get stuck on her legs as she was trying to escape them. She is much better now after continued exposure, and I think she senses my lower stress levels when using the Drew Boots because I can breathe knowing that should she panic, she could safely and quickly get herself out of these without destroying them or hurting herself. These boots are SO much more forgiving than the old style boots or even a muck tub. As you can see from the images below, I think she feels comfortable in them too! (Featuring Wally, who doesn't understand why he isn't the sole focus in all of these photos) An additional fun feature about these boots is that they are available in multiple colors, and you can also get your logo of choice printed on to them. This might come as a total shock, but I of course had to go with the green ones. 😁 They also come in two different sizes: standard and pony. Sophie is wearing the standard size ones, and she is a leggy 15.3hh for reference. The Drew Boot company also makes a fantastic tote bag out of the same durable yet flexible material, and they are a company I hope to see more of in the future. I am happy to answer any and all questions regarding the use of the Drew Boot. Click here for a link directly to their website to see all that they have to offer! Like I have stated previously, I will never write about a product that I do not whole-heartedly believe in, and I am just absolutely blown away by these boots. A massive thank you to The Drew Boot for supporting KMS Eventing, and I am so grateful to have these boots for taking the best care of my special horse's legs ♥️ K Most of the high quality photos in this blog post are taken and edited by the amazing Kiera Finnerty 🦄

  • The Competitive Rider: Good or Bad?

    April 8, 2024 Being competitive: Is it good? Is it bad? I think there are a lot of different ways that people look at competitiveness. Even just dwelling on it right now I can come up with an example where competitiveness can be good, and when it can be harmful. I wanted to go on a little stream of consciousness journey as I think about it. Come with me! First, I would immediately describe myself as not incredibly competitive. But what do I mean by that? I'll find an answer to that by the end of this rambling. What does 'being competitive' even represent? By definition, according to Wikipedia, "Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss". Right away, this definition implies that by being competitive, there is going to be a winner and a loser. I think that a lot of people in the equestrian competition industry understand that at a show, there will be a winner of each class or division, and then everyone else 'loses', per se. Of course we tend not to view 'not winning' as 'losing' in most equestrian sport, because there are personal victories that are different for each rider along the way. (The same can be said about a lot of sports, but given my experiences I will only be speaking to horse sport, specifically eventing!) Eventing is such a cool sport in that way, where there are chances to 'be the best' and walk away with the blue ribbon, but there are also plenty of other ways to find 'wins' for yourself and for your horse. There was one show a few years back where I was technically eliminated on cross country because I missed a jump, but the horse I was riding at the time and I had the most in-sync show jumping round to date right before cross country that I literally could not have cared less about being eliminated out on xc. I was so happy with our performance in the stadium ring, as that had been our weak link together to that point. In another similar instance, I remember walking off of the cross country course after mine and Sophie's first prelim absolutely beaming because we did it! We didn't win - we were far from it - but for me that day, success was finishing on a number, not a letter, and that we did. It was an added bonus that we finished in the ribbons! On paper it wasn't pretty; we had a less than stellar dressage, one rail in stadium, and then two problems cross country plus time, but from the riding perspective I was delighted. The cross country issues we had were both related to distractions near the jump, not the jumps themselves, and Sophie still had room for more 'go' as we crossed through the flags. It made me feel like it wasn't insane for us to have had a go at the level. I find myself thinking that way a lot - about things not looking good 'on paper'. I know it comes from me knowing that I have an audience, and I want to perform well so that there is no wrongful assumptions or judgement based on my scores. I am sure that I am not the only rider to feel this way. I have been trying to focus on myself and how I feel about my own performances versus how others might perceive them, but it's hard! I too will find myself stalking event entries' live scoring feature for friends, and even looking at how the pros are doing. I always want to know how things went and can't help but ask myself 'what happened?' if I see certain things pop up on their scores - so I know full well that I am part of the problem as to why I worry about 'good on paper'. 😅 However, at the end of the day, I remind myself that stuff doesn't matter. What matters is whatever is important in your mind with regards to what you want to accomplish with your horse. I have ridden with a lot of riders with varied levels of competitiveness. For some, they want to win it all. For others, they want to be able to travel to and compete at all the big, beautiful venues. Some just want to get a professional photo where they are smiling over a jump instead of sporting a terrible resting face. For others still, they want to be able to finish an event on a number and not a letter. I even know someone who works with all sorts of young and green horses and for her, she wants to be able to give the horse a positive experience at one or all three phases, even if it means they end up being eliminated. I think a better way of viewing someone's competitive nature is discovering what their drive is. What drives them to be successful? Is it getting to the podium? Is it qualifying for a certain show? Is it finishing anywhere in the ribbons? Is it taking a youngster on their first outings and creating good experiences? Is it coming back home with a horse that is still sound? If someone's drive is to win it all at the expense of their horse, or is putting others down in the process of getting to their goal, that is a problem. If someone's drive is to win it all and take the care and health of their horse as paramount to get to that point, then that's great! Even better if they are lifting others up along the way. I think that it's one thing to have the ambition to move up the levels and win it all by doing it in a careful, planned, horse-first way, rather than a blind race to the top 'just because' and focusing more on peers' performances first. It's not inherently bad to focus on your fellow competitors, but I think a lot of people can get blinded by feeling the need to always be the best that they might lose sight of what is key at the heart of this sport: the horse! A professional I worked for had big goals to be at the top of the sport, and was always striving to be better for herself, her owners, and eventing as a whole, but she cared about nothing more than the happiness and health of her horses. She loved the sport, but she also loved them. And, even better, she also had a lot of love for her fellow professionals and competitors. Her goals and season plans reflected that. It was refreshing to learn that this is fairly common at the upper levels. I know that there is a mindset that is unfortunately common these days, especially with younger or newer riders to the sport, that there is this unspoken race to be the first one to get to the higher levels. I think this type of competitive mindset can foster toxicity amongst those newer to the sport, because it takes away from why we start to do this in the first place - because we love the animal and because it is fun to event. When I think of what drives me, I have found that it changes depending on my situation. Currently, with Sophie, I am driven to achieve certain MER's (minimum eligibility requirements) in order to qualify to compete at a specific show that I would like to enter. If you're curious about what MER's are and if you need to achieve a certain amount for a level that you are shooting for, check this Rule Refresher from USEA. For a long time, my big goal was to get to the prelim level, and according to USEA's rules, we needed 6 MER's at training or higher to get there. [For context, the six MER's had to be performances at training or modified level at USEA recognized shows where your results consisted across the board of: a dressage score of less than 45 penalty points, no more than 16 penalty points in show jumping, no jumping penalties at cross country fences and no more than 75 seconds over time on cross country. These are put in place as an effort to maintain safety within the sport. It's honestly a bunch of goals rolled into one! Read the article at the link for more info!] With all of that in mind, my first goal was to focus on feeling confident at training and modified as a stepping stone to the long term plan. We achieved that goal, and then we achieved my goal of going prelim shortly thereafter, and I am so proud of both. In the last year, we spent a few moments back at training to make sure we are still comfortable and confident, and have made plans to move back up. I am happy to move back down and coast at training if we end up not making it work at the upper levels again (because there are ALWAYS other little goals I can set for us within the level to still work on being competitive with myself), but at the discretion of my coach, and how confident both Sophie and myself feel, and for meeting all MER's and then some, I believe we are ready for the next move back up. After we hopefully get to that point, I am not sure what my next driving factor will be. I can honestly say that as much as winning is nice, I am not driven by the blue ribbon. At least not right now. I am absolutely self-focused, and driven for personal bests and competing with myself and not bests in comparison to others. Now me typing that out makes me sound all high and mighty, but it is only because I know full well that Sophie and I are not in a position right now to waltz in and beat everyone, so I won't even attempt to set that kind of expectation for us!! We're just not THAT good 😂 Dressage is our most challenging phase, and our performances have often placed us towards the middle or bottom of the pack. Another consistent goal of mine is to work on our relaxation and suppleness at venues away from home so that we can improve our scores in the sandbox. We often have solid rides in the jumping phases that have historically moved us up in the placings by the end of the day, but our flat work has yet to put us at the top from the get go. Maybe one day I will feel like our performance in all three phases is such that we should always be striving to win, but that is definitely not the current case. I also don't have plans to shoot for the olympics with Sophie, so us winning and getting our name out there is not something I need to push us to do. I care more about feeling confident and having fun while we are out there. Sophie is my only horse, and she has a forever home with me, so I am setting our goals one at a time and just seeing where the tide takes us. If we can't reach our current goal, then so be it, and I will find other goals and drives for us. One other thing I wanted to touch upon is how we as riders can be each other's strength as we all navigate our own goals and reasons to be competitive. How can we do that? Help celebrate other's successes, no matter how they compare to your ideas of success. Congratulate the winner as well as everyone else in your class on a good ride when you can Wish each other good luck and good rides in passing. Avoid talking smack about other riders, especially the ones you know nothing about behind the scenes. Learn how the winners win, particularly at the big shows! Watch their competition videos when you can, and hear about what they do to get to where they are. Especially those names you are always seeing at the top - there's a reason that they are there, and there is always something to learn from even if they are competing at levels you never see yourself getting to. Try really hard to find little victories along the way. Is your horse sound and happy? That alone is a huge win. Most importantly, try to set reasonable and achievable goals. Or at least organize goals into short term versus long term. If you only set one lofty goal, the more likely you are to be disappointed when you aren't getting there. It doesn't mean you never will - it just might be so far away that you forget other wins that could happen along the way to it! Are you having trouble finding an appropriate goal on your eventing journey that isn't just 'I want to move up to the next level'? Here are a few competition goals I have set for myself over the years for shows that you can use to brain storm where is a good place to start - and none of these have to do in comparison to others, they are all personal goals you can set and work on being competitive with yourself: Improve my dressage score by a point or two from one show to the next (at the same level) More specifically, improve centerlines to be straighter, or circles (any dressage geometry) to be more accurate Take the suppleness and relaxation we can find at home and create it at shows Finish cross country within the optimum time Jump all the jumps on cross country the first attempt Knock one rail or less in show jumping Or, generally go clear show jumping Have a really rhythmic, consistent canter throughout a show jumping course Finish an event on a number and not a letter Achieve my required MER's for moving up to the next level over the span of one or two seasons (depending on situation and timing) Watch back a video of my dressage test and notice a visible difference in my shoulders from previous shows (sitting further back and not so much tipping) Watch back a video of either jumping phase and notice a visible difference in the level of pulling to slow down (using my seat and upper body more than my arms) Coming home with a horse that is sound, fit, and happy Finishing an event and having my horse show that they are clearly fit for the level (not dying as we cross the flags, still having some more in the tank) Coming back with all the studs still in place Not losing any shoes on course! Remembering my dressage test Having good form (and not making a bad face) over any jumps that are photo ops (silly but real! 😂 ) Not going off course in the jumping phases Remembering to smile in each phase because I do, in fact, love doing this sport ...the goals could be endless! I enjoy setting and working towards goals. Being competitive with yourself can help you work harder to be better without worrying about others. Due to my limited time available and also having only one horse, I set goals that are reasonable given my current situation. If we can't achieve the goals I have set for us right now, I will suck it up and either find a new route to get there or edit my plans entirely. I also consult my trainer for advice on my goals and if she thinks they are reasonable and achievable. I am thinking so much about goals in the context of competition because having a goal is helpful to give a rider direction, but it also can foster competitiveness in a way that drives a rider to be better and work a little harder in order to achieve said goals. And it does that in a way where you don't have to think about being 'better' than anyone else - just yourself! So to answer my original question, when it comes to talking about myself and me 'not being incredibly competitive', I think I mean that I am not competing with others often. I am usually competing with past Sophie and Kailyn, and trying to continue improving and getting better for myself. Like I said previously, at some point I might feel that I can step into a show feeling like I am at a place where I could successfully compete with others and focus on bringing home the blue, but that's for another day. In summary, I think that competitiveness needs context when you are thinking about whether you or another might be competitive. Why might they be or why might they not be that competitive? What is your definition of 'competitiveness'? What drives you or that rider to be successful? It is different for every rider, and I think it is something you should chat about with your peers. It is inspiring to learn what might drive one rider versus another. Remember that even if it is different, I can near-guarantee that at the base level, we all are simply just delighted to be able to do something as incredible as eventing with these wonderful horses. No matter what we might be aiming for, I always look forward to any time I get to be in that saddle and behind the ears of the spotted unicorn! A reminder that this blog post is less of a fully planned and thought out post, and more of just a dump of my thoughts on this topic. If it feels a little disjointed, that is because of how my brain was operating as I was going through this - lol! Do you have thoughts on this topic? Feel free to leave a comment, send me a message, or contact me on my socials. I love chatting with likeminded riders! K

