July 30th - Young Rider Day Off

I had a fairly good sleep last night until I woke up early this morning riding that extended canter in my mind over and over and over again. I do feel better today though, and I thought that yes, I have shown a ton and should not have made that mistake, but also, I have shown a ton and should know that things are never perfect in the dressage ring and things happen! Therefore, I know I will not be able to forget that error, but as much as I can I am directing all my attention to our Freestyle on Sat. I have already been listening to our music a number of times this morning, and am feeling excited to ride it saturday night!

The Juniors are riding their Individual test today. I wish the B.C. girls the best of luck and feel more medals coming on for them!

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of days. I really wish I could post all of them, but the lack of proper internet connection at the campground limits the uploading capability.

Oslo displaying his Fifth place team ribbon!

Erika, Santana, myself and our Chef D'Equipe, Leslie Steele at the Opening Ceremonies

Our once around before the Team test

The weather this morning was cool this morning and I was wearing a sweater for the first time since we have arrived! Once again though it has started to warm up and should be somewhere in the 30 degree Celsius range again today. We have only had a couple of thunderstorms during the middle of the days, but no one has had the luxury of riding in the rain yet! The best time to ride here is either first thing in the morning, late at night, or while it is raining! The humidity is also a killer here. Even when the sun is not beating down on you, the humidity causes you to be constantly sweating. We have all gotten used to it though, and we don't feel the need to have showers anymore! Just kidding, a nice long shower is a neccessity at the end of the day, but you just need to be prepared to be sweating immediately again after you get out of the shower! With the combination of the humidity and heat, you can't win.

Oslo has really seemed to relax and might even appreciate his stall now that he realizes it is far too hot outside in the afternoon. It does make me sad though to see his dissapointed face everyone time I take hime to the puny grazing area within the FEI Secure Stabiling area. I made sure to take him out as many times at the beginning, once they had just put up the fence, so he could eat the clover. Unfortunately, now the clover is pretty much all eaten (I am pretty sure Oslo got most of it since lots of the horses here don't seem to get grazing time very often or for very long), and Oslo just walks straight to the other side of the fence to hope that one of these times the fence is down and he can reach the luscious clover on the other side. =( The good news is that he now enjoys returning to his stall to chow down on his yummy hay. We have been a bit worried about him getting dehydrated since he hasn't been drinking a lot, but we had the vet check him out and he is not showing any signs of clinicial dehydration. We are constantly monitoring him though and may need to get fluids pumped into him at some point before we ride tomorrow. Esmee's horse had 30 litres of water put into him yesterday since he was being lathargic and the FEI vet suspected he was dehydrated. The FEI vet will not administer fluids unless the horse is displaying dehydration symptons due to the risk associated with the administration from the catheter being in the horse's neck for about 2-4 hours (the time it takes to put 30 litres in a horse).

We are off to cheer on the Juniors and maybe catch come reining as well!

I hope all is well at home with everyone!

Hindsight is 20/20

Well, for any of you who know me well, and realize how much pressure I put on myself and how competitive I am, will understand how hard this post is going to be for me to write.

I finished in 12th place today, so starting off with the good news: I will be riding the Freestyle on Saturday evening. Now, the bad news: I should have been in the top five. =( I made a gigantic rider error and tried to correct a change at the end of my canter extension instead of just continuing on with the canter even though he changed early. Ahhhh, it still drives me crazy to think about it again!! My score was 65.158% . BUT, I need to try and stay positive and will set our goals high on the Freestyle!

Other good news: Jaimie Holland won Bronze and Megan Lane won Silver. Both are from Ontario.

Tomorrow is our day off so I will try and upload some more photos and write a better post once I have relaxed and thought about things a bit more!

