So, we did get a White Christmas after all, we must have a good 12 inches now!
My day down at Olympia was fun, I was invited to join the British Equestrian Writers Association for lunch which was lovely, and received a lovely photo of our team at WEG which was a really nice surprise and will always be treasured. I had the Parade at Olympia in the evening so had time for a look around the shopping village in between, luckily I had a time limit with the Parade still to come so couldn't let my shopping get out of control! For the Parade we were mounted and I rode Tina Fletchers showjumping horse, I haven't been in a proper jumping saddle in ages!
With a few days in between I had the Sports Personality afterwards which is also always an occasion. With my ticket in hand I had a good seat, third row from the front so a good view. I was surprised at how packed the stadium was, the weather had been really bad and with it being at the NEC I was lucky with only having a few miles to travel. I had an interesting entrance onto the dual carriageway from my lane but luckily with not much traffic I could afford to wheel spin for a few seconds, on the way home as I was just thinking I had made it when I came to the final T junction and again quite a mega wheel spin but this time I had the rear end of the car overtake the front end, interesting and definitely got the adrenalin going!
We are now winding down for Christmas, we will work the horses again tomorrow and then our staff officially leave us for the holiday. The whole family will be on hand to deal with the horses! By the New Year everything should be back to normal and ready for the 2011 season to start, wishing everyone a Great Christmas and New Year :-) x x
Snail with Sky
WE is slow
Wednesday 29 December 2010
Thursday 16 December 2010
Christmas Decoration Fun
It has been a tough couple of weeks with the cold weather but thank goodness it has got a bit milder in the last couple of days. I mustn't really complain as we are very lucky and have an indoor. Speaking of which, we've had some entertainment with the Christmas decorations in the school! Dad put them up last week. The reactions of the horses was very different. Some didn't want to go anywhere near them whereas others made a bee line for them thinking they were edible!
We've been cracking on with training (despite a burst pipe in the water mains - not fun). The older horses definitely feel the weather a lot more and need plenty of time to limber up. The younger ones come out all guns blazing!
Woodlander Rockstar and Woodlander Dornroschen are really coming on and enjoying learning new things. We have been continuing with the piaffe and passage, it takes quite a bit of time for them to build strength for it so it's just a case of incorporating it a bit into each training session to build them up.
Woodlander Wavavoom and Woodlander Farouche are also learning new things, they are going to be aimed for the 5 year old classes next year so are gradually being introduced to some lateral work.
I have Olympia and Sports Personality next week which I am looking forward to. We have the team parade at Olympia and I have made sure I have my ticket for Sports Personality this time. Last year I forgot to confirm my place so I had to try and blag a spare seat. Luckily one came up on the front row which was pretty cool and quite surreal!
We've been cracking on with training (despite a burst pipe in the water mains - not fun). The older horses definitely feel the weather a lot more and need plenty of time to limber up. The younger ones come out all guns blazing!
Woodlander Rockstar and Woodlander Dornroschen are really coming on and enjoying learning new things. We have been continuing with the piaffe and passage, it takes quite a bit of time for them to build strength for it so it's just a case of incorporating it a bit into each training session to build them up.
Woodlander Wavavoom and Woodlander Farouche are also learning new things, they are going to be aimed for the 5 year old classes next year so are gradually being introduced to some lateral work.
I have Olympia and Sports Personality next week which I am looking forward to. We have the team parade at Olympia and I have made sure I have my ticket for Sports Personality this time. Last year I forgot to confirm my place so I had to try and blag a spare seat. Luckily one came up on the front row which was pretty cool and quite surreal!
Friday 26 November 2010
Your Horse Live
So, back riding again and all seems OK fingers crossed. The horses have been nice and gentle with me on the whole except for the other day when it was a nice crisp morning albeit with some fog, and I thought how nice it would be to ride outside. Needless to say the horses were very fresh and desperately wanted to have some fun so I had to sit tight!
Your Horse Live was an adventure and a good experience both for horse and rider! We had a slight change of horse material, taking Woodlander Wavavoom instead of Woodlander Rochelle as she came into season the day before andf didn't seem that comfortable.
