Back to the show ring we go...

So as many of you know, but I guess not all of you because I have friends asking where I am living these days... I will inform you. As of this moment, I am working outside of Charlottesville, VA working for the amazing Dr. Jeff Beshear and his vet practice, Old Dominion Equine. It has been pretty amazing and I am getting quite good at hooking up the xray machine, jogging horses, and drawing up medications :) Pretty exciting stuff. But in all fairness I am learning a ton and am really enjoying the hands on experience and getting to learn more and more about sport horse performance veterinary care. I am also leasing a small barn with my wonderful friend Coren, and we are finding ourself with 5 chestnuts and a bay... Everyday is a new day when dealing with the redheads, especially the one with spots :)  But Virginia is amazing and I see why it is so perfect to keep horses here. Besides the 100 degree weather and 100% humidity, it is absolutely beautiful and there are plenty of places to hack and gallop complete with hills, which I am not use to coming from the midwest.

I have also gotten to ride with Emily Beshear (Jeff's Wife) and she is simply amazing. I know I am always saying how amazing my lessons are with Jon, Bonnie, and everyone else, but I guess I have just been very lucky to ride with such top quality coaches in my riding career. Emily and I have developed a plan to "reteach" Murphy how to jump and use his back/topline over the fences. If any of you have ever watched him he is pretty darn scopey but also tends to hurl himself over the jumps. We are really forcing the issue that he must stay as supple and soft as possible as I would like to think about doing an advanced horse trials this fall.  So after the last 6 weeks of doing lots of hill work and long and low flat work, Murphy has started jumping again and is a completely different horse. He is pushing and really using his body CORRECTLY over the fence. Emily is pretty brilliant when it comes to her exercises and I am having a blast focusing on reschooling and not worrying about competing. The rest of the summer will be spent doing lots of local jumper shows and some horse trials just to keep working on the whole picture. Today we ventured to Richmond with about four horses to a nice low key jumper show. It was exactly what Murphy needed. By the last round, he jumped absolutely the best he ever has and was pushing and jumping so confidently it was amazing. I think he ended up a two time penalties, otherwise he would have won the class. Next weekend we are going to go to a combined test and then head to Maryland II for their horse trials. 

In other news, I also bought a new pony! Her name is Kail and she is a 7 year old thoroughbred and of course she is red with a white stripe. I guess I am a softy for the chestnuts. She is lovely and I am really excitied for her future. She is going to go to a hunter show tomorrow possibly to just get off the farm and do some low key type events, but she will probably be making her eventing debut in the next couple weeks as well. Lots more information to come on her including lots of pictures and videos. Also check out the sales page, I have a really nice training packer that has done a one star for sale and he is simply amazing and ready to go teach someone through prelminary again.  

Have  a nice 4th and God Bless America!!