Pics of Snoopy from Midsouth

Pictures of Snoopy from his winning weekend at Midsouth PC HT!  Photos courtesy of ESY Photography.

Welcome Chunky Monkey and Stubbs!!!

We've all been missing Gus Kitty around here, including his best buddy Cricket Man.  Since I can't bring Gus back, I figured the next best thing to do would be to get another shelter cat.  I hate the animal shelter because I hate leaving other animals behind!  I went in for one and came out with two!  Stubbs is a 1yr old stray and Monkey was surrendered from a house with too many cats.  We're all just getting used to one another.  It's funny to watch them explore their new home!  Be back soon with more horsey news!

Chunky Monkey

Stubbs

Gus Kitty's Champagne Run Recap

Well, I've got some bad news, some more bad news, and also a little good news.  Champagne Run was supposed to be Snoopy's last Novice event before moving up to training, but when the heatwave came over the Cincinnati area at the beginning of the week he went off his feed.  He was very lethargic and just totally not himself.  He was even a little colicky for a few days, so obviously showing him was out of the question.  If you read the last post you know I decided to take my very green OTTB Speedy instead.  What a learning experience that was for both of us!  The bad news is that we didn't finish the event-eliminated at the water.  The good news is that he learned a ton and I learned a lot about him.  His eyeballs were popping out of his head when he arrived the KHP.  Every time they announced over the loudspeaker, he got very nervous like he was on the track.  He managed to keep his cool pretty well though.  When I rode him Friday night in the dressage complex he was almost unmanageable.  It was a lot for him to take in and needless to say our test Saturday wasn't much better.  He'd never been in a dressage arena and thought that little rail must be a cavaletti!  Every time he went towards the end or side of the arena he tried to jump out.  It was very embarrassing!  He actually did have some beautiful moments in warm-up and by putting myself in a situation where he had to be good enough to go be judged in the ring, the holes in his training became glaringly obvious.  I'm not strict enough with my green horses and I usually pay for it at some point.  With that lesson learned, I don't consider the experience a total catastrophe, more like learning a good lesson the hard way.  Cross country warm-up was fabulous!  He was far more relaxed and jumping the crap out of the fences on a loopy rein.  The first nine fences went fine, although he was definitely a little taken aback by the size at first.  He jumped great, but then didn't want any part of the fence before the water.  Several horses felt the same way, as my husband watched 2 or 3 others refuse to go anywhere near it within about 15min.  I knew that might be his one issue.  The only thing he has any issue with is water.  I was not upset, he just needs more schooling.  Too bad that's the hardest thing to school near home for most people!  Overall I think Speed had a good experience and we both learned some things.  Now I really know what HAS to be fixed before he competes again.

Now for some more good news.  While Snoopy is not quite back to his old self yet, he is much brighter and eating better.  I have started to ride him lightly, albeit at 6am every morning due to the heat.  I've done everything I can to make the horses comfortable, but they're still pretty miserable!

Finally, the really bad non-horse related news.  I got home from the show Saturday evening and went out to call for my cats at bedtime.  Gus Kitty didn't come in at his curfew, but he does this every once in a while, so I wasn't that concerned.  Still wasn't home Sun morning-not home Sun night.  I got very panicked.  We looked everywhere, including driving up and down this dangerous road we live on looking for his body-my worst fear.  Still nothing.  Finally on Monday, something told me I needed to go to the neighbor's house and I would find my answer.  I had never met them, or even seen them and their house reminds me of that house from the Tom Hanks movie "The Burbs".  Scary right?  Joking aside, I was actually afraid I might be in danger going over there, but I did it anyway.  First he said he hadn't seen him so I started to walk away and then he stopped me.  He asked "Is he orange?"  Yes.  He proceeded to tell me that he had gotten hit and showed me where he was.  I had to see for myself.  I walked down the road and found him in what had been tall grass a few days before.  Explains why I didn't see him sooner.  My poor husband heard me sobbing from our house and had to help me off the road and up the driveway.  I love my animals and I am a bit of a "crazy cat lady" although I only have two.  Well, one now.  Farewell Gus Kitty.  You will never be forgotten.

Until next time.......

Best Laid Plans.......

