ECOGOLD's Boyd Martin Q&A at 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event

Popular ECOGOLD-rider Boyd Martin was at our stand earlier today answering questions and our Ammie Blogger Carrie did a great job hosting. Boyd talked about his support team, discussed riding position, how he prepares mentally for competition, secret to success for young riders, what he would change in his career and of course, his two cats.

Boyd and his fans

ECOGOLD's Boyd Martin Q&A at 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event

ECOGOLD's Hamish Cargill at 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event

Australian rider Hamish Cargill stopped by the ECOGOLD stand at Rolex Kentucky for a Q&A with the fantastic Meg Kepferle, who also moonlights as Sinead Halpin's groom (when she is not working for ECOGOLD). Hamish talked about his horse Sandhills Tiger, who is in 14th place after dressage.

Sandhills Tiger getting ready for dressage with his new ECOGOLD Saddle Pad

ECOGOLD's Hamish Cargill Q&A at 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event 

Calina & Cheryl's Friday Morning Dressage Recap - 2011 Rolex Kentucky

The clouds may look a little daunting in some of the photos but so far it has just been windy and a little chilly here for Friday morning dressage. The rain is thankfully holding off and hopefully the soggy cross country course is drying out. Although very few people were here yesterday morning to see Allison's test on Arthur, the stands were quite full this morning for dressage.

We got here around 9am and headed straight to dressage warmup to see Ecogold rider Hannah Sue Burnett warmup St Barths. She wasn't yet onand looked quite nervous, but her wonderful groom Shannon Kinsley made a few jokes and she relaxed. Her warmup was lovely and coach David O'Connor watched on.

I was so impressed with the horse - I am not sure I have seen him go in person before (at least on the flat). Her test was absolutely lovely and scored quite well despite a few bobbles in the canter work. I cannot wait to see them go cross country tomorrow!

Canadian rider Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master had incredible trot work and canter work until the last serpentine, where a few mistakes made. Despite the bobbles, this WEG combination had an excellent test and are currently the top placed Canadian pair, with just Jessica Phoenix and her WEG mount Exponential to go this afternoon.

The horse that most impressed me (and probably everyone else here) was Tiana Coudray's Ringwood Magister. As she is based on the west coast, this is the first time I have seen them go. He is absolutely stunning and I was thrilled to see them as the new leaders.

Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister.

Ecogold rider Karen O'Connor on Quintus 54 went next and put in a solid test. There is clearly room for improvement and it will be interesting to see how this horse looks this time next year.

Karen O'Connor and Quintus

As I sit here in the empty grandstands writing the blog, Rolex is kindly showing clips from the Royal wedding on the big screens. I will continue watching this as Calina finishes editing her pictures for the blog.

Our afternoon plans involve watching Sinead Halpin's warm up during lunch break and then watching the rest of the tests this afternoon.

Don't forget Boyd Martin will be at the Ecogold booth (#69 in the arena) at 1pm for a Q&A and the lovely Canadian riders are doing a Q&A at 5:30pm.

ECOGOLD's Karen O'Connor at 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event

Our informative and entertaining video series continues, with the fantastic Meg Kep hosting a Q&A session with ECOGOLD rider and eventing icon Karen O'Connor. Karen tells us what she is going to do now that David has been appointed as US coach, talks candidly about her career , differences between the UK and US, what makes a successful rider, her training methods and a little tribute to the pony that could, Teddy O'Connor.

Part 1 - ECOGOLD's Karen O'Connor at 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event

Part 2 - ECOGOLD's Karen O'Connor at 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event 

Who will be at our stand #69 in the Trade Fair Arena

- Friday at 1:00 Boyd Martin

- Friday at 5:30 Canadian Eventing Team

- Saturday at 12:00 Phillip Dutton

Stay tuned for more Rolex coverage from our Ammie Bloggers and our Video Q&A Sessions with ECOGOLD Riders.

ECOGOLD's Clayton Fredericks at 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event

Ecogold rider Clayton Fredericks answered questions submitted by the public at the 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event. The video session was hosted by US Event rider Doug Payne. Enjoy!

ECOGOLD's Clayton Fredericks at 2011 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event

Becky’s coursewalk with Hannah Sue Burnett

Hannah Sue Burnett and St-Barths

After several false starts, I was able to meet up and walk the cross country course with Hannah Sue Burnett. Hannah, a lovely, athletic, charming woman was eager to accommodate my needs (I had fractured a heel a few months ago, and couldn’t walk as fast as I used to!), and to answer all my questions as we walked. I felt like Cinderella…or perhaps Kate Middleton!