  • Morven Park March 2024

    April 1, 2024 What. A. Day!!! For those of you that don't know, Morven Park is an absolutely class venue in Leesburg, Virginia that hosts all sorts of both equestrian and non-equestrian related events throughout the year. They hold the international horse trials in the fall, and I had the pleasure of attending those last year as a groom for Jan. I decided that I wanted to compete at this venue myself after seeing it on the ground, so I signed Sophie and I up for their spring horse trials, which was our planned first rated outing of the season. Our go at Loch Moy last weekend made me feel confident that we would be able to take on Morven, especially after putting on a good show despite the horrible weather that day. Sophie and I spent the week before Morven getting some good flatwork in, one jumping day in that was superb, and one day on the pessoa (which I have come to really love for her). I woke up Saturday morning feeling ready to rock it. The weather was just perfect for a horse trial. It was nearing the 40's as I was loading up the trailer in the morning, but by mid-day it was well into the 60's. Not only was the weather perfect, but I also had quite the crew coming to support me at this show. Drew was of course to be in attendance with the ever-important Walcott, I had a coworker coming with her young horse-loving kids, Jacqui was coming to help me maintain sanity in the warm up rings, and my dear friend, and Sophie's former momma, Kiera, was also coming for the show. I continue to feel so, so grateful to have the support that I do - both near and far!! I think the best thing about Morven for me is the location. It is literally right between our current apartment and the barn - and the drive to the barn from our home is only about 15 mins, if that gives you any idea of how close it all is!! I barely had time to listen to all my hype up songs on the ride over. We arrived about 45 mins before I had to get on to warm up for dressage, so I grabbed my packet and set up all of my tack and varying items around the truck and trailer for ease of access. My incredible support squad started to arrive, and after lots of great catch-up convos and some introductions, we unloaded the spotted unicorn to start getting organized for the first phase. The space used for dressage at Morven is massive. They had a large dressage arena, two small dressage arenas, and a warm up, all in the same location with excellent footing. Jacqui coached me in the warm up, and I think maybe one day I will stop using my outside rein to pat my horse when she does what I ask for (oops). We entered at A confidently. I think we felt a lot better overall than we did at Loch Moy. Not every movement was great, but I think that as a whole Sophie felt a lot more relaxed. The big comments from this judge had to do with balance and evenness of contact, all which I am working on, and are hopefully things we can only continue to improve on. She also commented on how Sophie was a very capable horse - always nice to hear that! We left the arena on a loose rein and with a score of 36.4 in hand. We had a fair bit of time between dressage and the jumping phases, so Jacqui and I went to walk cross country together. I had walked the course the night before, so I already had an eye on things I might need to think about, but it was very helpful to hear Jacqui's perspective as well as walk it a second time. We also got a chance to walk the show jumping course, as well as watch a few of the intermediate riders run through it. I got to see Jan's winning show jumping performance with Storm - so awesome!! By the time we got back to the trailer, the amazing Kiera had taken out Sophie's braids and gotten her fully studded. I am so grateful for her help that day!! We got her tacked and looking beautiful before we headed over to the show jumping warm up for the second half of our day. The stadium arena at Morven is impressive. They have a massive hill on one side with 'Morven Park' painted into the grass where several spectators were sat, a large American flag flying on one of the fence lines, stabling and trailers behind another fence line, and brightly colored jumps with huge standards. There is a lot to look at. I didn't warm up that well. I was too busy micromanaging every facet of Sophie's pace instead of working with her. Jacqui was amazingly patient with me, even when I was being completely scatterbrained. We took out one rail in the warm up, and that might have been a part of what led us to a double clear round in the ring. When we got into the show ring, the buzzer rang almost immediately, so I took a brief canter around the far side to set us up for the first fence. The early part of our course rode well, but once we hit the first combination, a one stride, I took over. The rest of the course was a bit flat, but the good girl picked all four feet up regardless and put us through the finish line clear. I didn't do much to make our round double clear, so I give Sophie all the credit for that one. I tried to shake off whatever demons were holding onto me under my skull cap and we made our way over to the cross country warm up. There was a bit of a back up at the start, so we spent about 15 mins just hanging out down at the warm up for xc. I got a chance to chat with my crew, and go over the course plan one more time with Jacqui. There weren't any jumps on the course that impressed me significantly, but I kept reminding myself that every single issue that Sophie and I have ever had on cross country has been entirely related to focus and nothing to do with the jumps themselves. So for that reason, I was not going to take any jump for granted. Once it was close to our time to start, I popped over one warm up fence, and then walked over to the box. 3...2...1..have a good ride! We cantered off and popped over fence one. I then stood up and let her out for fences 2, 3, and 4 - getting a comment from the announcer about how 'strong' we looked on our way out early on in the course (meaning a bit ahead of the assumed pace 🤣 ). I got a bit micromanage-y at jumps 5 and 6, simply because they were close to the show jumping arena, so I wanted to make sure her eyes were on the fences and not up there. Fences 7, 8, and 9 all happened right out of stride, and then the water complex at 10A and B gave us a bit of a bobble but she cleared it nonetheless. I think the water caught her off guard, but I asked her to slow way the heck down at 10A to give her a chance to see that the water was coming up and I think that helped her take it in, but it did slow our pace. We galloped into the back field and tackled jumps 11 through 13 with ease. 14 and 15 were set up like a bit of a sunken road through the tree line, and Sophie was having a good look at the volunteer's vehicles that were nearby on our way down to it, so I slowed our pace big time and kept my leg on to get us straight through that complex. Anybody nearby these fences likely heard me audibly saying things like 'do you see it, Soph? Are we looking? Do we have it?' as we approached them. The final three fences on course again were right out of stride, and we galloped through the flags under time. Two double clear jump rounds allowed us to finish on our dressage score, and I couldn't have been more proud of the effort this amazing little horse put in that day. My crew was waiting for me at the finish, and we all went back to the trailer with huge smiles on our faces. Team Sophie is the best team around!! I am so grateful to have so many people that love her like I do. She really is the most amazing horse I've ever had the pleasure of sitting on. Drew, Kiera, Wally, Sophie and I hung out at the trailer while Sophie soaked in her Drew Boots and was fed multiple cookies for her efforts. After some waiting time, we eventually refreshed EventEntries to see that we had finished in 4th place for the day. I always say that it feels good to finish on a number in eventing, and it's just a bonus when you finish within the ribbons! Sophie clearly did not find the course very challenging, and as long as I can keep my manager-like ways under control and allow Sophie to do her thing, I am feeling confident for our move up back to modified later in April. I am excited to see where this season takes us, and I keep pinching myself as I watch videos from this weekend seeing that it is me who has the pleasure of riding this perfect spotted unicorn. A huge thank you to KMA Equestrian and The Drew Boot for supporting us, and stay tuned for a product spotlight on The Drew Boot coming soon! Massive thank you's are owed to Jacqui for being an incredible coach, Kiera for coming up to support us with her photography skills, grooming capabilities, and general good company, and to Drew for always being there. And of course for being Wally's tour guide so that he could hang with us, too. I couldn't do any of this without all of the people who support us, both near and far! K

