In The Irons

Castlewood Farm, Inc. is primarily a show barn, but we are also a very active sales barn dealing with quality horse sales. I like this combination of both worlds because it keeps my life very interesting. Not only do I get to travel to most of the big horse shows, but I also get to  deal with some very quality horses that travel through our barn. As of this writing we have some pretty incredible horses living with us, owned by some amazing horse people.

I often receive horses after the winter show season because a lot of people are traveling north and don’t want to drag some of these horses with them all over the country.  Not because they are not solid, valuable horses, but more because I still have a solid buying audience even after WEF is over. Florida is becoming a very active place year round with many professional horse people calling Wellington home base, people are still shopping for mounts.

This does two things for me and my clients, the first being, that we often times get exclusive first shots at some fancy mounts, and the second is that my customers never know exactly what horses are at the barn on any given day.

“Who is that one,” is a very common question at our stable, “where did that one come from,” runs a close second. I like this because it keeps things fresh and exciting, it also reminds me that the next “great” horse in my life may show up the next day on my doorstep. It always pumps me up to try new horses, almost like I just got a new toy to play with, maybe this is why I really enjoy my job.

I never know when the next Grand Prix horse may show up at my barn, or the next great equitation horse may appear, or an amazing hunter may grace us with his precense.  My customers also benefit from this as well, because they may be the lucky one who might have a lesson on such a horse and get first “crack,” on his purchase. I can’t tell you how many times one of my students has fallen in love with a certain horse after a school and ended up buying that horse. I can also say that some of the horses that have come and gone have ended up doing some amazing things, and vice versa.

We have also had some duds that have  come to visit. Some may stop, or rear, or buck, or worse, limp. You never know exactly what you are going to get on any given day in this business, but you’ll never know until you try.  Like the funny cliche goes , “You have to kiss a lot of frogs before finding a prince or princess,” and horse professionals need to sit on a bunch of  regular horses before we find the champions. So we try and try and try, always wanting to give a horse a shot, because you never know what you may find.

I’ve trained short stirrup kids, small pony riders, tons of big equitation finalists and Grand Prix students. I have traveled all over the country showing at every major show you can think of, I’ve shown on both coasts, I’ve traveled to Europe and purchased dozens of horses for both myself and clients. I’ve been Chef d’ equipe for my zone teams and  served on USEF committees that mess with all the rule changes. Last week, however, I did something  I had never done before.

My youngest son, Tanner Korotkin, showed for the first time at a real, USEF rated, horse show.

I now know why a great deal of my students’ parents are crazy.

Its a completely different experience watching your own flesh and blood ride a pony around a 2′ course than any other experience I have ever had. It felt like he was doing the Olympics! He might as well have been. My wife and I were very much like  any other parents that watch their children show. We had video cameras running, we had telescopic Nikon lenses, we had the grandparents, we had the bottled water waiting at the ingate. We whooped when he chipped and cheered when he won a “first place ribbon!” Who the hell were we? Certainly not the experienced horse show trainers that have done this their whole lives?

Now I understand. I understand why parents are the way they are, and I can now empathize with them, because for the first time in my life I am now one of them.  Parents are amazed that their own children can do anything. They are shocked that their little person is able to guide that horse around the ring, or hit a baseball, or catch a touchdown pass, or remember their lines in a school play. We can’t believe this thing that we watched pop into the world can do anything without us! That’s why we are so nuts when our kids show. We can’t believe our child has had enough lessons to do this course or handle that pony. We look at our kids differently  than our  students, because we assume other parents did something miraculous to make their children special, when we know in our hearts  that we didn’t really do anything, they just sort of, do it.

When it’s not your child, you are very confident that the student can handle the high junior jumpers at WEF. When it is your child, you are not sure the flower boxes should really be in his class.

When it’s not your child, we have plenty of shows to qualify for the finals. When it is  your child, we better do the hack so he can be champion.

When it’s your student that has four faults it was very unfortunate, when it’s your child, that horse better shape up or he’s out of here.

When it’s your student, you tell  them to dust themselves off , get back on and hit that bad horse with a crop,  when it’s your kid you clean them up, get on yourself and beat that jerk with a stick.

When it’s your student the horse is a little fresh, when it’s your kid, that pony is freaking wild!

I decided not to train Tanner myself  and asked a friend and fellow trainer to help him, Linda Smith Faver has graciously accepted the assignment, and puts up with his parents that proably know a little too much for their own good. I would also like to thank our working student/rider Morgane Qualls who owns the 21 year old pony, RH Sparkle,  the medium pony Tanner showed.  Morgane told me she was perfect and now I agree, and when you are the parent of the rider, when its your own flesh and blood in the irons, that’s all you want to hear, and all you need to know. I get it now, my fellow parents, I have seen it from your perspective.

