Lucy & Duke update
Lisa Cook
and both Lucy and Duke were fabulous. Denny was very impressed with
Lucy's jumping. I had only jumped her on a hunter pace and in one
stadium jumping lesson before going to Denny's. While at Denny's, she
jumped around stadium courses set at BN and N height, and we had a
great xc school where she did such things as jump up a bank, take one
stride, and jump out over a hanging log. We did another bank that
involved jumping up a bank, take one stride, go off the bank. We
cantered a jump into water and did a novice-sized ditch without
blinking. And Andy with Duke jumped *everything* Lucy jumped,
without exception. I think I have a few more grey hairs, but they
jumped great. Denny has a great rapport with kids...I think Andy has
a new idol. :-)
On the final day, Andy jumped his most difficult stadium course he's
ever tried, in terms of height, length, and difficulty. And he nailed
it on the first try. Denny was so proud of him, Denny brought other
students out to the ring to show them the course Andy jumped. :-)
Dressage is still very much a work in progress. I know what we need
to work on, and we'll get there, but it's not going to be a quick fix.
We ended the week with both Andy and myself riding in the same BN
division of a schooling event at GMHA. Thank goodness for Nancy
coming to watch/help! It is hard to keep both myself and my child on
track for these things! Despite a challenging dressage warmup, Lucy
ended up tied for 4th out of 13 in our division after dressage. If
she can pull that off with the state of our current dressage, it gives
me great hope for what can potentially happen. Andy was 5 points
behind us with Duke. The grasshopper isn't overtaking the mother just
yet!
Both horses jumped clean. I was tied for 3rd going into the faux xc,
and lost the tie breaker because I was *1 second* faster than the
person I was tied with. Bummer. I call it faux xc because it was xc
type jumps moved into a limited area of all weather footing....after
the deluge of rain, the actual xc course was in no shape to support
the event running without incurring significant damage.
And my pony, Suzi Q, came in 3rd with her rider! I was very proud of
them, because they have had a tough week coming into this event, and
to put all of their baggage behind them and start fresh with the event
was a significant accomplishment.
Andy & I rode in the same lessons at Tamarack, so I have no pictures
from there. Pictures are up from the event, however.
Me & Lucy:
Andy & Duke:
I've been procrastinating about unpacking...I have a truck & trailer
crammed both crammed to the rafters with soaking wet camping and
riding equipment. Time to get moving on that, though!
Lisa Cook
Brookline, NH
Jill
> The week at Denny Emerson's went by way too fast! It was great fun
> and both Lucy and Duke were fabulous.
fab pics (although not enough)
even fabber report - well done both of you.
Love the fact that Andy is up there with his Mom. :)
has Nancy stopped grinning yet ?
--
regards
Jill Bowis
Domestic Poultry and Waterfowl Solutions
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine Nursery
Seasonal Farm Food
http://www.kintaline.co.uk
Sue Leopold
> The week at Denny Emerson's went by way too fast! It was great fun
> and both Lucy and Duke were fabulous. Denny was very impressed with
> Lucy's jumping. I had only jumped her on a hunter pace and in one
My memory may be faulty here but i thought the owner of Lucy's
sire was coached by Denny when she was competing him.
???
> stadium jumping lesson before going to Denny's. While at Denny's, she
> jumped around stadium courses set at BN and N height, and we had a
> great xc school where she did such things as jump up a bank, take one
> stride, and jump out over a hanging log. We did another bank that
> involved jumping up a bank, take one stride, go off the bank. We
> cantered a jump into water and did a novice-sized ditch without
> blinking. And Andy with Duke jumped *everything* Lucy jumped,
> without exception. I think I have a few more grey hairs, but they
> jumped great. Denny has a great rapport with kids...I think Andy has
> a new idol. :-)
That's an idol worth looking up to!
Is Andy rediscovering his interest in horses?
> On the final day, Andy jumped his most difficult stadium course he's
> ever tried, in terms of height, length, and difficulty. And he nailed
> it on the first try. Denny was so proud of him, Denny brought other
> students out to the ring to show them the course Andy jumped. :-)
Too cool!
<snip>
> Andy & I rode in the same lessons at Tamarack, so I have no pictures
> from there. Pictures are up from the event, however.
>
> Me & Lucy:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/lmq9qm
Lucy is adorable. What a beautiful little horse and such a clever
jumper. Her turnout is spectacular.
