Moving Forward in 2014

So you may have noticed its been all quiet on the O'Shea Eventing front for the last several months-- since July of last year! Well, the reason for that is both very simple and very complicated. Simply put, I went back to school last August. I am pursuing my MBA in Supply Chain Management at the Wisconsin School of Business. Its been a lot of work, and for the first time in my life, I prioritized something ahead of riding.

I decided to make this move for a lot of reasons, but they can be boiled down to one fundamental truth: I want to have the financial stability to compete my horses as far as they are able to go, with the ultimate, lifelong goal being to compete at Rolex.

Zahra as a 5 year old, killing it at Training Level

There's a lot of information packed into that truth. Owning horses is expensive. It's not any more expensive than having kids, but they do require a lot of your resources, both time and money. The primary way talented riders try to make it work financially is to go the professional equestrian route: teaching lessons, training other people's horses, pursuing sponsorships. However, what I found was that until you "make it," this route leaves very little time for your own horse (if you can even afford to own your own horse, and you're not just hopping from one client horse to another). I believe in the horses I have. They are both phenomenally talented, with all the scope and potential an adult amateur could hope for! I want to be able to give them my undivided attention.

Additionally, most serious riding accidents occur when on these training horses. Some times its because they were sent to you because they were dangerous, or because they are just getting started under saddle and they just don't know any better. Other times its because there is pressure to get a horse sold, so you move it up the ranks too quickly, and inevitably the holes you left in your training catch up to you.

So, my decision was to prioritize my career in order to better the equine situation. I'm looking for a job where I can have an interesting, successful career and simultaneously, separately, hone my skills with Zahra and Puck. This summer, I will be going to San Jose for an internship with a prominent tech company. Zahra and Puck will stay in the Midwest so I can focus on learning, but they will be in training with a local dressage trainer whom I respect. I'm looking forward to coming home to two finely tuned dressage ponies! But it won't be a completely horseless summer! There is a prominent 3 day event trainer in the Bay area that I've already reached out to in order to get to know him and his program. If San Jose turns in to a full time gig, I would want him as my trainer! And no matter where I end up in May of 2015, there are two and only two criteria for accepting a full time job:

South Farm 2013

1.) Is the job a good job? Does it make sense for my goals and interests?
2.) Is the area a good eventing area? Are there stables, trainers, and shows in the area?

So, its going to continue to be slow here at OE, with only a couple of shows this fall, but there is some VERY exciting stuff coming in the mid-term future.

Happy Birthday Puck!!

Puck is 3 years old today!! He's been super so far in his training. Walk, trot, canter, turn left, turn right, halt... all mastered!! For now, that's all he needs! Now if only spring would come and we could start hitting the trails!!

3 years ago today

For more photos, go here.

So it begins....

I have begun work on Mr. Puck in earnest now. For a while now I have been saddling him up and sitting on him, but I couldn't have gone anywhere even if I'd wanted to-- he had no "go" button installed yet! So we've worked in the round pen on verbal cues, in hand on pressure cues, and most recently, I began long lining him!

I've been the young horse crash test dummy for many years, but with my own Puck, I had to begin training the next generation, since I could not be in two places at once! Haley has been my able bodied assistant, first laying across him like a sack of potatoes while I walked him, then sitting up and going for a little pony ride. He has handled everything like a champ, so this weekend Haley and I let him do his first T-R-O-T!!

He was beautifully relaxed and uphill, no thought of naughtiness at all. His brakes are still a little questionable, but that, like the steering, will come. I can't ask for a better head on his shoulders!

We've gone at a snail's pace with Puck, making sure he was completely at ease with each new task before beginning the next, and it shows in how confidently he faces each new task, and how much he looks to me for support when he is unsure. It is such an amazing feeling, finally starting my own horse, and being able to do it completely my own way!

Next up, free jumping??

Puck as a yearling.
Photo (c) Shorthorse Studios

Love, Joy, or Both?

