Rocking Horse II

  Rocking Horse II was this past weekend. Wexford was doing Preliminary and Galway was doing the Advanced. Friday was Dressage and Show Jumping for the upper levels. Saturday was cross country day for Training up through Advanced.
  Wexford was first to go out of my two horses on Friday. He had one of his best test in all of our time competing together. For show jumping we had an unfortunate rail but he jump great everywhere else. On Saturday, Wexford finished up cross country with a double clear to get 7th place! He was super!

  The time had come for me to do Dressage on Galway. We were feeling very relaxed going into our test. While warming up he was being a bit sluggish in his work. I did not think much about it and just kept pushing him forward. He had a nice consistent test for our first Advanced. After taking care of him and putting him back in his stall to rest. We went and had lunch. I went back to check on him and get him ready to show jump, when I found him flat out laying down. I first thought it was cute but realized after checking his temperature he was boiling hot. Hmm... that is definitely not normal! I quickly proceed to go hose him down to get his temperature down and realized he is showing signs of colic. My heart drops and I immidately go get my mom so she can find the vet on grounds. While I continue to cool him out and walk him.
  When the vet had come he said his vitals and heart rate were fine. By that point he had cooled down quite a bit. The vet gave us the go ahead to jump him. We proceed to go up to show jumping with the intentions of  not jumping him if he does not feel good! Galway jumped a super round and had an unfortunate rail. Finishing our round we planned on giving him fluids and oil his stomach to help make him more comfortable.
  Before late night check, I went to go check on him to make sure he was doing ok. Galway still was not feeling good. So we decided to call the vet out again to have her look at him and decide on what to do next. Around twelve o'clock we decided to take him up to Ocala and have the vets at Peterson and Smith equine hopsital work with him. The doctors at P&S were very helpful and made us feel at ease.
  We are pleased to say that Galway did not need surgery and he came home Monday afternoon! :)
Thank you to everyone for your prayers and conserns! The eventing community is definitely the best there is! :)
  If both horses continue to stay healthy. We will do Rocking Horse III and then head back home after the event to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 Until next time! Go Eventing!

    

Rocking Horse Winter I recap

The weekend started out with nice warm weather. By early Friday morning it was raining very hard. It continued to rain all day off and on. The rain helped the footing a great deal.
Carlingford's Forever (Galway) was in the Open Intermediate-A division and Wexford's Trumpet (Wexford) was in the Open Training-A division.
Galway had dressage and show jumping on Friday and Wexford just had dressage on Friday.
Galway had a nice test, he scored a 39.6 and was tied for 7th going into show jumping. Galway jumped a great double clear show jumping round and that moved him up to 5th. Cross country was Saturday for the upper levels and half of the training divisions. Galway jumped a super double clear cross country round and came in two seconds under optimum time. Wow! Galway finished the weekend in 2nd place behind Buck Davidson and Absolute Liberty. What a great start to the season.
Wexford had a nice test for his first outing. He had a score of 38.6 going into show jumping on Saturday. Show jumping and cross country for Wexford were in a forty minute spand between each other. So I had Wexford and I ready in our cross country gear for show jumping. As the day progressed more and more people were starting to do the same. Wexford had a great double clear show jumping and cross country round. He was tied going into cross country and we won the tie. Wexford finished the weekend in 13th. Everyone had a great weekend. Congrats to everyone! I am so incredibly happy and excited with how well my boys are progressing! Next show for us is Rocking Horse II. Galway will run Advance and Wexford will run preliminary. We will continue to fine tune everything with both boys for the next event. Thanks for reading! From sunny warm Altoona Florida we wish you a great week. :) Go Eventing!

2012 is already underway

We attended the Area V awards banquet this past weekend and had a great time.
Galway and I received awards for Champion Intermediate Rider, Champion Intermediate Horse and Area V’s Young Rider High Point Champion for Intermediate. Both of our CCI*CH and CCI**CH teams from young riders this year were acknowledged for our achievements this summer. Julie Lawther graciously painted team portraits for each rider and groom. Julie did such an amazing job! She truly has a special talent. Thank you for spending your time and sharing your talent for us.
I would like to Congratulate everyone on such an amazing year. Good Luck in 2012!

We currently have six days left before we leave for Altoona, Florida for seven weeks.
Packing for a long period of time is a daunting task, especially when you are packing most of your house, all your tack and equipment and most importantly your horses. I have started with a long list so I do not forget anything and fortunately the list is getting smaller! Yay!
From Tulsa, Oklahoma to Altoona, Florida is an eighteen hour haul and that is not including your stops.
We plan on laying over once in Alabama to break the trip up. It will be a much more pleasant trip with our new rig. In previous years my dad would drive our forty foot RV and my mom and I would drive our four horse head to head trailer. My dad generously purchased a four horse reverse slant horse trailer that has living quarters. We are so excited! Unfortunately, my truck was not built to pull such a heavy trailer. So, we found a truck that would pull it nicely.
Wexford and Galway are fit and ready for their first show at Rocking Horse January 27.
Galway will start out at Intermediate and Wexford will do training at the first two shows before he moves back up.
Galway and I are moving up to Advanced at Rocking Horse II. We feel good about the move up and are ready to start a new journey in our eventing career.

