goes by too quickly, and it seems like the second I get into the rhythm, we’re done. Anyway, Phyllis finally sent me the new cross-country shot, and I love it! It’s a major improvement over my first time out there, and TJ looks so cute with her pricked ears and lack of woolly-mammoth coat Here it is – now I’ve got to go buy some Dover goodies!

I’ve spent a lot of time lately working without stirrups, getting my legs really strong and stable - and working on TJ’s half-halt! We strolled out to the boarder field today after a sub-par warmup, feeling a little bit anxious (on my part), and way too strong (on her part). Phyllis had us all pop over a few tiny logs to warm up and we blasted over them with wild abandon…and then it was on to a course. I decided that, for the sake of a few decent jumps, I’d trot over most of the jumps and cruise between, cantering when TJ felt adjustable. This approach worked well, and with our next course I asked her for a little more, and cantered more of the jumps. Before we continued, Phyllis told us all about “the Magic Button” - a place right in front of the withers where we should press our bridge and push down. This, she said, was the trick to a slower tempo and better half-halt on course, accompanied with check-and-releases as needed  – rather than the higher handed checks I’d been using. Then she had us all work on a tight turning exercise – jumping a vertical and then immediately turning 90 degrees to jump another in stride. Once we got the hang of it, my little mare jumped handily and it was on to our final course! This time I really figured out that “magic button,” and with the exception of a tight one-stride which Phyllis recommended we approach in trot, we hit that perfect rhythm and fairly flowed around the course. Coming down to the beefy log, where Phyllis was armed with her camera, I had a HUGE grin on my face…what a great feeling, to be totally in balance on a galloping horse, leaping over obstacles! It was a huge improvement from our last school, and even from earlier in the day where my mistakes and TJ’s lack of adjustability at the time led to an uncharacteristic refusal! I feel so much more confident now that we won’t crash and burn at the Short Course. And when Phyllis sends me that picture, it’ll be up here right away!

So to fill the void, I got Tejana. She’s not technically mine - I’m leasing her until the end of June, but I may not give her back at this rate! She’s a 15.3hh chestnut Thoroughbred mare, 8 years old, competed through Prelim – so she knows a LOT more than I do and is not afraid to let me know! We went through a little bucking phase the first week that I had her, but I’m starting to figure out exactly how to ride her and overall just having a blast! She’s definitely not the type of horse to do things perfectly without being asked with perfect clarity – which is very good for me. TJ - as we call her – is also an AMAZING jumper and will jump ANYTHING I point her at! My confidence levels are definitely climbing – now, when I’m riding around the arena, I look at the jumps and am not intimidated by them (unless they’re at Heidi & Gemini height )…all I want to do is jump them! We went cross-country schooling the other day which was definitely interesting – TJ hasn’t seen cross-country since her last Prelim in June and I could hardly stop her! Never mind that my balance and leg were slightly sub-par – lol! We go out again tomorrow and I can’t wait!

So, armed with this awesome new horse, guess what I get to do? That’s right - COMPETE! I’ve entered the MDHT Short Course at Loch Moy in MD on April 11th, and then Loudoun Hunt Pony Club Horse Trials on April 26th. The short course is basically a combined test – you ride the dressage and then jump one course which is 50% stadium fences and 50% cross-country. Loudoun, however, is the real deal – dressage, cross-country, then showjumping. I can’t wait!! The short course promises to be quite the Windchase day-out – Melissa is taking four horses (Eddie and Chance, two of the sale horses, and her own River and Jazz), Kaitlyn is riding her mare Castine, Megan is taking Cate, and Jenna will be competing a sale horse named Aherlow. Only Heidi is missing out on the fun – unless we can persuade her to take Phoenix…?!

Other than that, I don’t think too much else is going on here – we’re back to cold, cold days after a brief stint of mid-70s – however, spriing is finally here so I’m sure the warm fronts will be back! Hope all is well outside the bubble!