Sgilti at Otter Creek Intermediate.
Image (c)Xpress Foto

Recently, I looked back at Sgilti Lightfoot's (aka Wonderhorse) competition record. I remember our time together as fighting the odds-- a nobody horse and a nobody rider, coming together to take on the world! We defied the odds and defied expectations, and for that, Sgilti won an eternal place in my heart (and guaranteed retirement from my checkbook). But now, a few years and a few horses later when I looked back at the raw numbers, I see a very different picture. Sgilti and I were, quite frankly, not very good. Our dressage was middling, our SJ was not ideal, and even our XC record was littered with the occasional 20 penalties. So, is it naive of me to think of him as the greatest horse ever? Maybe. Or maybe it was this lack of perfection that drove me to keep fighting. Maybe if he'd been perfect, I would have rested on my laurels and "moved on" with life as so many aspiring riders are wont to do.

At the Florida CCI* jog
(c)Xpress Foto

Adam and I started dating at the end of Sgilti's career. He saw me enjoy my last few rides with the old man, then watched me struggle for a year with Wolfn, and now watches Zahra and I, and he said something very insightful the other day (good work for the non-horsey type!!). He said "I like watching you and Zahra, because you work together. It always seemed like you and Wolfn were working against each other. And Sgilti looked like he just did what he was told."


That comment got me thinking about Love and Joy. When you boil it down, those are the reasons I event: Love of my horse, and the Joy of the ride. Maybe its overly simplistic, but I feel like Sgilti competed for Love. He wasn't that good, and maybe it wasn't as much fun for him as I might have liked, but he did his best with his limited abilities to make me happy. He did it for me, and that took us pretty far. I Loved that horse. We worked our way up the eventing ranks together. We probably had no business competing at Intermediate, but he still did it. He gave me all he had, every day, even if it wasn't to be our day.

Oh, Wolfn is over jumping? What else is new?
(c)Xpress Foto

Wolfn, on the other hand, was supremely talented. She enjoyed cross country for the Joy of galloping. I remember the first time out on cross country with her, when I let her open up her stride, and she took it and flew. It was exhilarating! That mare loved to gallop! Everything else-- the jumping, the dressage, trailrides at speeds other than gallop... none of those things were really "her bag." But I got away with making her do this other work because it was so easy for her. It wasn't until I jumped her over a 4' oxer that she finally used herself--and she still wasn't really trying that hard!! Going around Novice and Training courses was a total snooze for her, so of course she did it. There was no challenge. But I wonder what she would have done had she not had the trailering issue, if we'd been able to move up to Prelim and Intermediate. Then there would have been some challenge. A certain level of Trust would be involved. Would she have ever developed that? Or would she have stopped trying as soon as the work got hard? I'll never know.

Zahra at Richland this summer
 (c) Shannon Brinkman

Zahra and Puck, I believe, fall in the middle. They are both purpose bred sport horses, so the natural ability is there in spades, but there is something more as well. Puck's never had anyone else in his life except me, and he trusts me wholly and completely, which has been hugely apparent as he begins his training. When I am calm and deliberate, he is calm and happy. When I am the least bit anxious (e.g., trying to carefully pull a tick off his chest), he dances around nervously. Either way, he feeds off of me entirely. Conversely, Zahra has been handled by many people, as she was born at a college campus. Her personality is stamped with an upbringing of love and devotion from all of her many handlers (just imagine being a cute foal surrounded by college girls, and you get the picture!!). So although she is puppy dog sweet, she did not inherently trust me when I first bought her. We had a couple big trust issues early on (detailed here, here and here). But this fall, I feel like we've finally gelled as a team.

This past Summer, Zahra competed for Joy, because it was easy. Next year, as it gets harder, I hope it will be for Love and Joy. And Puck? He already does it for Love. He'll learn about Joy next year in the fox hunting field!

♥ Puck ♥

How Puck Happened

Barb Gualco, owner of Sir Caletto (Puck's sire), asked me to compose a brief history of how Puck came to be. As I always do when given a writing assignment, I will share what I wrote with you!

