Well, this has been a rather eventful month!
If you read my more recent blog you will have remembered that
A) I broke my jaw quite badly and
B) Alison was excited by my first ever timely submission!
Since my last post quite a few things have happened.
Liv Stringer, Dan Clasing, myself, Rhiannon Bosma ready for the US Eventing Gala
As is normal I completed my move south to Aiken for the winter, albeit with fewer horses given that I was unsure of how many I would be able to ride. Aiken is a wonderful place and is the winter home to quite a lot of high profile riders including fellow Australians Ryan Wood, Dom Schramm, Boyd Martin and Phillip Dutton. So there's no shortage of people who speak the language! When I wrote my last update I was still getting used to the wires holding my mouth shut and the consequences involved. Having mastered talking thru clenched teeth, drinking almost anything thru a straw and breathing thru my nose, I was unable to cope by about the four week mark so I started riding again.
At first it was just to hack the horses but one thing led to another, as it does, and by the end of the day I was schooling them on the flat. As nothing terrible happened, the next day I tried jumping. Again somewhat of a success. That was all the encouragement I needed, so armed with a polo helmet (including cage) I took over a couple of my rides for Pine Top Intermediate and was back in the game.
Me cantering on horse complete with polo helmet
I would have to say that galloping around cross country with my mouth wired shut wasn't my smartest move! The next time you're on course try to hold your mouth dead still, breathe only through your nose and for good measure sick about 10 screws in the bones of your face. Not as comfortable as it sounds! The horses were still good enough to jump clear for me and I was on the next plane back to DC to beg the doctor to unwire me. Although he wouldn't take them off when I had hoped, he did take them off two and a half weeks early on the condition I don't even attempt to ride and that I take things very easy.
Civil Liberty looking and feeling good
Yeah right! 10 days later I was back at Pine Top Advanced with four horses including Civil Liberty who competed in his first Advanced. With limited jumping days up my sleeve (I jumped twice) I went with the thought that I would do the dressage and showjumping and see how stable my jaw felt before deciding about cross country. Now I'm not a doctor, but it seemed like a reasonable, medically sound plan! Everything seemed good so I went cross country and boy am I glad I did. I was treated to four of the best rounds of my life! It was one of those times where you know that the fences are just going to come up beautifully and that the horses would read everything just right.
I'm preparing Cole for Rolex in April and it gave me so much confidence that I may not have lost too much ground while sidelined. Liberty is getting ready for a 3 star in May, he couldn't have felt any better. Bucky is lining up for a 2 star, he feels like he could do a 3 star! And Charmer was a delight.
Wanting to be responsible with my risks, I will just stick with riding the more experienced ones for a bit longer yet. I still have a mouth full of screws and will wait for them to be removed before getting back on the young ones. I have my assistant, Rhiannon Bosma, to thank for keeping the horses schooled and fit. Both Boyd and Phillip jumped them for me.
Oh the joys of winter
As I said in the beginning, it has been an eventful time. In the 10 days between having my wires removed and Pine Top Advanced, we were treated to some fairly extreme weather here in Aiken. It started with a rare snow fall (we come down here to get AWAY from all that!), which was followed by an ice storm. Ice storms aren't as fun as they sound, and no it's not just a bit of hail. It begins with rain which then freezes and coats EVERYTHING with a thick (6 cms) layer of ice. Which makes almost any kind of activity impossible. The other downside is that the power invariably goes off due to the shear number of fallen trees. It turned a 15 minute trip to the barn into a 2 hour adventure of tree removal, off roading and navigating via Google maps. Five days of no electric (no showers, no hot food, no water, scarce fuel) makes for some fairly grumpy people. You can imagine the joy when we finally had lights again! In the middle of all of that we also experienced a fairly decent (I think) earthquake that shook the house and barn. Like I said, it has been an eventful couple of weeks!
