The US eventers are so lucky to have Katie Prudent helping us!! We had her for two amazing days where she taught EVERYONE (riders and auditors). You can’t do anything but learn and improve your horsemanship when you are around this woman! I am so jealous (truthfully I am very happy for them) that the Developing Riders got to ride with her as I would have killed for this experience when I was a Developing Rider. I often think how my last few years might have been different had this kind of education been available to me earlier. Some think she is tough, but I think she is honest. She truly wants every single one of us to be our very best and she knows how to be a coach, an instructor, a horse trainer and a sports psychologist all in one. I do not know of another who possesses all of these qualities.
Arthur has been training so well. He had another two fabulous days. In the past few weeks he has shown me a whole new level that I am still pinching myself about!!! All of our hard work is really paying off!!!

So we waited all day, and finally got word that they were going to have dressage Saturday afternoon. The organizing committee said they would let the on site horses do their dressage tests starting at 1 p.m. and the trailer in horses (which we were from Aiken) would start at 3 p.m. They said show up and sign up for a time. By the time we got to the sign up the earliest I could go was 5:21 pm on Arthur and 6:08 pm on Tiamo. Arthur’s ring was very slow so I ended up riding him at 5:50. He was incredibly good. He had an amazing canter to halt at the last halt and salute. The judge agreed, she said it was beautiful, but then rang the bell for an error!!! I was meant to canter down center line, trot at X then halt and salute at G!!! Darn it! I thought I would have gotten a 10. On the re-try he was just as good and she said she gave me a 9 and a 10 so I’m sure I made up for the error. He did win the test. Poor Tiamo had very little warm up and had to do his test in the near dark. He wasn’t phased. His ring was in the grass so it was quite deep in areas, but he was his wonderful self and trudged right through.
Both horses were amazing jumping on Sunday. I cannot thank the organizing committee and all the volunteers enough for pulling this event off. Glen took his tractor out on Saturday with a scrape and scraped all the snow away from the riding surfaces. When the temperatures rose, the footing was perfect! Both of my horses were a pure joy to ride. I had so much fun and I know they did too!

I am sitting here at the barn in Aiken looking at the beautiful (and very snowy) winter wonderland, waiting for Pine Top to decide if they will run their event this weekend. They say they are definitely going to do something this weekend, I’m hoping they will do a one day tomorrow. In the meantime we have to wait and keep checking their website every 15 minutes until we are told what the plan will be.
It’s a good time to update everyone on the great things I’ve been up to here in Aiken.
I had two wonderful days of team training sessions with Oded Shimoni (the dressage specialist helping the eventers). Arthur was spectacular! His body feels so healthy and strong. We had amazing power and movement in his work. I am thrilled with how he is going!
We then had Full Gallop one day. I rode three of Nancy Winter’s Connemara ponies and they were all super. It was so incredibly windy I could have gone para-sailing off of them- that would have been an entertaining side show!
On Thursday I had a xc lesson with Lucinda Fredericks (the brittish born Australian rider who won Rolex last year). She gave me great ideas as how to ride Arthur better xc. He is super at the fences, but can be tough to keep focused galloping. She said he needs to be much more reactive to both my hand and leg. She suggested I use a different bit that I would get a quicker response from and that I could use less (because it was stronger). She also made him be very up, forward and straight in the shoulder (a no brainer, but not always easy to accomplish).
I loved the lesson, her enthusiasm and the way Arthur went at the end.

We have all arrived to Aiken, SC — our base for the next two months. I was very sad to leave Florida, but also excited to see Sarah and the rest of the horses. Sarah was certainly happy to leave the snow and ice behind! The horses all look great. I missed Burger and Tiamo and all the ponies so much and am sad to not have Jack and Mozart with me down here. I know they are being well taken care of and loved by Kendra until we return. We were also joined by our new working student, Jamie March, whom we already adore having around. Jamie will make a great addition to the team! Team Training Sessions this weekend and we start competing next week…. I am so excited!!!

This morning I got to watch Will Faudre’s jump lessons with Laura Kraut. I love Laura’s positive attitude. She is always so upbeat. She is so great at teaching in the positive: this is how you do it right or better, as opposed to weighing down on the negative: don’t do this or that. Will’s horses all looked super and the special treat of the day wad that Laura jump schooled Cedric (one of her top horses) along with one of Will’s horses. That little horse put a permanent smile on my face for the rest of the day!

Arthur and I have been making super progress here in Florida. We have been working mostly with my show jump instructor, Katie Prudent. Katie’s farm is next door to the showgrounds so everytime I go for a lesson Arthur and I take a stroll through “The Circus” (as I like to call it!). At most of my eventing competitions there is no atmosphere, so when Arthur started competing at Rolex he was most impressed by the crowds, cameras, vendors and noises. The opportunity for me to get Arthur on the show grounds here is so beneficial because it is all big show atmosphere! This week we finaly started competing over at WEF. I am so pleased with the level of maturity he is showing me. He has been content to hang out and watch everything (as opposed to before when he really just wanted to go home as soon as we got there). He was so focused and workmanlike in the ring. I am so thrilled with him!

I am encouraging everyone to join PRO! This is a fantastic organization that I heped to start over a year ago! We are making excellent progress in developing the Pro Tour, the Pro-Am Tour, Lecture Series, safety and so much more. There is a membership level for everyone who enjoys the sport of Eventing and wants to see it develop into the best the sport can be! Click on the PRO tab on my home page and join today!

So I am finally not driving a giant milk truck anymore!!! Becky Raubacher of Animals to Wear did AMAZING sketches of my horses and made a beautiful design for the lorry!