All horses behaved very well. Woodlander Wavavoom was extremely confident in his surroundings, more so than Monet who was a little on his toes - Mike couldn't stop once he had come into the arena so we had to limit his time frame as not to exhaust him.
Woodlander Rockstar was a true gent unlike the others who only did one demo each day, he did a bit on both demos each day so by the last one he was a little unenthused.
Riding with the mics was one of my worst fears as I concentrate so much when I ride that I find it difficult to talk, not to mention that I can sounds horribly out of breath! Mike was a natural at this and I think we managed to demonstrate fairly well. It is so difficult to try and cover everything in a couple of days and also catering for people who might just be there for the one day/morning/afternoon. There were a few moments when we cam close to talking over each other but on the whole I think we managed to complement each other quite well...
Dad is now back from the Asian games, it feels like he has been away so much of late. As soon as we got back from Kentucky he was off to quarantine and then straight on to China. He is off to Ireland next week!
We seem to have quite a full yard at the moment with quite a few young ones in for training. As we are not doing so much comepting now until the new year we are concentrating on the training and bringing the horses on for next year, the plan is that they will all move up a level! I am also finally getting on top of my clear out which is good news!
Maria x
Your Horse Live was an adventure and a good experience both for horse and rider! We had a slight change of horse material, taking Woodlander Wavavoom instead of Woodlander Rochelle as she came into season the day before andf didn't seem that comfortable.
All horses behaved very well. Woodlander Wavavoom was extremely confident in his surroundings, more so than Monet who was a little on his toes - Mike couldn't stop once he had come into the arena so we had to limit his time frame as not to exhaust him.
Woodlander Rockstar was a true gent unlike the others who only did one demo each day, he did a bit on both demos each day so by the last one he was a little unenthused.
Riding with the mics was one of my worst fears as I concentrate so much when I ride that I find it difficult to talk, not to mention that I can sounds horribly out of breath! Mike was a natural at this and I think we managed to demonstrate fairly well. It is so difficult to try and cover everything in a couple of days and also catering for people who might just be there for the one day/morning/afternoon. There were a few moments when we cam close to talking over each other but on the whole I think we managed to complement each other quite well...
Dad is now back from the Asian games, it feels like he has been away so much of late. As soon as we got back from Kentucky he was off to quarantine and then straight on to China. He is off to Ireland next week!
We seem to have quite a full yard at the moment with quite a few young ones in for training. As we are not doing so much comepting now until the new year we are concentrating on the training and bringing the horses on for next year, the plan is that they will all move up a level! I am also finally getting on top of my clear out which is good news!
Maria x
Thursday 14 October 2010
WEG Kentucky 2010
I have just returned home from WEG and am currently recovering from a little op. I had to put off until after the big event!
WEG was excellent, it took a bit of doing to get everything ready and to get out there and back but the silver medal made it all worthwhile! Just after having been at the Nationals with 9 horses I had 2 days to get the lorry unpacked, the gear cleaned and re-pack for WEG. I travelled with Ed (Two Sox) to Liege where the horses were due to fly from, we stopped 1 night at Nadine Cappellmans so the horses had a chance to have a leg stretch and rest before the flight. There were 80 horses who were flying from Liege so as you can imagine the airport was rather busy- we had to be super organized and have everything ready separately for what was going to be needed for the flight, quarantine and the venue itself. Once we had seen them off I came back home to England to do a quick pack of my things before having to depart from Heathrow the next morning. Although I couldn’t travel with Ed we had Jenny Hall, our vet, and Carole Levitt, Laura Bechtolsheimer’s groom, travel with them and then John McEwen, our team vet, was to join them in quarantine so they were to be well looked after!
