SNOW IN GA?!?!

Who would have guessed that it would have snowed in Georgia....well I will be the first to tell you that Georgia was not the first to think so! When listening to the radio or the news you would have thought that the world was ending! Marley, Jaclyn, and I all drive down on Friday and as we were driving down we started to drive into the snow. Finally when we got to the hotel we found ourselves in approx. 3 inches of snow...that's right the white, cold, powdery stuff, snow....it was nuts. The next morning we got up and it looked like a ghost town in Thompson GA. Not a soul was on the road!! The girls and I went to the barn and took care of the horses, as you can see did a bit of photo shooting and had some fun, and then we did what any normal horse person would do on a snow day, went to the one and only wally world!! That's right , Wal-mart. I love Wal-mart...you can walk in and only buy beer, duct tape, and a 41 ounce bag of skittles without getting an odd look from the cashier...awesome!

The crew at Pine Top was amazing. They did everything just right. From what it sounds like they should go work for the Department of Transportation in some of those snow covered states! Dressage took place Saturday afternoon and Show Jumping and XC was Sunday. Vaunted's dressage was good but could always be better. I botched his walk a bit so he got 2 bad scores on that because of me. However he ended up in the top ten after dressage and there were allot of Advanced horses in the division so we were in good company. He was impeccable on XC and was one of only a few to make time. I was not even pushing him but he is so fast to get across the ground and on landing. We still have our Show Jumping demons together. I let my upper body get ahead just a bit on the last stride before the jump this time so I was not able to help him as much as he needed on the take off. I know that I have a steady grasp on 2 of the 3 phases so now it is time to put my head into the think tank and focus!! It is definitely "GO TIME" at this point. I want to make every second of training count.

I was lucky enough to take a lesson with Lucinda Fredricks the Thursday before Pine Top. A special thanks to Holly Payne for getting these eventing greats over to these parts! Holly and "Baby" loved working with the Fredricks when she was over across the pond last year and I can see why after just one lesson. Lucinda first off lengthened my stirrups about 4 holes and said keep them there. She was direct and to the point and I love that. She gave me allot to work on and she did not just give me a lecture. What I mean by this is that she not only said, this is what you are lacking, but she said this is how I know and what you need to do to help it.

She told me that Vaunted did not have enough power off the ground and that his right drift is one of the causes of that. I tend to let Vaughn drift off to the right on take off and therefore allow his power to trail off. Lucinda was very specific about what she wanted and did not let me get away with anything less than what she wanted! I loved it. I am going to try to continue working on what she was getting me to do, which was actually more defined in Vaunted's warm up. This included getting a stronger step and more ground covering step.

The next step for Vaunted is the Advanced at Pine Top again...without snow please! Take a look at all these pictures from Pine Top...snow, snow, snow....uhgg! Thanks again to all that made Pine Top happen.