  • Schooling Trials at Loch Moy March '24

    March 25, 2024 This past weekend Sophie and I attended the schooling trials at Loch Moy farm hosted by Maryland Horse Trials. It was my first time at this venue, and it was only a 30 minute trailer ride from the barn - kind of amazing! Due to the short driving distance ahead of me, I didn't have to leave the barn until 7:30am. It felt wild to not have to wake up at the crack of dawn for a show. Unfortunately it was miserably rainy the whole morning during packing the trailer and driving over, so I kept my fingers crossed that it would at least lighten up a bit by the time I was getting into the saddle. Spoiler: that did not happen (lol). When I pulled off the main road and into the driveway of Loch Moy Farm, I was greeted with a slew of cross country fences on either side of me; every question that you can imagine was present in a fairly small space. I noticed that none of these fences had numbers, though - that told me that this was barely a snippet of the venue that lay ahead as these jumps were not being used for the show. The driveway was long and windy, but after pulling up the last big hill, the massive show jumping ring came into view. The jumps all looked recently painted, and several of the standards were massive with gorgeously decorated wings. It was impressive, even in the rain. I parked my trailer and took off to walk my cross country course before my dressage test, and I can see why this is a venue that is loved by so many. There are a few places for solid water options, a bunch of banks, and hills through some wooded areas. Their main fields have both flat ground and terrain, and even some of the arenas that were being used for dressage for this show had more bank and water options that could also add to a cross country course. You can get a little bit of everything there. My course was straightforward and fairly friendly, which put me at ease with it being both the first event of the season for us as well as being terrible weather conditions. And even with how wet it was, the ground felt quite good. We hadn't had a lot of rain in this area for a few weeks, and it was the first use of that course this season, so nothing was mucked up. We were committed for the day! Dressage felt pretty solid. The ring was a bit sloppy but, as Jacqui pointed out, sometimes the wet footing makes the horses strut a little harder! Jacqui helped us feel ready to get into the ring, and after greeting the judge and receiving a nice comment on her spots, Sophie and I left the ring on a 35.6. This is still pretty solid for us, especially knowing that we've had scores knocking on 50's door in the past. The goal with Sophie has been keeping her straight in her shoulders, working on not being in such a rush, and allowing her to stretch more through her top line. She has a tendency to be tense, especially away from home, and it has helped a lot to just slow our rhythm down. Jacqui told me before I went in to 'take all the time in the world in there, you paid for it!' and I genuinely believe that helped me to slow both mine and Sophie's brains down. The judge even left the comment that Sophie was a lovely horse (duh) and that it was clear that an effort was made. It feels good when they notice I'm trying to figure it out!! Our stadium round was clean, but definitely not my best ride ever. Jacqui helped us out in the warm up, and I felt good going in, but unfortunately some of my old bad habits creeped back in at a few of the fences. I think the rain was messing with my head a little, and I did a bit of the 'hurry up and wait' ride that is not super fair to Sophie, and often causes me to move my body around way too much right in front of the fence. She is the best girl in the world though, and still jumped every single jump. We did manage to have a few cohesive jumps together, and her scope and athleticism continues to amaze me. I mean just look at her effort in this photo! She is making a training jump look tiny - and she's not a big horse! (Photo by Erin Gilmore) I went in to cross country with a clear plan. One pop over a coop in the warm up and I could feel that she was good to go. Since it was a schooling event, cross country wasn't timed. I took this to heart and maintained a slow, steady, rhythmic canter for the first few fences. I then brought her to a trot in front of some of the harder questions just to make sure our focus was there. Any cross country jumping penalty we've had in the past has been purely related to either her, or myself, or a combination of both of us being distracted and not preparing for a fence properly, so I wanted to take the opportunity to set us up for success here when the pressure of time was off. We had one exercise that consisted of a raised log fence about one stride out from the water, so I broke to a trot and let her pick up the canter and take me over that fence, which she did. We cantered through the water and then up in to the woods for a few fences on a smaller side field on the property. Sometimes Sophie gets distracted by cars and volunteers near fences, so there was a bit of expected wiggling as we approached a fence that a car was near. I held the line, and she saw the jump a few strides out and made the correct effort. We had another combination that consisted of an up bank then two strides to a roll top. I think this particular bank was in a location where water could be added, so the ground right in front of the bank was dark footing that was a stark contrast to the grass (see photo). Expecting that to be distracting, I brought Soph back to the trot before the bank. She once again took the reins and hopped up the bank and then out over the roll top with quite a bit of gusto. We then turned towards the last few fences on course and we approached the last combination that was an up bank, two strides and then a down bank (see photo). In hindsight, I should have trotted here too, but she was feeling so strong that I figured we were good to go. She had also schooled a bunch of bank exercises without any issues earlier in the week. She found her footing on the up bank, and then went to veer hard left to go around the flags and down the mound instead of through the flags down the bank. I was able to get our balance and shift her over just before we would have had a run out, and, after a little shuffle, we put all four feet down the bank. We cantered away and finished the last three jumps on course with ease. Our effort culminated in a third place finish! I am so pleased with our first horse trial results this year. Sophie feels great and I am looking forward to what is ahead for us. Our flatwork will hopefully only continue to get better, I still feel good about the show jumping and am glad some rust was knocked off, and she tells me how much she enjoys the cross country every time we get out there. Our little near-miss at the down bank is good information for me to have, and I am prepared to present whatever down bank questions we have in the future in a way that better sets us up for success. Huge shout outs to Jacqui for making time to coach me alongside her two rides of the day, and to Drew for coming to support in the miserable weather. Next up: Morven! K