My mom and I drove back down and she stayed for a few days in the Little House and cooked all of us an AMAZING dinner of shepherd’s pie, brownies, and apple crumble…yum. That lasted us for several meals, which was fabulous – when you’re a working student any food you don’t have to cook or pay for is great and if it’s actually good food, well, that’s even better (and very rare )! Before she left, my mom gave me one last pep talk and then released me at the double-shed to grab Miranda – and it was back to my life.

Speaking of life (and getting it moving in a more positive direction), I do believe my Danny problem may just be solved. I am aware that posting that online is probably the ultimate jinx…but oh well. A very sweet lady came and tried him twice (and of course, he acted his absolute worst the second time!). She rode him very well and I think with a few weeks of getting to know each other they’d be a great team. And she really liked him! Yay! So, fingers crossed that this will work out and I can move onto a more suitable event horse (and I know of the perfect one…!). I’ll be sad to see my darling Dannyboy go, but both he and I will be happier with different partners. My lessons on him just aren’t terribly productive and I feel like I learn so much more on more cooperative horses - such as Razor, the huge white(ish) horse owned by one of our boarders. I got to ride him in an inaugural “dressage clinic” the other day - modeled after our weekly jumping clinics, the first one was based on lateral work. It was me, and my fellow working students Jenna on Elmo, Megan on Cate and Kaitlin on Castine. We all had a BLAST attempting leg-yields, turns on the haunches and forehand, shoulder-in, and travers and renvers. Ok, we actually all did pretty well up until the last two…ha! It was so much fun to do it in the group format, and I hope Phyllis lets us do a few more of those!

One of our number is leaving us soon - senior WS Meagan has sold her gorgeous Thoroughbred Starry and is jetting off to New Zealand to work for an event rider there. The farm she’s going to is actually the farm all of Windchase’s NZ horses came from, and is, I’m sure, VERY nice. I doubt she reads this blog, but if she does – GOOD LUCK MEAGANNNN !

You probably – maybe – noticed two new names in the dressage lesson. We’ve got two new faces here in the Little House - Megan from Texas and Kaitlin from West Virginia/Ohio. Megan is a national-champion polocrosse player and brought a very cute liver-chestnut Quarter Horse mare named Cate with her. Kaitlin is an eventer and owns Castine, a beautiful Thoroughbred who used to belong to Phyllis. Both our newbies are awesome and fit in very well here at Windchase

Well, I think it’s about time for bed. Kaitlin and I were lucky enough to get a day off together today, so we got out of the  bubble for a little while and went to Sterling to catch a movie. We saw The Reader…which was really good but definitely made me cry at least four times! I loooove Kate Winslet, she’s my favorite (film) actress, so I’m predisposed to love anything she’s in but DAMN. She outdid herself this time! I totally recommend everyone go see it, however be warned that there is a LOT of nudity. So don’t go see it with your mom or anything. Because that would be awkward.

I can’t believe how fast 2008 went by. It was a pretty big year for me – I graduated high school, interviewed at Windchase and Team CEO Eventing, experienced my first barn fire, spent a crazy summer preparing for the transition to semi-adult life, and of course, moved down to Virginia! And I’ve learned a lot too – about life, about horses, and about myself.

But now it’s 2009, and it’s time for new plans and new goals. My number one goal is to actually get out there and compete! I’d love to do a few Beginner Novices in the spring and heck, maybe a Novice to finish up - that would be amazing! To do that, though, I need a competition horse…which is in the works. I’ll let you know what’s going on when everything’s 100% set in stone

I also want to find Danny a new job. As much as I would love to just keep him around as a pet or something of the sort, I can’t afford to have two. And Danny just doesn’t do well under the intense pressure of a program such as Windchase. Even though it might kill me a little bit, he absolutely deserves to have a home where he can be someone’s hacking out/recreational jumping horse. I need to put my own desires aside, stop being selfish, and just do it

I feel like I should have some non-horse related goals too…but right now I can’t think about anything else! I’ve been accepted at a bunch of colleges and been offered a lot of large scholarships, but maybe I’ll just defer it all for a year and do my thing here for even longer. It’s too early to decide just yet.

