Angelica Run Eventing has had an amazing start to 2012! I like to think that we are making an “Angelica” RUN at 2012. Connor began his season with a win at Poplar on his new mount, Bruno (Piece of Hope). Tika used Poplar as a warm-up for the Pine Tops, and looked in top form.
The debuts continued with Full Gallop on Feb. 1. My horse, Trance, came out at Prelim. It was his first show since the AECs in September, so we really wanted to get an idea of where he was with his performance and fitness. Our dressage boot camp with Sallie paid off, as he was second after dressage in the open division. Skyeler kept me on track and riding well in showjumping, and Trance jumped around clean. He could not possibly have been happier to be back in the ring, or more rideable, and jumped himself right into the lead. The ground was rather hard for cross-country, and our main goal with Trance is preserving him for when it matters, so I decided to take it very slow out on course. He was thrilled to head out the box, and foot perfect on course, so our day could not have gone better. Despite taking it so slow on xc and getting time, we finished 3rd. Not a bad start!
The rest of the crew began their season at Sporting Days this past Saturday. It was Natalie’s first time out on Erin Murphy’s old ride, “Say Wat.” They made quite the start together by getting a 23 in dressage and jumping double clear to bring home blue in Novice Rider. Connor continued his winning streak (we are at 3 now..,.) by leading the Open Prelim from start to finish and jumping another double clear. Skyeler brought out “Accolade” (Cody) in the Open Training, and despite just wanting to knock the rust off – she got 2nd! Cody is, by wide consensus, one of the most special horses any of us have seen in a long time. It is great to see Skye taking him slow, and him being so competitive early in his career. Last but not least, Erin Murphy rode in the Open Novice. Her planned mount had a foot bruise, so she had to make a last minute swap and bring my dressage horse, Finnegan’s Wake. When we say last minute, we mean it! She rode him for the first time in dressage warm up! Despite him only jumping a few times since the summer (when he transitioned from potential eventer to dressage horse), Erin piloted him beautifully around show jumping and cross country, and rode her catch-ride to 7th place!
So far, 2012 could not be going better. One thing I am personally working on is embracing the horse I have today, and leaving all my baggage behind in 2011. Trance has not notoriously been strong in dressage, but after a year and a half with Angelica Run, he is truly a different horse. He is actually NICE in dressage. So where fear used to creep in during dressage warm up and mix itself with massive waves of insecurity, now there is only focus on performing with the horse I have today (and complaining loudly about how hot I am in my show coat…sorry Sallie!). It is so hard sometimes to ride forward mentally, and not get trapped with tension over all the movements that used to spell doom. I think, thus far at least, that I am doing better, holding my head higher, and riding the Trance of 2012. Clearly, as I don’t think in our lives we have ever been in the ribbons after dressage, and this past outing he was in 2nd, only .5 off the lead. For every horse and rider at Angelica Run, we are leaving the baggage behind and enjoying the strength our team has come out with. There are new challenges, which keep it exciting enough to keep us motivated and focused.
Next up we have Pine Top this weekend with Trance and Tika in Intermediate, then Paradise, then Pine Top Advanced. We will keep training and hoping for happy and sound horses, and that everyone else is having a great start to the year!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Poplar Place... and a tour of the South
Hi everyone! I know I was a bit delayed with the second blog, but we have been very busy here at Angelica getting ready for the first show of the year – Poplar Place! I have a personal soft spot for Poplar, since I am from Area III and have had more than one move up there. Consequently, when Skye entered Tika in the I/P, and Connor entered Bruno in the P/T, I was thrilled to be able to cheer! I hold my role as team optimist and cheerleader very seriously. So, I got up at 3am on Saturday with Sallie and we made the drive to Poplar. The drive went really well going there, we even stopped and ate at good ole’ Waffle House. When we got to Poplar, it was POURING. We hung out with Skye and Connor until they gave the all clear, and we headed out to warm up. Both Tika and Bruno (Piece of Hope) looked great. Tika was rocking out a rubber snaffle, which – for anyone who knows Tika – is an accomplishment in itself.