  • Getting my first Truck & Trailer

    March 18, 2024 Getting your first truck and trailer can be quite the process, especially if you are trying to make it all work on a budget. Read on to hear the craziness that was my experience putting together my rig, and at the end I'll include some tips for anyone looking into getting their first set up in the future. When I first started hauling for my last barn, it took me SEVERAL trips before I would say I felt 'comfortable'. Even to this day, when I am pulling my own horse, in my own trailer, with my own truck, I sometimes white-knuckle it. The first trailer trip I ever did on my own was driving a friend's two horse bumper pull with her 2500 Chevy. I only had the horse I was leasing at the time in the trailer with me, and I had practiced hauling her empty trailer several times leading up to this day. In Area 1, everything is at least an hour and a half away from us, and we were headed to New Jersey Horse Park for an event; it was about a 2.5-3 hour trip depending on traffic. I also accounted for my likely slow driving. CT to NJ is nearly a straight forward shot on 95 the whole way. This is fine once you are in New Jersey, but can be REAL painful in New York, especially because I needed to cross the infamous George Washington bridge. I had my good friend Bella with me for emotional support, and boy did I need it. Every bump we went over, barrier we got close to, and every car that cut me off would put me in a sweat. White-knuckling isn't intense enough to describe my grip on the steering wheel. That morning I was running on an amount of adrenaline I didn't know I had. As we approached the GW, I read and reread all of the signs pointing to 'Trucks Upper Level ONLY' and followed the chaos as best as I could. I learned very quickly that other drivers don't care how big your vehicle is, or how precious your cargo is - you have to drive selfishly. I could feel the lines closing in on either side of the truck as we ventured up to the top level, and a breath I didn't know I was holding escaped as soon as those suspension bridge towers came into my sight. Whose idea was it to build a double-decker bridge, anyway?! The rest of that ride was smooth sailing, and we came and went from the HPNJ without a hitch. I did a few more trips with that rig, which always hauled well. I also did a couple of local trips with my trainer's larger rig, which at the time was a lovely 2+1 gooseneck attached to a dually Silverado. Towards the end of the summer of 2022, my little Jeep Renegade, affectionately known as 'Square Car', was steadily approaching the 100k mile mark. It was in great condition otherwise, but having had an older Jeep prior to this one, I wasn't keen on keeping it forever. I figured the trade in value would be better the closer I could stay to under or around 100,000 miles. I had originally set my sights on another small SUV, but I was so bored with the options. I talked to my parents, and my dad reminded me how much I loved driving. He also pointed out how much time I spent on the road in general, and that I should get a car that I wanted to be behind the wheel of. Eventually I convinced myself that I should get a truck, mostly so that I could borrow trailers and use it for hauling in the future. I also had so much horse related crap that having a truck bed to store it in, without making the rest of my car smell like horse, would be useful. I was a bit pigheaded at the start of my truck search, and I was fairly set on a Ford Ranger early on. It took a lot of discussion with my trainer at the time and friend, Charlotte, and her mechanic to steer me in a better direction, which was the next size up. I learned quickly that it's one thing to have a truck that can tow a certain capacity, but when it comes to towing livestock, and needing the ability to stop on a dime safely as well as haul up and down all types of terrain efficiently, it is imperative to have a truck that can do much more than the bare minimum. I wasn't necessarily stuck on Fords, but I ended up being swayed towards a beautiful, used, black 2017 F150 Lariat with the bigger V8 engine and a 30 gallon tank. It was love at first test drive. My monthly payments became affordable once the trade-in value of Square Car was calculated, and I drove the truck off the lot at the beginning of December in 2022. Soon after I was gifted a hitch from my good friends Heidi and Travis, and I was going into 2023 with the hopes of hauling myself and some horses everywhere. I had started planning on trying to make money shipping for other people. Shipping to shows up north can get really pricey, and I thought that getting my own trailer would be a worthy investment. I started that search by scouring the used trailer market on Facebook, which is actually fairly good. I eventually found one that was within my budget and had a tack room separate from the stalls. I drove to central Connecticut to see it, and everything looked good. My friend Alicia came with me the day I went to pick it up to double check that everything looked like it was in good order. I was told the tires were relatively new, the wood flooring was brand new, and it had been repainted recently. I thought everything looked great. I drove it off the lot mid-March 2023 and started organizing the tack room to make it my own. I was so excited to have my own rig! I had a bit of anxiety hauling in general, but it always made me feel extra stressed when I was hauling a rig of which not a single part belonged to me. I got the trailer insured immediately, which required me to obtain the title and sign it over into my name. I also needed to get a separate license plate for the trailer, which became a huge to-do early on. Before I could get the trailer registered, I needed to have a VIN verification done by a certified technician. I took the trailer over to the nearest car shop and discovered that the label where the VIN should be on the trailer was completely rusted over and illegible. Even though I had the title with the VIN number on it, the mechanic needed to see the VIN label on the trailer itself to qualify for a VIN verification. I then had to get in touch with the lovely people at Cotner trailers in Pennsylvania to have them send a new VIN label over to me. Their customer service was so easy to work with, and they sent me my new VIN label within days. With the new label, I was able to get the VIN verification completed and mailed to the DMV to get it registered. I received the license plate less than 24 hours before I needed my trailer to haul horses to Pennsylvania for a show! While the VIN debacle with the trailer was taking place, my truck decided it wasn't ready for hauling. The check engine light went off just a few days before I would be needing it for our annual Pennsylvania horse show trip. I didn't think much of it, and brought it over to the local car shop to get it checked out. The mechanic came back to me with dreadful news: my truck would be fine, but the part that was needed was backordered for MONTHS. I broke down in tears over this (more than once). The part I needed was a new 'intake manifold'. Anyone who was around me during this time unfortunately witnessed multiple of my breakdowns over this stupid freaking car part. I was told I could drive the truck on the broken part, but I was strongly advised to not haul with it until fixed based on what service the intake manifold provided. I was desperate to have my full rig ready for Pennsylvania, and I immediately ordered what I thought was the correct part off of an off-market website. When I brought it to the mechanic they curtly informed me that the part I had purchased would work for a Mustang, but not a truck. I was told I needed to wait. I have fortunately been unbelievably blessed with some amazing horse friends, and my dear friend Kelly has a gorgeous F250 that I was able to borrow for our Pennsylvania trip. We traded trucks for the weekend and her amazing vehicle hauled my then-fully registered trailer and some seriously precious cargo safely to and from Plantation. About a month after that, my intake manifold was still something I was dreaming about. I once again borrowed Kelly's truck to bring myself, Sophie, my good friend Eliza, and her ride Layla to Flora Lea horse trials. I am still so incredibly grateful to Kelly for letting me borrow her truck, but I was desperate to have my full rig in working order. I had owned a truck for 5 months at that point and hadn't gotten to use it at all for what I had purchased it for. Following Flora Lea, I brought my trailer in for service to make sure it was good to go for our upcoming move to Virginia. I had been having a few issues with losing air in one of the tires, and after the amazing barn hand, Victor, successfully found a leak in one of the valves, I figured it was safer to have the whole trailer checked out just in case. A new spare tire and two new valves later, and the trailer was given the checkmark for the next trip. Now it was just the truck that needed to be give the green light. Time began to crunch as we inched closer and closer to July. I needed that truck part to be in and the truck to be functioning no later than August 9th. That was our day to move down to Virginia, and there was no way I was paying to have my horse professionally shipped when I had all the parts to do it myself! The impending move, plus our wedding in between, made me desperate. I made daily calls both to the dealership that had ordered my part, and to Ford's general parts line almost daily. I had become good friends with Ford customer service over the weeks leading up to my wedding, and I had explained to probably every single person at Colonial Ford in Danbury how I was getting married at the end of July, immediately going on an international trip for two weeks to honeymoon, and then coming back and immediately moving to VA. I needed that truck to be in full working order and at my apartment by August 9th at the latest. I feel very grateful that they never blocked my number during that time. In the days leading up to the wedding, I was beginning to lose hope. I was trying really hard to focus on the amazing and happy times that were just in front of us, but this stupid intake manifold was always on my mind. I received a call from the parts manager at my dealership while Drew and I were literally in the car on our way to our rehearsal dinner: that stupid freaking intake manifold had finally arrived!!!! I don't know who was happier: me, or the guys at the dealership who wouldn't have to worry about my daily calls anymore. I told them I had to get married real quick (nbd), but that I could drop the truck off that Sunday before we were headed to the airport. They wished us well and I brought the truck over right before we jetted off to Tokyo for two weeks. I keep saying how great my friends are, and it's because it's true. While we were on our honeymoon, Ford got in touch with me to let me know that the truck was ready, but they couldn't keep it on the lot because of space. Bella came to my rescue and was able to pick the truck up and keep it at her house while I was away. I will forever be grateful to her for making that work!! Upon our return to the states, I picked up my truck from Bella's and brought it over to our apartment to throw some things into the tack room that didn't fit in the U-Haul. Since then, the truck and trailer have successfully taken myself and Sophie to Virginia, and to a few other outings here and there. Having my own rig does give me a great sense of freedom. If there's somewhere I want to go with Sophie, I don't have to organize or pay for transportation outside of fuel costs. I also look forward to when I can maybe make a few extra bucks hauling for others at some point when the time allows. If getting a truck and trailer is something you are interested in doing, I have a few tips I can share from my experience. First, really think about why you want to do it. Do you really need your own? I was set on putting my own together because I have been very serious about making horses a full time gig, or at least a very serious side gig, and having my own rig makes me more marketable. I also considered it an investment, because the goal is to one day make enough money shipping that I can pay off my truck loan and then some. However, the initial cost isn't cheap, especially if you want to do it right. Second, set a reasonable budget, and start with a truck. The truck will be with you every day, especially if you are replacing a personal vehicle. I do a lot of driving, so I didn't want something so huge that I couldn't fit into a parking garage, but also something that wasn't a total gas guzzler. I test drove a bunch of trucks and discussed options with my trainers and mechanics. I knew my budget would put me at looking into used vehicles, but there were plenty of solid options on the market. There are a lot of trucks that are built to last for years and over hundreds of thousands of miles. My goal for used was to find something under 60k miles, and preferably something with leather seats because it's easier to clean. The truck I got was at 65k-ish miles, one owner, barely used for towing. F150's, particularly the year and model I got, are also known for their longevity. I plan to treat this truck like a true horsewoman's truck and drive it into the ground. With my trade-in and downpayment, I was able to get my monthly payment to a very reasonable amount. And my insurance is low due to a good driving record. Gas was going to be expensive, but I was prepared for that. When looking at trucks for hauling, talk to your trainer or anyone in your life that hauls horses. Chances are they'll tell you to start with a V8 and only go up from there. Your V6 engines might have a towing capacity that matches your trailer and horse sizes, but safety is so important when hauling large, live, moving creatures. In New England in particular, there is all sorts of terrain that your vehicle should easily be able to tow your trailer through. This includes snow, mud, slick conditions, and up and down steep hills. You also want to be confident that your vehicle can break in an emergency and have enough power to not be pushed against by the trailer too much to cause an accident. Your horse is incredibly precious cargo, so think safety first!!! Set another reasonable budget for a trailer. My budget wasn't massive, but I also knew exactly what I wanted. I was looking for a two horse bumper pull with a separate tack room. Two horses won't pay as much as hauling 3+ horses, but I also want to maximize the longevity of my truck with a smaller trailer to haul. I also cared about the health of the trailer floor, and the wood floor of this trailer was replaced within the last year. It looked brand new. There are also plenty of great small trailers out there without a tack room, but I have so much crap that I needed the extra storage. A lot of used trailer owners also expect payments in cash or personal check form, so plan to have that money up front if you do plan to buy used. And don't doubt Facebook marketplace! I saw so many great used trailers in various groups that I was a part of. However, I do think that it is important to be able to go and see the trailer before you buy it, and taking someone with you that hauls regularly is never a bad idea. They might notice things that rookie haulers wouldn't. My experience also forced me to learn to look for the VIN on the trailer before purchasing. You need a legible VIN to register the trailer, and at least in my experience in CT, I needed a VIN verification to be completed before I could register it with the state and get myself some plates. It is not the end of the world if a trailer doesn't have one that's legible, as I discovered, but it can be inconvenient. I was lucky that the trailer company that made mine was so organized and easy to work with. Time will tell how well both of these pieces survive being with me, but I am not hauling commercially or very far that often, so the goal is that they will be with me for a long time. I am happy to chat in greater detail with anyone that might be going through a process like this to give more insight as needed - feel free to reach out. :) Happy hauling! K

