We're just a few weeks away from the first event of the season and so we've started ramping up our lessons and our jump schools. Our arena dried out and the fences were brought back in so we took advantage of the time between storms to get some training in. I work with a fellow eventer who lives nearby when we don't trailer out for lessons we trade off moving, raising, and replacing poles for each other.  She rides intermediate and it helps to have someone who is used to seeing the poles a few holes up from Novice helping you on the ground. Phinn is quite tidy with his front end but we want him to learn to be comfortable from a deep spot and use his back and our gymnastic work is really paying off. It also helps me remenber to leave him alone and ride him into a soft contact, but not baby sit too much, which I am prone to do. 
We are looking forward to some serious training opportunities in January.  Buck Davidson is coming to Kingsway Farm, followed by the Ian Stark Fundraiser Clinic at Galway Downs, and a one day at 3 Day Ranch, all leading up to Galway's Horse Trial the first weekend of February. I'm excited to get the season started!

  Early December presented some great learning opportunities. I was invited to ride in a lesson with WEG silver medalist Hawley Awad, and then a few days later a cross country schooling as well!  In our first lesson we worked on straightness and riding our corners correctly to keep the hind end squarely centered underneath our horses to allow them to push evenly for a powerful confident jump.  Hawley was quite impressed with Phinn and I was thrilled with the learning experience. We were invited to ride in the Buck Davidson clinic scheduled for mid-January, another great learning opportunity I am looking forward to!

Our cross country school was a few days later and Phinn was great, a little green and cautious at first, but then he really got into the swing of things, and Hawley said she felt pretty strongly that he would be ready for Novice at Galway's first event of the season, the first weekend in February, pointing out that there would be several schooling opportunities between now and then with her and other trainers.  Phinn jumped so well that I had to agree with her, so now we're aimed at Novice for our first event of the season, in 7 short weeks!

Hawley said our goal for the year should be the training three day at Galway's November event. I was tickled with her implied compliment, but we'll see how Phinn does and he'll let us know when he's ready t o move up. He's still  little spooky and cautious, and its imperative to me that he maintains his confidence, so we'll see how the spring goes, I tend to be a little cautious with him, but November is a long way off from now. 

Link to youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psQNKxy7Y84

  November presented some challenges with weather. It seemed we didn't ride in an arena the entire month.  Our barn managers are very good at preparing the rings for rain, but we still have to wait a few days for them to dry out and every time the rings were just about ready to ride in again it seemed like it rained again. So I took the conditioning information I learned at the Jimmy Wofford clinic and spent most of November walking the hills in the back of Harmony Grove and doing trot and canter sets at regular intervals as weather would allow.  We're really lucky that we ride at a property where we have hills and land to hack on!

  The last weekend in October Margie Malloy had organized a clinic with Jimmy Wofford at her "3 Day Ranch". I had never had the opportunity to ride with Jimmy and was thrilled to be able to attend.

The first morning started with a lecture, and Jimmy talked about jumping form of the horse, and then the rider.  The second morning we talked about fitness and Jimmy helped us understand his conditioning schedule and how to incorporate it into a competition schedule.

The first day we were in the show jumping arena and Jimmy helped us work on maintaining the same stride as we approached each fence. We were in the beginner novice/novice group and Jimmy said he did not care what strides we got in between fences, just that we got to the fences with the same canter stride.  We worked on straight lines between fences and bending lines.

The second day we went out on the cross country course and worked on maintaining our position and talked about the best way to approach different types of fences out on course.  Phinn struggled with one fence, a novice table near the water complex. It had shrubs at the ground line and Phinn was intimidated and confused and stopped. Jimmy was not pleased and we reapproached with a strong canter, and Phinn, clearly confused about how to handle this fence, scrambled up on top of the table, which was covered with tanbark and then leapt off the other side.  We approached a third time and I help Phinn to his line with a very supportive leg and he soared over the table. I was proud of the learning experience for him even though we had a hairy moment on top of the table.

The clinic offered an incredible opportunity to watch the upper level riders who were preparing for the last event of the season, Galway Down's first west coast 3*.

  Over the summer my work really ramped up and I found myself struggling to have time to ride, but I continued to work on our basics and put together the money to buy Phinn outright from Robin.  Robin helped us over the summer start to really work on our dressage, and we spent a lot of time in the dressage arena working on suppleness and connection.  At one point Robin invited us to come to a piaffe/passage clinic at friend Mark Carter's beautiful farm in La Cresta. Phinn, his first time in an indoor arena, did very well and I was thrilled with his bravery and how he took to working in hand. He showed a natural propensity for piaffe and we were thrilled with him.

I was qualified for the year end Area Championships, which were held at Copper Meadows in September, but I felt that my work commitments had kept me from training as I should have before heading to an Area Championship. I was disappointed, but took the opportunity to school the cross country course after the show.  Phinn jumped very well and we started jumping some of the novice fences.

Over the late summer I had some great opportunities to take a few lessons with Erin Kellerhouse and found them exceptionally helpful in moving to the next step in our jumping,  encouraging Phinn to use his back and bascule over his fences, and teaching me to support him with finer detailed riding between my fences, but allowing him to jump without any micromanagement from me.  Small tweaks in my form helped me be a more supportive rider and have propelled Phinn's education in his jumping.

In September I had a basic pre-purchase exam done on Phinn, with xrays. The vet found Phinn's navicular and sesamoid bones particularly interesting, in their size and density.  I wonder if other mustangs have similar bone structures, which seem to be exceptionally robust for his size.

In late September I was able to  present Robin with a check for Phinn's full purchase price and because his owner.

