day three - oconner land

Whew. The day started with a lecture on cross country position, pace, timing, and a little scare tactic right after breakfast followed by line work and a showjumping lesson. Then we were super late for lunch.... everything ran a little over, during which there was a lecture by Succeed, a feed supplement.... (i won a bag with neon pink accents!) .... after which we promptly went back to the barn, had a lecture on studs and boots by max, and THEN we speed tacked up, studs and all, for a cross country into lesson including bombing down the hill they call "the hill from snowy river".

When we were done all that, it was 5:38pm.  We untacked, destudded, bathed, fed, poicked stalls, watered, and THEN went out to dinner.

We went to a hibachi place that was super tasty. And by super tasty I mean, we were all so hungry we would have eaten cardboard, but the meal was actually really delicious.

After dinner, Calvin was struck by the greatest idea of all time...... ice cream. So after asking our insanely nervous and uncomfortable waiter where the best place was, we went around the corner (in down town lexington va, to a tiny little ice cream joint and got fantastic ice cream. Sitting on the stoop outside, we watched and laughed (probably so loud they could all hear us, of course) at the small town life and ll its nuanced inhabitants. I haven't cried (the laugh so hard im going to cry or maybe pee myself kind of laugh) so many times within a half hours time..... in a long while)


anyway. I am sure you want to know more about the horsey part of our day that the ice cream indulgence and laughing at others' expense so here are some photos and side notes:

jen riding the bull. this was monday i believe

thats me.... monday

our first on the ground demo... david with the famous rocket

calving practicing after hours, stretching out his pulled groin issues

the front of our tack stall. sooo pretty

big D enjoying some tasty hay

calvin winning some brownie points

sooo excited for night check! (this was tuesday i think? the days are blurring together already.)

So. it's about 11pm. and i still haven't loaded the amazing photos i took today leading up to our cross country lesson. i seem to be a day behind. hopefully i can wake up and put them up in the morning.... we'll see how that goes. anyway. enough excuses. time for bed!

ps. im not sure if i've mentioned this, but we four have been killing it (read: getting so many compliments its amazing the roof of the barn doesn't blow off from all the hot air it's containing). But seriously, our horses have been rock stars, putting in their all (and enjoying it) and we have been doing our best to do them any sort of justice. We all seem to be well matched with our horsey companions (personality wise if nothing else) and have been learning an incredible amount.

Something to write home about: how much fun we are having (i mean, not to speak for anyone else, but unless the amount of laughter coming from our group is all a big lie.....)

so. tata for now. until the morning.

the end of tuesday.

Here we are Tuesday evening. We have completed two full days of the O'Conner Event Camp, and we (Jen, Devon, C and myself) are all still alive, happy, and still talking with one another. Not only that, but we have all had extremely successful first few days, tackling both dressage and show jumping, and working on our "in hand" lessons (the do an O'Conner version of natural horsemanship that has directly translated into the flatwork and jumping exercises we have had to so so far.)

I guess I should back up, as i left of sometime early yesterday morning and failed to keep this internet documentation up to date.

Hubert en-route. hay=happiness

Big D in his stall.

some graffiti in tubby's stall. how did they know we want to install jet packs on him?

jen and our super beautiful tack room

So. Yesterday we started out with a lecture followed by in hand work on the line. This is to tune the horses into our body language, commands, and hone in on the dynamic between the horse and rider.

The yields we learned, (where the horse yields to the person) were followed directly by utilizing the same skills the theory to make the horse yield to the rider when mounted in the afternoon session.

AND, i almost forgot, before we did any of that stuff, we rode the bull. a "bull" that is to simulate the ascent and decent of riding cross country obstacles.    so here are a few more photos....

also. i somehow didnt bring my camera with me, and have been using jen's. which is GREAT, but maybe not as great as the relationship i have with my camera. soo, please forgive any funny lighting situations or silly photo snaffoos.

our tack room

our "poo room"

you know, we like to be organized

As per-usual, i always have five times too many photos than time to upload them from my super awesome (but super ancient) computer, and the heavy weight of sleep is overpowering my desire to keep updating. SO. you will have to wait till next time.

G'night!

the first day of the oconner camp

It's monday. We arrived here yesterday around 2 to unpack the horses, get them settled, and to fix up our area so that we can work cleanly and efficiently. And... our area looks to notch if i do say so myself. (I promise to take a picture this morning before morning chores sullies it a little.

Yesterday afternoon at 5 all the campers and auditers and camp people had a little get together including an introduction to camp by David and Karen, and a name game involving throwing a ball around and having flashbacks to orientations for school and or camps and awkward teen years. We then all went up the big hill to the pavilion and had a dinner of lasagna, garlic bread, and salad. A much desired meal to be sure (which i think is going to be a trend this week).

This morning C and I got up early, ran 7/10 of a mile to the other best western and used their gym. I think gym is a generous term. it's a small room with one of those "fitness master" machine things, a tred mill, an oliptical and a stationary bike. Oh, and a pilates ball. Super swanky. (but does the job) Then we ran back to our own best western (that doesnt have a gym, but does have a pool) to get ready to go start our very first full day of camp!

Wish us luck!

on to the next...

It's Friday afternoon, I just got home from repacking, reorganizing, re-stacking, and exponentially expanding the pure volume of stuff we are taking to the next camp. The next camp? Yes. Another! This time we are driving four horses down to Virginia, Wynton to stay at Stonehall, and Dylan, Hubert and Ranger are headed along with C, Jen and I to the Virginia Horse Park to participate in the week long O'Conner Event Camp.


This week is going to be intense, long, and I am sure, SO much fun. 

We finished packing this afternoon, and I am pretty sure we didn't even unpack half of what we took to the last camp.... there was a lot of moving things from one trailer to the other. Or throwing it in the laundry, and straight back into a bag in the four horse. Quite the production.

I am also sure that I should be packing my own things for this next week, but I am working on CD's to listen to on the way to Virginia and getting motivated looking at photos from the last camp. Speaking of which, here are some from tuesday's stadium lesson at the Phillip Dutton Camp (compliments of the lovely Megan Schneider)

commiserating

phillip

a nice candid

socializing, pre-  cross country position and pace lesson with Ryan Wood

waiting our turn

ooo feet!

warm up trot around the track

look! the cutest/best horses at the camp!

our new friend Jody from New York

and this video is a little funny.... but it features meg! she took a bunch of super great, really long videos, but I haven't stolen them yet.


So. While we were at Phillip's we made friends with, Michele and her horse Socrates, who was a super willing guy just starting his eventing career. I took a (maybe more than one, but i havent found the other yet) video of them, and promised I would share it with her, and this seems to be the easiest method. (And then everyone can see how awesome Socrates (and Michele!) was.)

Anyway. I can't wait to share what we get to do at the O'Conner Camp, so stay posted!

dutton camp-catch up

Jen and I were a little lax about taking photos and videos of each other because all but the third day we had a cheering squad....a dn we left the hard part up to them. On Thursday, my parents came to watch. They haven't seen me ride in forever, and it was really nice to be able to show them not only what we've been working on, but kind of a compilation of all three phases of an event. I didn't hear any gasps or yelps, but then again, my dad was watching through his camera, taking amazing photos the whole time, which i think makes it easier for him digest, and my mom was happy i was wearing my back protector.

Yes, the one benefit to having a professional photographer as a dad and a professional barn mom as a mom, is that it's always a pleasure having them watch!

this one was super super scary!

getting jen a drink at the "fiesta" dinner

the loot from the pinata we left for missy

and the aftermath of the fiesta decorations.