  • The Ebb and Flow in a Relationship with Horses

    March 11, 2024 One of my favorite songs is 'Semi Pro' by indie/alternative band Hippo Campus. I feel that I relate to the lyrics in some capacity, because I find it hard to nail down what my relationship is with horses right now. By definition, I am currently an adult amateur. I hold amateur status with USEF and USEA, and I spend my days riding and competing my own horse. However, less than a few months ago, I was by-definition a professional. I was being paid to teach lessons, and I was being paid to ride other people's horses. I feel like I am in limbo trying to figure out what I want with horses in my life. I have spent a lot of time reflecting on where I have come from with horses in order to better establish where I want to go with them in the future. I grew some pretty big boots when my trainer at the barn I grew up riding at let me have the coveted clipboard at the home schooling shows. I craved that feeling of knowing enough that I got to help others learn the way. Given my early career choices, that is not too surprising. I suppose you could call me a 'professional know-it-all', but I'll take the label of educator. I thought I was one of the stronger riders at my barn when I was a kid after just a few years of lessons. When I became one of the 'big' kids around the barn, there were bragging rights as to who jumped the highest or competed at the most shows. I was incredibly fortunate that my parents provided myself and my sister with our family pony, Clifden, as well as the opportunity to participate in quite a few shows. They allowed me to experience the sport of eventing, which stole my heart and still has it to this day. When I see videos or pictures of my riding back then, I can belly laugh at how ridiculous it was of me to think I had the right to believe that I was something special. However, when you are a kid and you think that you have outgrown the need to participate in schooling shows at home, your head can get a little big. Once I entered high school, I was riding less and focusing more on my academics and social life. I still felt that I had outgrown the lesson horses at my barn, and our family pony was retiring from jumping. I spent my days hacking him when time allowed. It was a peaceful few years of that, but I missed competing. I wanted more. Things started to change when I joined the IHSA team upon my entrance into college. It was the most affordable way for me to keep riding, and the team dues included weekly lessons and the ability to participate in 10 intercollegiate shows throughout the year. I was humbled before lessons even started. Every new member had to take an online test to be 'properly placed' into your starting IHSA level. The majority of the test questions centered around how many ribbons you'd won at varying levels of rated hunter / jumper shows. Since I only had experience with eventing and some schooling jumper shows, I answered 'none' to most of the questions. As a result, the test determined that I belonged at the advanced w/t/c and x rails level. To say I was mortified is an understatement. I believed that I was far more experienced than being placed at that level implied. I quickly posted a photo of myself and Cliffy jumping over a 2'6 cross country fence on my Instagram in order to prove to myself and everyone else that I was 'better' than the level I was 'wrongly' placed in. The chip on my shoulder was real. And real silly, looking back on it. Eventually my coach manually moved me up to the novice level (about 2' equivalent). My team spirit, strong leadership qualities, and organizational skills led me to be captain 3 of my 4 years, but my placings at shows had me just barely pointing up into open flat and fences, the highest level, by the end of my senior year. I learned a lot by riding so many different horses over those years, but it definitely was a kick in the teeth to have to prove myself. I am glad I had teammates that respected having me as a captain and didn't care what level that I was in, and I am equally as glad, in hindsight, that I had to work my way up to the higher levels. It's something I didn't know I needed. I also learned how poor my riding position was, and how as much as I might be able to ride a horse, I needed work on being able to make it look effortless. I finished up my IHSA career humbly taking last place in my final class at regionals, but feeling excited for what was next in my riding career. I wanted more. Post-college, I worked and rode at an eventing barn that would help me progress incredibly well as a rider. I was humbled at the start, once again, but this time it was by struggling to ride (and often falling off of) so many lovely school horses within the first year of riding there. From the school master, to the greenie, to the 3* horse that had stepped down, I experienced the ground from several angles. Luckily, my trainer could see something good in me, and continued to push me in each lesson and on each horse. Eventually the hours I put in working around the barn in my spare time would allow me to afford getting out to a few schooling shows on varying lesson horses. After only a year of riding at this barn, I was able to compete at my first horse trial in years on my favorite school horse at the time. Five short years in this program, and I went from eventing at the beginner novice level to the prelim level, schooling some third and fourth level dressage movements, jumping comfortably at 3' and above, and owning my own horse. I also grew confidence in riding horses of all sizes, ages, and backgrounds. I had opportunities to ride at hunter paces and on the beach, and I learned a lot about horse care and the intricacies of running an equestrian business. Most importantly, I was given the opportunity to teach lessons for students ages 4 - 74, and skill levels ranging from first time on a horse to training level rider. I was confident in my teaching abilities, and it helped that I had a Master's degree in the field of education. The art of teaching comes naturally to me. After teaching for several years, I have learned and developed skills to teach so many types of riders, and I am comfortable in my ability to break down complicated concepts to riders of all levels. I really enjoyed doing it while I could, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to do so. I hope to get back to it in some capacity one day. Between teaching lessons consistently, and then starting to feel really solid at the training / modified level of the sport, I ended up reaching a point where I was once again growing too big for my boots. I felt that I had more learning to do, and a desire to see a different side of this industry. I wanted more. A career change, and the desire to learn more in a different atmosphere, led to my current horse and I moving out of state to ride with and work for a very well established upper level professional. I was in heaven when I first started work there. The days were long, but they were spent riding multiple upper level horses, completing expected barn chores and tasks, and just getting to spend all day around the barn. It was amazing to see Sophie on so much grass. I loved being able to ride with the best, and audit lessons that my trainer had with other amazing names in the sport. It was so eye-opening to learn how an upper level program worked, and I got to learn what it takes to manage a 12+ horse property. I even got the opportunity to be on the ground grooming at a huge venue, and I was setting jumps in the warm up ring while getting to watch some icons get ready up close. I was learning so much so intensely. I was keeping a multitude of notes in the notes app on my phone to keep a record of what I was learning in lessons and on the ground. I was a sponge, trying to absorb anything and everything I could. I was eager to keep climbing the ladder and become full time in this sport. Unfortunately, after a few months of the intense learning, it started to send me into a spiral I was not prepared for. I fell into a heavy depressive episode towards mid-November. That, plus dealing with a crazy broken finger, allowed me to take a lot of time to reflect on what was going on in my head. I loved horses, and I wanted horses to be full time for me...why was I struggling to eat, sleep, and find consistent happiness at the barn? I was living the up-and-coming pro life working under someone incredible, riding incredible horses, and taking multiple lessons a week. My trainer really believed in me, and she felt that I was a good fit for this industry. She gave me so many positive affirmations every single day. I had spent years dreaming of this kind of opportunity, so why was I struggling so much? I had a poignant conversation with my former trainer on a recent visit back home. She shared with me how as much as she has loved competitions, she also enjoys simple hacks and trail rides. For her, not every moment in the saddle has to be serious in order for her to still love what she does with horses. That really stuck with me. I needed less. I think my mental health struggle was a combination of having too many major life changes in a short amount of time, and my realization that I do want to keep getting better as a rider and moving up the levels, but not at the cost of never having casual time spent at the barn and with horses. I love riding, I love competing, I love grooming my horse. I love hand grazing, I love course designing, I love teaching lessons. I love observing my trainers during their rides, I love grooming at shows, I love attending the big events to watch the pros do their thing. I love cleaning my tack, I love using my truck and trailer to bring my horse new places, I love walking courses. I love wearing riding clothes, I love going to tack stores, I love watching livestreams of the big shows. I love learning about how different barns operate, I love listening to the vet and farrier when they come to work on the horses, I love going to clinics. But you know what? I also love beach rides, I love trail rides, I love walking around bareback on my horse with no goals in mind. I love spending hours at the barn watching others ride, I love going out with barn friends, I love sitting in the tack room and solving all the worlds' ills with the other riders. I also love spending time with my family and I love spending time with my non-horse friends. I love getting home before the sun sets to walk my dog and have dinner with my husband. I love the last minute 'hey what are you doing today?' plans. I love going out to dinner, I love watching movies, I love doing weekend trips to places I've never been. I love going to breweries, I love to write, I love to go to concerts. I even love sometimes having a lazy weekend with my family with no activities on the schedule. I'm not ready to give up the ability and time to do everything I love just yet. That will mean that I will be pursuing a day job most likely outside of horses, which may be going back to teaching or it might be something new. I have come to an understanding that if I want to go big in the industry full-time, I have to be willing to adjust what baskets I am putting my eggs in significantly. I do not have energy or time right now to go full-send with horses and still be able to do everything I love that does not involve horses. Being in the upper level atmosphere was amazing, and I learned so much in such a short amount of time. It was exhilarating running cross country feeling like both Sophie and I were going so much better together after such a short time working with people at the top of the sport. That being said, I really struggled to thrive mentally in an environment where every day was about getting better and always pushing yourself. I think some might view it as a 'soft' or 'weak' mindset, but I know who I am and what I need. If it means I am a bit slower to reach my riding goals, then so be it. There is nothing wrong with the mentality that you should always be pushing yourself to be better and better everyday; I fully believe that mentality is what gets the people at the top of the sport to be there, and I have intense respect for it. I just realized that the top of the sport might not be a place for me. At least not right this minute. I think that I personally find more inner peace when I can move freely between being highly competitive and serious, and then also being relaxed and just doing casual things with horses. Just a few weeks ago, I drove over to a local farm that was hosting a fun show simply to watch some of the people from my current barn try their hand at barrels and sit-a-buck. I had a smile plastered on my face ear-to-ear the entire time. I clearly need some of that in my life, too. For now, I will keep taking lessons and attending clinics when I can, and enjoying time with my horse both at home and at shows. For the longest time, I thought that 'adult ammy' was not enough to describe where I fit in the horse world, but right now that is where I am. I am growing to enjoy it. My schedule is in my hands, and I look forward to what's next. I will always keep the door cracked should the right opportunity ever come knocking for me to journey back into the professional sphere. Happiness with horses can come in so many forms. For some people, that is competing multiple horses every weekend, and for others it is simply getting to visit a barn and pat a horse on the shoulder every now and then. One isn't inherently better or worse than the other - they're just different. I know someone who finds joy in working with young horses, and also in beach rides and hacks. Another finds joy in bringing students to competitions, and still finding that competitive edge themselves. Another thrives in being the best they can be, and moving multiple horses up the levels as well as bringing other riders up to their potential. Another loves being a horse owner and spending hours grooming, riding, and loving on their horse. Another looks forward to their weekly lesson after a long day in the office. Another enjoys grooming for friends at shows and being the designated videographer and water holder. I have so many barn friends that find happiness in sitting in the field with their horse, seeing which lesson horse is next to their name on a whiteboard, attending big shows as a spectator, or taking pictures for friends during their lessons. There is a space in this crazy industry for every type of horse lover. I am learning to find what space works best for me. And I have no regrets towards what I have experienced so far. I will always still want more, but on my own terms and at my own pace. As I continue my life with horses, I keep myself open to changes while putting my horse first. If my horse is happy, then I will for sure find a way to be happy. Sophie and I will be moving back to our home base of Area 1 this summer, and I look forward to where we go from there. I will be going into some career that likely does not involve working at a barn full time, and I look forward to figuring out what that will look like. Right now, I am substitute teaching while planning for the future. I think at some point I would like to teach lessons again, and maybe also ride for others; in what capacity, I am not yet sure. As of right now, Sophie and I have exciting competition plans while we complete our stint in VA, and I am grateful for what I have access to, and for the relationships I've formed along the way. Here's to all professionals, semi pro's, adult ammy's young riders, horse lovers, and everything in between. We all deserve to be here <3 K

