Farrah Got Her Groove On

So maybe we just didn't trust the redhead enough when it comes to playing within the confines of PVC and letters, as Farrah showed us she has been paying attention!  And here all this time we thought she would give us the finger (she has done that in the past, so it wouldn't be a new thing).  Farrah and Lauren rocked Preliminary Test A with a 27.7 at the Florida Horse Park Schooling Show this past weekend.

I think we can truly say:  PRELIM BOUND!

The pair also lowered only one rail at the preliminary height in stadium and schooled the preliminary XC the next day.  I think it is pretty apparent that Farrah and Lauren have got their game face on :)

Riding drops on only 14.3 can be slightly more entertaining, as on the landing Farrah's neck just disappears, but here they are hunting the corner that is just a few strides away, NO PROBLEM.

Big gallop tables also look pretty massive from Farrah, but Farrah loves them!  Look for them in January to contest a recognized Prelim here in Florida.

Lauren will be grateful when Farrah finally realizes that you can "brush" through the brush, currently she is still unconvinced!

Prelim Bound!

Cross Country prep:

Longwood schooling, Check!

Stadium Jumping prep:

Debbie Stephens's lesson, Check!

Dressage Prep:

Lauren to Farrah - See, we get to leg yield here, counter canter here, it will be so much more exciting then the training tests!

Farrah to Lauren - WTF!  Leg yield and counter canter in a 20 x 40?  You are kidding, right?  A 20 x 60, maybe.....a big open field and I can accomodate you.

Sigh, we will have to see if Lauren and Farrah (with Bill) can put their game faces on and bring the dressage up to snuff.  Who knew playing in the sandbox could be SO MUCH FUN!???  NO CHECK.

Farrah and Lauren did manage to do very well at their last recognized outing - 31.6 in the Open Training to finish 4th on their dressage score :)

The pictures say it all!

Farrah loves the Full Format!

Now that we have competed Farrah in her first recognized with Lauren (instead of me), I am not sure I will get her back from Lauren any time soon!  We all had a great time at the Fall Horse Trials at Rocking Horse (Altoona, FL), and Farrah competed in the Novice 3Day (I didn't compete in enough Training level recognized shows to qualify her for the T3D).  Farrah loved the challenge!  Thanks so much, Lauren, for doing such a great job with Farrah!

It was so much fun to go through all the paces :)  The jog in the fog..........

Followed by Roads and Tracks.......

Farrah LOVED steeplechase.



And Farrah always enjoys a victory gallop!

Farrah runs in two weeks at the Florida Horse Park November trials (Training).  Many thanks to Alice (the organizer), the sponsors who donated generous prizes and the ground jury and trainers who donated their time to make this full format truly educational.  The riders/horses were treated to pizza and a session on what to prepare for in the jog and the vet boxes, driven around roads and tracks, held a training steeplechase session with Joe Meyers, had a course walk XC with Robin Walker, a SJ course walk and lots of interaction with the awesome people at Rocking Horse to make sure no one got a TE on something silly!  Very educational for both horse and rider and I hope we as competitors in the South can encourage this venue to continue to offer the full phase opportunity for our horses!

I didn't completely miss out on riding over the weekend, as I talked my friend Jody into hauling up my 3-year old for me to hack out....she is  half pony and will be an up and coming pony eventer, even though she is horse sized ;) 

Introducing Mia, WH Top Gun (Connemara) x Black Dog's Fiorella (Trakehner).  If I have to hand the reins on Farrah to Lauren to qualify Farrah for a One Star, at least I have something that I can compete on in 2013 :)

BEGIN COUNTDOWN..........

Next week Farrah returns to recognized competition with a full format N3D!  We have in-barn inspections on Thursday November 1st at 1pm, then the fun begins with jogs, dressage, steeplechase practice, XC walks, roads and tracks!  I am pretty excited to have Farrah and Lauren competing, can you tell??