Both of their tests were lovely! Connor is just starting his partnership with Bruno, but Sallie has been kicking our a**es over here in Aiken, and it paid off for Connor – he got a 20 and started in the lead! Skye has been working hard on keeping Tika in that calm, quiet rhythm, and it really showed in the ring. Tika has had almost 6 months off, so seeing her knock out some beautiful mediums and float through her lateral work left everyone smiling. It was a great day for Angelica Run! The rain returned, so show jumping was moved to the following day. Consequently, Sallie and I had no reason to stick around; my cheering was done, so we headed off.
Neither Sallie nor myself got much sleep that night, and we had been up since 3am. We were both feeling a bit under the weather, and just wanted to get home and get some sleep. We were having a pretty decent drive, except that every gas station we pulled into was out of gas. Literally. We were getting REALLY low when we found a large Shell station, so we hopped off the interstate and went in (any readers familiar with the Fort Benning exit?!). The lady behind the counter immediately barked, “Oh honey – I ain’t got anything but what you see in this store!” “So, you have no fuel?” “No baby, nothing.” I thought Sallie might tackle this woman in our exhausted frustration, so I shuffled her out, and we went down the road to a station that did have gas. We filled up, hopped back on the interstate, and got settled into our trip. It was the darndest thing, though, because her in-dash GPS told us to get off on this random highway exit. I checked the google maps on my phone to confirm that exit wouldn’t take us anywhere, so Sallie told the GPS it was a stupid wench, and turned it off. Mistake one.
We drove for a couple hours. The sun was shining, it reached 78 degrees and we worried if the horses in Aiken were too hot, and I did a little rendition of “Here Comes the Sun,” complete with clapping. In the midst of my joy and delirium, Sallie suddenly grabbed my arm, turned white, and said, “Kristin... where are we?” “Well I am not sure exactly, let me check my phone.” And so I pulled up my google maps on my iPhone, which had our beautiful path in blue, and I waited for that blinking blue light to show up that indicates our exact location. “Hmmmm, we must not have good satellite, one second….I am waiting for the blinking blue thing to show up.” So I waited, and waited, and then suddenly the panic Sallie was in hit me. WHERE WERE WE? So I silently zoomed out, nothing. I zoomed out more, nothing. I zoomed out more, and saw the perimeter of our blinking dot. OH GOD. I zoomed out more. Here is what I saw:
I didn’t know how to tell Sallie, so I didn’t. I just had a nervous breakdown. In reality, I sat there rocking back and forth, repeating, “I just can’t do this…” while Sallie yelled, “WHERE ARE WE?!?!” In my mind, I simply unbuckled my seat belt, took a deep breath, opened the door, and hurled myself into ongoing traffic at 80 miles an hour. When I finally snapped out of it and told Sallie that we were somehow in Montgomery, Alabama, we turned around. I think we were both so delirious and tired it was just too much. We turned back on the dashboard GPS. As soon as we were going the right direction, we saw the dark clouds and the temperature dropped, and we took a deep breath and prepared for the drive. An hour later, we saw a STUPID “Welcome to Georgia!” sign. I wanted to DIE. When we got back to the Poplar exit, this storm hit that was so awful we could barely see, but Sallie and I just wanted to get home! Mistake two. We thought we heard some kind of bells, but also knew we were going insane. We passed a cop hiding under an overpass, and said, “What a wuss!!! Can’t even drive in the rain!” I then commented that it was like, totally, almost tornado weather, and wouldn’t that be something?!?!?! TOO BAD IT WAS:
OMG WE WERE SO STUPID. Somehow we managed to not, ya know, die, so we chugged along to Atlanta. When we got there, we decided to eat at Waffle House, again. We walked in looking like two chicks that had been on a meth binge for three days, and ordered our food. I ordered the steak and eggs. “Hash browns or grits?” “Hashbrowns.” “How would you like your steak?” “Medium.” “How would you like your eggs?” “I GET EGGS!!!!!??” She just stared at me. Somehow when I ordered the steak and eggs, I forgot there were… eggs. Our waitress did not find this amusing. We did get our food, it was amazing. We tore it down, and then promptly went into food comas. Sallie was slumped over in her baseball cap, and I had to tap her to make sure she stayed conscious. The waitress and other patrons just stared. WE were actually the weirdos in Waffle House.