  • Our Time at Equine Affaire 2022

    March 2nd, 2024 I know it's been well over a year...but I wanted to have a record of my memories as a participant, vendor, and spectator at Equine Affaire Massachusetts back in 2022. I have been attending Equine Affaire since I was a kid. Growing up as a certified horse girl in New England meant that every Veteran's Day weekend was one of the most important times of the year. I was so lucky to have a mom who would organize annual trips for us to go every year - even pulling us out of school on occasion. When I was much younger, we would go with a group of my barn friends and their moms, and we would organize one night for viewing the Pfizer Fantasia show as a group. I am lucky to have had such a great group of friends and parents at my barn growing up. As a kid, going to Equine Affaire meant saving my pennies for my Breyer horse pick of the year, participating in the build-your-own stick horse activities, and being giddy about seeing all of the different horses in the breed barn. In high school, it meant buying new clothes for myself, and all sorts of treats for our family pony, Clifden. In college, it meant browsing the vendors for hours, and making endless mental checklists of which items I would have bought if I owned my own horse. It also meant scanning the program to make sure I was on time for any professional clinics I thought would be worth a watch. Once I was leasing a horse, it meant entering every single raffle in the hopes of winning the free fly spray bottle, and maybe purchasing that saddle pad in a shade of green I did not yet have. In the spring of 2022, my trainer at the time and good friend, Charlotte, suggested I look at which clinicians would be participating at the event in the fall, and that I should consider taking Sophie if there was anyone I would be interested in riding with. I was blown away at the idea that I could be one of the lucky riders to be in the coliseum with one of these top clinicians! I immediately got to filling out application forms. Shout out to Charlotte for being the one to facilitate this! Several forms, a short essay, and a video montage later, and I was selected to participate in the Gina Miles clinic on the Thursday of that year's event. I was beyond excited. I couldn't wait to experience this iconic event from a completely different view. Shortly after learning of my acceptance into the clinic, I also agreed to help work a vendor booth for KMA Equestrian with my incredible friend and business owner, Kelly. I called my parents, filled with glee over the fact that I would be gaining two entirely new perspectives of Equine Affaire that year. When the time came, my dear friend Bella hauled Sophie and I up to Springfield for our Big E debut. Sophie had an uneventful first evening in her stall with her name, my phone number, and 'DO NOT PET' scribbled onto her stall card. Thursday morning began with an in-hand walk around the stabling area, and a tour of the coliseum. For a horse that pretends to be afraid of a lot of things, she sure took in the coliseum with ease. After braiding her mane and giving her a solid groom, I gave her some alone time in her stall to relax while I spent the early afternoon working the KMA booth. When it was close to time, my lovely sister, Brenna, joined me at stabling to get the spotted unicorn ready to rock. She came with me and helped me set a warm up jump in the ring near stabling. The funniest part of the warm up area was the variety of clientele: Equine Affaire hosts riders and horse lovers from all sorts of disciplines and backgrounds. While I was working on getting straight lines to my cross rail, there was someone lunging a baby horse, a western rider practicing their lope, a dressage rider doing leg yields, and others doing in-hand work. It was slightly chaotic, but I had to take a moment to appreciate how many different ways people can love and be involved with horses. Sophie didn't need much of a warm up, and we soon made our way over to the coliseum. We were in a group with three other riders, and Gina took time to talk to each of us before setting the exercise. We ended up working on what I refer to as 'the circle of death' - where you have 4 poles, or jumps, set up perpendicular to each other so that you can form a circle over them. We then had to practice keeping consistent canters to maintain 7, 6, 5 and even 4 strides in between each pole / jump. This exercise is fantastic for horses and riders of all levels, in my opinion. It was challenging to keep a steady enough canter to keep the striding the same between each pole, but it was equally as challenging to adjust the canter to get exactly the number of strides desired between each set. We had started at the trot and counted steps between, and even at the trot this is an exercise that can be useful. Sophie and I learned that we had an easier time off of the left lead than the right, and Gina had me work on holding a haunches in between poles to work on keeping the lead throughout. I was delighted at the end of our ride. It was so fun to ride with Gina, and I was just beside myself that I was riding this amazing horse at this iconic venue. Sophie could not have been better. Aftercare and several cookies later, Sophie was set up in her stall to enjoy the remainder of her afternoon in peace. I met up with Brenna and Bella to do some shopping, and then continued helping at the KMA booth. Bella took Sophie and myself home that night, and the spotted unicorn got to have the next day off. I had to work at my 'real' job on Friday, so I returned Saturday and Sunday to help run the KMA booth. Experiencing Equine Affaire as a vendor was fun, especially because I was promoting products I love. So many amazing people came through the booth, and it was fulfilling to see how much they loved the products upon first try. We ran a little raffle for free items too, which drew a fair number of people our way. It was so exciting to talk to riders from all over and from many different backgrounds. We chatted with the neighboring vendors, and Kelly and I took turns running the booth while the other went shopping. Even after being at EA for three days, I only purchased a small handful unnecessary items! I was unable to attend last year due to living in Virginia, but I plan to return this year - at least as a spectator, but maybe more if I'm lucky! If you are a horse lover in the New England area, I will always recommend Equine Affaire as the thing to do on Veteran's Day Weekend. The eventing season is usually long gone by that time, and it's close enough to the holidays that you can get a ton of great shopping done for yourself and other horse lovers in your life. I look forward to participating in any capacity in 2024! K