At home I have been training Galway with his half pass, flying changes and fine tuning everything.
I am so grateful to have a horse like Galway. He is easy to train and very teachable. Wexford is feeling great. It will be fun to have him back showing along side Galway again.
I really have missed showing my other partner in crime. Lol.

We really are looking forward to be back at Rocking Horse Stables again! It is such an incredible facility.
One of my favorite events. I feel like it is my third home : )

Stay warm and safe travels to everyone. God Bless! Thank you for reading.

Talk to you soon!

Greenwood Championships update

Galway and I signed up for the Intermediate Championships at Greenwood.
The week of Greenwood we were down at Gold Chip for some lessons before the event.
The day we were leaving for Greenwood, my mom went to get gas for our generator. During the drive to get fuel, our truck's reduce engine power light went on. UH OH! My mom quickly took it to the Chevy dealership to get it checked out. Come to find out the truck engine was not working well enough to pull our trailer. Fortunately, Mike had planned to leave for Greenwood around 3pm on Thursday. After talking to Mike and my mom, I quickly unloaded all my tack and equipment from my trailer and loaded it onto Mike's trailer. Thank you Mike for hauling Galway for us! Such a life saver :) With the hot temps quickly reaching 100, we finally arrived and unpacked at Greenwood.

Friday was Dressage for Intermediate, Preliminary, and most of the Training divisions.
Galway had a nice test with only a couple bobbles and room for improvement.

Saturday was Cross Country and the footing was so nice. Marvin did such an incredible job aerating all the cross country courses! Thank you so much. Galway had a great XC round. After XC we were still tied with Maggie. Funny enough, we came in at the same time and had the same time faults! When does that happen? So, we were still tied going into Show Jumping.

Sunday was Show Jumping. The course was laid out in a open field on grass. Which made some of the bending lines and turns more difficult.
Galway jumped so incredibly well and in the triple combination, he barely rubbed the oxer rail and it came down.
I was very happy with him. Galway and I finished 3^rd.

We made it back home to Gold Chip Sunday afternoon.
Our truck was ready to be picked up Monday morning. After they had to reset the engine, we were ready to get back on the road and head home to Tulsa.

Galway had a couple days off to rest up from the weekend. Saturday and Sunday morning we had a dressage lesson with Mary D’Arcy and it went great. It’s always so nice to get another input on your horse.

Preparing for Holly Hill Horse Trial in three weeks. Then we are on to Texas Rose Horse Park in November.

Kick on and Go EVENTING!

Wexford's Trumpet

I have been dealing with Mr. Wexford's soundness issues.  Before we went down to Florida last winter, Wexford had some down time to reset and recharge his mind.  When the time came to start preparing him for the shows, Wexford was happy and glad to be back in work.  Wexford started out doing training for the first couple of shows, then I bumped him up to Prelim once again.  He was definitely liking the prelim dressage tests, versus just going in circles in the training test.  It challenged him and made him think more.  The sand footing down in Florida is great for cross country!  Always soft.  On occasion it can get too deep, but when it rains, within an hour or two it has already soaked through!  Completely different from Oklahoma.  Wexford was doing well at Prelim.  When we came back to Tulsa mid March, both horses had about a week off to regroup and hang out before the next event.  Our first show back, was Holly Hill Farms H.T. in Benton, Louisiana.  It was the second weekend in April.  Galway did Intermediate and won his division and Wexford did Preliminary and finished 3rd in his division.  On XC, Wexford had a second look and tried to put in another stride at part A of the sunken road, which made the distance way too short. He scrambled across it and I lost my reins for a moment.  Fortunately, it was a two stride, so I had time to grab my reins. Two quick smacks with my whip and we finished the rest of the course with a double clear.  When I got him back to the barn, I noticed he smacked his knee cap pretty hard and there wasn't any hair there.  Thankfully,  it was a national class, so I was able to give him some bute for the swelling.  Sunday began with Show Jumping.   He was stiff in warm up, but worked through it to jump a double clear round!  Great job Wexford! When we got home on Sunday evening, he was stiff coming off the trailer.  I called my vet that week, to inform him what happened.  Since it wasn't getting any better,  I wanted to know how to treat it.  All along I thought it was his knee or shoulder that was bothering him. Multiple X-Rays later, we found he had over stressed his coffin bone. We let him have three months off with no jumping or hard dressage work. To keep up his fitness, I was able to hack and trot on a straight line. Before Young Riders, I received the ok to put him back in work.  He traveled to YR's with Galway, so I could continue riding him. When we came back home from YR's he was doing better.  After a couple days off  from the trip, I rode him and he took a couple of bad steps. Oh Joy!  After many reevaluations from my vet, we figured out a better way of managing his precious little legs!  He has fluid build up above his coronary band.  Yikes, that would hurt!   My vet injected him this morning and will go on Adequan.  Wexford will have the rest of this week off.  Let's pray this helps him! :)   I guess if it has to happen, this is the time for him to recover, so he can be ready for the winter show circuit.