  Our first event, the June event at Copper Meadows came the weekend after the dressage show in Temecula.  Phinn settled in quickly and seemed quite happy in his stall in the temporary stabling.  I rode him the afternoon we arrived and he was very good, but a little spooky in the dressage area. The dressage area is boardered on one side by a hedge that separates the area from the road along the property line. Phinn thought the hedge was quite spooky and we spent some time walking by it and getting him comfortable with it.   Saturday morning I braided and got ready for dressage, but I was a little bit early for my ride. I waited at the stables  for a little bit and then headed down to warm up.  Phinn and I walked around and watched the other riders and then started our warm up.  When it was our time to go into the dressage ring area Phinn was quite spooked by the other horses, the photographer, the judges, etc. So our dressage test wasn't as attentive as I had hoped, and at first I was disappointed that we hadn't had a more attentive test, but after watching the video of our ride I realized he really didn't exhibit all the spookiness and tension that I was feeling during the ride.  I think I have become so in tune with him that I am overly sensitive to his perceptions and tensions.  We were in the middle of the division after dressage.

Saturday afternoon we were scheduled to jump our show jumping course rather than cross country. I walked the course during  a break and felt fairly  confident because of our work over the spring in the hunter/jumper classes at Del Mar.  I knew he would be spooky and looky, but I was confident that he would jump the fences and that the course supported a forward ride that would suit his experience and confidence level.  He warmed up well in the group warm up and I only jumped him over a few fences since he felt forward and confident.  When we walked down to the arena I was grateful a  friend was standing near the in gate, Phinn was quite spooked to walk into the arena and a lead from our friend was perfect. We picked up our canter, and I made sure he was in front of my leg and off we went. He jumped beautifully and even though I could tell he was a little intimidated by the fences and the environment he did very well.  I was very proud of him and happy that all our hard work was coming together. 

When I checked the score board I found that we were tied for first!

I knew that it was going to be very important to be close to the optimum time on cross country so I went and walked our course one more time, this time paying attention to the distance and timing.

Cross country morning Phinn was happy and relaxed. We warmed up in the same arena that we warmed up in for show jumping and again, Phinn was jumping very well. But when it came time to head down to the start box again we needed a lead to the start. Phinn was very spooky to the first fence and I made sure to send him forward to the second fence. The cross country course at Copper Meadows has natural rock formations and Phinn was really concerned about them as we cantered along.  The second and third fences rode well, but the fourth fence, situated near a large rock formation, which he had schooled a few weeks earlier really baffled him and he almost stopped, jumping at the last possible moment in a very awkward scramble.  We had a good gallop stretch to the next few fences and Phinn found a rhythm and started to settle into his first cross country run.  At one point, after the sixth fence he really got into it and really opened up his gallop, I laughed and brought him back to a slower hand gallop, knowing we wouldn't be close enough to our optimum time if I let him continue at that pace, but I was thrilled that he was getting into it.  He jumped the ditch without any hesitation and we headed to the water. He bobbled a little at the water, but continued his forward momentum and then presented boldly to the max brush fence following the water complex. I was very proud of him.  On the back side of the course he was settled into his rhythm and was cantering his fences confidently.  We cam e across the finish line a little faster than I had aimed to, but still fairly close to optimum time.  Phinn marched back to his stall quite proud of himself and I felt that even though he was still quite green that he had gained confidence over the course and it was a big growing experience for him.  When we checked the score board we had broken the tie with the closest time to optimum time and took home a blue ribbon!
Here is a link to proofs:
https://www.capturedmomentphoto.com/cgi-bin/store/imageFolio.cgi?action=view&link=Equestrian/Horse_Trials_Combined_Training/Copper_Meadows_(Ramona,CA)/2010_June/Must_Tango_(263)&image=263-MG_0103.jpg&img=16&tt=&tfile=tn_263-MG_0103.JPG

  With our success at our hunter/jumper shows I decided to look at the event schedule for the rest of the spring and decided on Copper Meadow's June event.  I felt that the hunter and jumper shows were extremely helpful, but I also wanted to show him in a dressage show, and of course, take him cross country schooling.

We went cross country schooling with Terri Rockovich at Copper Meadows before the facility closed before the event. I was thrilled with his attitude. He was particularly adept at the banks, ditches, and water, none of which phased him at all, though they are traditionally the bogey fences for young horses.

We planned on the June Temecula CDS Dressage show and worked on our training level tests with Robin.

I planned on trailering in the morning of our show, and so I opted to braid the night before. When I went to go get Phinn, he shied violently away from the halter. We had graduated to a leather halter and Robin had recently presented me with a name plate for him with the show name we had chosen for him: "Must Tango".  Until that day he had happily adapted to having his halter passed over his ears like all the other horses on the farm, but that evening he was terrified.  I was puzzled and worked slowly with him. Later, the next week we saw the farrier, who had come out that day to replace a thrown shoe and tried to put Phinn's fly mask back on him, and apparently it had not gone well.  Phinn spooked at his unfamiliar movement, the farrier's finger was badly sprained in the process, and it took weeks to regain Phinn's trust around his ears.

The show went really well. Phinn was a little spooky in the ring, but handled the atmosphere of the show very well. 
Here is a link to photos:
http://terrimiller.exposuremanager.com/g/thomas_margaret_10tvj

In the afternoon, after we did our two training level tests we had a cross country schooling scheduled with Erin Kellerhouse of Swift Ridge Eventing. The school went really well, much like the schooling at Copper Meadows and I was very pleased with how Phinn was doing. 

When we came back off the cross country course we found out that Phinn had won both of his training level classes with scores in the mid-60s!

Robin and I had a long talk shortly thereafter and I asked if I could buy him, though I needed time to put together the money.  We agreed on a schedule for payment and I scheduled a pre-purchase to get baseline x-rays.