Stop to Smell the Flower

Elliot faired pretty well on the journey back south after the disappointment of Fair Hill. He got about a couple weeks of vacation since there was nothing else for he really needed to do this year. It seemed well deserved after all the shipping and competing and general stress of the trip and the season as a whole. We haven't done anything particularly strenuous since coming home. Mostly hacking and some light long and low flat work.

I'm a big supporter of giving upper level horses a break. In the past, the competition season was shorter. The long format three day was the pinnacle of the season. You worked up to it, and then your horse had a vacation on the off season. Now, with short format and more three days, you can run many FEI events in one season. Furthermore, there isn't really an off season anymore. You can travel all over the country and find an event at almost any time of year.

Getting horses fit and ready to run is hard work. Smellie only has a six or seven hour work week, but those can be some hard hours. There's lots of drilling and lots of galloping and lots of jumping.

One night this week we just wandered and watched as a pretty spectacular double rainbow appear over Redbud Farm. Sometimes you just have to stop and smell the flowers!

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Un-Fair Hill?

I was so looking forward to putting my mistake at the AECs behind me and proving to myself that we were ready for our first CCI2 at Fair Hill. I didn't get the chance.

Most people know what happened to us, especially since there was an article in the Chronicle of the Horse and it appeared all over Eventing Nation.

For the most part, people were very supportive. There were the few that tut tutted me and Betsy. We got a few like, 'shame on that owner for trying to run a lame horse' or 'if the vet said the horse wasn't fit to run, the owner should not run the horse'. I would never run Smellie had I thought he wasn't right. I have scratched him from events because I have been worried about his best interest.

In this case, I truly believe he was fine. He was going better than he ever has. He was fit and ready to run. Here's how our first Fair Hill adventure went:

We arrived at Fair Hill on Monday and Elliot was in great form despite the long trip north and the extra couple days hanging at Heidi's Hanoverian Inspection over the weekend. We hacked on Monday after arriving, and took a flat lesson with Leslie Law on Tuesday. Elliot was phenomenal. Leslie said he was moving and working much better than he was even a month before at the AECs. We worked for about an hour pretty hard.

Wednesday morning I went for a long hack before the job and he felt good. Dougie Hannum worked on Smellie in the morning and said his body felt great! He didn't even have anything to adjust. In the jog Elliot was very slow to move off away from the other horses and also the ground jury. So I was essentially dragging him down the jog strip. He was held along with a how slew of other horses.

This is where things went bad. The vet in the hold box palpated his legs and then flexed Elliot's left hind as if he were performing a pre-purchase exam. Since I was trotting I couldn't really see what was happening but I basically knew he trotted off positive to the flexion. The vet in the box told me that the joint itself looked good and he wasn't tender to palpation, but that Elliot was very lame and that I should just 'go home'. Betsy and Dougie were standing outside the holding area. We were all totally caught off guard and since no one knew quite what to do in this situation, I withdrew.

It was not until I got back to the barn that I found out those types of 'active' flexion tests are illegal in the hold area. The vet is allowed to flex for range of motion and palpate for tenderness, but actively flexing and trotting off is explicitly illegal.

And in all honesty, how many of the horses competing at that level could have flexed positive in that situation? I would hazard a guess that most would flex positive to some degree. I am especially suspicious of this considering all 6 of the horses illegally flexed in the holding area by the same veterinarian all reacted positive. Any horse, if flexed firmly enough will give a positive reaction (see the Behind the Bit blog post summarizing studies concerning the reliability of flexion tests). Since the vet didn't look at Elliot trot on a circle or flex the other leg or even see him trot on a straight away before flexing him, I question the validity of this exam.

Upon finding out that procedure in the hold area was illegal, I spoke with the show office and tried to get in touch with the TD and the President of the Ground Jury in order to make a formal inquiry. After over an hour of waiting, the TD called me on the phone and essentially said there was nothing he could do because I withdrew from the competition despite anything the vet did or said, illegal or not. He also said, that the head vet knew there was something illegal happening in the holding area and she had addressed it. What he didn't say was that it's was a bit of a catch 22 though; if I had represented against the suggestion of the holding box vet, I might have been eliminated or worse yellow carded like one of the kids at young riders this year. And would Elliot have looked okay after being flexed so hard? I don't really know.

We packed up and left early the next morning for home.

We got home Friday night and first thing Monday morning we took Smellie into the vet for a full lameness exam. Dr. Cate Mochal found nothing behind. He did not flex positive to stifle flexions and he was only mildly positive to the hock and fetlock flexions. She said his reaction was so slight, she would not even recommend hock injections.

