On the Line

I was super surprised to find my old farrier Doug Roberts in a place I least expected last week: the limelight! Doug, who shod my family’s two horses at Piedmont Stables in Oakland, CA a few years back, is a typically quiet farrier who gets the job done without any frills. He doesn’t have an apprentice or a big fancy rig. He’s from Livermore, CA, and most East Bay farriers don’t bother with custom-painted tow trailers like the ones favored by their counterparts who work across the bay in posh and pricey Woodside.

But somehow, Doug got himself entered and is now a finalist in Mitchum’s The Hardest Working ______ in America contest. The finalists make up a wide range of hardworking people. You fill in the blank, fighter pilot, drill sergeant , “do gooder”, custodian and others. Among other things, the winner gets $100,000, but horse people everywhere gain exposure if Doug wins! Just like American Idol, it’s voting time now, so follow the link and vote for Doug! We all know how hard farriers work. Doug is 61 years old and I happen to know from personal experience, he’s no exception!

Vote for Doug here!!

Thanks to Fran Jurga’s Hoof Blog for posting about Doug last week!

Your caption here.

I love this picture. And not only because it could be the subject of one kick-ass photo caption contest:

Dressage or death!!

Walk at A, posting trot at M, duck, cover, and roll at B!

Halt at X or ELSE!

This photo, taken by the very talented Amy McCool, has the power to illustrate so many things that it could be sold as one of those motivational posters. You know the ones. It illustrates extreme focus. Success at all costs. Mounting pressure. My life during deadline week.

But doesn’t it also illustrate a certain apathy with which us Californians treat wildfires? Maybe it’s me, but I don’t think I would have kept showing that day. If you’ve been to the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, where the photo was taken, you know exactly how close that hill is! Southern CA-based Amy doesn’t even remember which wildfire she took this photo during, there have been that many over the past few years. By the way, if you’re saying to yourself right now “yes, but we’d still have plenty of time to evacuate”,  you’ve just marked yourself a local.

I’ll be crossing my fingers that this year doesn’t bring us another fire season to remember. And if it does, you won’t catch me finishing any test or ride. . .  I’ll be out of there!

It’s a new week, which means it’s time to stop feeling sorry for myself (see previous entry.) Worse things have happened, the horse will recover, etc, etc, etc. And if I ever want something to take my mind off mind-numbing rehab schedules, I need only to watch my friend, trainer Chrissy Christensen, jump her new horse Vaalexma:

They see invisible jumps. . .

The jump they just cleared is behind those yellow flowers in the corner of the frame.  Proving once again that a “free” horse is never free – Vaalexma was a jumper out of Mexico with a teeny, tiny little speed issue. But, apples to oranges, what I call a flat-out bolt Chrissy just calls “fast.” Vaalexma came to Chrissy straight from a three-year stretch as a pasture ornament, and against all odds she figured out how to control the mare just in time for the Woodside Summer Classic.

Chrissy is on my list of people I will write about: she trains dressage horses, jumpers and (to mix things up?) Saddlebreds in Menlo Park, CA. She’s determined to ride grand prix dressage AND show jumping, and when she does I’ll be sure she makes the pages of Sidelines. For now though, watching the looks on people’s faces when Vaalexma tears into the ring is entertainment enough.

Last week I mentioned that my horse went lame before the Anne Kursinski clinic. After dealing with off/on lameness all spring, we finally got a verdict –I mean diagnosis- of a deep digital flexor tendon tear. So as I commence upon many, many weeks of handwalking, lots of thoughts are going through my head. Among them, the top ten reasons why having a broken horse feels a lot like . . .

1. When you saw him you just knew it; this was the one you’d been waiting for. The possibilities were endless. He was just so talented and smart! He had a super personality and all your friends loved him!

2. Those first few days/weeks/months were incredible. Everything just clicked! It was like you’d known each other for years.

3. Even better, he had no excess baggage! Well, none that you couldn’t handle just fine, thank you very much.

4. Sure, there were one or two minor communication issues, but after a few heart-to-hearts, everything was A-OK again.

5. Well, except for that nagging feeling you got from time to time that something might not be exactly right. You couldn’t quite put your finger on it. But anyway, he had no reason to be sore. You always worked so hard to give him the best care and attention!

6. Then one day something came up that you couldn’t ignore. The two of you visited the doctor together. The xray was clean but there was some swelling in the joints. Luckily, after a quick injection the problem went away!

7. . . . for a little bit. But now there was a crack in the foundation. And that darn crack just kept on growing. It was getting in the way of all your fun! You couldn’t run or jump together, and there were definitely no more long walks on the beach. Finally, you called a trusted specialist for help.