Galway is getting geared up for our Area V Championships down in Weatherford, Texas in four weeks.
Good Luck to everyone in the fall show season and those who are competing at Feather Creek this weekend and AEC's next weekend!

I'll be going  to Feather Creek on Saturday to volunteer and jump judge.
Have a fun, safe, and Happy Labor Day everyone! :) Go Eventing!

NAJYRC 2011 Experience

My parents, horses, and I have now been back from (NAJYRC) young riders for about two weeks. So I thought I would let you know how the ole boy did. We spent the week before at the YR camp down in Bartonville, Texas for training and doing our last gallop. "Boy was it hot!" (112 degrees on a daily basis.) I took my horses home with me to Tulsa, Oklahoma before we made the 16 hour drive to the horse park. The rest of the horses left Gold Chip Stables on Sunday evening and drove through the night. My dad, mom, Mary Frances, Galway, Wexford, my two dogs(Sophie & Switzer), and I left on Sunday morning so we could layover in the southern part of Illinois to break up the long haul. We arrived at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky on Monday so the horses would have some time to recoup from the long trip. Some of the horses did not do well on the trailer with the heat, even though they were traveling at night. Fortunately, Galway and Wexford handled the trip very well :)

Our teams from Area V consisted of, the CCI*CH team, Alyssa Philips on Sundance Bay, Avery Klunick on In It To Win It, Victoria New on Bally Whatnot, Alexa Ehlers on In Any Event, and our Individual rider for the CCI*CH was Taylor Wood on On Eagle’s Wings. Our CCI**CH team included Jacob Fletcher on Falcon Splash, Rowdie Jo Adams on No Money Down, Emma Kate Fisher on Carlingford’s Forever, and we teamed up with Area IX’s rider Kendyl Tracy on Ever So Lucky.

With all the excitement of riding, getting the barn in order and rider meetings, everyone was ready to go look at the cross country courses! With us living in the south, our horses are used to lots of heat, but with the temperatures in Lexington, KY being right at 98 everyday with 85% humidity it was a bit of a struggle for most of the horses and some riders. We all had wonderful grooms, that were nice enough to leave their own families during summer and their horses, to come help their riders out for the week. Alyssa Philips took Ashley Falls for her groom, Alexa Ehlers took Lindsey Ann Westerfield, Victoria New took Julianne Foody, Avery Klunick took Brindley House, Taylor Wood took Lynn Kelly, Rowdie Adams took Spencer Pevahouse, Jacob Fletcher took Elizabeth Crowder, and I took Mary Frances Cargile. A very special thanks to all the grooms. You all worked so incredibly hard for us as individuals and as a team! The whole week would not have gone so smoothly if it wasn’t for you all. : )

Another very special Thank you, is to our Area V coordinator, Diane Pitts, for doing all she does for us. Mike Huber, our amazing coach, for getting us where we are today! Your continuing support, encouragement, knowledge, and willingness to help enabled us to succeed as a team. Our barn manager for the week was Karen Shull. Thanks for helping us organize everything.

The XC courses were finally available to walk. It was a beautiful course designed by David O’Connor.
The names were drawn and our 2* team was picked first. Mike chose Jacob and Splash to go first, Galway and I went out second, Rowdie and Boxer out third, and Kendyl and Meaghan out fourth.

Dressage was on Thursday for the 2* and Friday for the 1*.
Jacob was the first rider in the dressage ring on Thursday AM. Galway and I went at 8:30am so it was still somewhat cool. Galway warmed up wonderfully. I was very happy with him and he had a great test. He was consistent, relaxed, accurate, and listening to me.
I was a little frustrated with the score we were given, considering how well he went and our last event at Chattahoochee Hills CIC** he got a 49.2% We received a 60.7%. Looking at my test that evening I realized they gave me an error for not entering the ring on the allowed time. So, there’s two points! Jacob, Rowdie, and Kendyl put in great tests as well! Our 2* team was in the silver medal position after dressage! Go AREA V! The 1* did their test on Friday, all the ladies put in super tests. The 1* team was in the Gold medal position! Way to Rock it Area V! We had a last tune up jump school for Galway and the rest of the horses on Friday before XC on Saturday, since we had been doing dressage all week. Boy was Galway relieved to jump! The CCI* course time was 6:35 and the CCI** course time was 8:35. Both courses were nice and galloping with the rolling hills of KY and lots of technical questions. I wasn’t able to walk the 1* course but some of it was with the 2* and each level had it’s own difficulty!