  • The Broken Finger Chronicles

    February 26, 2024 Content Warning: Some images in this post show stitches, dried blood, etc. I was really going through it back in November. I was questioning nearly all of my life choices, I was battling mental health demons, and I was having a really hard time staying positive. That is something for a separate blog post in itself, but it all came to a head one blistery afternoon the week before Thanksgiving. I was working the barn alone, and trying to get all the boxes checked in order to go home and prep for my trip north for the holiday. I was on my last horse of the day. The plan was to lunge him down in the field, and then I would just be finishing afternoon chores and be done for the day. Lunging went smoothly, the horse was wonderful. I started to wrap up the lunge whip and get the lead organized, and I noticed a very quick change in temperament from the horse at the end of the rope. He must've noticed the ghosts that sometimes wreak havoc in the field, and his entire (very large) body tensed up. I didn't have a second to process how my hands and the rope were organized and he was in the air and ready to book it back to the barn. Unfortunately, I had not remembered a classic Pony Club rule of never wrapping the lead around your fingers in this one instance, and the 1200lb animal yanked that rope and nearly took my right ring finger with him. Adrenaline was with me immediately, and I was focused a lot more on getting the big guy by my side and walking calmly back to home base than I was about how my finger felt. He was able to be reeled back in fairly quickly, and we discussed how that was all a little silly, followed by several 'good boy' pats on the neck. On our way back up, after we both had calmed down, I noticed that finger was in a lot of pain. I had pretty thick gloves on, so I tried moving my finger around in the glove. I could wiggle it, which made me brush it aside for the time being, as it was at least still attached. Once we were back in the barn, I busied myself with taking care of the horse and getting him back in his stall with his blanket on. I gave him a cookie and told him how good of a boy he was, and that it wasn't his fault that I wasn't thinking clearly about how I was holding the lunge line. I checked up on the other horses that I had left to take care of, and started cleaning up the barn. The growing pain in my finger was rapidly increasing to a point where I couldn't keep ignoring it. After a few minutes, I decided to bite the bullet and take my glove off to assess the damage. Upon first glance, I noticed that there was already bruising and swelling. I grabbed an ice boot from the freezer and let it sit on ice for a few minutes to see if that helped. It felt like the pain increased as soon as I started looking at it, and my gut feeling was that it was dislocated. The direction that the lunge line was pulled would correlate well with a dislocation. I thought I confirmed this suspicion when I went to try to bend my finger from the base joint and it began bending in a direction that it was not supposed to go. That's when panic set in. I put the ice boot away and started manically cleaning tack and throwing hay because I had a feeling I should go to urgent care immediately to get this looked at. I could tell that the finger was not good, but I didn't want to leave the barn a mess. I made sure all the horses had enough hay and water, and then I took myself over to the closest urgent care facility. Holding my hand like a delicate flower, I went up to that reception desk and they told me that I probably should just head to the ER for X-rays, as they didn't have imagery machines at their facility. I then drove over to the hospital and went into the ER. Time in the car allowed me to dwell on what was going on, and I was starting to feel silly. It was 'just my finger' and it was 'just dislocated'. I didn't want to waste anyone's time. Plus, I had to work the next day. Eventually I was given a bed, placed into a room, and the X-ray tech came by and took a few images of my then very swollen hand. The bruising was starting to spread, and the pain was really settling in. After a few minutes, the ER nurse came by and very nonchalantly informed me that my finger was broken. I was really surprised - I had fully anticipated that it was dislocated and would simply have to be put back into place. Having it be broken was a lot less convenient. The original X-ray made it look like the bone between my base and first knuckles was split in half, so everyone in the room seemed optimistic enough that I'd be fully recovered in 4-6 weeks. It looked clean. I was placed in a temporary splint, and sent on my way. I spent that evening FaceTiming family and friends to show off my new look. The next step was an appointment with the orthopedist after the weekend to get it looked at more closely. I went into that weekend before Thanksgiving feeling so, so stupid for getting myself into this situation. It was entirely avoidable, and I always check how I'm holding lead lines every single time I am on the other end of a horse. Except for this one moment, of course. I then took to my socials and reminded all of my horse friends to watch how they handle lunge lines or leads of any kind in order to avoid this situation. You bet I'll never make this mistake again!! The Monday before Thanksgiving, I went into the orthopedics office for new X-rays and a cast. They had recommended a hard cast in order to protect the break, especially since I was still planning to go back to work. I remember being in the waiting room seeing a bunch of kids in colorful, signed casts. I thought about where I could buy silver or gold sharpies to have my family sign my cast when I went home later that week. I had never had a cast before, so in the moment it made me feel lighter to romanticize decorating it instead of sulking over having a broken bone. I had to be at least as tough as the kiddos with broken wrists! I was eventually brought in to the back and they took a good look at my hand. They wanted new images before casting, so they took X-rays at various angles. It suddenly became much more visible to me (and to them): That bone was SHATTERED. It was not just split up the middle. It was in several pieces, and had a lot of feathering and cracks. I was blown away at the amount of damage that was caused by such a quick incident. Upon examining my hand, the doctor determined that my finger also had some malrotation. That is why I had thought it was dislocated, and why it was bending in weird ways. They gave me some numbing fluid, and then - literally - twisted my finger back into place. The noise it made sounded like it was being snapped off. It took me a few minutes to mentally recover from seeing that happen. They then put the cast on, and informed me that if any of the bones shifted, we would have to pursue surgery. They were optimistic that we wouldn't have to go that route, so I was optimistic with them. I chose black for my cast so that dirt would be less visible once I was back to work, and I planned to stop at Michael's on the way up north for some sharpies. I enjoyed that holiday weekend with my family, showing off my cast, and not having to help clean the dishes. I planned to return to work as normal the following week, sans riding. When I did get back, I managed to do all of the regular chores, albeit slower than usual. I even got a few bareback rides in on the spotted unicorn. She must have felt some amount of sympathy for me, because she kept her spooking to a bare minimum so I could adequately steer with one hand. It felt like things were looking up. My next checkup about a week later was great. They took the cast off, took new X-rays, and confirmed that things looked like they were all still in the right places. I left that appointment being told that we were 80% confident we wouldn't need to go for surgery. They put me in another hard cast to continue the added protection, and I returned to work as normal, again with minimal riding. The next checkup, about a week after the last one, was not as great. They took new X-rays, and found that one of the bones had shifted in a way that would inhibit my use of the finger long term. The doctor discussed surgery with me, and I signed a whole lot of papers. Surgery was a go. It was at this point that I pulled away from work altogether. If you look closely at the X-ray below, you might be able to see the piece of bone that was rotating out of place in that section. The doctor's office didn't waste any time. Surgery happened later that week, the first week of December, and I was put under general anesthesia just for that finger. They ended up putting 4 screws in that one small section of my finger. That confirmed for me just how damaged it was, if that much hardware was required to fix it. I was stitched up, placed in a big splint, and sent on my way. What followed was a ton of physical therapy. I was going a few days per week, and working on exercises just to get the finger moving normally at each joint. Once the stitches came out, I felt a little more at ease about completing the exercises, and noticed the swelling was starting to decrease. Around Christmastime, the swelling was decreasing rapidly and the finger was looking a lot straighter. I was being rotated between a few different splints to wear during the day and then at night for protection, and everything seemed to be trending in the right direction. I was feeling really set in recovery. I had also started substitute teaching at my local school district, which gave me something else to focus on besides my wonky finger. After the holidays, I moved Sophie to a new barn and I started riding again. I was able to do everything as normal; I just switched to holding my right rein in between my middle and ring finger instead of between the ring and pinky fingers. I was struggling to bend the ring finger, but I could still hold it in place against the rein which was enough for me to do what I needed to do. My hand therapist has been amazing, and every visit she measures the progress of my extension and flexion. At first the progress seemed decent, and my ability to flex was increasing by a few degrees at a time each session. After a few weeks of continued, intense therapy following the holidays, we both started to notice that my flexion was stagnating and my extension was starting to decrease. We did a lot of 'scar massages', which is literally just massaging the skin of the scar to help move the scar tissue around in order for it to not harden too quickly. We noticed that the scar tissue was pretty thick, and nearly immovable. The doctor had a look at it and told me that, unfortunately, I had tendons that had adhered to the bone post surgery. This was the main reason I was struggling to bend my finger at that one joint. Our last ditch efforts to avoid a second surgery were this medieval torture device, that was made to slowly force my finger to come down and bend more, and a cortisone shot. I have to say that the cortisone shot was probably the worst part during this whole process. They applied a lot of numbing fluid to that area, which made my hand real fat but also subdued the pain, and then did injections at two sites on top of my hand. The pain from the steroid after the numbing wore off was excruciating. I would describe it as a searing, burning, insistent pain. Throughout the whole process up to this point, I had been dealing with pain that was mostly intense soreness and aching; this was different. It only lasted one evening, but it was brutal. We let the shot try to work its magic over the course of two weeks, and along with this crazy device, we continued to work at that joint to make some bending happen. Unfortunately, this device and the steroid couldn't do it. On February 5th, the doctor looked at my progress and decided he needed to go back in. I was in agreement - my finger flexion was only at about 20%. The bones were healing well, but there were tendons that had adhered to the bone, and scar tissue on top of that - all of which was impeding both the flexion and extension so much that the steroid couldn't be effective. I wanted to have full use of my hand again at some point, so I filled out the paperwork and signed up for surgery round 2. The pictures below are from the day before surgery. The original scar had healed so well, but I had such little flexion in that middle joint. Just last Friday I went under the knife for the second surgery. I was again given general anesthesia for this one freaking finger, and the doctor performed an 'extensor tenolysis' and a 'PIP joint capsulectomy'. In basic terms, they were going to cut some secondary tendons to release pressure, and they were going to peel the adhered tendons off the bone to allow for easier bending at the problem joint. I had to get a few more stitches, but I took the wrapping off a few times over the weekend to start on my exercises and I can make a fist!! I haven't been able to do that for months. It's not perfect, but it feels like hefty progress. I had my first round of PT this morning and I am feeling really good about where we are at with this now. I will get this round of stitches out next week, and hopefully after the next two weeks of intensive therapy, I will see some major continued progress. I keep slowly working on some basic therapy exercises as I sit here at work, and I am just so relieved to see my fingers all be able to curl into a fist together. It's a motion you probably don't think about that often until you can't do it! My biggest takeaways from all of this: DO NOT WRAP LEADS AROUND YOUR HAND. Loop and fold. Loop and fold. Loop and fold!!!!!! Recovery looks different for everyone. Be patient, listen to the doctors, and take recovery one step at a time. Whatever I choose as a career, hand model is off the table. I never want another needle in either of my hands ever again. I will continue to provide updates on this thing (hopefully all positive) as I head into competition season. I guess it was mildly convenient that this all happened during the off season! Huge thank you's to my doctors, my physical therapist, and family and friends for your support. And a huge thank you to Sophie, who was super for me to lunge with one hand yesterday <3 K

