Tobys Lynx (Toby)

Kaboom Eventing Supporters

Kaboom Eventing Supporters
Thank you all!

Swank Dezign

Swank Dezign
Kaboom Eventing's 1st home bred!

Swain Song (Swainy)

Swain Song (Swainy)
Swain is currently in foal to Tzigane *Pb* due: April 2012

~mid summer night's derby dream~

Monday, June 7, 2010




Wow, I’m really late on the update, sorry! I’ve been so confused with my life that I have not had a complete thought to blog about in quite a few months.

Let’s start with the great Scary Houdini.
I thank Harry (and Kim Hunter) from the bottom of my heart for the time he spent with me.
My job was to get him jumping and Eventing—in 12 months I took him from jumping Xs to finishing 2 training level horse trials.

Scary refusing his first flowers, and then jumping a more difficult flower box with room to spare! (8/2009)










Scary cruising around a Training Level SJ course at GW! (5/2010)



Scary has now moved north/west to live and continue training with Sara Mittleider. Sara has competed him a handful of times this summer with great success and we will enjoy the start of his preliminary career this fall. His new nick name is Hou Man.

I had a wonderful time with the Scare Master, Scary Hou, Hou Man. I think my greatest memory of Scary will be when we pummeled our first XC flag. Bless his heart. He is a XC enthusiast and come XC day at Greenwood he was 90% enthusiasm and 10% brains. It’s hard to concentrate when life is so exciting!! Sometimes enthusiasm gets the better of children and other mechanisms, such as steering, fail. Such a mechanism failed us at the water complex and we crashed through the flag at the up bank out of the water. Scary took it like a man right between the eyes! The disaster dropped us from 1st place to 10th place, unfortunately. I think busting a XC flag is a right of passage though, right? We are now both ready to move on?

Quick stop after flag pummelage...
(so great that everyone was there to take pictures...rolling eyes.)



Some of Scary Hou's dressage pictures from GW. Won the dressage with a 31.





Scary's finer XC moments:





I was sad our time had come to an end but I was ready to get started with Boomer. Boomer has been working every day since May and had been sound for about 8 months prior to starting back into full work. I worked him lightly now and again through the beginning of the year and then turned him out 24/7 for 6 months. He has been jumping twice a week now for 3 months and holding soundness. I think we are in the clear and there are no worries to come.
Scary’s job was to keep me busy while Boomer received an extra year of recovery time. I think I really did well by my horse.
I knew I failed out of Biochem and switched to Biomechanics/Kinesiology for a reason! Little did I know [in 2003] that the reason was because one day the love of my life would tear two ligaments and need my expertise to gain full recovery.

HUNTERS:
I spent July and Aug attending several local hunter jumper shows with Boomer. Wow, turns out I really suck!!

During these summer series shows I:
~Managed to blow a left lead in the hack [with my 3rd level dressage horse]

~Almost impale my horse on the in-gate (well, HE was the one that tried to piece out)
~Took off so long to one fence that he completely popped me out of the tack and we landed with no reins…I still won the class though because I was the only one entered.
~I *almost* got lost and went off course because it is hard to remember a course of 8 fences that consist of straight lines [side-diagonal-side] and for those who don’t know, the diagonal to a single oxar is a very very long time to feel lost and wonder if you are jumping the incorrect fence.
~And of course there were countless moments where I self destructed mid course and blew the course due to anxiety of not knowing what to do with myself during those long canters around the end of the arena.


All in all I attended these shows so that I could figure out what I needed to work on before going to BN hunter trainer. Turns out I needed to work on everything so I decided that I should leave it to the professional to start me off on the right track.

I started taking lessons with Courtney Calcagnini
http://www.cscfarm.com/
as soon as she arrived back in Texas from her spring/summer outings. I had originally planned on showing in both eventing and the hunters but now, after my first few lessons, I find that switching between UL eventing and high level hunters is not possible.

A great analogy: I’m a proficient in jazz. Now I’m being asked to perform ballet. It is so very difficult to take those sharp quick movements that I’m used to and instead, finish my lines with softness and grace. Such a drastic change is taking a great deal of mental effort on my part and I’m not proficient enough to be able swap back and forth between the equitation types needed for each discipline.

I've got my new saddle, which is so flat I almost fell off. My fancy stitch bridle is on it's way. Added a nice KK contoured D, bought a JR8 and hair nets and won a really nice custom tack trunk at the summer schooling shows. That's the small part of the show...on to work work work, lessons lessons lessons.

So far we have:
~Changed my bit to a happy mouth [D ring], (before new D ring was purchased)
~Taken the blocks off of my saddle, (before new saddle was purchased)
~Taught me how to properly hold my reins,
~Taught me a proper release over fences,
~Removed my spurs,
~And we continue to try and teach me to ride straight--straight is so hard. ugggh!

Our conversations during lesson time go as follows:
Courtney: Do you count strides?
Kristen: Well, everything is 3 strides out of the turn so I only know how to count to 3.

Courtney: [draws square in front of fence] Do you think you could put your horse’s front feet in this square?
Kristen: Yes
Courtney: How many times?
Kristen: Hopefully at least once. Beginners luck [said with asking smile].

Courtney: Why do you ride him in a Pelham?
Kristen: um…cause I don’t have a D ring and he looks pretty in it? Bad answer?


At lease I’m honest right? Honesty is what has gotten me out of my last 3 speeding tickets so I think that telling the truth is a good bet. And if you know me personally you know that I always have a reason for everything I do. Every action is premeditated. So just ask…

I will add that I LOVE going to the hunter barn. No one knows me and there are no expectations - - and there a bunch of hot Italian guys there riding reining horses. I happily attend my beginner lessons and take with me as much homework as I can possibly remember. Baby steps right now though. Figure, I have enough trouble remembering to keep the byte of my reins on the RIGHT side!!

The funniest of my encounters thus far was a conversation with a hunter mom. We were talking about shows/clinics and Greg Best was discussed. Said hunter mom explained to me that Greg Best was a SJ’er and ex Olympian. Just incase I didn’t know…because we eventers are archaic. LMAO. I still get a giggle when I think back to the conversation.

Kristen Fact: The first horse show I attended was the Chubb Park summer 4-H fair in Chester, NJ. This was the same show (different year) that started the career of the famous Gem Twist!

EVENTING:
Greenwood will be bitter sweet for me this season. The horse trial will be my first event back with Boomer, but also my last. Unless of course I turn out to be a flop in the hunter ring in which case everyone will see me again next year in the Greenwood Farms CIC*!
I’m so pleased that the one horse trial we will attend is the Mid States COTH Adult Team Championships. Excellent timing.

!!!THEN ON TO THE HUNTER DERBIES!!!

And here is my JT. Too cute for words.
"He's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!"