Team Valinor is now all happily together again at our home base in Massachusetts (and it's freezing here!!!!) On this rainy day I thought I'd catch up on some blog entries. Here's a guest blog entry from Marissa summing up the Aiken 2014 season.
MARISSA'S GUEST BLOG
I thought I would reflect on the two months of
Valinor South. I think its safe to say this year was probably the hardest Aiken
trip for Erin. It seemed it was one bad thing after another for her. However,
the good news is that all the negativity had nothing to do with the horses. In
fact this year was an amazing one for the horse’s progress. I was of course
excited for Erin to come however this year was different and more difficult for
me as well. Usually I am only a working student for the two months out of the
year Erin is down. However this year I was a working student for Doug Payne from
mid October until the day Erin arrived. I would be lying if I didn’t say I was
already pretty burnt out by the time Erin got here. The good thing was that I
could muck stalls and care for horses in my sleep when she arrived…and the
Valinor horses were angels compared to Doug’s massive incredibly fit upper level
horses. It was nice to not have 18 hand beasts try to kill themselves or me
every day. Haha! So first I want to say sorry to Erin for me not being 100%
there this year. Between a full time course load, internship, running the
eventing team and more I was kinda all over the place and fried! Enough of the
negative side though! Here are the highlights of my 2014 Valinor South
Season:
·
By far the biggest
highlight for me was FINALLY going clear training level xc. It has been a long
and rough past year and a half since my shoulder injury and getting mentally
back proved to be more of a challenge than I thought. Thanks to Erin I have two
fun and clear xc rounds under my belt. Now just to work on my time! But the
biggest accomplishment is now having my confidence back and a xc machine for a
horse.
·
Second was seeing Erin and
Beacon really progress. It was awesome seeing Beacon put in a great dressage
test at Pine Top with a great score! Even though the rails didn’t show a great
SJ round at Pine Top, Beacon looked much more relaxed and easy to ride! He of
course rocked the xc and seeing him ride the first water combination even better
than the big pros was a pretty cool feeling. But the coolest thing was seeing
the progress in his show jumping. It’s a slow process but it was rewarding to
see the lessons with Allison Springer and especially the day Beacon was able to
do grid and pole exercises perfectly with the least tension I have ever seen.
This year was probably the best I have seen Beacon jump ever and super excited
to see the progress continue.
·
Third was seeing Erin have
two up and coming upper level horses. I remember when Erin first bought the
mares during my first excursion to Aiken. To now see these horses rock around
Prelim and talk of intermediate for Devon is amazing. Erin deserves to have
multiple upper level horses and for her to finally have them makes me and I’m
sure others proud.
·
The fourth most rewarding
experience was seeing others fall in love with Aiken just like I did. Having
Sam, Abby and Marissa come to Aiken was a lot of fun. It made me reflect back to
when I fell in love with Aiken. Especially when Abby, Sam and I went to Pine
Top. Pine Top was where I first was star struck by all the big riders and to see
them have the exact same experience was pretty cool. I of course hope they come
to college in Aiken as well. (sorry moms!)
·
The last memorable
experience was seeing all the progress in the horses and riders. Beacons show
jumping, the mares clear prelim xc rounds, Abby tackling the scary brush and
training level questions, Pita growing up and LOVING the water and becoming a
fancy cool mare, Emmit showing his mom he can rock the eventing world, Marissa
and the pony rocking all three phases, Erin getting some real fancy dressage
work out of Stewart and much much more. I love seeing the progress these horses
and riders made and really cannot wait to see all the ribbons and success made
by the pairs this show season.
Since the Valinor crew left…I have been
sleeping in a lot! The weather has been in the 80s and beautiful! Carino and I
moved back to our usual farm and I have gotten a few good rides in on him but
giving him a bit of well-deserved down time. Carino is spending most of his time
eating grass and checking out the mini donkey on the farm. I’m hoping to compete
at sporting days this month if money allows but if not Paradise will be our next
outing since we decided to skip out on the Area 3 championships we qualified for
until next year. I am enjoying the non-working student life for a bit and
focusing on finishing up school and finding an internship down here…however my
search has extended to back home so who knows maybe I will see you all this
summer!? Despite enjoying the lazy life I am already in the works of possibly
another working student position with Kristen Schmolze who plans to stay in
Aiken for the year right next door to where I board! I knew I would get bored of
not taking care of horses quickly.
Thank you to the whole Valinor crew. This year
reminded me how close and a great bunch we are. Thank you to Erin for getting my
confidence back and the mass amounts of coffee we consumed. Thank you to Robin
and Lisa for helping and keeping things going. Thank you to Abby and Sam for
stepping in as working students when they were down. It allowed me to catch up
on school or focus on getting ready for a show. Sorry if it felt like I was
dumping work on you! Thank you to Carrie and Connor for all their help and
keeping my dog entertained…and well fed ;). Thank you to Martha and Betsy for
the amazing snack packages which came in handy for those many days where we
didn’t get to stop to eat lunch. The list could go on and on! Despite the many
crazy events this year brought one thing horses and Erin have always taught me…
is to always look for the positive, and when I really look at it the positives
of this year ultimately outweigh the negatives!
Hope to see you all next
year!
-Marissa