Well, it's been pretty much all positive here at Starfire Eventing for about the last 2 months with the horses winning and staying healthy, but it seems we've hit a bump in the road.  I made a promise to myself when I started this blogging thing that I wouldn't just write about the good stuff 'cuz we all know that there's always a lot of ups and downs with horses.  If you've been following this at all then you know about my horse Snoopy and that he is my baby and I think very highly of his ability.  You also know that it's been a very hard road with him, but I thought we were finally on the right track with our win last time out.  The "plan" (ha ha) was for him to go novice at Champagne Run this weekend and then move up to training at Penny Oaks.  Everything's going exactly according to plan, right?  Not so much.  We had a crazy heatwave hear in the Greater Cincinnati area at the beginning of the week, at which point Snoops promptly quit eating.  I thought when the heat broke he'd be fine, but that was not the case.  He is drinking and eating grass at least, but very lethargic and just not his normal, obnoxious self.  The vet thinks heat or ulcers, but he's been on a very strict ulcer management program since his bout last summer so we are perplexed.  The plan for the moment is just to keep and eye on him and make sure he is getting plenty of fluids and at least grazing.  I've got every fan we own in the barn right now to make sure he stays cool during the day.  Ugh, every time I start to make progress with this horse something happens.  I really could care less about the event, there are plenty more, but I am very worried about my baby.  I just want him to get healthy.  I feel like a lost puppy having not been able to ride him since Sunday.  Every ride and every little thing he learns to do right gives me such pleasure.  Keep your fingers crossed for a speedy recovery for Snoops!

Speaking of speedy, it looks like my green horse Speedy is going to get to make his eventing debut in Snoopy's place this weekend!  He's freakishly scopey and quite brave, but the dressage should be interesting to say the least.  He's not a big fan of circles in the "sandbox" yet.  If you're going to be at the KHP this weekend and would like to be entertained and perhaps have a laugh or two, check him out at about 11:20 Saturday morning.  All jokes aside, he is a VERY nice horse with those Hail to Reason/My Babu bloodlines.  He should handle it fine, but if I feel at all that he is over-faced or uncomfortable, we'll just call it a day.  I'm just looking for him to have a confidence building, fun weekend.  I certainly don't want to scare him.  It will be good for him to gain some show atmosphere experience at the least.  Wish us luck!

Until next time,
Lauren

Midsouth PC H.T. June 25-26

I've not been really sure about just how to go about this post over the last few weeks.  I'm still not really sure, but it needs to be done so if I seem to jump around a lot I apologize.   I entered Midsouth at the last minute because I had some extra money and it seemed like the right thing to do with Snoopy at the time.  It was his second novice, and although his first didn't go quite as planned, I was strangely optimistic.  I've learned that the only plan you can have for a horse is to make sure that plan always has at least four back-up plans!  Especially with Snoopy.  I've had him for over 2 years and it's taken me that long to get him mentally and physically capable of competing.  Many people have told me he's a lost cause, my husband included, but I wasn't giving up.  I've given up on a lot of things in my life and he wasn't about to be one of them.  He's difficult, nervous, eccentric, has back problems, etc....  He hated me when I was galloping him on the track and he hated me when I brought him home.  Hell, he hated everybody and would just assume bite you as look at you, but I loved the little guy from day one!  He also has a general disinterest in dressage-he can only take it seriously about twice a week.  I have to mix things up for him and that has worked wonders.  We still work on dressage in the gallop field he just hasn't figured that out yet!  He's also decided I'm not so bad after all, and I even catch him nickering for me every now and then.  He won't admit it, but he has turned into quite the momma's boy!  Anyway, I finally felt he was ready to show this year so we've done a few BN combined tests and events, as well as his first novice at IEA in June.  He was too low at the poll during most of his tests to get a decent score, and a little chicken  on XC.

This brings us to Midsouth.  Snoopy has serious separation anxiety and I had to drop two horses off at different locations on my way to the horse park, so needless to say he was a basket case by the time he got into his stall.  I bedded him 2 feet deep in straw and went off to park the trailer.  I got back to the stall just in time to see him spinning the stall so bad that he had pushed all the straw up against the wall and wiped out on the blacktop floor!  Oh my, what a way to start this event off!  He was fine and eventually calmed down about 3 hours later.  Like I've said before, no trip with horses is ever without at least a little drama.  I had a shorter dressage warm-up than usual (I got sidetracked watching the prelim XC!), but he felt great trotting around the outside of the arena and I was quite happy with my test.  I figured it was at least good enough to put me in the ribbons.  Turns out the judge thought even better of it than I did as he scored a 29 and tied for 2nd!  I about died when I saw the scoreboard-maybe my hard work was finally paying off!

He went clean xc, although he was a little on the rank side.  He was a run-off on the track and is having a hard time figuring out that it is possible to relax and gallop at the same time.  We continue to address this issue.  My clean xc ride kept me in 2nd and I spent all evening Saturday going over my warm-up plan for SJ and grazing Snoopy around the outside of the SJ arena.  For once, things did go exactly as planned on Sunday and he easily jumped clean.  I was only out of first by .5 and the first place horse had a rail, as did more than half of our division.  We won!!!  Winning any event on this horse at this point in his career  was just incredible.  I think it means more to me than my NAYRC CCI** medal because I worked so hard to get it, and so many people told me he was never going to be able to do this.  I know we're still a long way from Rolex, but this silly little win has boosted my confidence with this horse ten-fold.  I feel like anything is possible with him as long as we stay on the same side!