The first few jumps, she explained, were “easy”…save one, they were downhill approaches, and while the size/spread were intimidating to me, Hannah assured me that her horse would have no problem with them. “He’s very honest, and he’ll try to do anything I point him at!” Hannah assured me. She likes to see her stride and ride to it, something she’s been doing since she was twelve years old, when she rode her pony up to Preliminary.

I asked her what her favorite part of eventing, and she told me that stadium jumping was her favorite because, and I quote, she is a “control freak”. She loves the measured step, seeing the exact stride, and body control of stadium. I asked if she liked dressage, too, and she laughed; “I should, and I guess I do. I’m learning to love it. We’ve been working really hard on it, and I think we’re on the verge of a breakthrough. I’m really excited about tomorrow.” Hannah rides “Nike” at 10 tomorrow, first rider tomorrow!

Her biggest challenge, particularly in dressage, is that she expects a lot of her horses, and then fears that she puts too much pressure on them. In cross country, her biggest “bugaboo” is, believe it not, smaller fences! “When you ride the big fences all the time and are suddenly confronted with a smaller one, you lose the ability to see your stride, and both you and your horse come to it underpowered/tentative!” I can only imagine what THAT must feel like!

Another challenge that’s come to the fore only recently is that of remembering courses. “I’ve always been really good at remembering courses, dressage tests, and so forth. But as I ride more horses in competition at different levels, I am suddenly having brain farts; at Red Hills I had three horses at three levels, and while the SJ fences were the same, the courses were different. I accidently left a fence out of one of the levels that was left out in another. That type of thing never happened before! So I’m going to have to work harder to learn my tests/courses.”

I asked her how she kept positive when walking (and riding) a course, and Hannah responded that being positive and thinking ahead were some of the biggest challenges of riding. As she walks her course, she gives herself a positive pep talk, and thinks about how she’ll ride each fence—THEN she walks and thinks about thinking about the NEXT fence as she comes to the fence before it. “It’s sort of like thinking with peripheral vision” Hannah noted. What a great illustration….I’ll have to work on that!

As we finished, I asked about her “Equestrian Bucket List”. Hannah would love to be on a US team, win a medal, and ride in England.

Hannah explained that she had to hurry; she was singing at a memorial service for eventing organizing legend Rebecca Broussard. “You SING?” I asked incredulously. Yes, Hannah sings at weddings and so forth (but she gets nervous when she’s in front of people). “It’s something I’d like to do more of after I retire from eventing,” Hannah mused. “I love singing.” When I asked her what she wanted to do with it, Hannah replied: “I want to be a rock star!”

Rock on, Hannah! I’ll be cheering for you tomorrow!

Calina & Cheryl's Thursday Afternoon Recap - Dressage, Q&As & Course Walk with Jessica Phoenix

We didn’t get to see as many dressage tests as we would have liked this afternoon because we spent a lot of time at Ecogold’s booth listening to some very interesting Q&A sessions – first with Karen O’Connor (hosted by Sinead Halpin’s wonderful groom Meg) and then with Clayton Fredericks (hosted by Doug Payne). I’m sure Patricia will have the videos of those sessions, as well as Hamish’s Q&A, online later this evening. All three riders ride dressage tomorrow and we will make a point of being there to watch their tests.

We spent some time near the warm up ring this afternoon while Boyd Martin was warming up. His horse, Remington XXV, was sporting Ecogold boots and saddle pads:

Boyd Martin and Remington XXV

Boyd Martin and Remington

Late this afternoon we met up with Jessica Phoenix, who had generously agreed to walk the course with us. As of this afternoon, the footing is hit or miss – some parts are quite dry, while others vary from squishy to downright wet. Here are a few of the highlights from our walk with Jessie:

The course starts with several galloping fences and then you come around a corner to the first water. The direct route is a large log drop in followed by a skinny in the water and an angled hedge out. Jessie’s plan is to ride the direct route on both horses – but thinks Exploring will need to be ridden more aggressively in the last 3 strides.

The next complex was the coffin – and you can barely see the ditch as it is so full of water. Here is a picture of Jessie leaping over the first of many unintentional water obstacles on the course – we think she has excellent potential as an upper level horse.

Jessica Phoenix

We also got the opportunity to ask her several questions throughout the course walk. Being from Ontario, we see Jessie out on a lot of horses with names starting with “Ex”. Turns out after Exploring took her to her first advanced, a client suggested she start naming all her horses with names starting with “Ex”. As a result, it is very easy to figure out which of her rides she owns herself, as they are the ones with that naming scheme. It is clearly very lucky – they are all fantastic horses.

Thanks so much to Jessica for letting us tag along on the course walk (although we only made it as far as the Head of the Lake before heading back to the Ecogold booth). We hope she has a fantastic dressage test tomorrow and clean cross-country rounds on Saturday. We can’t wait to catch up with her when she comes to Ottawa to teach a clinic at Oakhurst Farm in June.