Sir Caletto (c)Silverhorne Sporthorses

Wolfnbankersclothn (aka, 'Wolfn') is an off the track thoroughbred rescue from the MidAtlantic Horse Rescue. I adopted her in January 2007; she was exactly the horse I was looking for at the time: a talented thoroughbred mare who had raced a long time (3 years, in Wolfn's case) and came out sound on the other side. The intent was to have a horse to retrain, compete as far as she could go, and, eventually, have a mare that had what it takes to be the "mother of champions." I got all of these things out of Wolfn, but maybe not for as long as I would have liked.

Wolfn at her last competition. (c) Xpress Foto

She was a blast to retrain. She took to cross country immediately and became very competitive in show jumping and dressage. Unfortunately, an old racing injury kept Wolfn from ever trailering well, thus preventing her from ever really hitting her stride at a competition. The injury in question was a broken sesamoid bone. Although she had been given adequate time off before she returned to racing, and the x-rays at the time of her vet check gave every indication it would not be a problem, horses are (as we all know!) more complicated then that. Although she never once has taken a lame step in her life, the vibrations of the trailer are enough to irritate the injury, sending her flying off the handle, kicking the trailer violently.

Wolfn's lovely trot. (c) Xpress Foto

In the Fall of 2008, I decided it was time to breed her in the hope it might settle her down. My Intermediate horse was battling soundness issues, Wolfn wasn't trailering well to shows, and I needed to think about my next prospect. I consulted Gerd Zuther, a dressage clinician who knew Wolfn and I well, but more importantly, knows all there is to know about quality German stallions, as he has been an inspector for the Hanoverian Verband for decades. Gerd sat me down with the Hanoverian Stallion Directory and we went, page by page, through the entire catalog. He regaled me with tales of soundness issues, questionable inspection venues, and (very appropriately)  kept turning the page if the stallion couldn't jump! In the end, he chose two stallions for me to make a final decision. He said, "Choose either of these two, and you cannot choose wrong!" In a way, Sir Caletto was actually the underdog for me, since he was a gray, and I was terrified of having another gray horse!! But I took some time and really dug into both horse's history, personality, conformation, progeny, pedigree--everything I could find--and found that Sir Caletto came easily to the forefront.

In 2009, I moved out to Maryland for my first job, and brought my pregnant mare with me. She stayed with my trainer, Eric Dierks, while I struggled to find somewhere she could foal out. The thoroughbred barns wouldn't take a show horse, and the warmblood breeders wouldn't take a thoroughbred! Finally, I approached Hilltop Farm, the best of the best, and they said they would happily take my money!! That Fall, I took Wolfn to the GOV Mare Performance Test at High Point Hanoverians, where she showed everyone what a quality TB looks like, placing 2nd in the Jumping Performance test and finishing 4th overall in the Mare Performance Test.

Proof from Wolfn's GOV inspection. Very bad manners on my part. 

On May 5, 2010, Streetlight Manifesto was born while the barn staff were distracted by a colicking mare a few stalls down. Wolfn wanted her privacy (she was about a week late), and as soon as she saw her chance, she took it! 'Puck' was a completely healthy, normal baby.

Fresh squeezed!

At his GOV inspection in August of 2010, Puck was recognized as a "Premium Foal." He received very positive comments from the judges including, "It is surprising, considering his Jumping pedigree, but this horse has an excellent trot!"

Running with Mom

After the inspection.

Wolfn returned to competition for the 2011 season back in Wisconsin. Unfortunately the trailer issue had not abated, and much welding and many stitches later, I finally gave up on Wolfn's show career. Every time we made it to a show, she would be sore, and I would be a raw bundle of nerves. So she enjoys life in a pasture, and I focus on Puck. He is taking to working life easily. At 2 and a half, he already happily gives pony rides to my able-bodied teenage assistant, Haley. We know he's ready for more responsibility, but we've got lots of time. My goal is to have him walk-trot by March, when Gerd Zuther will be in town. How great it will be to show him what he helped me make!

I have high hopes for Puck. Wolfn had more talent than my Intermediate horse ever had, but her potential went sadly unrealized, and Sir Caletto was able to add soundness and sense to her fire and athleticism. Puck is the best of them both, and I know that he will be a force in the eventing world in the years to come.

Puck as a two year old. So sweet!