Most of the time at horse shows we don’t have much time for anything other than what we do, we run from ring to ring, walking courses, riding and training. Every once in awhile a special circumstance arises that gives us “way too much time to think, “and from those moments very often come crazy ideas.

One such occasion came last year during the USEF Talent Search Final in Gladstone, NJ, it was in between phases and my students and I got to thinking,  we basically are just animal trainers, training our four legged friends to jump over sticks, walls and water. What if we trained another type of animal instead of horses?  What if we trained gorillas instead of horses? Would we act as nonchalant about these animals as we do our horses? Would the lingo be similar? We laughed for hours on end, here are some of the most common phrases one might hear at a show, if we rode gorillas instead of horses.

What if we trained gorillas instead?

1. I love your gorilla, where did you get him?

2. Your gorilla is a great mover, huh?

3.  My gorilla was nuts today, he tried to kill me coming down to the ring!

4.  Put a lead shank over your gorillas nose or he will pull away from you and rip your arm out!

5. Heads up at the ingate! Loose Gorilla!

6. Did you see how well Lisa’s gorilla jumped that wall?

7. Are you guys braiding your gorillas for the Eq tomorrow?

8. My gorilla keeps looking at something in the bushes.

9.  Terry is way too big on that gorilla.

10. My gorilla keeps stopping dirty.

11.  We went to Germany and sat on about a hundred different gorillas, my trainer bought six.

Fox Lea farm has been running horse shows ever since I moved down to Florida,  and  it’s always been a very relaxing place to show. Yet lately,  the horse show is taking on a new personality and the once “small show, ” has become the  place to be.

Don’t get me wrong, it still is very relaxing and a great place to unwind after the hustle and bustle of the winter competitions, but the management has gone above and beyond to make the grounds more and more exhibitor friendly, and the word is getting out.

Gone are the days when you could come and do a jumper class and automatically walk away with a check. It seems like everyone has found this place and it has become a regular stop on the post WEF  head north tour. Now,  over  40 horse and rider combinations have competed in the Welcome Stake and the the actual Grand Prix has 45 entries. Who said, the Venice Grand Prix would be easy?

The  rider list for the big class includes top riders from all around the world and the starting order looks as if it could be the order of go in a Wellington event in January. We have Sharn Wordley, Ken Berkeley, Aaron Vale, Candace King, Brock Clermont, Debbie Stephens, Derek Petersen,  Juan Ortiz,  and so many more. I wouldn’t be completely surprised if McLain showed up with Sapphire ( well actually I would, but you get the point).

So, I entered this class with my long time partner, Rocketman, whom I have competed with since he was a baby and have shown in countless National Grand Prix events. He’s an amazing animal and I have had my share of success with him, but four years ago he was leased to a couple of junior riders, who also faired quite-well with him. However, he did suffer an injury toward the end of the second lease and the long and the short of it, he has not done a Grand Prix in four years and he’s eighteen years old.

Rocketman jumped very well in his Wef comeback shows, winning  ribbons in the 1.40  speed classes during circuit and feeling like a youngster. I started thinking he may still have something in the tank and entered him in some spring welcome stakes and grand Prixs. He wasn’t stellar, but I was encouraged. Why not try an easier Prix in Venice, Florida?

Course planning at Venice.

The welcome stake went smoothly and Rocketman jumped a steady double clean to earn an eight place finish behind the eventual winner, Kristen Vanderveen. With that  under our belts all systems were a go for the Prix, so we checked in and entered. Little did I know that  the class would break the all time record for entries in a Fox Lea Prix.

Grand Prix day went slowly and the class was scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm, at about 2:00pm the clouds let loose and dropped a huge amount of rain on the grass field.  A few people scratched from the event because of footing issues but the class started at 3:45pm.

Aaron Vale went first, and contrary to the theme of this weeks blog, made it look easy with a well ridden clear round. I was second and had a pleasing 4 fault trip with Rocketman, he had jumped well and my rail could have been considered a “cheap one.” Nevertheless, the class proved difficult enough not to be considered a push over, you can’t get a true sense of a course by watching Aaron, he makes  most Prix’s look like low schooling classes.

In fact, only ten of the original 45 went clear, and my 4 fault total and time ended up about 16, or 17th.

The course, designed by Doug Russel, wasn’t huge, but well thought out and planned. Doug took the weather into account and built a course that separated the field.  A few  riders were eliminated, I think one fell off,  but all in all it was a successful class.

Ive seen bigger classes in my life and have jumped bigger as well, but considering the field of competitors, the weather and the course, you could hardly call this an easy Grand Prix. In fact, I contend that the only people who feel a Prix looks easy are those that are in civilian clothes that day,  there is no such thing as an easy Grand Prix.