8. You should have trusted your gut. The problem had been there all along, but it had taken this long to get a good diagnosis. It took you even longer to accept it. Now what? Back in the days when anything seemed possible, you didn’t imagine this happening.

9.  Maybe you jumped the gun, and pressured him too soon. This could all be your fault. There’s no real way to tell.

10. He may recover, but you don’t know for sure. And after all that optimism at the beginning of the relationship, you don’t know if you’ll ever recover. Right now it just seems hopeless. Was there a time when you could look at him without your eyes tearing up? You can’t remember.

That's about where we are now

Anne Kursinski visits my barn!

I kinda’, sorta’, can do anything. Back in January, after a super interview for Sidelines with Anne Kursinksi, I decided that it would be really fun to have Anne out  to teach a clinic in California. After talking my barn into the idea I volunteered to handle all the planning and logistics, be the official question-answerer, event promoter and problem-solver . . . and so I’ve pretty much spent the past six months stressing over each and every detail.

But reassuring riders that their horses wouldn’t jump too high, or too low, that stalls would be bedded, selling last minute spots, hanging flyers and making sure auditors paid their fee was actually a pretty good trade for being exposed to three full days of Anne’s teaching. My horse went lame the week before the clinic (more on that later), so even though I didn’t get to ride, it was almost as fun being in the ring with Anne as ring crew.

So even though I’m in the habit of giving myself too much to do, this time it all worked out. I’m hugely relieved that the dates of June 18 – 20 passed without disaster or drama, and even more relieved that the clinic was a success!

Below is a video clip of trainer Reagan Hayes riding on Day 2. Can you count like that??

Margie Engle, you're such a good sport.

Ah, stage fright. I haven’t had a visit from that old friend for quite some time. In fact, after getting through two huge interviews over the winter with nary a misstep, I was even thinking I might be over the shaky handed, stumbling-voiced nervousness that I’ve fought since my first “big time” interview in ‘04 (Guenter Seidel. He was very patient.) Reporters probably shouldn’t admit to stage fright, not even if they grew up a shy, introverted child who talked to her horse more than to other people (me me me!!) But I’ve worked hard at putting on a confident air and asking all the right questions. It’s an art!

My penmanship is always this bad.

So there I was at HITS Saugerties last week, feeling pretty on top of it after seeing an email on my phone from Bill Tagenhorst, Sidelines’ go-to PR guy, asking if someone on staff could interview Margie Engle, who’d just won two grand prix at Saugerties. Well what do you know, at that very moment I was at the show, and I could surely find Margie for a quick interview. Score! I crouched under a barn overhang, quickly wrote down some questions, and tracked Margie down next to Jumper 2, where she’d just finished walking a course and was waiting for her horse to get to the ring. And she was happy to talk to me on the spot. Perfect. I was good right up until the moment that I brought out my pen. Suddenly, my hand started shaking and the order of my questions left my brain. That’s about when it hit me that this was the Margie Engle, superstar Olympic grand prix rider. The fact that she was friendly and approachable didn’t do much to put me at ease, and even though she could clearly see that I was writing chicken scratch, I bought some time by scribbling on my notepad for a little too long between questions. I survived, of course, and pulled together a decent article (I hope) from the indecipherable notes pictured above. Margie, bless her, was also very patient.

I’m getting back into the swing of things! Ok, maybe that’s the jetlag talking – this morning I got up at 2:45amPST in order to make it through Monday morning New York City traffic and get on a 9:00amEST cross-country flight, arriving to work in downtown San Francisco approximately 12 hours later, at 2:00pmPST. By the time I fall into bed tonight my mind will barely know where I am, and definitely won’t know what time it is. But a little time zone confusion is a small price to pay for a great weekend:

In a nutshell, I hung out at an unbelievably gorgeous stable outside of New York City, took my first-ever trip to HITS Saugerties, met up with Margie Engle, made new friends and saw old ones! Have I mentioned lately that I love being a writer?

Look for a feature on Sleepy Hollow Country Club and Riding Academy in an upcoming issue of Sidelines. East Coast trainers Geoff Case and Wendy Subotich (both are friends who used to train in California) recently stepped in to create a top-level program. They’ve got a lot of things going for them, including one of the most beautiful and historic barns to work out of. Here’s a sneak peek:

The 89-year-old barn sits less than a mile away from the famous Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, final resting place of Ichabod Crane.

What’s next? Continuing to follow McLain’s comeback tour (he won another grand prix in Europe on Saturday!) making sure that 500 issues of Sidelines get into the hands of riders in Southern California next week, and the Anne Kursinski clinic! Go-go-go!!

I will blog more, I will I will I will.

