I had the best time and learned so much in my clinic with Nick Larkin last weekend. He is so funny and knows his eventing. It was so exciting to be in his clinic on my own rolex bound pony. (The last clinic my pony Mac was still not sound so I rode my trainer’s event mare “Tess”) but it is not the same as being on your own horse). Nick is so great about making you a team. I have video so stay tuned. Since it is only my mom she has a hard time taking pictures and videos at one event.
This has taken much sweat and effort from so many people, especially Chi, to finally get video working on a computer with many issues. Please enjoy and I hope we have this down now. LEAH
Hi everyone, I am so sorry that I have been out of touch. Our computer hard drive crashed and we couldn’t afford to fix it so we had to wait for a friend to replace the hard drive. I have MISSED everyone. The hard drive also took ALL my photographs and files. I have so much to tell you. I’m working on it and I am back!!!!:-))))) Please stay in touch. Leah This will be Mac and me this season. We are following you Teddy O’Conner!!!! The next 14.1 pony to compete with the big guys.
I am so sorry that I haven’t posted but my
website has been through some kind of
upgrade and still is. I cannot BELIEVE that
we have a leftover hurricane in November
the same weekend as Calais. I think they
are having the TD come out tonight and I
think they will call it because it is such a
mess. Every horsetrailer will get stuck not
to mention how mucky and slippery and
awful the course will be. I am so
DISAPPOINTED. I was going to take Terry’s
event mare Tess and I love her. We will see
Sorry no pictures. Raining too hard. lol
I am sorry I haven’t been posting like I normally do. My grandma died last night. I was going to go say goodbye today with my big sister but it was too late. I haven’t been to see her since she went into hospice because even though she hasn’t really been awake I was scared her spirit would hear me crying and being sad and I didn’t want to do that. I miss her very much. We had special games and always ate a chocolate bar and made popcorn to eat together. Here is my grandma. Leah
My balance in the saddle works for me while doing gymnastics on a tree limb up in the air by the river. The river park is called Pony Pasture. That’s pretty funny. We took Haze for his first long walk after healing from his fractured hip. We went down by the river and it is so pretty. Then my mom said look at that perfect balance beam up there in the tree. So I did what any girl would do I climbed it and did gymnastics. lol. Had a lot of fun. I am trying to learn a new schedule with my training since school has started and my pony is off on his left front again. Stolle who I have been riding and helping to train sold and Epi is probably not far behind but he needs to work on slowing down. Terry is going to let me show Tess her event mare for the final competitions this fall while I work and bring Mac up to speed so we will be ready to take on everything big in the spring.
Here a couple more pics of warm up with Stolle. We had a cross country jumping clinic today and I will tell you all about it tomorrow. Mac is still on the mend so everyone please please think good thoughts for us. Terry says I should wait until the spring to “campaign” him and compete and work hard all fall and winter with his training. She is going to let me compete Stolle through the fall. That will be fun. Leah
I took Stolle the Russian curly to Brookhill’s combined training event. We warmed up beautifully in dressage but fell apart when we competed. My reins were too long, Stolle gets nervous in the dressage arena and I started to fall apart too. He is such a wonderful and talented horse but he needed me to help him more to relax so he wouldn’t be looking around for scary things outside the dressage arena. Lesson learned. My job now is to teach him to relax and show his stuff and that everything will be ok. Jumping was another story. We had the best time, this horse can jump, in fact if you don’t bring him in right he can jump you right out of the tack. LOL. We really did have an awesome round.
He seems so pitiful. They can’t figure out how to wrap his leg up and to his body and something goes wrong each time. So now he just has to stay on a big fluffy bed in a little tiny bathroom so he won’t walk or jump with his hip. This weekend they tried a new wrap and it made his foot completely swollen and my mom had to cut off all the vet wrap and bandaging. So now, we are just going to keep him quiet. He seems much happier without all that bandaging. Keep your fingers crossed that it heals and he will catch his frisbee again.
Haze is 8 years old or so we think. We rescued him when he was 4 months old and he is the best. All of our animals are shelter/rescue animals. We lift Haze up on the bed when we go to sleep so he can snuggle and not be lonely. He loves his family and is sad when he is not with us.
I had so much fun. This is what they call cubbing, teaching the puppy hounds how to follow the pack. We galloped and jumped and it was a blast. We lost half the dogs at one point and had to round them up. I rode Epi and he and I were both “juniors”.:-) Of course we didn’t get a fox, because I never want to do that, and even if we saw a fox, it wouldn’t matter because we just find them to see them. We also do it to have fun and give hounds something to work for. It is all about the riding and galloping and having fun. The foxes are way smarter and I never want them to be hurt. The whip and the Hunt Master told me I did a really good job. You have to learn to listen, back into the woods when the whip comes back down a narrow path. You need to be aware of everything around you. They told me my riding was awesome and for a junior rider and that I had an old soul. I was in the right places at the right time. We rode for about 3 hours. The only problem I had was shutting a gate and Epi my horse was not cooperating. He reared and ran and reared again, so I just had to get off and shut the gate. Otherwise he was amazing and he had fun too. THANK YOU TERRY FOR GIVING ME THIS OPPORTUNITY!!!
Dreams are magical. When talent, passion, determination and desire come together you get a champion. Leah has extraordinary talent and she has a dream to become a champion. We need your financial support to give her a chance. Often anything to do with horses is perceived as elitist. This simply isn't the case. Children don't understand class designations, they understand their dreams, their talent and the belief that everyone can try. Your sponsorship of $1.00 or more will be an important step towards making this sport more accessible for children like Leah everywhere. In order to receive the larger sponsorships Leah has to get to that level of competition through training opportunities, clinics and horse trials. To have a chance to get to that level, Leah needs your grassroots sponsorship and support. Thank you for visiting and helping Leah achieve her dream!