It was a long journey for us, we caught the plane from Heathrow at 8am and at Chicago we had to do a transfer to Lexington-there was also a 5 hour time difference! Outside of the airport there was so much space and acres of grassland all fenced in white post and rail, takeaway venues everywhere! We arrived mid afternoon so enough time to get to the stables and meet our neddies for a quick leg stretch. Unfortunately Ed wasn’t looking his usual self when I arrived at the stables he had had a slight temperature in quarantine. I just walked him for a few days until his temperature and bloods were back to normal, and with having arrived with a week before the competition was due to start I had just enough time to get him into gear. With having to take it easy for the first few days I had plenty of time to explore the showground which was massive. It was a 15 minute walk to get to the stables from the shuttle stop, another 15 minutes to get to the catering from the stables, 20 minutes to get from the stables to the main arena and 40 minutes to get from the main arena to the grooms accommodation. We also had a group visit to the Keenlands racing stables and venue followed by a quick tour around Sheik Mohammed’s stables before the competition got under way which was a new experience. At the time they were having their annual sales, selling hundreds of youngsters a day!
It was quite tricky to work Ed enough that he was submissive and well behaved but not to exhaust him and put his body under strain with having been travel sick. John did a great job with monitoring him and Vicky Spalding the team physio worked on him as well so that I didn’t have to do that much and that when I rode him I took lots of breaks. He did a very good consistent Grand Prix, I was really pleased. The rest of the team did really good tests as well and with Laura s mega score we ended up in Silver position not far away from the Dutch! We had got bronze in our sights but thought that the Germans were looking fairly strong again this year. Of course we had to celebrate but not too much as we had all qualified for the Special and with it being drawn in reverse order of results from the Grand Prix I was due to go fairly early, actually it was nice as the weather was turning hot again (it had been a sweltering 98F when we arrived, which suddenly plummeted to 56F for a few days and raining before turning hot again but this time pleasantly in the seventies. With the team result having been decided we could all up the risk factor a little bit more. Ed was great once again with no mistakes and I thought that he was altogether looser and fresher-the following day when I thought he would have been tired he was the freshest he had been all week, not tired one little bit which was great seeing as he had not been up to full strength when he arrived. It also was good from the point of view that the return journey was coming up and I wanted him to be fighting fit before having to have to travel home. The last few combinations in the Special and Freestyle were amazing, so much so that you felt that there should have been 5 medals made available.
Before returning back to the UK I did a quick dash around the trade stands to get myself a cowboy hat and a bling belt, a must if you go to the States! The journey home was overnight and I am still trying to recover from the jet lag, I didn’t think I would get it on the way home but it has hit me good and proper! Ed travelled home really well-the horses had quite a long trek back again but had plenty of stops to break the journey up and have opportunity to eat, drink and rest. I think he is tired but no travel sickness which was a relief and he is happy and well having a well deserved break. A short break for me as I am unable to ride for a moment but loads to do on the admin side- and some planning necessary as to what happens next!
Maria x
WEG was excellent, it took a bit of doing to get everything ready and to get out there and back but the silver medal made it all worthwhile! Just after having been at the Nationals with 9 horses I had 2 days to get the lorry unpacked, the gear cleaned and re-pack for WEG. I travelled with Ed (Two Sox) to Liege where the horses were due to fly from, we stopped 1 night at Nadine Cappellmans so the horses had a chance to have a leg stretch and rest before the flight. There were 80 horses who were flying from Liege so as you can imagine the airport was rather busy- we had to be super organized and have everything ready separately for what was going to be needed for the flight, quarantine and the venue itself. Once we had seen them off I came back home to England to do a quick pack of my things before having to depart from Heathrow the next morning. Although I couldn’t travel with Ed we had Jenny Hall, our vet, and Carole Levitt, Laura Bechtolsheimer’s groom, travel with them and then John McEwen, our team vet, was to join them in quarantine so they were to be well looked after!