Wish us luck at Champagne Run, and if all goes well there, we're moving up to training at Penny Oaks!

Kick on , keep your head up, and GO EVENTING!

Leg Up H.T. 7/2/11

We took 3 students to the Leg Up mini trial at the Hoosier Horse Park on July 2nd and it was a blast!  Anna Hood did the starter with her green OTTB Bravo, Tracy Stamper also did the starter with her horse Gus, and Brooke Evans did the beginner novice with my husband Scott's fabulous horse Cheddars.  Let's just say all the girls had a great weekend!

Anna won the starter division on a 25.6!  It was Bravo's first horse trial and he's a very nice horse that shows a lot of promise for the future.  She had a lovely test (as I'm sure you figured out from the score!)  He was very good in the SJ, starting out a bit green, but finishing the last half quite confidently.  He topped the weekend off with a clean xc round despite the fact that he thought the fence judges were horse-eating trolls!  He didn't mind the jumps, but was apparently quite spooky about everything on his path to and from the jumps.  I'm sure he'll be less worried next time.

Tracy was second in the starter division.  We call Gus "Gus the Bus" for a reason.  His back is long enough for 2 saddles and he's toed in, etc...etc..!  This doesn't really lead to him being a favorite with dressage judges since his hind feet can't even get into his front tracks!  He actually can go quite nicely, but Tracy is recently back from having her first child so she's still learning how to get the most out of him.  His test lacked bend and was a bit sluggish.  He's a very kind soul and a I showed him all last year at novice for his pregnant mother to make him a packer and now he is.  They had a very nice SJ round despite an interesting choice of line from 1 to 2 by his pilot!  He easily went clean xc.

Last, but certainly not least was Brooke.  Brooke got the ride on my husband's horse at the last minute because I sent the horse she was supposed to ride to a new home a week before the show.  She's a good rider and usually get's to ride the more undesirable mounts since she doesn't have her own.  It was a nice to treat for her to get to show a horse she could actually enjoy!  Her dressage test was beautiful, but Cheds was slightly low at the poll throughout and the judge crucified her for it (judge's own words!)  Oh well, she only got to ride him a few times before the show.  She made up for it with beautiful SJ and XC rounds to move up 6 places to 3rd!

Way to go girls!!!!!!

As a side note, no trip with horses is ever without a little drama and this was no exception.  I always forget about the giant fireworks extravaganza they have right across the street every year during the show.  We were about to leave for the night at about 9:30 when the fireworks began.  Bravo and Cheddars went absolutely crazy.  Gus was just looking at them like, "Really?"  Apparently he really is bomb proof!  Anyway, I was afraid to leave them until they calmed down which was after 10:30 and the traffic was terrible getting out.  The other girls were at their hotel only a few miles away while Tracy and I had to go another 10mi to ours.  No big deal and we got to the Motel 6 at about 11.  Tracy came out of the office and said they don't have our reservation.  What?!  We got out the confirmation and whadya know-Super 8.  Oops.  I was only off by two numbers right?  Another 5 min to that hotel, 15min to check in, and a shower that I thought was going to give me second degree burns!  Who ever heard of not being able to get cold water  at a hotel?  Needless to say I hit the snooze button a few extra times Saturday morning!  All we could do was laugh.

Welcome!

Ok, so this is my first ever blog post.  I've always been firmly against using any type of social media (i.e. Facebook), but I finally learned that if I want to grow my business I just need to put myself out there, so here goes!  I am a CCI** level eventer from N. KY, based out of Karen and Barry Ashepa's beautiful Shepwood Farm in Lawrenceburg, IN.  We offer training, lessons, sales, and breaking for show or race, focusing on each horse and rider's individual needs.  Horses don't come off an assembly line and they should each be approached in a way that best suits their needs.  Riders are much the same way.  I've been riding for 25yrs and if there is one thing I've learned it is flexibility in training and teaching.  No two horses/riders are quite the same and that must be acknowledged to get the most out of each horse and human or you're just spinning your wheels!

I'm sure most of you are probably saying "Who the h*@# is she?"  Well, I've been "out of the mix" for awhile, so to speak.  A series of struggles over the last several years and life in general have gotten in the way of my goals.  Funny thing about life, it tends to do that to all of us at some point or another.  I'm back now with two really awesome horses and some great students so WATCH OUT fellow eventers!  The one to keep an eye on is Route 66, or "Snoopy" as he's known to those close to him.  My little(literally!), eccentric OTTB.  He has more issues than Newsweek, but slowly and surely we're sorting through and analyzing all of them.  He's a great talent and has given me patience I never dreamed of!  It all paid off 2 weeks ago with a win at his second novice!  Watch out Rolex!  Just kidding-sort of.

Anyway, enough about all that.  Our website, starfireeventing.com, will be live very soon.  You can learn more about me and our operation there!  Stay tuned to the blog for recent show updates and news.

Kick on, and GO EVENTING!