So, we were all very disappointed. Elliot and I did not get the chance to show off what we had been preparing for all year. We lost a lot of money, but worse we lost a lot of time. I still need a CCI2 in order to run a CCI3 and there isn't another CCI2 until much later in the fall. This sets our progress back. We can still move up to advanced in Florida, but we will have to go back an collect that pesky CCI2 mid-season.

I know the vet was doing what he thought was best. I understand and appreciate that he did not want anyone, equine or human, to get hurt. What upsets me is that if I had broken an FEI rule, I would have been fined and suspended from competition. What happens to him? As far as I know, nothing. He even said he would flex horses again given the opportunity. Maybe the system is broken. I don't know. I have not given an alternative much careful though. However, I do know until the rule officially changes, what this vet did was wrong and it shouldn't happen.

My bad for not knowing the rules. Expensive lesson and a major MAJOR bummer. Hope next time will be better.

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Bad Call

Seems as though time has gotten away from me. Fall has flown by. I cannot believe we are already on the way to Fair Hill. I can't tell sometimes if the feeling in my stomach is excitement or terror. It's a toss up; either one seems appropriate at any certain time.

A couple weeks ago weeks ago we took off to Texas (my first time in the Lone Star State) to go to a clinic with Leslie Law and then head to Texas Rose Horse Park for their first American Eventing Championships.

The clinic was spectacular! Leslie had a lot of great insights into Elliot. He got me working Elliot over his back in a way I haven't felt before. I am very excited at the opportunity to work with him again while in Florida this winter.

The AEC didn't go as well as I would have hoped. It wasn't a disaster by any means, but it revealed some holes and I was a little let down after the high of the clinic the week before.

Dressage was respectable. We scored under 40 in a very stiff field. The comments were more or less what I expected to see. We need more bend in the lateral work, there's some tension in the walk, and the canter-walk transitions are often abrupt and/or on the forehand.

The cross country course was solid. Just what I wanted before Fair Hill. The first five fences were small and straightforward. Fence six was the first combination on course and the first serious question. It was a hefty table, six strides (if ridden direct) to a narrow, right pointed corner. From that point, there were a series of very good questions including big angled roll tops, two water complexes (the first a barn-bank out-one stride-skinny and the second big brush-drop in-bending line-tall, wide skinny out), and another corner combination that mirrored the first but this time with a tall but wide chevron in. The course eased you in, tested your mettle, and then let you down.

I felt pretty confident walking the course. I knew the first combination was going to be a very good test. It was the first combination on course and right corners can be tough as we struggle with right drift. On the first walk, it seemed obvious to jump the right hand side of the table and put a little bend back to the corner. On each successive walk, my line got straighter and straighter. It turned out to be a bad call. I made a tough question tougher than it needed to be and also something we weren't quite ready to do. When I got to it on course, he jumped the table well and I rode my plan. I'm not sure whether he misunderstood the question, or if the right drift caught up to up or if we just weren't settled at that point on course (as he was breathing fire on that particular day), but regardless, we had a blow by. Then I let myself get frazzled and didn't collect myself or him enough for the second attempt resulting in another blow by. At that point we picked off the option, which was a left pointed corner, and went on. The rest of the course rode well. I hit a flag with my left knee on the second corner combination but he went. All the other combinations rode great.

After the trouble on XC, I was really hoping for a clean show jumping round to end the weekend on a high note. It was not meant to be. Elliot actually jumped quite well, and my eye was on, but instead of a 12' stride I was on something like a 14' stride, which meant we jumped a little flat. He just breathed on a few of them and they fell.

We got up into the triple digits, but we finished!

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what's in a name?

Many people ask me where he got the name L.E. Font. Most assume it's something fancy. Maybe it relates to the breeder like RF 'so and so' or our very own Calysta MWF?

No. It's mostly meant as an inside joke and references Smellie's formative years.

Elliot was not a naturally brave horse. He was skittish as a baby and a couple incidences over fences made him certain the world, and particularly the jumps, were out to get him.

It started at one of his first events when a dirt bike backfired at the the show jump in gate as Elliot was coming around to finish. For lack of a better word, it scared the poop out of him.

Next came the jumping at night episode a couple weeks later. It probably goes without saying, but I want it on record that it is never a good idea to jump horses in the dark without lights, even over the bright white rails. Elliot ended up galloping back to the barn with a flower box bracelet. After that, he wouldn't go anywhere near a jump or a pole or a standard for a long time.