It was a long journey for us, we caught the plane from Heathrow at 8am and at Chicago we had to do a transfer to Lexington-there was also a 5 hour time difference! Outside of the airport there was so much space and acres of grassland all fenced in white post and rail, takeaway venues everywhere! We arrived mid afternoon so enough time to get to the stables and meet our neddies for a quick leg stretch. Unfortunately Ed wasn’t looking his usual self when I arrived at the stables he had had a slight temperature in quarantine. I just walked him for a few days until his temperature and bloods were back to normal, and with having arrived with a week before the competition was due to start I had just enough time to get him into gear. With having to take it easy for the first few days I had plenty of time to explore the showground which was massive. It was a 15 minute walk to get to the stables from the shuttle stop, another 15 minutes to get to the catering from the stables, 20 minutes to get from the stables to the main arena and 40 minutes to get from the main arena to the grooms accommodation. We also had a group visit to the Keenlands racing stables and venue followed by a quick tour around Sheik Mohammed’s stables before the competition got under way which was a new experience. At the time they were having their annual sales, selling hundreds of youngsters a day!
It was quite tricky to work Ed enough that he was submissive and well behaved but not to exhaust him and put his body under strain with having been travel sick. John did a great job with monitoring him and Vicky Spalding the team physio worked on him as well so that I didn’t have to do that much and that when I rode him I took lots of breaks. He did a very good consistent Grand Prix, I was really pleased. The rest of the team did really good tests as well and with Laura s mega score we ended up in Silver position not far away from the Dutch! We had got bronze in our sights but thought that the Germans were looking fairly strong again this year. Of course we had to celebrate but not too much as we had all qualified for the Special and with it being drawn in reverse order of results from the Grand Prix I was due to go fairly early, actually it was nice as the weather was turning hot again (it had been a sweltering 98F when we arrived, which suddenly plummeted to 56F for a few days and raining before turning hot again but this time pleasantly in the seventies. With the team result having been decided we could all up the risk factor a little bit more. Ed was great once again with no mistakes and I thought that he was altogether looser and fresher-the following day when I thought he would have been tired he was the freshest he had been all week, not tired one little bit which was great seeing as he had not been up to full strength when he arrived. It also was good from the point of view that the return journey was coming up and I wanted him to be fighting fit before having to have to travel home. The last few combinations in the Special and Freestyle were amazing, so much so that you felt that there should have been 5 medals made available.
Before returning back to the UK I did a quick dash around the trade stands to get myself a cowboy hat and a bling belt, a must if you go to the States! The journey home was overnight and I am still trying to recover from the jet lag, I didn’t think I would get it on the way home but it has hit me good and proper! Ed travelled home really well-the horses had quite a long trek back again but had plenty of stops to break the journey up and have opportunity to eat, drink and rest. I think he is tired but no travel sickness which was a relief and he is happy and well having a well deserved break. A short break for me as I am unable to ride for a moment but loads to do on the admin side- and some planning necessary as to what happens next!
Maria x
Monday 20 September 2010
Nationals and WEG
So, I have managed to get through the last few weeks (Regional and National Champs) and am now having to get everything ready for WEG-Ed (Two Sox) leaves tomorrow, no panic! He is definitely up for it and after having gone to the National Champs to do a 'demo' slot he is keen and ready to go! It was actually invaluable as it gave me a feel on what I need to work on for Kentucky-it is very easy to get a false reading at home!
We had 9 horses at the Nationals altogether which I think was more than enough, we had also done a demo at Burghley the previous week as well as the Regional Champs before that, it has been non stop! The Addington Regionals went well although we got absolutely drenched and Burghley was great fun and a perfect outing for the horses, the conditions were super! We were very lucky that the weather continued to hold for the Nationals which was just as well as everyone was rushed of their feet but it was worth it, the horses did us proud! We came back with several good placings and Mike won the Young Horse Supreme Championship with Ruchie (Farouche) which was definitely the highlight of the show. Woodlander Wawavoom was also excellent, the 4 year old stallion which I rode. I was amazed at how well behaved all of the young horses were, with so much space available it would have been very easy for them to take advantage!