  • Jumping Progress with Sophie

    February 22nd, 2024 Something that I have been very excited to watch the progress of is Sophie's form over jumps. It has always been the phase that has felt the strongest for both of us since we became a team, but the progress that we have made within it has grown exponentially over the last several months. As a self-titled 'experienced amateur', I can absolutely feel when we are jumping flat versus when we are jumping well. Sure, Sophie often can get the job done and jump the jumps, but these days I have been focusing a lot on our form so that hopefully we can sneak in a few clear rounds this upcoming season and continue to get the job done and get it done well. Our tendency during a course is to start strong, and then get flat and long as the course goes on. This typically results in us being good for one rail. Usually it begins with Sophie feeling quite powerful and strong a few jumps in, and I (incorrectly) resort to pulling instead of pushing her into the bridle to get her to come back to me. Here are two pics of Sophie jumping over a similarly sized vertical. Spot the difference(s)?! I have been fortunate to have had several great jump trainers and clinic'd with some great jump riders over the years, but the phrase I always come back to is Tim Bourke describing the horse as being a bouncing ball underneath you. The idea is that you can shrink or expand the height of the bounce, but you can keep the same rhythm and energy. This applies to the horses: you can change the length of stride by correctly moving the energy up and down, instead of thinking of it as a forward/backward, faster/slower motion. It's bigger/smaller. Faster/slower implies a depletion of quality energy. I really think that a lot of riders struggle with this concept, myself included. It's hard to shift from the 'pull to slow down' mindset to the 'push to make the stride smaller' action. But when I get to the right headspace and perform the correct actions, Sophie jumps phenomenally. To try to explain what I am feeling, I am going to write it as a stream of consciousness. I can only hope this translates well enough: -We are cantering towards a jump. I have my leg on, I am sitting up and looking beyond the jump, and I have a contact to the bit that my elbows are following. I am putting my leg pressure on with the thought that I am pushing her into the contact that I am holding in my moving elbows. We are about 2/3 strides out and I am focusing on the rhythm of 1...2...1...2... instead of counting the strides. (For me personally, counting the strides gets my brain feeling like we need to suddenly go slower or faster which then causes a loss of quality energy and momentum.) We jump, we land, and I keep my butt out of the tack for one stride, still with leg on for support, before I sit to apply more leg pressure to push her back up and into the contact and come back to me. I am seated but not driving. If I pull without leg, we will slow down and lose our quality energy and get flat. If I push and drive with no contact, we will get faster and flat. I also have to ask her to come back to me within her rhythm - if I work against her, we (again) will lose our momentum and canter quality. I have to think leg on, back up, having a fluid contact, moving elbows, using my abdomen to hold the contact steady with the rhythm. If she starts to speed up, I "simply" apply greater pressure from the leg into a stronger contact, using my abdomen to hold it harder. - High level professionals that do this every day on many different horses have the ability to harness this quite well. I ride Sophie, and Sophie only these days, so I have the ability to focus on working on that feeling with her specifically so that someday I might get to the point where it's muscle memory and I can apply it to future horses. The good news, like I said earlier, is that I am at a point where I can feel when I am doing it right. Now my goal is to be able to make the feeling be what I need it to be all the time and not fall back into bad habits. I have a few sample clips below: can you tell where we are flat and where we are jumping well? I'll give my thoughts underneath them. Clip A Clip B Clip C Clip D Clip A: I would describe Sophie as putting her legs up and then down. We jumped it, but it was flat, and if the fence was much bigger (and had a rail) we most likely would have clipped the rail. You can see that before the jump, I am working against her. I have some leg on, but I am driving with my seat and simultaneously pulling her head back instead of following her rhythm. You can see that her hind legs are pushing off in a way that is just a continuation of a canter stride instead of really rocking back on her haunches and pushing off the ground. This is what most of our show jumping looked like at the start of our time together. At that time, I was focused on just getting the job done instead of focusing on details of doing it well. Our scores reflect this! Clip B: This was taken just the other day. You can see the difference in her body where she pushes clearly off of both hind legs together and uses more of her head and neck upon takeoff. On the approach to the jump, I am following the contact with my elbow, and the contact is very clear. I am seated but in a relatively light manner. I am using my leg here to ask her to bring her back up to me, and I hold the contact through my abdomen to ask her to sit back a bit in front of the fence. Clip C: This was from a few years ago when we were completing a classic "Charlotte Course" (meaning something crazy, challenging and fun with whatever we had set up in the indoor), and I was clearly focused on just finding the jump instead of asking Sophie to jump with any real oomph. It's flat, her head stays up the air, I am clearly not allowing with my elbow and forearm, etc. In the moment I was most likely happy with this, but I love that I can look back on this and know how much improvement we have made and how much I have grown since. Clip D: This was from a telling jump lesson with Jan from the fall. We had been working on Sophie keeping her back up so much on the flat, and it was clearly translating to the jumping. When I can put all the pieces together, this horse has an almost unlimited scope. I really can see the power she has from this short clip - Sophie is incredible. It's moments like these that I believe those professionals who have said this horse could be competitive at the upper levels (not that I will get there myself LOL). I know it might be hard to see in the clip, but she really sits back and launches over these jumps with so much power, and uses her whole body to do so. And I am riding in a way that promotes and allows that to happen. It sounds silly, but I am actually doing less with my body than I used to, and as a result accomplishing more. Instead of pulling a lot and driving a lot and moving here there and everywhere, I am working on being steady, soft but strong, and clear when I am asking for any kind of change. I am learning to be methodical instead of reacting in the moment. I really feel good about our show jumping right now, and our little outing at the recent schooling show only helped to solidify that feeling. 2 clear rounds and a confident feeling horse (and rider!). Our first event of the season is the schooling trial at Loch Moy in March, so hopefully we can squeeze in a clear round there! K

  • Product Spotlight: KMA Equestrian

    I have not purchased a pair of breeches other than KMA's since I put on my first pair back in the late fall of 2021. I remember when I first met Kelly, the owner of KMA Equestrian, when she came to our barn to promote these breeches she was designing. When I took a pair to try on, I noticed immediately how the material felt of such a higher quality compared to other breeches I was used to wearing at the time. I slipped them on and looked in the mirror and thought, WOW. I couldn't believe how good they looked. Beyond that, I couldn't believe how great they felt. I was hooked. It was one of those right place, right time situations. I was looking to work on my social media skills and to maybe grab some product or brand ambassadorships, and Kelly was looking for someone to help promote her products. I started helping with social media posts, photography, and in-person marketing to all of the people at my barn at the time. I would say it worked - I visited my previous barn just a few weeks ago, and majority of the riders I saw were adorned in their favorite pair of KMA breeches. Now I am a proud ambassador for this incredible brand. It is a brand that I believe in wholeheartedly, and I was so excited at the opportunity to promote it to fellow equestrians! Read on for all of the reasons I love KMA, and at the end I will provide a discount code to those interested in checking out KMA for themselves :) KMA breeches are absolute stand-out riding pants. I have never seen another product do the same thing that these do. The biggest draw to these breeches is that they are compression pants, so they stay in place all day and help fight muscle fatigue. For riders, I think both of those qualities are wildly important. For professionals and amateur riders alike, it is refreshing to not have to readjust your waistband every time you dismount. Compression materials have a lot of benefits, including greater long-term comfort, which again is something that benefits riders tremendously! Most breeches on the market are a mix between tights and regular cotton, which can be comfy at first, but wear down quickly over time. I can't tell you how many breeches I've had prior to KMA's that get saggy at the knees and around the butt even after just one ride - and that includes some of the most well-known high end breeches out there. I currently have KMA's that I first wore back in December of 2021 that still look good as new today, even after being worn and washed every week in between. Another fantastic quality of KMA breeches is the level of grip in the silicone. Whether you are a knee patch or full seat fan, the silicone is so incredibly grippy that you will feel secure in that saddle all ride long. My favorite part of the full seats are that they are super grippy without leaving marks on my saddle, which some breeches unfortunately do. It's amazing to not worry about that! Kelly has been working hard to provide riders with color options that are both fun and classic. Right now there is a wonderful selection that anyone would find exciting - from classic black and grey, to bright teal and plum tones, to breeches fit for the show ring in iconic tan and white colors - there is a perfect variety to choose from. As an event rider, I am partial to my white breeches for showing. Those breeches are a miracle in and of themselves, in my opinion. I had the hardest time finding white breeches for competition that held up over time, provided the right grip and support to traverse dressage and cross country, were comfortable, and didn't stain within 5 minutes of wear. The KMA white competition breeches changed the game for me - they covered all of my needs!! Just the other day I was searching for my older pair to wear to a schooling show, and I literally couldn't tell the difference between the pair I've had for a few years now, and the pair I got over the summer. Both are still stain-free and good as new. One other major highlight I can give to KMA breeches is their durability. I worked full time at a high level competition barn for a few months, and these breeches held up as well as I had thought they would. After a day of barn chores, riding several horses, cleaning tack, and throwing straw and hay, these breeches still looked just as they did when I put them on in the morning. They stay put around my waist, they keep me comfortable and feeling supported even after riding multiple horses and doing chores, and they fight off dirt and dust. The material makes it easy to wipe most things right off. I have yet to wear a hole in any of them! Being a small business run by a woman who is also an equestrian, Kelly cares deeply about the quality of her products. She offers a full range of sizes, and the contrast stitching and detailed piping on the breeches is phenomenally flattering. I have always been a fan of dressing well to ride, and these breeches make me feel good and look great! KMA has breeches in colors and styles available for both the every day rider, the once a week lesson rider, and the competition rider. There are also options where the logo is on the calf instead of the thigh, if riders prefer a more subtle look. Along similar lines, if riders prefer no piping, KMA has a few new colors coming soon that have no piping riders can choose from. All breeches have a sleek sock bottom (none of the old school velcro!) that sits comfortably under socks and boots. On top of the breeches, which I could seriously rave about for hours, KMA also has a line of fabulous belts! Polo belts have come soaring back into style, and KMA has a ton of great color combinations available at a much more affordable price than most polo belts on the market. The leather is soft and supple, making the belt comfortable for long-term wear. I have always had issues with leather belts being too tough and causing rubs on my hip bones, and these belts are the only ones to have pulled me out of my elastic-belt obsession. These are a lot more stylish, long-lasting, and durable! I had the opportunity to support Kelly at the KMA Equestrian booth at Equine Affaire Massachusetts in 2022, and it was so affirming hearing the first-time buyers rave over how everything felt from the first time trying them on. Most people who have purchased one pair of breeches have tended to come back for a second or more - like I said before, I haven't even thought of buying any other brand of breeches since my first pair of KMA's. In case you couldn't tell from reading this, I am down-right obsessed. I am so incredibly thankful to be supported by KMA and have the opportunity to share my love of this brand with so many others! KMA often has some amazing sales going on, so be sure to stay up-to-date and subscribe to the email list to be the first to know of great deals and new styles! There are new styles and colors dropping VERY soon - you don't want to miss out!! If you want to get a head start on your KMA collection, you can use my discount code, 'Kailyn15', at check out. If you are already a KMA fan, be sure to leave a review on the KMA website. Follow KMA Equestrian on Facebook and Instagram to make sure you never miss a sale or a new product launch. Support a woman-owned small business that has the highest quality equestrian products! K

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