Team Test Day

Team East/West Young Riders: 5th place (pretty pink ribbon)
Team B.C. Juniors: Gold Medal!!!!!!! Congrats Sylvie, Esmee, and Monica!
Team Ontario Young Riders: Silver
Team Ontario Juniors: 4th place

Today was the day of the Team test and I rode at 1:04pm, the 31st rider in out of 36. It was super hot so we only had about a twenty minute warm-up and as soon as we got back to the barn the saddle came flying off and my great papa alternated between walking and cold hosing Oslo down. Oslo felt great in the warm-up but unfortunately got a bit tense when we started our once around the show ring. He got a bit away from me and consequently our first centre line included extra canter out of the halt. I felt he was not completely on my half halt so I rode the first medium trot very conservative. But, everything came together a bit more in the lateral work and Oslo's hottness added some extra cadence in the trot half passes (still only got 7s on them, which surprised a lot of people, but we will try for even better tomorrow!). The rest of the test was quite good and even his walk was very good for him. As Albrecht said, "that was the best walk I have ever seen him do!" So it was a relief to still have a walk even with the tense we had in the ring. Thank you Oslo! We did have one minor bobble in our three tempis. The first change Oslo took over a bit and for some reason changed behind slightly early. Totally caught me off guard and I couldn't answer Albrecht when he asked "what happened in the threes?" My best coach ever/mother though suggested he just got a bit away from my seat and behind my leg, causing the late change. The extra tension just makes the ride a bit more tricky, especially to keep him supple and in front of the leg. On the other hand, the extra hottness made for some awesome stuff and our final score was a 66.100% putting us in SIXTH place overall!

Santana had a pretty good ride this morning and ended with a score around 63%. Erika had the trouble of dealing with a tired horse and unfortunately only ended up with about a 61%, but she is planning for a ten minute warm-up tomorrow to try and conserve her mare's energy!

All the juniors from B.C. had terrific rides, definitively earning them the Gold Medal. Awesome job girls! It looks as if Esmee and Monica are both in the running for individual medals as well.

Tomorrow morning the Young Riders ride the Individual test, starting at 7:00 am. I am the tenth rider from the end, making my riding time 11:26 am. They go in reverse order of the placings in the team test, except that they group everyone in groups of five and then draw those randomly. So since I was sixth, I was put in the second last group of five and then I was drawn to be the first rider of that five, making me the tenth last rider to go. Hopefully it will not be as hot then, but I have a feeling it will still be a little too warm.

It has been a long, hot day so I am going to bed for some much needed sleep. The young riders website is very fast at uploading scores, so if you are interested, check them out tomorrow morning at http://www.youngriders.org/.

Thats all for now and I hope to be able to report back tomorrow with some good news about the individual test!

The day of the Jog......

Firstly I need to apologize for not posting something for a couple of days. Things have been really busy here and any free time I have I try to take Oslo for a walk and some grazing before the security fences go up.

So, today was eventful and unfortunately there were some tears involved. Our team member from Quebec, Anne Mylaine, and her horse Marzipan, did not pass the jog. She had the chance to re-jog tomorrow morning, but after the vet looked at her horse they found some swelling on a tendon in the front leg. Therefore, she will not be  re-jogging or competing and our across Canada team is down to three members. This means that our team will not have a score that can be dropped when tabulating the total team scores. This is so unfortunate in every way and we feel very sorry for Anne and hope that Marzipan can make a full recovery and she can compete in the next two years of her eligibility.

All Canadian team members did have the red hair buns on for the jog, sponsored by the Dressage Boutique, and they looked great! The plan was to get pictures of the team after the jog, but the weather didn't cooperate and we barely missed doing the jog in the pooring rain. The jog was actually bumped up to avoid the huge thunderstorm looming in the distance. We had to stand in the rain for a bit but fortunately we missed the pouring rain. We have decided it is either really hot and humid or pouring rain from a thunderstorm here!

The Easterners arrived yesterday, Monday, so Erika and I met Santana, the other girl on our team. She is from Nova Scotia and is a good addition to our team!

We got to ride in the stadium today where we will be riding our tests. It is an electric atmosphere and just the ten minute walk from the barns over there gets Oslo wound up. At first he was super hot, very tense, and wouldn't walk. Eventually he settled a little though and let me supple him, increasing the relaxation. He does seem more calm this year overall and also more focused on me. Therefore, at this point I think as long as I stay calm and keep his attention (and nothing crazy happens while we are in the ring!) we should be able to lay down a fairly good test. Unfortunately though, I can never completely know what is going to set Oslo off and can still lose his attention at times. Therefore, I am not as confident as I could be, but I also know that our partnership is stronger than ever and that if I ride well, his hottness will be an advantage for us. Fingers crossed!!