Among a million other awkward and comedic and tragic moments, we finally made it home. 747 miles later. THINK ABOUT THAT. It should have been a 450 mile day. We were so tired, and so gross, and all Sallie could say by the time we reached our exit in Aiken was, “KRISTIN, we just traveled over ten hours…………AND WITH NO SNACKS!” Ain’t that the truth.
Skye and Connor both did amazing clean show jumping rounds, and clean cross country. They had to go slow since the ground was half washed away. Bruno and Tika are officially in their 2012 season, and the rest of us will enter it shortly! As for Sunday, Sallie and I slept.
Holla at our troops abroad! We are honored to have you as readers! :)
Both of their tests were lovely! Connor is just starting his partnership with Bruno, but Sallie has been kicking our a**es over here in Aiken, and it paid off for Connor – he got a 20 and started in the lead! Skye has been working hard on keeping Tika in that calm, quiet rhythm, and it really showed in the ring. Tika has had almost 6 months off, so seeing her knock out some beautiful mediums and float through her lateral work left everyone smiling. It was a great day for Angelica Run! The rain returned, so show jumping was moved to the following day. Consequently, Sallie and I had no reason to stick around; my cheering was done, so we headed off.
Neither Sallie nor myself got much sleep that night, and we had been up since 3am. We were both feeling a bit under the weather, and just wanted to get home and get some sleep. We were having a pretty decent drive, except that every gas station we pulled into was out of gas. Literally. We were getting REALLY low when we found a large Shell station, so we hopped off the interstate and went in (any readers familiar with the Fort Benning exit?!). The lady behind the counter immediately barked, “Oh honey – I ain’t got anything but what you see in this store!” “So, you have no fuel?” “No baby, nothing.” I thought Sallie might tackle this woman in our exhausted frustration, so I shuffled her out, and we went down the road to a station that did have gas. We filled up, hopped back on the interstate, and got settled into our trip. It was the darndest thing, though, because her in-dash GPS told us to get off on this random highway exit. I checked the google maps on my phone to confirm that exit wouldn’t take us anywhere, so Sallie told the GPS it was a stupid wench, and turned it off. Mistake one.