Anyway, I know this isn’t a very exciting post but it’s been written right in the middle of the day, so deal I’ll post something more interesting soon, I promise. And now that I’ve posted my goals for the new year – what are yours? Post in the comments

Well, I’ll start with Danny and me, I guess. After our first jumping lesson here (where he decided to refuse a crossrail several times and get shown up by a couple of three-year-olds), he and I both have improved a lot. Phyllis does weekly jumping ‘mini-clinics’ on Sundays, with a Prelim/Training group, one or two Novice/Beg. Novice groups, and the “baby” group for young and/or inexperienced horses (and riders!). Danny has been in the baby group every week, and I’ve been having a lot of fun riding in them. The first week he was an absolute SUPERSTAR, and in fact, this was the second time I’d jumped him since coming to Windchase - Melissa Hunsberger, one of our wonderful trainers, jumped him over some little stuff one day and I’d been getting some practice in on Shamrock. By the end of that first jumping clinic, he was jumping a line consisting of a crossrail, one stride to an oxer, and two (or was it three?) strides to a third oxer. I couldn’t have been happier - and although the jumps were probably 2’3 max, it was still a big step for us. Just the fact that he was having as much fun as I was, never even threatening to refuse, was enough for me. I probably had the biggest grin on my face leaving that arena!

The next week wasn’t quite so good, as it was part of Danny’s “Hell Week”…which all started with an ill-fated canter. Basically, Danny had the temper tantrum of the century and is just now pulling out of it. Anyway, this second jumping clinic was iffy – he was either galloping out-of-control or stopping and refusing to move (and consequently getting hit in the ass with the arena rake by Phyllis ), and Phyllis made us jump over a vertical to an oxer a BUNCH of times until he submitted, and then we were done with him. Although it was certainly a *special* ride, he still willing jumped everything, so I decided to just be happy with that. Ohh aaaand Phyllis called me a “lovely rider” which is CERTAINLY something to be happy about, haha!

Yesterday was the third of our mini-clinics. I rode Danny in his bitless bridle just to see what he would act like, and, with the exception of our non-existant half-halt, he was actually quite good. Once again he was VERY enthusiastic, to the point that he would pull me through the line at a full gallop! We did jump through in a nice, civilised manner more often than not, though. We ended that clinic with a crossrail – five strides to an oxer – rollback turn to another crossrail and then a wide crossrail oxer type of thing. And then I cut across the arena and jumped another one of those which was apparently NOT part of the exercise, oops! I was very happy that Danny was finally getting over his tantrum, though, and today when I had a dressage lesson with Melissa he was in a very good mood, not at all balky, and giving me very nice canters! After my lesson, my fellow WS Meagan and her mare Starry joined us for a little hack around the lake. It’s so nice to take any opportunity to just enjoy the view here – Windchase is, honestly, the most beautiful place.

Speaking of getting out and enjoying the property, on Christmas Day Heidi, Meagan and Clare (a former working student who came back to spend the holidays with us ) and I went on another “picture hack” – Heidi on her young horse Phoenix, Meagan on Starry, Clare on Shamrock and me on Danny. Phoenix, the baby of the group, ended up being the best behaved of the lot! Danny was actually so badly behaved that I had to lead him most of the way home because otherwise, he would just spin around…and around…and around…lol! Even so, it was still a really fun ride and watching Shamrock “levade” up a hill was quite an entertaining sight!

Things in the Little House are basically the same as usual; we have our Little Ghetto Christmas Tree living on our kitchen table and a TON of sweets and socks that the boarders gave us. We’ve all been attempting to play Scene It, but we suck at it. We also had a little party/lunch thing in our brand new tack room on Christmas Eve which was great, and then a wonderful Christmas dinner at Phyllis’s house. Free, GOOD food is one of a working student’s favorite things Other than that, there’s not too much interesting stuff to report. I’ll tryyyy to update this again soon…haha!

