Top Notch Eventing

04/04/2024

Magnum is off to Indiana! Thank you Tricia Salontai for allowing so many people to learn from him. I appreciate your generosity in letting him be a lesson horse!
Thank you to CTS Equine Transport for taking another one of our horses when we move across the country! Highly recommend them!
We will miss both Tricia and Magnum and wish them all the best on the next adventure!

03/29/2024

Coral has a turnout buddy! Guessing it’s been at least three years since she went out with someone. Wasn’t sure how her social manners would be. Dakota was great as he basically ignored her 😂 Couldn’t have gone any better

03/25/2024

03/02/2024

Downsizing. This are the items that are easy enough to ship

03/01/2024

Went to Galway to get some xc schooling in with Nola. A productive trip. Thank you Emilee Libby for the help. We worked through some things and it was a productive trip!

02/23/2024

Wouldn’t it be nice if grays stayed that dark?

02/05/2024

We got lucky with the atmospheric rivers. They stopped right before the event and started after!

Nola had a great dressage and stadium. Unfortunately we had an off day on xc. Turns out I grabbed a saddle pad with bad juju 😬 Hopefully I’ll be able to work on it before our next go

Emi and Bunny had their best stadium round to date. Didn’t add any strides! They followed that up with a double clear xc and finished in 6th!

02/03/2024

Cold yet pretty morning to start the event season off!

01/22/2024

Went to Galway for their xc fundraiser last weekend. It ended up being a rainy weekend!
Keaton and Jinx had a great school before the rain started. They were forward and the novice fences looked easy!
I took Coral to school on my own. She was pretty bad on Friday. I wasn’t sure I’d be jumping at all. She settled down for Saturday and I also got a good school in before the rain started
I rode Nola with Tamie Smith and that’s when the rain started! It was a great lesson. Dialing in on some details I need to work on with getting Nola fully in front of the leg. We schooled two of the bigger 1* questions.
The rain continued and a lot decided not to go out on Sunday. Myself included. No one’s shoes are drilled and tapped and I didn’t want someone to get hurt or lose confidence. Slightly regret not going out as I think the footing was better than people made it sound out to be. Better always better safe than sorry. It was also nice to get back before dark! 

01/05/2024

We had our challenges for majority of last year. After tack changes, feed changes, and regular body work I think I’m getting my horse back🤞🏻

12/12/2023

Nola’s xc round minus two jumps

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=EY-0ZZBXxUw32IMr&v=wSWjPdeSqpA&feature=youtu.be

12/05/2023

The professional pictures from Ram Tap

11/19/2023

Two rails down and finished in 7th. Nola is officially a training horse! Stadium is her weaker phase. Will be working on that during the off season. She tried really hard and that’s the important part!

11/18/2023

Nola jumped clear and it felt easy for her!
I was a little worried in warmup as it was raining. I had yet to ride her in rain. Sarah did once and Nola wasn’t a fan. She was tossing her head a lot. Once on course she forgot about it.
She’s become a lot more rideable. Moved up when I asked. Waited when I asked.
Added some time which we lost going down the steep hill. We don’t get a chance to practice on those so I let her take her time and figure it out

11/18/2023

Nola’s dressage

11/17/2023

At Ram Tap for last event of the year. Just me with Nola in the training. Off to a good start with a 25.5 in dressage and I believe my first 10!!! Good girl Nola!

10/25/2023

Nola’s professional pictures from Tucson

10/23/2023

A few of us went down to Tucson last weekend. While on paper might not have looked the best it was a good weekend for all!
Emi had Bunny in the Training. Best stadium round Emi has ridden. Followed up by a good xc round where she worked on getting Bunny to relax and take a breath on the gallop stretches. They finished in third!
Ashley with Glitter in BN. Unfortunately Ashley was sick the week leading into the event and get energy/strength wasn’t really there. Good moments in dressage. Stadium was going really well until the end where Ashley lost all energy. It happens
I had Nola in the Area X Novice Championships. I went in really hoping for top two. Wasn’t in the cards. There was sorting going on by our dressage arena. Not super close but enough she kept getting distracted by the cowboys! When she was focused she is getting a lot better. Overall her stadium also showed lots of improvements with her balance. She did tap the third jump out which stung her. The next two jumps were a little rough resulting in another rail. She then got over it and jumped really well. She also jumped great on xc. I took a wrong path in the chollas and had to backtrack resulting in some time.
We still managed to move up to 4th!
One more event for Nola and I next month. Where I’ll try to not get lost 😂