U Rockstar improved from the Medium to do a very pleasing Adv Medium-he can be a little bit spooky but having nursed him around the Medium the previous day I felt he had grown in confidence and was willing to trust me. Woodlander Rockstar was excellent, definitely the best Adv Medium he has done to date- I think it helped to have prepared him for the Prix St Georges on the Thurs, the Adv Medium felt easy! Unfortunately his last halt wasn't his usual and because he had stood still I didn't want to correct him which would have meant losing the immobility, there were about 4 of us all on 70%, we could have easily been 2nd instead of 4th, every mark counts!
Mike had good consistent performances from Torino, he was a little tired for the Intermediare 1 Freestyle, bless him he has done a lot this season. Woodlander Dornroschen wasn't on quite her usual form, we suspect she was in season and a little uncomfortable but she is such a trier she keeps going regardless.
Marakov produced the goods for Mike in the Grand Prix, unfortunately Monet didn't compete. The Grand Prix Freestyle went well and was Mike's first showing of his new music based on the Transformers theme, very powerful! Marco coped extremely well and it was obvious how much trust he had in Mike!
So now Mike will hold the fort at home while I go off to WEG- I promise to take some photos! When I return I am in need of a much needed break, as well as every other member of the Eilberg household! I am going to have to go in for another small op on my tummy which will put me out of action for a little while but the best time to do it. Mike might do some more Internationals with Marco and Monty over the winter, we will have to see, it seems to be that I am constantly planning!
We had 9 horses at the Nationals altogether which I think was more than enough, we had also done a demo at Burghley the previous week as well as the Regional Champs before that, it has been non stop! The Addington Regionals went well although we got absolutely drenched and Burghley was great fun and a perfect outing for the horses, the conditions were super! We were very lucky that the weather continued to hold for the Nationals which was just as well as everyone was rushed of their feet but it was worth it, the horses did us proud! We came back with several good placings and Mike won the Young Horse Supreme Championship with Ruchie (Farouche) which was definitely the highlight of the show. Woodlander Wawavoom was also excellent, the 4 year old stallion which I rode. I was amazed at how well behaved all of the young horses were, with so much space available it would have been very easy for them to take advantage!
U Rockstar improved from the Medium to do a very pleasing Adv Medium-he can be a little bit spooky but having nursed him around the Medium the previous day I felt he had grown in confidence and was willing to trust me. Woodlander Rockstar was excellent, definitely the best Adv Medium he has done to date- I think it helped to have prepared him for the Prix St Georges on the Thurs, the Adv Medium felt easy! Unfortunately his last halt wasn't his usual and because he had stood still I didn't want to correct him which would have meant losing the immobility, there were about 4 of us all on 70%, we could have easily been 2nd instead of 4th, every mark counts!
Mike had good consistent performances from Torino, he was a little tired for the Intermediare 1 Freestyle, bless him he has done a lot this season. Woodlander Dornroschen wasn't on quite her usual form, we suspect she was in season and a little uncomfortable but she is such a trier she keeps going regardless.
Marakov produced the goods for Mike in the Grand Prix, unfortunately Monet didn't compete. The Grand Prix Freestyle went well and was Mike's first showing of his new music based on the Transformers theme, very powerful! Marco coped extremely well and it was obvious how much trust he had in Mike!
So now Mike will hold the fort at home while I go off to WEG- I promise to take some photos! When I return I am in need of a much needed break, as well as every other member of the Eilberg household! I am going to have to go in for another small op on my tummy which will put me out of action for a little while but the best time to do it. Mike might do some more Internationals with Marco and Monty over the winter, we will have to see, it seems to be that I am constantly planning!
Monday 9 August 2010
WEG!
Hi there, just to let you know have been selected for WEG, very happy :-) Two Sox was great at Hickstead and pulled out all the stops. Selectors have announced Laura Carl and myself as being on the team, they have yet to decide on the the fourth combination. It was a busy show with Mike riding as well, he did very well and was very close to being in team contention himself! We arrived back late Sun and had the Regionals at Somerford Mon, all horses qualified, we have more Regionals next week!
Will be in touch to let you know how they go, we could have 10 horses qualified for the National Champs!
Best wishes,
Maria
Will be in touch to let you know how they go, we could have 10 horses qualified for the National Champs!
Best wishes,
Maria
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