We drove for a couple hours. The sun was shining, it reached 78 degrees and we worried if the horses in Aiken were too hot, and I did a little rendition of “Here Comes the Sun,” complete with clapping. In the midst of my joy and delirium, Sallie suddenly grabbed my arm, turned white, and said, “Kristin... where are we?” “Well I am not sure exactly, let me check my phone.” And so I pulled up my google maps on my iPhone, which had our beautiful path in blue, and I waited for that blinking blue light to show up that indicates our exact location. “Hmmmm, we must not have good satellite, one second….I am waiting for the blinking blue thing to show up.” So I waited, and waited, and then suddenly the panic Sallie was in hit me. WHERE WERE WE? So I silently zoomed out, nothing. I zoomed out more, nothing. I zoomed out more, and saw the perimeter of our blinking dot. OH GOD. I zoomed out more. Here is what I saw:
I didn’t know how to tell Sallie, so I didn’t. I just had a nervous breakdown. In reality, I sat there rocking back and forth, repeating, “I just can’t do this…” while Sallie yelled, “WHERE ARE WE?!?!” In my mind, I simply unbuckled my seat belt, took a deep breath, opened the door, and hurled myself into ongoing traffic at 80 miles an hour. When I finally snapped out of it and told Sallie that we were somehow in Montgomery, Alabama, we turned around. I think we were both so delirious and tired it was just too much. We turned back on the dashboard GPS. As soon as we were going the right direction, we saw the dark clouds and the temperature dropped, and we took a deep breath and prepared for the drive. An hour later, we saw a STUPID “Welcome to Georgia!” sign. I wanted to DIE. When we got back to the Poplar exit, this storm hit that was so awful we could barely see, but Sallie and I just wanted to get home! Mistake two. We thought we heard some kind of bells, but also knew we were going insane. We passed a cop hiding under an overpass, and said, “What a wuss!!! Can’t even drive in the rain!” I then commented that it was like, totally, almost tornado weather, and wouldn’t that be something?!?!?! TOO BAD IT WAS:
OMG WE WERE SO STUPID. Somehow we managed to not, ya know, die, so we chugged along to Atlanta. When we got there, we decided to eat at Waffle House, again. We walked in looking like two chicks that had been on a meth binge for three days, and ordered our food. I ordered the steak and eggs. “Hash browns or grits?” “Hashbrowns.” “How would you like your steak?” “Medium.” “How would you like your eggs?” “I GET EGGS!!!!!??” She just stared at me. Somehow when I ordered the steak and eggs, I forgot there were… eggs. Our waitress did not find this amusing. We did get our food, it was amazing. We tore it down, and then promptly went into food comas. Sallie was slumped over in her baseball cap, and I had to tap her to make sure she stayed conscious. The waitress and other patrons just stared. WE were actually the weirdos in Waffle House.
Among a million other awkward and comedic and tragic moments, we finally made it home. 747 miles later. THINK ABOUT THAT. It should have been a 450 mile day. We were so tired, and so gross, and all Sallie could say by the time we reached our exit in Aiken was, “KRISTIN, we just traveled over ten hours…………AND WITH NO SNACKS!” Ain’t that the truth.
Skye and Connor both did amazing clean show jumping rounds, and clean cross country. They had to go slow since the ground was half washed away. Bruno and Tika are officially in their 2012 season, and the rest of us will enter it shortly! As for Sunday, Sallie and I slept.
Holla at our troops abroad! We are honored to have you as readers! :)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Aching in Aiken
Helloooooo world!!!!! I am so excited to be taking over the Angelica Run blog. This is Kristin Carpenter reporting, and I have (terrifyingly) been given free rein. Remember that promise, Skye!!
Angelica had a 2011 full of extreme highs and extreme lows. On the low side, our farm flooded and we lost everything in September. It was actually in the middle of the American Eventing Championships. That was a huge blow to the program, but the team rallied together and rebuilt the farm in record time.
After a 6th place finish at the AECs in Intermediate, my horse, Trance, got Tildren in preparation for Fair Hill. He had a rare reaction to the drug that sent him into full renal failure, and he spent 18 days in ICU and lost over 200 pounds. We lost out hope of a Fall two star, but he is now back in work and stronger than ever. If Angelica is anything, it is a resilient team!
We had a lot of highs. We had multiple wins and top three placings at every level. We had four riders debut at the international level, and all with great success! We made the summer trip to Bromont and had a wonderful time. But most of all, we had a great year of memories. Part of eventing is dealing with the good moments and the bad. We all had those "perfect" runs, and we all also had those shows where we did dressage in a monsoon to get a 47, then pulled three rails in the mud pit, then finally finished on a high with a great XC run only to miss the finish flags like an idiot. Or wait, maybe that was just me. REGARDLESS, Angelica is there for each other when we need to cry, and certainly when we need to laugh.
We just made the trek to our home at Pony Up South in Aiken. We have a private farm with a jump and dressage ring, track, and a ton of turnout. Life is FABULOUS! Angelica has a lot of hope for this season, and we are working hard on making those dreams come true.