Now, we just have to keep her highness bubble wrapped until then!

CAN WE HAVE ANY MORE FUN THAN THIS????

I really do feel like I own the wonder pony.  Such a rockstar this weekend.  Farrah's dressage could have been better (35) but I only recently turned the reins over to Lauren.  Now Lauren knows how I feel when I go into the dressage ring....Farrah knows you won't get after her in the 'competition' ring and she can get a little strong for super great scores.  But she is so fantastic she pulls a good score anyway, while still having what I call "Farrah fun".

When you can rock SJ and XC like this mare, we can spend some time working on dressage for those 'great scores'.  Lauren and Farrah are entered in the N3D in early November, and then they move up to Training at FHP.  This weekend, Farrah and Lauren ran in the 3-phase Training Division, where they were 2nd.  Her farm-mate, Cindy, beat her in dressage but had a few time xc (Farrah, are you listening???  You need to be steady like Cindy!!).  The rest of the farm kicked some serious booty too, winning Novice (Nataly) and Tadpole (Mattie).

Such an exciting season coming up....the little three year old was quiet and awesome with me riding her (and a half connemara homebred to boot) and Anneke (my 9 year old daughter) made her show debut on her connemara pony Lucy....woo hoo Black Dog Farm!


Mia with her eyes closed :)

We will have to wait until the professional photographer sends me pictures of Anneke on the adorable Lucy pony for proof that they did stay in the dressage arena and made it around 18" in good form ;)

When the whole farm ROCKS

I have been so very busy apprenticing for my Dressage TD license that I haven't been able to ride much, let alone compete.  I decided that if Farrah and I are going to be ready to run a N3D in November, I'd better at least get the horse out, even if I can't be in the irons.

I had Lauren compete Farrah this weekend at the Rocking Horse Modified Show (due to footing improvements and re-seeding, the normal 3-phase was changed to an optimum time only XC with no watches allowed).  Not only did Farrah place first in the Novice, her barn mate Dhitto was second and another barn mate Monty was third.  Can we say that totally rocked?  Lauren also took out Cindy at Training and going slow, finished 3rd.  Suffice to say everyone came back from that outing really happy.  I got text updates throughout the day as I was at the Fox Lea Dressage Concours, apprenticing with Carol Bulmer.  While that was fun, I would have been a lot happier riding around at XC!

I am so excited for the fall show season....I know Farrah is going really well and so are the rest of the residents at the farm....now if only Isaac would blow out of here so we could finally dry out a little.

SHE'S BACK!!!

I have been remiss in updating everyone on the Farrah pony.  I suppose I could go on and on about how life and kids and the farm and husband and the young horses get in the way of my keeping the blog current, but I won't bore you with those details ;)

I bought a new saddle for Farrah in May, after homeopathic ulcer treatment was successful.  Who knew having poor saddle fit could manifest itself in so many issues!  I bought a demo Borne saddle called the Velocity.  I have one word for it:  AMAZING!

Farrah loves this saddle, as does one of my other horses, Mia (it is not wide enough for the Lucy pony).  The saddle keeps me in better position, allows Farrah to use her shoulders well and VIOLA!  Happy jumping pony once again.

I am grateful this fantastic little horse let me know when things were NQR with her without turning into some total demon horse.  While my earlier postings may have made it sound like she was a monster pony, Farrah feeling bad made her surly and she tried very hard to let us know she was not happy, without actually making an effort to really get rid of you.  Having watched less athletic horses joyfully buck their riders off, I appreciate that Farrah had the good humor to act up enough to let us know we needed to look for an issue, without ever getting mean about it.

Since treatment and her new saddle, Farrah has been XC schooling in Ocala and she is qualified for the N3D at Rocking Horse in November.  The plan is for her to run the N3D and then two weeks later, move back up to Training at the Ocala Fall Horse Trials.  That is, if someone doesn't snatch her up first.