Betsy likes to tell stories about jumping Elliot at Redbud and spending hours running through small verticals or putting eight very squirrely strides in a three. She finally got him to get near the jumps by putting a pole in his stall so that he had to walk over is to get his food.

Even at our first event, he wouldn't go near most of the cross country jumps and I thought, what have I gotten myself into?!

Basically, the name came from Elliot never forgetting what's happened in the past. 'Elephant' didn't seem appropriate since I don't think of elephants as particularly light on their feet or cat-like, though they do have a certain majesty and grace about them. L.E. Font, however, somehow seemed to fit.

This personality now works to my advantage. Once he realized jumping was fun he was ALL about it. Furthermore, you only have to show him a question once and like an elephant, he never forgets!

So when you hear his name announced, it's okay to chuckle. Neither Elliot nor I take ourselves too seriously. We're just doing what we know and finally having fun!

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Unbelievable

I just realized that it's only been a year since Smellie ran his first event after the colic surgery. I missed the one year mark of his surgery. It seems so long ago now.

I remember that day so vividly. Betsy and I went to the farm and Smellie looked fine. He was out in the paddock with Warren. Head down. Grazing away. Within 15 minutes I couldn't keep him on his feet. I don't know why we had the client's trailer hooked up, but we did. I rode in the back with Elliot while Betsy drove. I had to hit him with the dressage whip to keep him up. We got to the vet school which was thankfully only 5 minutes down the road. I could hear Betsy arguing with the intercom about opening the gate. I assume they were asking for a gate pass, but all I heard was Betsy say 'I have a very sick horse in the back. I don't have time for this. Either you open the gate, or I'm ramming it.' Off we rolled. When we got him off the trailer, they did a bunch of tests. They couldn't keep him comfortable even with some pretty serious sedation every 15 minutes. I don't really know what happened, but I was in the trailer's living quarters and I remember Betsy walking in and saying 'I told them to cut him'. I'm glad she was there. I was a total wreck.

He spent four hours on the table. Betsy and I watched the entire time. At that point I had cried as much as I could and it all seemed so surreal anyway. I remember poor Dr. Mochal up to her elbows in Elliot for hours. I remember her looking for something as she was closing him up. We joked at the time that she was worried she might have have lost a tool inside Smellie. Turns out she was, but she didn't. He wouldn't be here without Dr. Cate Mochal and her team. I cannot thank them enough.

After six months of recovering, we did the novice at Poplar Place in June 2012. Smellie was so naughty! He was wound for sound in the dressage and scored a forty something. Worse even, he ran backwards from the show jumps from way out. Like WAY out. We racked up 12 time faults in the show jumping despite not having any jump penalties. When he did get there, he was running away with me and ran past the distances and jumped poorly.

It's a little less than 15 months later and Elliot is running Intermediate successfully. He scores mid 30s to low 40s in the dressage. He's jumping the snot out of the fences and well. He's qualified for the CCI2 at Fairhill in the fall, and he is just so much fun! I cannot believe it.

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Mostly I Just Admire Elliot

I don't always order photos from the events, though I definitely enjoy looking at the pictures over and over and over. And then one more time for good measure. I like to scrutinize my position and see how I can improve, but mostly I like to admire Elliot. I'm still so blown away with him every day.

Brant Gamma was the photographer at Millbrook. She took some fabulous pictures! I couldn't help but get these two. Smellie makes it look pretty easy.

Yes. I am still crazy horse obsessed. Guess some girls just don't grown out of that stage. I'm okay with it.

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On Top of the World

There is a song by Imagine Dragons called 'On top of the World' that pretty much describes my outlook at the moment. The refrain goes like this:

...
I'm on top of the world, 'ay
'Waiting for this for a while now,
Paying my dues to the dirt
I've been waiting to smile, 'ay
Been holding it in for awhile, 'ay
Take it with me if I can,
Been dreaming of this since a child
I'm on top of the world
...
We've been up in MA for exactly a month today, and it has been quite a trip. Poor Betsy fell off and broke her tail bone day three of our trip so I know she has been feeling a little low and frustrated, but Smellie and I have made great progress in this short time!

We have had a chance to work with Stephie Baer and Bobby Costello. We've done some great galloping on the terrain up here. We've had some good competition, ran around some super courses, and generally got more education and confidence. These are all the things you hope to get from a training session!

Millbrook was the culmination of it all, and Smellie was a star! I'm happy to say we are not officially qualified for the CCI2 at Fair Hill! This was the ultimate goal. We came, we saw, we conquered!