Aiken has great weather, lovely footing, close events, WAFFLE HOUSE, and tons of eventers. It also has some…well….peculiarities. For instance, when we did a run to the trash today, there was a very old man in front of us dumping his truck. I thought the oddest part was his camouflage cell phone holder mixed with his frat shirt, until we noticed the missing thumb….but no. The oddest part was that his bags and bags of "trash" appeared to be full of squirrels. Dead squirrels. Now, we are deducing this based off the fluffily squirrel tail sticking out of a bag. The motives for this circumstance are endless.
Aiken also brings out some of the stupid in our horses. A horse that is to remain nameless was turned out with my two. Trance has a habit of going into the field every day and galloping a few laps. Literally, every day. We don't even condition him because he knocks out a good 12 minutes of canter a day, then takes a nap in the middle of the field. Well, this poor new pasture partner thought he would like to try and keep up with Tranceypants. Not only is Trance extremely fast, but he is very agile. Trance and "Nameless" were thus on lap one, when Trance turned right. Poor Nameless Horse tried so hard to make the turn, but instead flipped legs up into the air and went THUD onto the ground, then slid a solid twelve feet! He looked like a giant upside down tortoise. We were worried he might be….well….dead…when he suddenly jumped up and scurried off. The kicker was that he LITERALLY fell out of his blanket! He jumped up and ran off, but the blanket was in a heap on the ground, leg straps and all! Reminded me of those Youtube videos of people getting hit by something and literally knocked out their shoes. No worries, Nameless is doing just fine, but he has given up hope of keeping up with Trance in the AM conditioning sessions.
Stay tuned…..this is sure to be a great year!
Angelica had a 2011 full of extreme highs and extreme lows. On the low side, our farm flooded and we lost everything in September. It was actually in the middle of the American Eventing Championships. That was a huge blow to the program, but the team rallied together and rebuilt the farm in record time.
After a 6th place finish at the AECs in Intermediate, my horse, Trance, got Tildren in preparation for Fair Hill. He had a rare reaction to the drug that sent him into full renal failure, and he spent 18 days in ICU and lost over 200 pounds. We lost out hope of a Fall two star, but he is now back in work and stronger than ever. If Angelica is anything, it is a resilient team!
We had a lot of highs. We had multiple wins and top three placings at every level. We had four riders debut at the international level, and all with great success! We made the summer trip to Bromont and had a wonderful time. But most of all, we had a great year of memories. Part of eventing is dealing with the good moments and the bad. We all had those "perfect" runs, and we all also had those shows where we did dressage in a monsoon to get a 47, then pulled three rails in the mud pit, then finally finished on a high with a great XC run only to miss the finish flags like an idiot. Or wait, maybe that was just me. REGARDLESS, Angelica is there for each other when we need to cry, and certainly when we need to laugh.
We just made the trek to our home at Pony Up South in Aiken. We have a private farm with a jump and dressage ring, track, and a ton of turnout. Life is FABULOUS! Angelica has a lot of hope for this season, and we are working hard on making those dreams come true.
Aiken has great weather, lovely footing, close events, WAFFLE HOUSE, and tons of eventers. It also has some…well….peculiarities. For instance, when we did a run to the trash today, there was a very old man in front of us dumping his truck. I thought the oddest part was his camouflage cell phone holder mixed with his frat shirt, until we noticed the missing thumb….but no. The oddest part was that his bags and bags of "trash" appeared to be full of squirrels. Dead squirrels. Now, we are deducing this based off the fluffily squirrel tail sticking out of a bag. The motives for this circumstance are endless.