I think I've said this before but I love your position on a horse.
You are a stylist and that ain't easy to do when eventing even
if it is "just BN."
>
>
> Andy & Duke:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/n2noca
The horse is cute and it is uncanny how much Andy's
position resembles yours. I like his look of concentration
and focus. If he stays interested he could be a force in
a couple of years.
> I've been procrastinating about unpacking...I have a truck & trailer
> crammed both crammed to the rafters with soaking wet camping and
> riding equipment. Time to get moving on that, though!
Yuck. My sympathies. it's bad enough unpacking from a competition
w/o dealing with wet and muddy stuff.
Nancy DeMarco
> has Nancy stopped grinning yet ?
Certainly not. :)
I am thoroughly enjoying watching Lucy being well-ridden. Standing
around, she is an attractive, long-backed, short-legged, cute thing.
I think she looks like a nice field hunter type - solid and tough.
But under saddle, she grows legs, and becomes tall and elegant. Until
now, I have only watched her on the longe line, and on the longe her
movement was, and is, quite average. She does, of course, have
moments when she's at play where she floats a bit. But over all, she
just kinda pounds around.
She always felt like a better mover than that. But it's a whole
'nuther thing to watch it. :)
Nancy
Nancy DeMarco
> Lucy is adorable. What a beautiful little horse and such a clever
> jumper. Her turnout is spectacular.
Lisa's horses are always beautifully turned out. :)
Lucy and Duke were sporting not just red, white and blue button
braids. They also had shooting stars across their ample butts. And
they held up through the torrential downpours. :)
Lisa didn't go into detail about her dressage. Lucy unglued in the
warmup area, getting stuck in place and looking like she might just
throw herself to the ground if pressured. But she settled down and
was going quite nicely by the time she was scheduled to do her test.
Lisa was on deck, waiting for the final salute of the horse and rider
before her, when the heavens opened up. We had thunder and lightening
and whipping winds, and buckets of rain coming down in sheets. And
they told everyone to take cover.
So Lucy got rushed back to the trailer, where she stood for twenty
minutes or so. Lisa was positively drowned, but still managed to find
a clean, dry saddle pad for her horse. And back they went, for a two-
minute warm-up, before rushing straight in for their test.
It was not a good test, but considering the circumstances, it was
lovely. :) I have it on video, much to Lisa's dismay. I consider it
to be the "before" shot. ;)
Nancy
Lisa Cook
> It was not a good test, but considering the circumstances, it was
> lovely. :) I have it on video, much to Lisa's dismay. I consider it
> to be the "before" shot. ;)
>
> Nancy
I believe in karma, to a degree. And placing 4th after dressage with
the test we did yesterday was a gift from the dressage gods to make up
for some test I've done in the past whose score left me shaking my
head and wondering what the judge could have been thinking by giving
us a score that was far worse than I thought I deserved.
I would kind of like to see the video, in a morbid, can't-look-away-
from-the-car-wreck kind of way. Got a link you could e-mail? :-)
Andy is picking up interest in riding again, which really started when
he began to ride Linus some. He loved Linus. Duke is the Plan B we
put into effect when Linus died. As Denny put it: Duke is not going
to Andy's Rolex dream horse, but not everyone needs a Rolex horse, and
for Andy's current stage of riding, Duke is perfect. He's a very
good, steady boy who always finds his way safely to the other side of
the jumps and I feel very fortunate to be able to 1/2 lease him for
Andy this year.
It was a lot of fun riding & camping with Andy this week. :-)
Trailer is CLEANED OUT! I pulled everything out of the dressing room
and even vacuumed the floor. All the camping stuff that was packed up
at 5 am yesterday while soaking wet has been dried in the sun, sorted,
and packed away. I've done 4 loads of horse laundry so far with about
4 more people loads to go. Every leather item that was brought on the
trip has been cleaned and conditioned. It's a job, for sure. I now
need a vacation to recover from my vacation!
Lisa Cook
Brookline, NH
betsey
Man, the four of you look great!!!!! I'm just in awe!!!!!
Denny has long been someone I admire....I'm envious of your time with
him! (though, it WOULD be fun to go take a lesson with him on Mach, in
western tack of course!!).