Ride times for tomorrow morning will be posted this evening and I have been placed as the anchor rider for the team! I am very excited about this privilege, but also wondering if this will make me a bit more nervous tomorrow.

All the security fence has been put up around the barns now and we all need photo idea to get into the barns. After hours we also have to sign in and out. This is quite sucky for Oslo and I since we cannot hand walk outside the fence without a special time being arranged with our chef d'equipe and a steward. This means that Oslo's time in a stall is kept at a maximum unfortunately. I will be hand walking him between the barns a ton though and hopefully they will have a nice grazing area available for when we can get times to go outside.

The dressage schedule is Young Riders and Juniors compete in the team test tomorrow morning starting at 7:30am. Thursday morning starting at 7:00am the Young Riders compete in the Individual and the Juniors ride the Individual at 7:00am on Friday. The Freestyle is on Saturday for both groups and only the top 15 riders from the Individual test get to compete in the Freestyle.

That is all for now, and live results can be found at youngriders.org! I will try and post the results at some point tomorrow as well and let you in on the inside scoop of how all the tests went!

Good night!

The stadium where we ride our tests

Oslo and I on Sunday when we rode with Albrecht

Kentucky Day 2 - July 24

Oslo spent last night outside in his paddock beside the largest horse in the world! The horse, we call him "Tiny", stands a whopping 19 3/4 hh!!!! He is taller than dad and his head is almost as large as Oslo! He is a nice quiet buddy for Oslo during the cooler evenings.

It was 35 degrees Celsius here again today so Oslo spent the afternoon getting more used to his stall since it was too hot to be outside in the afternoon. He is beginning to settle down more and we had a nice long walk today past the water fountains and right near the stadium where we will likely be competing. I also had a good ride on him this morning on the amazing "Otto" footing - this is supposed to be some of the best footing in the world for riding arenas, dressage and jumping. Oslo was a bit nervous and tight at first, but we went really slow and did only stretching. We will see how is tomorrow but we are likely going to give him the day off and just take him for a long trail ride around the park. Monday we will have a full ride and have Albrecht Heidemann help us out. He will be here for the duration of the show and help warm us up on the competition days. He is coaching a couple of the other girls as well.

It has been really nice to get to know the girls from B.C. more and Megan Lane from Ontario. Megan's horse is out of the same stallion as Oslo, Contango, so we both find that exciting!

None horsey related items of interest: Lientje has learned to ride in the basket on mom's bike. She looks absolutely adorable in the front just sticking her head out!
The campground at the park is insane and the people go crazy decorating there RVs, gigantic motorhomes, and trailers with patio lanterns, streamers, flashing lights, and signs. Camping like this is fairly new to us and most of these "campers" have re-written the definition of camping! It has been fun though to be camping with some of the other girls on the team and we often have "campfire parties"! Yes, we are that cool!

Back to horsey stuff! The rest of the Canadians are supposed to be arriving tomorrow evening or first thing Monday morning. More and more horses keep arriving on a daily basis from across the North America. Yesterday we learned that there is a least one Mexican dressage competitor this year! Last year there were only Mexican Jumpers. The two young riders I met while in California are also here with their horses. It also took them four days to get here.

It is already pitch black here and I don't think it is healthy to be staring at my bright computer screen for too much longer, so I am saying goodnight and heading to bed!

Arrival at the Kentucky Horse Park - July 23

We finally arrived today at the park! It is very, very hot and humid. Today was a super short travel day since it only took us just over three hours to get from Indianapolis to the park, which is just outside of Lexington. As Janine said "we travelled through 3 states in 10 minutes today". We left Indiana to quickly jog around Cincinnati in Ohio, and then into Kentucky. Some of the biggest highways we have ever driven on are on the detour around Cincinnati! Luckily, these highways were flowing smoothly this year and not parking lots like they were last year. So much traffic though. It really is incredible to see 12 - 16 lanes of traffic filled with cars going 75 miles an hour!

Our quick trip through the state of Ohio took us over the gigantic Ohio river and this spectacular bridge!