Here was my day today:

5:15am - Wake up. Put on kettle, read a book and drink tea for a little while to wake up.

5:55am - Get dressed – lots of layers are important around this time of year. It’s still dark out.

6:10am – Head out to the barn to do my ‘pay stalls’. I do five, and they have to be done before morning chores.

7:30am – Grain the boarder barn.

7:45am – Grain Phyllis’s barn.

7:55am – Change any blankets that need changing – usually Jamie, Voodoo, Drifter, Expedience, Aidan, Mystic, and Chance.

8:15am – Start turnout.

8:45am - Clean Phyllis’s barn. We each do four or five stalls.

9:20am – Do other miscellaneous morning chores – raking the boarder barn aisle, raking the arena track, tidying up the barn aisle and haying the horses on stall rest all need to be done, so we split the chores up between us.

9:45am – Our maintenance man, Kenny, wasn’t here today so we had to do his stalls – 2 each.

10:10am – Run inside for a quick breakfast.

10:45am – Bring in Corocotto, grab my tack and place it outside his stall.

11:00am – Bring in Drifter for Phyllis.

11:10am – Bring in Jerry for Melissa.

11:30am – Hop on Corocotto for Phyllis so she can see if he’s off; trot and hand-gallop in both directions.

11:45am - Untack Cory very quickly and turn him back out; run out to the mares’ field to grab Shamrock.

[Right around this time noon chores get done too - bring in Expedience and put out Cory and Voodoo; hay the horses who are in.]

11:55am – Tack up Shamrock.

12:15pm – Bring Shamrock to arena for jumping lesson with Phyllis. Melissa, Meagan, and Heidi are also riding. (It was a blast )

1:15pm – Untack Shamrock, leave her inside to cool down for a little while, run out to the mare field to get Lilly for Phyllis’s great-niece to ride.

1:25pm – Turn Shamrock out.

1:35pm – Help get Lilly ready.

1:45pm – Groom and tack up Theodora, one of the three-year-olds, who Heidi brought in for me. (Because I loooove Heidi!!!!)

2:00pm – Bring Theodora out to the arena for a mini-lesson with Jineen; I’m going to start riding Dora regularly and Jineen is basically giving me the run-down of her.

2:45pm - Bring Dora back to the barn, untack and feed her.

3:00pm  – Walk her back up the driveway to the doubleshed field.

3:15pm – Walk Wager up to the doubleshed field.

3:30pm – Start to bring in horses.

3:55pm – Hay and grain Phyllis’s barn while Heidi hays and grains the boarder barn, and Jenna grains the baby fields.

4:20pm – Change blankets, pick feet and do footcare in Phyllis’s barn.

4:40pm – Check feed tubs in both barns, close up stalls.

5:00pm – Go to office to sit for a minute, chat with Jineen, check the schedule for tomorrow.

5:15pm – Head up to the house to change for a trip to IHOP, then come home and chill before bed at 9 or 9:30.

And this, my friends, is a basic day. On Mondays, the farrier is also squeezed in there. On Tuesdays, the vet. Many days we have show-for-sales, which are hectic - we have to find time to make the sales horses beautiful, tack them up, set fences, etc etc. Today a puppy got hurt which added drama! Yesterday a three-year-old fractured a hip – all sorts of exciting things go on here. Windchase is NOT for the faint of heart, but we all love it here

One of our number, Meagan, was gone for three days, leaving Jenna, Heidi, and me back at the farm to keep things ticking over. Working with one or two people exclusively for a few days is definitely a bonding experience, and it was great to get to know them better and feel more at home here – I can honestly say that I’ve gotten over my homesickness now…even if I do maintain those daily calls home

On Thanksgiving day we were given no schooling rides, trotsets, or lessons, so we had a lot of time to kill. We used this time the best way we could – by going on a long hack around the gorgeous property! Heidi rode her horse Gemini, Jenna was on Gary and I took Danny, and they showed me all the best places to ride – the hayfields and the galloping field (where we, of course, had a gallop!), the trails through the woods which took us over a couple of little logs, the path alongside the fields with some more jumping opportunities, and finally a little detour up and around the lake, and back down the driveway. It was a blast, even with Danny’s “mustang moment” on our way back through the galloping field – he just didn’t understand why he couldn’t have another run!

