Pepperwood Riding Center

First day schooling at Galway has been checked off. Thankfully Bec didn’t kick me to the curb. Poor girl. If she had to yell for me to Put your hands down. Be... soft any longer she might have refused to ever help me again! Clearly I needed to wash off the crap riding. Thankfully the weather cooperated by pouring down a little sideways rain during our group to help cleanse me of my bad riding. Not only poor Bec, but poor Richie. He tolerated the very bad beginning and just got better and better as the ride went on. Guess this is why we needed to go schooling before our first event next week. Hopefully we will start out tomorrow where we got to today. Needless to say, he was fabulous and schooled very well. Everyone else rode super well today. A few bobbles for sure. But like myself, they all ended really well and made great progress. Now, hopefully the footing held up well with the rain we got this afternoon and we will all get to go back out there and do it all again! Sadly, I am an awful trainer and don’t have a single frame of video of anyone to share with you. But Avery was fantastic and shot footage of me sucking, and not sucking. So here is today’s transformation. Thanks again Bec for helping me out!

Ok, today was a great day. I think we might truly be getting it. Softer rein, nose away from chest, better arc, and not running through me. Still tons of room f...or improvement, but this was a big step. I’m so excited to be heading to Galway to school next week and see how our first XC outing since the CCI2 goes. Definitely looking forward to the first event of 2021 in 2 weeks! See more

Apparently the extra special date today was how we wanted a lot of us to finish the weekend! Linus- 2nd Karen - 2nd Emma - 2nd. We covered 2/2/20. ... I’m beyond excited and looking forward to what the year has in store. Not only for the great riding and opportunities, but also getting to spend another year surrounded by the most amazing, kind and supportive people. This weekend ran so smoothly because everyone works together and constantly steps up to help each other. Not everyone had a winning weekend, but we all had a good time! Thank you all for being so positive regardless of the results on a scoreboard. You make this job incredibly rewarding. Karen and Ranger ate up the XC course today holding in to their 2nd place. So easy for them. Kris and Phillis also made easy work of the XC course and with their clean round broke the tie and finished solidly in 3rd. Richie and I had a great go. I have to say that the time faults annoy the competitor in me, but the trainer in me knows it was the right move to let him trot in a few places. He’s so much fun! Emma and Moonie were total pros out there. Lovely ride on a horse she jumped for the first time in Wednesday. Thank you Maura for your continued generosity in letting Moonie go out there. I know it helped take the sting out of Emma not getting to run her own Captain. You are a kind and generous person and we are all lucky to have you be part of the team! Avery and Noel had a blast out there. Their first event together was positive and leads to a bright future. I’m excited to see their partnership grow. Sonata and I had a pretty solid move up event. She was amazing in course. Especially when her idiot pilot asked her to jump the training corner out of the water instead of the move one....Glad I figured out why it looks so damn big as I was jumping it. So a circle and quite a bit of time as I found my way back to the novice one. I guess that’s one way of testing her good graces... Jane wins the wrangler award for the weekend. Maverick tried his best to be 100% in control of today’s XC ride. He ducked, he dodged, he propped, he ran off, and he jumped all the jumps. All because Jane did an awesome job keeping the lid mostly on the beast. Congrats on your 5th at your first real event! You rock! Now time to get ready to do it all again at FCHP. Thank you to Robert Kellerhouse for kicking off the 2020 season with a lovely event. Alyssa Dobrotin, for taking such great care of us crazy eventers, and Bert Wood, for always trying to give our horses the best of everything. And huge thank you to all the volunteers that make these events possible.

Home from my 21st Galway Downs fundraiser clinic. I find that extremely hard to believe, but Robert says so, so it must be true. We had 19 horses and riders at...tend. I started the clinic on Friday with a fabulous SJ ride with Ian Stark. Linus and I are definitely the wiser due to his guidance. I also rode Richie around for a bit and was lucky to run into Tamie Smith while I was out there so she helped me out. He is such a fabulous boy. Saturday and Sunday were packed with fabulous riding and horses that just stepped up to the plate. I’m so proud of how well everyone rode and also the incredible teamwork. It’s always hard for me to just be out of the barn the whole day and not see what going on, but I know that everyone will take care of their horses, and mine with the utmost care and love. Thank you all for keeping me on task and my horses beautifully cared for! I’m only posting a few videos right now as my mental acuity is shot. It’s so bad that I ordered dinner to be delivered.....to my sister’s house. At least she was home and hungry at 9:00! Time for some sleep. I promise tomorrow that I will do a proper update and add some videos of all of you incredible people and horses! You were all stars and make me beyond proud.

So in love!! Video to follow.

This little bugger tries so hard. I think we are starting to really get a feel for each other. Still struggling at times, but his effort is so greatly appreciated! Can’t wait for next year!

What a great day. Taught a bunch of lessons for the first half of the day and then got to spend the second half riding these two amazing creatures. Richie just... keeps trying. He’s such a star. And Linus had a nice 2nd jump school since Galway. I’m so incredibly lucky to get to ride both of them. Also, it was so nice to get a surprise visit from LuLu today! See more

Save on your favorite Equine tack. Boots, Bits, Hay Bags, Saddle Pads and more! Ends on December 4th!