Dressage went well. Elliot was very rideable. The lateral work and counter canters are getting much stronger. I, in what seems to be becoming a habit, forgot the last movement in the test thus incurring an error. Even still, we finished with an even 40. It would have been nice to have another intermediate test in the 30s (I think I calculated it being a 39.something without the error), but serves me right for being kind of casual about learning the test. Need more practice in the large arena. Must set on up at home!

Cross country was glorious. I'm very glad we got the chance to run around another big course, especially on with a lot of terrain. We don't have many hills down south so it's good education to play up here. The intermediate course was actually causing significant trouble. The water in particular caught out a number of combinations. It was a brush log/drop in, six strides to a narrow/low beaver, two strides to a big brushed out chevron. If you didn't jump in pretty much lined up the chevron and pushing for the out, it was easy to glance off and there wasn't really a good way to get back at it, nor was there an option. I was lucky Elliot is as honest as he is because I jumped in a little too settled and he had to reach for the chevron to make it work.


The course had some other good questions too: a big, right pointed corner turning to a log, a proper coffin, and a serious slide that made me stomach drop every time I came to the edge of it on foot. The pictures do not do it justice. Think Man From Snowy River.

Elliot ran around like it was a pony trials. I still feel like we're new to the level, but I he's actually pretty educated now with four intermediates and a CIC2 under his belt.

Show jump, which is often my difficult phase, was great! I had a super warm up, and went into the ring with a lot of confidence. I had two rails because I was a little slow with rebalancing at the end of the course, but I am still extremely happy. Elliot jumped the snot out of everything, and I rode instead of just leaving it up to chance!

Bobby Costello came up to me after my round and said that Elliot was spectacular and if I can just chill out in there I would never had a rail. He's right. Elliot didn't have any rails. They were all mine. Still, I'm flattered. Bobby didn't have to say that and he certainly wasn't handing out compliments to some of the other riders he watched.

I cannot believe the month has gone by so quickly. I'm sad to be heading back to Mississippi, though it will be nice to be home and see everyone we've been missing down there. And of course there won't be much time for being sad. The next couple months are going to be full of preparing for AECs and Fair Hills. Bring it on!

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Thank you Stephie

For those of you who really know Stephie Baer, you know that she is kind, generous, a tremendously hard worker, and a phenomenal horse woman, rider, and teacher. I have been very lucky to work closely with Stephie for many years. I'm not sure she has any idea what an impact she has had on me both in the riding and my life, and I'm also not sure I can ever thank her enough for all that she has done for me.

The past few weeks has been no different.

Stephie is a busy lady. Before we even came up she was working her butt off, but she still made teaching me and Elliot a priority. If you ask her, she will tell you that she did not do as much as she would have liked and that she wasn't much help at all. Those of you who know Stephie can probably picture her response in a typical self deprecating, Stephie manner; you will also know not to listen to her.

It has been Smellie and Jessie boot camp. Stephie has worked hard on the details of my flat work. We're getting more bend through the shoulder-in and haunches-in, more suppleness and balance through the counter canter, more push through the lengthens, and in general more bounce per ounce! You cannot fix it all in one month, but I have much better insight into how Elliot should be going and how to get him there.

As I've mentioned, show jumping is a difficult phase for me. It is not because my horse isn't careful or I do not have feel or I don't know how to ride (though sometimes you may here me say that in a low moment). It is a mental block. I panic so to speak.

Stephie has been very patient with me. She made me jump some big courses (even in the pouring rain) and stuck with me despite some minor melt downs. It goes beyond drilling the riding part. She understands my own brain and helps me work through the mental portion as well.

I can say with great confidence, her hard work paid off!

At Millbrook, I found myself half halting and re-balancing with my leg and seat and then riding up to the base of the jumps to Elliot can show everyone how spectacular he really is. I felt good about going into the show jump ring for the first time in a long time. I was on fire, and despite two rails, due to a minor relapse into passenger status, I had a beautiful, well ridden round (good enough even for Bobby Costello to even come over an compliment me).

Just like the flat, it's not something that can get fixed in a month. Perhaps if I stayed for another six we could get every wrinkle ironed out or at least worked on. However, I have to head back south again. Life doesn't stop just because I finally feel like I'm making progress, but I feel rejuvenated. I'm out of the rut that sometimes happens when you work in your own small world for too long. I have a plan and a better understanding of what I should be striving to feel.

I guess this is all to say thank you Stephie Baer. Everyone in Area I should take advantage of having Stephie in their back yard. She is truly on of the greats of this sport (despite what she has may say about it). I don't know where I'd be without her!

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