On our hack I was also introduced to a Windchase tradition – the crazy pictures tradition! Throughout the ride we passed the camera back and forth and got tons of shots – some cute, some funny, and way too many ear pictures to count.

That night, we all went up to Phyllis’s house to have dinner with her family. I think we were all a little astonished prior to heading up there, to find three very clean, well-dressed, and pretty people in the living room. We’re so used to seeing each other filthy that it was a little like entering a parallel universe…ha! Somehow, we all managed to end up in green shirts, and when we got up to the house, we saw that Melissa (the assistant trainer here) was in green too. Apparently that’s the new Windchase uniform! Dinner with the Dawsons was really nice, Phyllis has quite a diverse family! When we got back to the Little House – our humble abode – we all settled down to watch Silence of the Lambs, because, as per Jenna, it’s a perfect Thanksgiving movie…because it involves eating. I can’t even begin to fathom how that girl’s mind works

The next morning, however, it was another 5:30am start and back to our regular schedule. Danny and I have been working diligently on our dressage, and found an old dressage saddle up in the gallery which, after a good going-over with saddle soap, works perfectly for us until I can buy one. We also had an *interesting* jumping lesson with Melissa, and now we have a good idea of what we need to work on this winter. (In Virginia, you can actually jump through the winter! Haha! I was shocked!) I’ll also be having some jumping lessons on more experienced horses, which should be a blast. I’ll keep everyone informed

So here’s the brief run-down of my interview, for those who are curious:

It was about 98 degrees with about the same humidity when my mom and I got down here in June – and I’m a Maine girl, so that was a little much for me! I basically spent a day living the working student life, had a pretty tough lesson with Phyllis, all the normal stuff. Well, on my second day, we got caught in a big storm, and to make a long story short, lightning struck the barn and it burned down! All the horses were in so we had to rush to get them all out - but in the end, nobody was hurt or even injured, and we got most of the tack out, too. It was pretty intense!

Well, needless to say, after the trials and tribulations of my interview, I got the job! I then spent the rest of the summer just working on the basics with Danny and doing some “fun stuff” because I knew we’d have to buckle down once we were here!

And here we are. The number one thing I’ve learned in my week or so of being here: being homesick SUCKS. I’m seventeen and this is the first time I’ve ever left home – and I never realized it would be so hard! It gets so bad sometimes that I find myself thinking, “I just want to give up riding and go home.” Of course I’ll never ever give up, and I really hope I won’t run home, but we’ll see! Anyone got any tips for making this transition easier?!

Anyway, our trip here was fairly uneventful; East Coast Equine Transport (out of York, Maine) hauled Danny down and although the loading was interesting (he got on fine and stayed on, but tried to do a little inventive climbing to get out when I left the trailer), we were all soon on our way and everyone arrived in one piece. At first Danny was a little stiff and spent a day or two in an individual paddock, but he decided pretty quickly that that was WAY too boring, so now he’s out with a bunch of other geldings who all have a ton of space to roam – we lead them out in the morning by their halters and turn them loose in a little “holding area” in front of the barn, from where they gallop up a chute and into one big field which is connected to part of the cross-country course. Of course, that’s where they go most of the time - so getting my horse in for a lesson always involves quite a hike!

Speaking of lessons, we’ve now had two with Melissa Hunsberger, the assistant trainer here. She rode at Rolex Kentucky a couple years back and is a really nice person, and fun to have lessons with. The first lesson she took away our Bitless Bridle (our security blanket!) and made us work with the bit, really making me use a lot of leg to keep Danny on the aids. After just two lessons I already feel like he’s going way better! She got on him today briefly and he looked awesome, and then while I was riding, Phyllis came in and remarked later in the day that Danny looked really nice. Melissa also mentioned that Danny’s a good mover, which made me feel good, because I must be honest – I was a little nervous that my twit, 15.2hh, conformationally-challenged horse wouldn’t exactly be accepted!