I had no idea that Lucy was so darned pretty....
betsey
Eileen Morgan
Eileen Morgan
The Mare's Nest (PA)
http://www.themaresnest.com
Nancy DeMarco
> I would kind of like to see the video, in a morbid, can't-look-away-
> from-the-car-wreck kind of way. Got a link you could e-mail? :-)
Nope, but I could try to email it. :)
> Andy is picking up interest in riding again, which really started when
> he began to ride Linus some. He loved Linus. Duke is the Plan B we
> put into effect when Linus died. As Denny put it: Duke is not going
> to Andy's Rolex dream horse, but not everyone needs a Rolex horse, and
> for Andy's current stage of riding, Duke is perfect. He's a very
> good, steady boy who always finds his way safely to the other side of
> the jumps and I feel very fortunate to be able to 1/2 lease him for
> Andy this year.
> It was a lot of fun riding & camping with Andy this week. :-)
Andy is amazing. Here he is at an event, twelve years old, drenched
to the skin. And he's completely calm, endlessly polite, and does a
heck of a job to boot. I've never had so many thank you's for doing
so little.
> Trailer is CLEANED OUT! I pulled everything out of the dressing room
> and even vacuumed the floor. All the camping stuff that was packed up
> at 5 am yesterday while soaking wet has been dried in the sun, sorted,
> and packed away. I've done 4 loads of horse laundry so far with about
> 4 more people loads to go. Every leather item that was brought on the
> trip has been cleaned and conditioned. It's a job, for sure. I now
> need a vacation to recover from my vacation!
Heh. I guess I should unpack the two or three things I left rotting
in my car. :)
Nancy
Dawn J-L
Yeah. Drool.
Dawn JL
who really needs/wants a jumping saddle
Judie
That all sounds like quite the accomplishment on many levels for all
concerned. The photos are beautiful. Lucy is very cute and I love her
coloring. You all look so crisp and clean. Great job. As always your
position is flawless. I would love to be able to ride like you.
Judie
Lisa Cook
> That all sounds like quite the accomplishment on many levels for all
> concerned. The photos are beautiful. Lucy is very cute and I love her
> coloring. You all look so crisp and clean. Great job. As always your
> position is flawless. I would love to be able to ride like you.
>
> Judie
Thanks to you, and everyone else, for the nice comments about my
riding. When I showed up at my college hunt seat equitation program
after 4 years of being a dressage working student throughout high
school, I'm sure I was the despair of my college coach. She's the one
who installed the hunt seat equitation into me, and it has kinda stuck
with me to some degree all this time since then. I do still have a
tendency to do the hunter lean-on-the-neck thing if I'm not careful,
which isn't the best habit to have in eventing...
Any similarities between Andy's position & mine is either
a. strictly coincidental
b. unconscious mimicking on Andy's part
c. the result of the fact that we ride with the same instructors
Even when he was 6 years old and learning how to post, he wouldn't let
me help him. It killed me to do it, but I had to pay someone to teach
him the same things I was easily capable of doing, but it just created
way too much conflict between us when I tried to teach him. We are
making progress: Andy has allowed me to help him warm up at the last
2 events he's ridden in. :-)
Lisa Cook
Brookline, NH
betsey
Lisa-
Katie is 15, and it has taken her awhile to accept that Mommy CAN be a
good person <grin>. I suppose we were the same way towards our moms...
Laurel Reddick
<Coo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>The week at Denny Emerson's went by way too fast! It was great fun
>and both Lucy and Duke were fabulous. Denny was very impressed with
>Lucy's jumping. I had only jumped her on a hunter pace and in one
>stadium jumping lesson before going to Denny's. While at Denny's, she
>jumped around stadium courses set at BN and N height, and we had a
>great xc school where she did such things as jump up a bank, take one
>stride, and jump out over a hanging log. We did another bank that
>involved jumping up a bank, take one stride, go off the bank. We
>cantered a jump into water and did a novice-sized ditch without
>blinking. And Andy with Duke jumped *everything* Lucy jumped,
>without exception. I think I have a few more grey hairs, but they
>jumped great. Denny has a great rapport with kids...I think Andy has
>a new idol. :-)
>snip
Great report and great pictures. I love the zoom in feature. I
zoomed all over--loved getting a real close up of faces etc.
Laurel
LandShark
Nice pic! Love the zoom in aspect! Glad all went so well.
Ruth W.