I’ve been wearing so many hats lately I’ve forgotten what my own head looks like. In the midst of being a writer, riding instructor, clinic organizer, office worker and world traveler, blogging has fallen to the wayside, just a bit.

Not that there hasn’t been anything to blog about – last week I went to Thunderbird Show Park in Vancouver, Canada and watched Rich Fellers lope around a 1.20m class in the rain. Rich is a great rider and is super friendly, but when I wrote about him recently the man did not waste his breath on lengthy answers to my questions! With his many successes he’s not so difficult to write about, but all the same, it was a challenge filling out the word count around his quotes. The article is in Sidelines’ May issue if you want to see how I did.

I was super surprised to also see Pablo Barrios at Thunderbird less than a week after he was making headlines by winning everything under the sun in Kentucky. He was on his way to Spruce but man does he get around! Pablo is on one of the world’s greatest winning streaks, and when I met him at WEF in March, the atmosphere at his barn was all party-party-party. The celebration continued over the weekend when Pablo won the Sunday grand prix at Thunderbird.

More soon! For now I leave you with a friend I made while in Mexico for my brother’s wedding last month; this predictably pathetic looking trail horse was said to be 12 years old. . . usted seguro???

Oh, the life of a trail horse! Pobrecito!

Epic. It’s “the” word among teenagers that means really, really great. And while quoting the slang of teenagers makes me feel about 100 years old, there’s no better way to define the weekend that American show jumpers had around the world. Remember those Europeans, the ones who kinda sorta stood by and watched as McLain Ward was taken down by the FEI one month ago? Some of them had to have been a little red in the face by Sunday night. McLain and Sapphire returned to competition for the first time since the World Cup, at the CSIO***** in La Baule, France, and capped a weekend of epic American dominance by winning the 1.60m €200,000 Longine Grand Prix on Sunday (fellow American Mario Deslauriers followed in a close second place.) The day before, on Saturday, Beezie Madden won the Lucien Barriere Grand Prix over 89 starters, and later that afternoon, Richard Spooner won the Derby (Derby De La Regio Des Pays De La Loire – how’s that for a long name??) with Pako, completing the only clear round and becoming the first American ever to win this derby. McLain won the warmup grand prix on Friday with his second string horse. And as if that wasn’t enough, over in Hamburg, Germany, Lauren Hough won the Global Champions Grand Prix of Germany with Quick Study and Laura Kraut placed third with Cedric.

So, naysayers and potential evildoers, take note. McLain & Co. are very likely still seeing red from the events in Geneva. However, instead of slinking away in defeat, McLain and the rest of the US team made their statement by stomping all over Europe with an epic slew of weekend wins. There are nine more super league (officially renamed the Meydan Nations Cup by the FEI, but that’s a story unto itself and everyone likes super league so I’m sticking with that) shows this season. Here’s hoping for a solid season of ass kicking by the American show jumpers. Go USA, go show jumping and go Sapphire!

I’m usually not this patriotic. But let’s face it: revenge is sweet!!! And epic!

Postmark: While we’re on the subject, check out the June issue of Sidelines, which went live online today. Our friends at PhelpsSports.com shared two very interesting, exclusive interviews with McLain Ward and George Morris on the WC debacle, and PS reporter Rebecca Walton details the whole thing in a separate article.

Somehow, the world did not stop spinning in the wake of the McLain Ward/Sapphire elimination debacle at the FEI World Cup. This past weekend the Kentucky Horse Park managed to host two simultaneous events, the Rolex 3 Day Event and WEG Test Events in dressage and show jumping, without one failed hypersensitivity test (or perhaps without any hypersensitivity tests. . .hmm, there’s food for thought.)

Lauren Giannini worked her tailfeathers off covering all that went on at the Horse Park while posting her fabulous photos and commentary on neighboring blog LaurenGallops. Look for her full Rolex write up in the next Sidelines, along with a couple of exclusive interviews from the McLain and USEF camps on the 57 pokes that will forever live in infamy.

Meanwhile, the world spins and another clone enters the world. Polo horse Califa became the first polo horse in the world to “sire” a clone last Thursday. I wrote about Califa, APHA Horse of the Year in the April issue of Sidelines and on this blog. Originally three mares were in foal with Califa clones, but embryos two and three did not make it to full term.

As little “Califito” joins the ever growing population of famous-horse clones, I wonder how many more cloned horses it will take for me and the rest of the world to get used to the idea of cloning. It hasn’t happened yet. . .

One Califa, two Califa, three Califa. . . .

I’ll be broadcasting radio silence next week – I’m off to Mexico for a wedding and I hear there’s limited internet access. Ooohhh, now there’s a scary thought. Hopefully the world will keep spinning. . .