Southern Pines Report

As always Southern Pines was a true test for horse and rider at each level. The Carolina Horse Park is a beautiful facility. They have been working very hard and it shows. The cross country was in great shape. I was also told that improvements to the footing are to be completed to a few of the galloping lanes this spring. I'd expect that the park will be a fixture for years to come.

We had a number of horses competing this weekend, 6 to be exact. Dressage day started out well. The horses all preformed well, frustratingly, I did have a few stupid errors which certainly put a damper on the morning. I had changed up my routine, I've learned my lesson and my routine is back.

The fun began with a few horses cross country on Friday. Socks was very good in his first training. Not sure it was the best move up course, but when in rome... He was excellent, jumped around as if he'd seen countless courses in his past.

Saturday brought a bunch more XC. The highlights were both Tom and Running Order. Tom was very good, continuing his trend set in his first 3 prelims. He's a very talented horse, with limitless potential. I'm very excited to see where he ends up. Running Order went out strong on the difficult Advanced course. I was fully expecting him to be sticky jumping into the bounce into water. He was not in the least backed off. Later in the course I did have an annoying mis-communication at the second brush at 15b. I circled back and continued on without trouble. Coming off the course, I was annoyed about the brush but proud of how well he handled a number of the other difficult combination. Beau also show jumped on Saturday, he was very good finishing 2nd in his 3rd prelim.

Sunday concluded a great weekend for us. Tom finished up in 2nd, Stonewall 8th and Running Order jumped 1 of 3 clean rounds out of the 20+ competitors. Video below...I can't express how excited I am see what the future with him.

Arden and Michael were not as fortunate this weekend. My thoughts are with both of them, it's never easy to lose a partner. I've been lucky at this point in my career not to have to experience such a loss. I can't imagine...but again my thoughts are with both of them.

Running Order - Show Jumping


We have training sessions this week with Katie Prudent both Tues and Weds...Stay tuned...