Aiken also brings out some of the stupid in our horses. A horse that is to remain nameless was turned out with my two. Trance has a habit of going into the field every day and galloping a few laps. Literally, every day. We don't even condition him because he knocks out a good 12 minutes of canter a day, then takes a nap in the middle of the field. Well, this poor new pasture partner thought he would like to try and keep up with Tranceypants. Not only is Trance extremely fast, but he is very agile. Trance and "Nameless" were thus on lap one, when Trance turned right. Poor Nameless Horse tried so hard to make the turn, but instead flipped legs up into the air and went THUD onto the ground, then slid a solid twelve feet! He looked like a giant upside down tortoise. We were worried he might be….well….dead…when he suddenly jumped up and scurried off. The kicker was that he LITERALLY fell out of his blanket! He jumped up and ran off, but the blanket was in a heap on the ground, leg straps and all! Reminded me of those Youtube videos of people getting hit by something and literally knocked out their shoes. No worries, Nameless is doing just fine, but he has given up hope of keeping up with Trance in the AM conditioning sessions.
Stay tuned…..this is sure to be a great year!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Looking forward to 2011
Now that I am Skyeler's competition manager I am officially taking over the blog. I will be reporting to you every week letting you all know what is going on around the farm! First and foremost, I would like to welcome our new barn manager, Trudy Oxtoby. All of us at Angelica Run are very lucky to have her from across the pond (England) and we make a great team. Trudy always says "there is no I in team."
As you all know the winter has started off to be pretty brutal, between the 50 mph wind gusts, and the below freezing temperatures we have been forced to trailer the entire crew to an indoor every day. All of our hard work paid off yesterday at our first Angelica Run winter outing at the Frying pan Jumper show. We would like to send a big thank you to everyone who helped make competing 11 horses seem easy! A few of Skyeler's students (Anisa Gamble, Tess Bernhard, Lily Bernhard, and Mackenzie Crol) did very well at their first show. Skyeler's young horses Alabee, Arabella, and Accolade proved to be good little show jumpers when they finished with 7 clear rounds. Later in the day, Tika and Story had their show jumping skills tested in the massive 3' jumper division. Needless to say they both did a great job. After being at the show for 12 hours we were all ready to thaw out on our couches at home. A job well done, Angelica run! Hope everyone has a happy Holiday!
Until next time,
Connor
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Paradise Horse Trials & Apple Tree combined test
Sorry I have not been in touch Virginia. We have been crazy busy with competitions and horse trying. Paradise started on Friday with Argie kicking off the Angelica crew. He scored a 24 winning the large open training division by 5 points. The kids rode later in the day with all of them competing at the training level. Everyone had good tests with Krisie, Lisa, and Erin just starting to understand the new level. Cross country and show jumping days were Saturday and Sunday and everyone finished happy and healthy. Both courses were quite big and technically difficult for the level and I was thrilled with the riding skill demonstrated by all the kids and horses. Argie ended on his dressage score in his last training and looks more then ready for his big preliminary debut at sporting days in two weeks. Connor ended third and Lisa fifth. Krisie and Erin ended on the top half with beautiful jumping rounds.
The most exciting news was baby Albee's (onyx) first horse show. He rocked the dressage scoring a 30.5 and had the second lowest score of the whole show. He jumped clean over his big "ameba" show jumping and got a big beautiful blue ribbon to bring home and show off to his brothers and sisters. We may have another Argie in the making!
We are thrilled to start the season with Connor being tied for first on the junior training usea leaderboard and Argie being second for the training horses. Good start to the season!
We will be home in 2 weeks and miss you all...
65 degrees and sunny!
Skye
The most exciting news was baby Albee's (onyx) first horse show. He rocked the dressage scoring a 30.5 and had the second lowest score of the whole show. He jumped clean over his big "ameba" show jumping and got a big beautiful blue ribbon to bring home and show off to his brothers and sisters. We may have another Argie in the making!
We are thrilled to start the season with Connor being tied for first on the junior training usea leaderboard and Argie being second for the training horses. Good start to the season!
We will be home in 2 weeks and miss you all...
65 degrees and sunny!
Skye
Monday, February 15, 2010
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