On Saturday, we were expecting to get rain. Yay! The rain came as soon as the last rider in the 1* finished. Galway and I went XC at 8:15am, so it was overcast and cool. Galway was brilliant! Absolutely spot on and handled the length of the course great. I still had plenty of horse left at the end. So happy with our clear run. We were 5 seconds over optimum time, because I was careful across the three road paths (concrete driveway with gravel on top to go from one field to the other). Everyone put in fast clear rounds. Our team moved up to the Gold medal position! After having Galway on IV fluids and on his Game Ready, Dr. Newton, our team vet, wanted us to jog the horses up to make sure every horse was ok. Galway jogged up with no problems :) As an extra precautionary, he wanted everyone to give their horse a shot of Adequan to help them feel even better to show jump the next morning. I was extremely skeptical about giving Galway the shot, because, he has never had an injection of any kind for the six years I have owned him. I didn't know if he would have a reaction to it. After long discussion with the vet and Mike, my trainer, we decided it would be best for him in the long run. For the final jog on Sunday, he was feeling so good that when it was our turn to jog for the Ground Jury, he leaped in front of the judges and the Ground Jury said, "Oh! He's clearly feeling good!" :)

Stadium was that afternoon in the Rolex Grand Stadium. In warm up, Galway was jumping Awesome! Galway and I jumped one of our best rounds, with a double clear! Galway and I finished 9th individually. Jacob finished 2^nd with his great clear round, Kendyl finished 8^th and had a great ride with an unfortunate two rails in one of the triple combinations, Rowdie had a great ride with an unfortunate rail falling at the last jump and finishing 4^th. Our team finished with great smiles to claim our silver medals for Area V and IX!

It was incredible to ride in the Main Rolex Arena. Hopefully, one day we will come back and compete in the Rolex CCI****. Until that day, a lot more perseverance, hard work, faith, and an amazing bond with my partner Carlingford’s Forever we can achieve this goal. Galway had a blast galloping in both individual and team victory gallops. Lol.
Alyssa had one of her and Dancer’s best clear rounds to win the CCI*CH,
Avery finished 5^th and had a great round with an unfortunate rail, Alexa finished 10^th and had a great ride with an unfortunate rail, Tori was having a great ride also up until the last combination where she fell off. My heart felt for her. Tori had a good spirit about her and was a great cheer leader to everyone else. Taylor finished with three rails. She was so pleased to have finished her first YR’s.

The 1* team took home the Gold medals for Area V! Congratulations everyone, you all did out standing! The best part of young riders is the team atmosphere and being at the Junior Olympics. What an amazing gift from God that he has given us such amazing animals to work with, be around, love, and for me to call my boys my kids! We know how much it costs to send eight riders, eight horses, eight grooms, and support teams that we would not even get to experience young riders and to compete with all these amazing horses and riders, if it was not for our incredible sponsors!! Thank you all so much for sending us to NAJYRC. We can not even begin to express our gratitude. Thank you again! : )

When we arrived back home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Galway and Wexford were so happy to see their green pasture. It was an outstanding two weeks. Galway has had a very relaxing two weeks off and I am slowly bringing him back into work now. : )

I would like to thank God and my amazing Parents. They have been an incredible support crew for me and I couldn’t do it without their love and support! Thanks to my trainer, Mike Huber, for everything. Thanks to my absolutely BRILLIANT groom, Mary Frances. Galway always looked dashing every time he would step out of his stall. You are the Best! : )

Until next time! Go Eventing!

 -Emma Kate Fisher :)

Mary Frances Cargile and Emma Kate Fisher
with Carlingford's Forever on the first horse inspection.



CCI**CH receiving our Silver Medals as a team.
Kendyl Tracy,Emma Kate Fisher,Rowdie Adams, and Jacob Fletcher



Carlingford's Forever in Show Jumping

Mary Frances, Emma Kate, and Carlingford's Forever
after our Final Horse Inspection

Mary Frances and I at the competitor's party on Saturday night.

Galway and I on cross country



Galway and I galloping to the finish!



Dad and I watching Galway getting his hoofs iced.

Mary Frances, Julianne, and I on Saturday after XC waiting out the thunderstorm!