I showed Gran Casso & Freedance a the Texas Dressage Classic a few weeks ago in Tyler and had great success. Gran Casso continues to get stronger and in his second outing at 2nd level scored over 69% and was 2nd level Champion of the show. He scored a 73.9% at 1-3 and was also 1st level Champion. At home we are continuing to focus on exercises that help create suppleness and uphill balance in preparation for flying changes later this year. His half passes are coming along well and his medium canters and trots are developing nicely. We may do another show or two this season and then focus on training for 3rd level in the fall.

Freedance did wonderfully for his first time ever ridden off our property! Every day he became a little more relaxed and comfortable in the warm ups and show arenas. He won all of his classes and scored up to 79%+ in his materiale classes. In one of his classes, he scored an impressive 8.4 on his walk!

Next on the agenda is the Young Horse Symposium this weekend at Twinwood Farm in Simonton. I will be riding Freedance with Scott Hassler and I'm hoping that he can give us some insight in how to be successful in the four year old classes this year. Freedance was started a little bit late and has only been consistently under saddle since January and may be a little behind as far as strength and balance but he improves a little everyday. We work a lot of bending lines to help him become more supple over his back and are starting to incorporate more tempo changes and transitions into the work to build strength and carrying power in his hindquarters.

This past weekend, Martin and I and our young student, Celine traveled to Aubrey, TX to audit top US rider, Steffen Peters. The clinic was hosted by Lyndon Rife and he did a fantastic job putting together an organized, educational clinic. Steffen talked a lot about the importance of energy and suppleness and always having a high expectations with your horse during the ride. He said to think of them as your business partner. You must be firm but fair. He also spoke about how much of dressage training is mental, and only a small part physical. The horse must be taught to understand what you are asking of him. The three of us all took a lot out of the clinic 

Martin & I had a fantastic experience this past October. We were lucky enough to be able to work with international rider and trainer, Jessica Jo Tate. Warendorf went along for the trip and the experience the three of us gained while we were up there was invaluable. JJ is a wonderful trainer and coach. She is truly academic in her teaching and always puts the horses well being first anfd foremost. In addition to getting lessons on Waren, we were both able to get on a few of her upper level horses which was truly a wonderful experience. Martin & I came back to Texas better riders and the help that we received on Waren was great! I am hoping to make my Prix St. Georges debut on Waren sometime next year. 

We hope to bring JJ in for a clinic or two in 2012. Check back for more info.

We had a great weekend at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center in Katy, TX this past weekend. Our results were as follows...

Jenna & Gran Casso
GAIG/UDSF First Level Freestyle Reserve Champion
SWDC First Level Freestyle Reserve Champion
GAIG/UDS First Level Open - 8th

Jenna & Willo
Her highest scores yet at 1st level 
Won her first time out at 2nd level
1st level qualifying score for 2012 Champs

Celine & Abaris
Dressage Equitation Champion
SWDC 2nd Level Jr/YR - 4th

Katie & Bardo
HDS Autumn Classic Third Level AA High Point Champion
GAIG/UDDF Third Level AA - 4th 
SWDC Third Level AA - 5th

Marcia & Gusty
Third Level Test 2 - 1st 

I'm very excited to share that Warendof and I will be traveling to Chesapeake City, Maryland to train with Jessica Jo Tate this month. Tomorrow afternoon I will drive Waren up to Pilot Point, TX where he will spend the night before being loaded on the big rig to head to the east coast. He should arrive Wednesday sometime and JJ will work with him for a few days before I arrive on 10/10. Waren is schooling very well at home and is working towards the Prix St. Georges. His pirouettes, tempis and overall level of collection are getting much better but we definitely need some polishing and an understanding of how to get more expression. I will try to keep this blog updated about our progress!

Jenna and Willo, owned by Dawn Dugan, were first level champions at both the San Antonio I & II shows this past weekend at the Rose Palace! Willo showed significant improvement in this level and is training 2nd level at home. 

Jenna's student, Joy Alexander and Horton did super at their first recognized show together! They won 3 of their 4 classes and scored up to 67%! This super combination was also on the winning team for the Ride For the Cure team on Alida's Alliance. Their team raised over $8,000 for the Susan G. Kohman Foundation! Great job guys!!

This marks the "official" last show of the year since the USDF year ends Sept. 30. However, we still have championships in November:)

Well, this summer has been totally brutal. Record highs, over 70 days over 100 degrees and we tied the all time record of 112 degrees. We've been starting earlier and finishing earlier so we can retreat to the AC during the hottest part of the day. Luckily, our horses have been handling everything quite well. The stallions have enjoyed being in their stalls under the fans all day.

In mid June, we attended the HDS Summer Show. Martin was scheduled to ride Waren but an injury earlier in the week put him out for the show and I rode Waren instead. We showed 4-1 both days and did quite well! Gran Casso competed in the FEI Five Year Old Class and scored a 7.0 which unfortunately wasn't high enough to help him be in the top 15. They wanted to see a little more development, which of course, will come with time. The heat started to get to Gran Casso by Sunday and we didn't have our best freestyle performance.