We were met by Monica Houwelling (B.C. Junior), Erika Urff (Our team!), Megan Lane (Ontario Junior) and Esmee Ingram (B.C. Junior). They have already done a good job of decorating most of the stalls in Canadian paraphanalia! I will make sure to take pictures of this once the decorating is complete!

We are staying in the living quarters of our horse trailer at the Kentucky Horse Park. It is a short (but not short enough!) bike ride to the stables from our trailer and the camp ground is really nice. Monica and her mother are also camping and we spent the evening with the rest of the westerners at their campsite.

Some of the classic white fences at the Horse Park

I will be riding Olso first thing tomorrow morning since it is supposed to be 35 degrees Celcius tomorrow again. I hope to be on around 7 o'clock, 5 o'clock at home! Tomorrow will only be a stretchy ride and lots of hacking to help get him used to the facility. He has already been very looky and a bit nervous due to all the stuff going on here. He is in his paddock for the night though and he seems to be settled in there. He isn't a fan of the stall right now, but I am hoping he will appreciate it tomorrow afternoon!

I better be off to bed now if I even have a chance of being up early enough tomorrow!
More pictures and comments to come tomorrow. Good night for now =)

Travel Day 3 - July 22

This was our last long day of travelling. First we hit a monsoon once we got to Wisconsin. It poured rain with high winds for about 200 miles. It made the driving a bit trecherous and slow, but once we hit Illinois things cleared and it became quite hot again. Illinois also introduced us to our first toll road. Almost all the roads in Illinois are toll roads, which makes for really nice roads to drive on! But, when you aren't on a toll road, it is similar to driving on the roads in Saskatchewan! Not nice at all.

We stopped just outside of Indianapolis for the night at our favourite Horse Motel - Cuttin' Up Stables. Mom and I are always fascinated by the amount of fire flys there! It was very humid and hot though. Tango got particularly sweaty in his stall overnight. Oslo was lucky enough to have a pen outside for the night so he stayed much cooler, but he did have to sleep with some bugs. We made sure he was equiped with his fly sheet though, and the bugs were not nearly as bad as they were at home. Although, in the morning we discovered some horse flys that had to have been on steroids. Insanely huge!

Oslo's fatty playmate (pawing/hoofing me in the head!)

We slept in the next morning since we had lost another hour on the road and are now on Kentucky time (2 hours ahead). Plus, we only had just over three hours to the Kentucky Horse Park the next day.

Travel Day 2 - July 21

We crossed over into North Dakota, USA first thing this morning. The crossing went quickly and Customs and Border Protection staff were very nice. Unfortunately, they did confiscate Lientje for a short while, but she was eventually returned! The ladies at the office just thought she was too cute to let through!

The horses travelled fairly well again today, but it started to get quite hot once we passed into Minnesota. Therefore, by the time we stopped for the night outside of Minneapolis, both horses were sweaty and a little anxious to get out of the warm trailers. Oslo is enjoying the night outside tonight though, and Tango is in a stall covered with vet wrap! Janine and Sylvie had to vet wrap a few sides and edges of the stall to prevent Tango from hurting himself on some of the sharper edges.

At one of the rest stops in Minnesota we took Oslo out of the trailer and let him graze in the "pet exercise area". A woman walked by with her dog and said "your pet is so much larger than my pet!" =) Yes, yes indeed he is. Oslo also received some attention from two young city girls (wearing horsey shirts) at the rest stop. They were in total awe of his size and prescense!

The only eventful item today was that mother got us lost due to her eligible writing (or her eyes!). We were supposed to turn on "Nader" Street, not "Nelson" Street. We eventually stopped and were able to decipher the words. The detour only cost us a short 15, or 20 minutes. Definitely have had worse!

We have heard of some news that two girls' horses travelling from B.C. have been stranded ten hours from Kentucky with a commercial hauler. Truck problems. No word on what exactly the problem is, but hopefully they get things worked out and back on the road soon.

That is all for now. Sorry I don't have any pictures from today. I promise though that there will be lots to come once we get to the Horse Park!

Good night!