10/03/2023

Nola at Ram Tap

10/02/2023

Several of us make the trek to Fresno CA for the Ram Tap schooling trials. We all had a great xc school on Friday.
In BN we had Ashley/Glitter, Stephanie/Dexter, and Keaton/Jynx
Keaton and Jynx keep improving. Clear jumping in xc and sj. Jumping better out of stride. Once the forward button gets more consistent on Jynx they will be great.
Ashley and Glitter had a great go for their second time at BN. Confident jumping rounds and finished in 6th!
Stephanie and Dexter also had a good weekend with a steady dressage test and clear jumping rounds. They placed 5th!
Emi/Bunny and myself with Nola were in Training.
Emi and Bunny had one of their better dressage tests. A good xc round. They are getting their confidence back in sj and had a great round minus Emi forgetting a jump. Happens to all of us!
This was Nola’s first full move up to Training. She had a great dressage test. A few things I need to smooth out. Super on xc. Had some expected time faults. Stadium I didn’t give her a good ride to the first jump. That was my rail. She then jumped great. Just tapping out the two stride at the end. Good enough for the win! Not hard to do when it was only Emi and I 😂

09/12/2023

Nola’s xc round.

09/11/2023

A few of us went to Copper Meadows for their clinic and show. We all had a great time!
Keaton/Jynx and Rita/Joey went out with me on Saturday. Keaton and Jynx have really turned a corner. They schooled a good bit of the novice course and did it really well!
Joey was a bit too excited and was giving Rita a harder time. Rita rode well and there will be some tack experimenting.
Ashley/Glitter rode with Taren. I was very proud watching them. Ashley has been working really hard. It’s starting to pay off and they bumped up to schooling BN!
Nola/myself also stepped it up and rode with Taren with the training group. Nola was awesome. I had an easier time riding her to bigger jumps. It’s starting to get fun again!
For the show Keaton/Jynx had a lovely clear sj round at BN. Thought I videod it but I guess not. They did a hybrid of Novice/BN on xc. Jynx was getting tired at that point. Still jumping well and out of stride.
Ashley/Glitter made the move up to BN. She did all three phases for placing and won!! So happy for those two
I did a sj round at novice and training with Nola. She had one rail at novice and wasn’t going to touch anything after that. Clear in the training round! I figured I would start going training on xc and switch to novice if needed. Not needed! She was fantastic. Several questions she hasn’t seen before and handled it like a pro!!
Thank you Taren and Copper Meadows Eventing for putting on a great weekend.

08/31/2023

Part of Nola’s xc at Shepherds

08/28/2023

More from stadium

08/27/2023

Nola was great today. Clear in stadium, clear jumping xc with a little time. We did the normal east thing with stadium straight to xc. She thought that was tiring 😂 Took us a few jumps on xc to get into a groove. I’m not used to her being that quiet and I wasn’t adjusting quickly enough. Once I got it together she was great.
It’s going to be a bit learn as I go for getting them fit out here. In Virginia I didn’t do fitness work until prelim. Even then it was pretty light. But the horses lived out on hills in huge fields. That did a lot for getting them fit.
Nola ended in 5th!
Ashley and Glitter had a lovely clear stadium round to end out there weekend. Glitter is officially an event horse now!
I like this event. Only place out here to run on grass. Ground was perfect. Loved all the courses. We will be back!
More pictures and videos tomorrow

08/27/2023

At Shepherds Ranch for the first time. Ashley has always pushed for us to go. Once maps finally showed me a way to get there without going through L.A. I was in!
I have Sarah Gross’s Nola in the novice. We did dressage today. She has gotten so much steadier and stronger in her topline. Our score didn’t reflect that as I messed up one of the trot diagonals. Went long instead of short. Judge gave us a low score for that plus the error. Still got a 30. Sarah and I were happy with how she went.
Ashley has her mare Glitter Bright for Glitter’s first event. They had a great dressage test. Beat they can do at this stage. Steady and accurate. They also did xc. Super round for both of them. I was proud of how Ashley rode.
Good start to the event!

08/10/2023

Don’t know who opened the gate but apparently Coral and the cow wanted to hang out together