Sadly on June 24, we lost our beautiful Freestyle filly and full sister to Freedance, Freestar. It was quite sudden and we still don't know what happened but we miss our beautiful filly.

Gran Casso has had a fairly light summer, just going to three times a week work since I felt he was getting a little sour at the June show. He is back to his happy, confident self and is schooling extremely well. I feel like his canter work has really progressed since earlier this summer and he is really starting to sit. The simple changes are so much better and we've even started playing with flying changes.

Waren has also been schooling well and I feel as if he has made a ton of progress in the last few months. I think I'm really starting to get the feeling of where he needs to be and how active he needs to be for the FEI work. His tempis and pirouettes are getting better and with a little more polishing, I hope to have him out at PSG soon.

Louie spent mid April through mid July with Daniel Bedoya to learn to jump. He has a lot of talent over fences and looks to be a very careful jumper. He is back in dressage training for the time being and we hope to get him out in the show ring with Martin this fall. His gaits continue to impress us with his effortless uphill balance.

Freedance has been worked very lightly this summer. I've been on him in the round pen a few times and he's been very good. Already walk trot canter, he is very intelligent and once the weather cools off a little more, we will being more serious work to prepare him for next years four year old classes. Martin has also been long lining him which is proving to be a very valuable thing for a young horse to learn. When you take them to the arena the first time,  you actually have some steering!

We are excited about the coming fall. Jenna will be competing on Willo in the San Antonio Fall Dressage shows and we are still debating about taking a few horses to Tyler at the end of September. We are doing clinics with Charles de Kunffy, Jerem

First off, Happy Birthday to Glorianna! She is a year old today and nearly 15 hands already!

We had a fairly successful show this past weekend at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center in Katy. This weekend was home to the first CDI competition ever in Region 9 and as always, the HDS and the volunteers did a fabulous job putting on this historic show! Martin and I loaded up Gran Casso and Warendorf and headed to Katy on Thursday after working a few training horses in the morning.

Friday morning, Waren competed in Fourth level test 1 and scored a 60%, which I felt was a little low for how the ride felt. However, with this score, I now have my 2 fourth level scores towards my silver medal! Gran Casso had his 1-1 warm up class mid day and won the class with a 70%. Later in the day, Gran Casso and I rode our first five year old test of the year and scored a 7.5! I know he still has a lot of additional strength to build but I was really proud of him and very pleased that the judges liked him and felt he has a lot of potential!

Saturday morning was an early start again with Waren at 4-1. He scored a 63.1% this time and won the class! The biggest bobble in the test was when his right to left flying change was two strides late and I had trouble then getting him active and prepared enough to really get a nice score on the collected canter circle. Still, I was very pleased with him. Gran Casso went later in the day showing 2-3. This was his first time out at second level and he scored a 64% which is a qualifying score! We finished the day with my first level freestyle on Gran. I have never had so much fun during a ride before! All the transitions were on target and there were no major mistakes. I really felt like I was dancing with my boy! Unfortunately the judge wasn't too crazy about my music (which the judge in Tyler loved!! I guess that's how it goes with freestyles!) but we still scored high enough to earn my second and final regional championship qualifying score.

Sunday was tough for the boys, they were both very tired! Waren, however, scored a 63.7% at 4-1 which was his highest for the weekend, even with a big problem in one of the walk pirouettes. The first pirouette was an 8! The second, he stuck one of his hind legs and just couldn't get out of it and started backing up. Not good! Other than that, it was a nice forward test. Gran Casso was completely and utterly exhausted by his last 2-3 ride and unfortunately did not earn a qualifying score. Waren and I ended up Show II Fourth Level Open Reserve Champions!!

All in all, it was a really great show. My goal with Waren was to have very forward, active tests and I think we achieved this. With Gran Casso, I wanted a pleasant, forward ride which we achieved until Sunday ;-)

We had a pretty good showing this past weekend at the Texas Dressage Classic I&II in Tyler, TX. Martin competed on Warendorf and had a great show, earning his bronze medal, show I reserve champion 3rd open and show 2 champion 3rd open with a score of 65.9%!

Gran Casso showed well scoring a 67% on our first ever freestyle! He also scored a 77 and 80 in materiale and a 69% and 70% at first level test 1. He just needs one more freestyle score to qualify for championships.

The HDS Spring Classic is coming up in a few weeks. I will be showing Warendorf at fourth level and Gran Casso at 2nd level, 1st level, 1st level freestyle and the FEI 5 year old test. The Spring Classic is a CDI this year so it should be especially fun!

A big congrats to our talented junior rider Celine, who was named CTDS Jr/YR First Level Champion and Second Level Reserve Champion for 2010 on Abaris! Celine qualified for the 2011 National Dressage Seat Medal Finals!