On the Line

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??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBzFsJXZZIQ

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!