Travel Day 1 - July 20th

A rest stop in Roleau, Sask. Note the beautiful Saskatchewan sky!

Lientje at the same rest stop in Roleau, Sask.

We were off first thing this morning at six o'clock as planned. The day went smoothly and the only thing that occurred was that Oslo scraped his forehead on something in the trailer. It is not serious though, just a flesh wound that has left a bare spot on his forehead.

Our trip took us through Medicine Hat accross to the Trans Canada highway into Saskatchewan. On the Trans Canada highway just east of the Saskatchewan border the highway was washed out going west from all the rain they have had in the past few weeks. Luckily, the highway was only two lanes for a few kilometers and it didn't pose a problem. We have stopped for the night at a barn just north of Estevan called Tica Horses and Stables. It is a really nice place and Oslo and Tango are enjoying their large stalls. Both horses seem to be travelling well (knock on wood) and are happy to be resting for the night.

I think that is all for today! Fairly uneventful day, which is how we like travel days to be. Time for dinner now - mom is cooking!! She actually does a good job while we are camping for those of you wondering!

Tomorrow morning on the road again at six o'clock and we cross the border into North Dakota. We will lose an hour due to the time change. The plan is to reach Minneapolis and stay there for the night.

Twas The Night Before The Departure To Kentucky

Eight hours and counting! The goal is to be on the road by six o'clock tomorrow morning. Sylvie Fraser and her coach Janine Little arrived this afternoon to join our convoy for the trip down to Kentucky. Sylvie is a Junior and will be part of the Western Canadian Junior Team. The horse she will be riding at the Championships is Tango. We will be driving separate truck and trailers due to Tango being a bit difficult to haul with other horses and to give everyone more space to store hay and shavings.

All members of the convoy include mom, papa, Lientje (the newest member of the family - mini dachshund puppy), Sylvie, Janine, and Oswald (Janine's taco bell dog. Not to be confused with Oslo!).

We plan to travel down to the Trans Canada highway and make our way over to Estevan, Saskatchewan. Estevan will be our first lay over and then Wednesday morning we will cross the border into North Dakota. Next stop Minneapolis, onward to Indianapolis (aren't the Americans original with their city names?!?!) for the third night. On the fourth day, Friday, July 23rd we hope to arrive in Lexington, Kentucky late afternoon.

I am very excited and will likely not sleep much tonight. That is alright though, the important ones that need sleep tonight are papa and Janine, the drivers, and the special guys, Oslo and Tango. This is a long road trip, but we stop approximately every four hours to let the horses rest and for papa to grab some cheezies. We stop at rest stops or big truck stops along the highways. We will often take Oslo out of the trailer for a while to eat some grass and stretch his legs if the rest stop is far enough from the highway. It is important to keep Oslo healthy and relaxed as much as possible. We also have Oslo on ulcer medicine this time for the duration of the trip to help prevent him from developing any uclers due to the stress of hauling and competition.

Before I leave to finish packing I want to specially thank all my sponsors, family, and friends for being so encouraging and helping me along on my journey. Oslo and I could have never made this far without you guys!!! We will do our best to make everyone back home proud! Here is a short note that some of my best friends wrote for me. I hope it brings as much inspiration to everyone back home as it did to me!


"Only as high as I reach can I grow.
 Only as far as I seek can I go.
 Only as deep as I look can I see.
 Only as much as I dream can I be."


KENTUCKY HERE WE COME! =)

2010 Canadian NAJYRC Teams Announced

Oslo and I once again have been given the opportunity to attend the North American Young Rider Dressage Championships in Lexington, Kentucky!

As of July 5th, Oslo and I have been placed on a East/West Young Rider Team! It is super exciting to be part of a team this year and it will be a great experience to be on a team with members from all across Canada. Our team members are Erika Urff from B.C., Anne-Mylaine Messier from Quebec, and Santana Rooyakers from Nova Scotia (she rides and trains in Ontario though with Tom Dvorak). There is one other Young Rider team and it is composed of all Ontario riders.

Our departure date is set for July 20th and the actual competition starts on July 28th.

Packing and stressing will fill the next couple of weeks, but I hope to keep everyone updated on our trip down and post pictures when possible.