United States Eventing Association

These past few weeks have flown by as Ollie and I prepare for our first Preliminary outing at Loudoun HT and prep for the AEC. So what’s new?

The latest and greatest discovery is that Ollie loves to swim. Not in a fancy swim-center but in a good, old-fashioned pond. I have become an expert at grabbing mane and my father now refers to Ollie as “Das Boot” (which is a really excellent movie if you haven’t seen it).

My coach, Sharon White, is in England showing the Brits how to event wearing only orange clothing (She is handily missing my FREAKING OUT sessions and returns after the AEC, when I will also return to sanity. Planned in advance? Maybe.) so Ollie and I have been bumming around at clinics and with other instructors who have to listen to me FREAKING OUT about going Prelim. The bright side is that I haven’t had time to stress about the AEC. My mantra right now is “not getting around Prelim is better than not getting around Novice.” Positive huh? I need to change it to, “Numbers, not letters!”

Ollie and I were demo riders in a Brian Sabo clinic for the USEA. Last night we got a XC lesson from Boyd who mistook me for a 7-month pregnant friend. I know the air vests add some bulk, but 7-months of baby bulk??? Ok, he did say that I looked really good…. for being pregnant (which I’m not!). Thankfully, the lesson got better from there.

Before Sharon left she had a fundraising Derby (a combination of SJ and XC) at her farm. Ollie was great with the twisty complicated course. He had to think really hard so he bugged his eyes out a lot, but he survived! Last weekend we went to a Preliminary combined test and finished 4^th. Go Ollie!