Other than that, I’m still trying to get over my missing-home funk. I have tomorrow off so I fully intend to watch a movie (I picked up Rocky Horror and Donnie Darko the other day – yay!) and catch up on rereading Harry Potter so I can finally start reading the Twilight books! Today was a really, really long day and my feet are sooo sore. I’m hoping that I can get a little work done on Danny’s jumping before it gets too cold – I’ll keep you updated and try to get some pics soon!

See ya!

I stayed up until about midnight on the 26th making Danny’s cake – you try grating carrots sometime and you’ll see why! I used my tried-and-true horsey carrot cake recipe, which I used last year with great success. Basically, it consists of flour, eggs, oil, vanilla, bran, sugar, and, of course, carrots. This year I also added cinnamon and chopped (diced?) apple pieces. If anyone’s interested in getting the recipe, leave a comment and I’ll post it!

The final touch is molasses ‘icing’ and a ‘candle’. Of course, we don’t want any burnt horse noses (or burnt-down barns!) so I don’t use a real candle, but rather a carrot, stuck right in the middle! It’s Danny’s job to “blow out the candle” and “cut the cake” – gotta love an eight horse barn! – and then he gets to munch on the first piece of cake while I go around to each stall and give everyone a piece. Dann’y new best friend (or should it be frenemy?!) Ren, a rotund Norwegian Fjord, is on a strict diet, but everyone is included in Danny’s birthday festivities! He was thrilled to chow down on some fattening snacks and vacuumed up every crumb with his opposable lips.

Last year, Danny’s present was a fancy leather halter with a nameplate that reads ‘Dancin On A Dream’ – his show name. This year, he’s getting a whole week at a fancy eventing/jumper barn called Peppergrass Farm. Me and the trainer, Debbie Place, will ride him and try to up his confidence over fences – and introduce him to some new concepts such as oxers, flowerboxes, and grids. In the meantime, I’ll be working on his skills at home, both under saddle and on the lunge line. All in all, I’d say Danny had a pretty good birthday!

Today, our vet came for the horses’ annual vaccinations. The vet we use drives five hours from Canada – his name is Dr. Arnott and he’s seriously the best! Danny has always been really mouth-sensitive; so much so that I ride him in the Dr. Cook Bitless bridle (which I love!). We’ve never been able to get into his mouth to actually check things out. So, after Danny got the full spectrum of vaccinations (totally uneventful; he knows when he needs to stand and be good!), we drew his blood for the Coggins’ test and then gave him a sedative. It kicked in almost instantly and my poor horses head got lower and lower, and so did his eyelids! Dr. Arnott rigged him up in the head-holding-up device – yeah, there’s a technical term for it, no, I don’t know what it is – which is a halter/pulley system that essentially just holds their head in the correct position. My horse’s lips and tongue were lolling everywhere, I wish I had had my camera because it was the cutest, and least dignified thing I’ve ever seen! Dr. Arnott said that Danny had some really sharp points, and some badly hand-floated teeth, so he fixed it with the electric floaty-tool thing (while I held Danny’s tongue – yum!) and rinsed Danny’s mouth. He recommended I ride with a bit and see if it’s better. So, right now I’m cleaning one of my bridles! Danny was so sweet post-vet. He was still “drunk” from his sedative, and very wobbly on his feet, so I just went in his stall and gave him a massage. Then I sat by his head and he was nuzzling my hair. He got so relaxed that he started snoring! So cute. When the sedative wore off he went out with his pals Ren and Bono, and got some mints for being so well-behaved. I was really proud of him today, and he’s getting a few days off to take into account post-vacc soreness.

Check back soon!