August
Eqestrian Teams start their practices!

July

 

 

 

 

 

Olivia's Jag wins at Schooling Jumpers at Waterloo H/J A Show in June. Over 300 horses enjoyed a week of wonderful weather and great footing in the rings at Waterloo Hunt Club's summer show.

 

March

U of M polo is invited to Florida more to come after spring break

February
The Knabstrupper farm where I stayed in Orlando has a stallion chosen to be a Breyer horse! more

 

 

 

 

December The U of M polo team is legging up horses at a Milan barn to prepare for winter games against MSU and other schools. It's hard to tack up in the winter gloom and practice at night!

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September

 

 

 

 

- now is the time to train the youngsters. I'll show at local schooling events this winter, doing jumpers primarily - and, of course, I'll be studying at the university!

 

June - Wow, our region is a mecca for h/j competition. I just returned from the Ky. horse park's Country Heirs with two horses, riding with trainer Cindy Carlson Phibbs of Ann Arbor. The photo below is thoroughbred Jag going well in May at Waterloo HJAM shows, Level 3 jumpers. Soon there'll be a crowd at Waterloo H/J shows, at the end of this month. Then, in mid-July, people move north to Traverse City Horse Shows by the Bay. There are also ongoing shows at Stoney Ridge and Winnigan and on the west coast of Michigan, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Indianapolos, London and Toronto....

 

 

 

 

 

 

What happened to April? Here i am back in Ann Arbor and starting summer showing with jumpers at HJAM spring shows which are at Waterloo Hunt Club in Grass Lake. Great weather and good company. I'm riding Jag in the jumpers - she's about 15.2 and all the others are warmbloods but she did well. Unlike in eventing, there's prize money in Jumpers!

 

March

 

 

 

It was time for me to broaden my horizons. First, I moved out of my trailer in February and into the bunkhouse and then into an apartment with several nice people including two riders from Australia. One is shortlisted for the Olympics. The next move was to broaden my riding horizons. It was hard to leave Bruce's but I packed up Pair, Jag, Fireboy and my dog Cally and I moved them to Raven Walter's farm in Ocala. She breeds Knabstruppers. Here I am saying good morning to three of Raven's leopard-spotted purebreds. Now I'm taking a break from eventing and I'm doing the jumpers at Ocala. This summer I'll be back home in Ann Arbor doing both jumpers and eventing.

 

February

 

 

 

 

India McEvoy schooling Bruce Davidson's 4-year old stallion Charlie. India finished 2nd in Advanced at Rocking Horse February 19 on her horse Jumbo'sJake. She recently won the 2-star at Ocala, November 15. India graduated lat year from U of Delaware, specializing in pre-vet. She hails from the wine country of northern California. Olivia met India and many other interesting working students over the past two winter seasons in Florida. In addition to growing up all over the States, the working students also come from Ireland, England, France and Australia.

 

January

Olivia is back at Bruce Davidson's in Ocala. She tried living out of her trailer to save money but it's too cold. Now she's in the bunkhouse.... Here's Pair, her intermediate horse, getting back into real work at the gymnastics level.

 

 

 

 

Jimmy, on the lead horse, is followed by Tim on Olivia's 4-year old Fireboy. Jimmy and Tim are showing the very green Fireboy how to navigate his first vertical. Look at his pricked ears - he's definitely watching Jimmy's horse take on the job of jumping it.

November 2007 -Olivia is in school at U of Michigan now. She rides her horses nearly every day, getting ready to go to Florida again in January 2008 to train and compete. She's looking into college classes at schools in Florida to keep herself close to a graduation date.... Anyone out there thinking of going to Florida, too? Perhaps we can coordinate some trailering this spring!

Attention all Preliminary level Juniors and Young Riders: Area VIII is looking for riders for team(s) to compete in the first USEF Eastern Junior-Young Rider National CCI * Team Championship. As a national championship (not FEI) we can send more than one team. It's on October 17-21 at Midsouth in Kentucky at HorsePark.  Why do it? Because: -juniors who want to compete at the 2008 NAJ/Yr Championship next August, you need a qualifying score from a CCI*. -Young Riders older than Jrs get a chance to represent Area VIII and be on a team at the CCI* level. Coaching by Area VIII YR coach Holly Hepp is available. Holly coached the Area VIII teams to silver and bronze at the 2007 August Championships. Contact Jackie Smith Jackie@stonegatefarm.org

Olivia's Jan-Sept. 2007 blog:

September - my horses Pair, Jag and Havi are turned out for a few months while I go to university. But I have a great reminder of the 8 months of riding that began in Florida last January. This reminder is the Lab mix Caly, from Ocala, that Katie and I adopted when we were working students down there. Caly sleeps on my couch in my apartment. Farm dog, city dog, it's all the same to Caly. She's a happy camper as long as she has her squeaky toys.

July - this was a great month of showing but then came August. My horse hit a jump on an intermediate course and now I have a broken collar bone. I'm back home in Michigan. Oh well, next year....

Summer photos:

 

 

Here we are, Pair and I, at Bruce's working our way through the grid at Bruce's. Below is Mocha clearing Bruce's ditch.

 

 

 

 

 

Havi has just come off the bank to a vertical. Bruce's practice jumps make the events look easy!

 

 

 

 

 

June - Michigan

I'm home now in Michigan, waiting for my sprained wrist to heal enough to go cross country again. I had a fall on the Intermediate course at Plantation in Pa.. In the meantime, I brought my horses home with me. I'm taking dressage lessons from Maryal Barnett. Hopefully, I'm using my time wisely by getting lessons in my weakest area. I'm also getting a tan in the backyard because I'm relieved of most other chores since my wrist hurts. My mom is helping me exercise my horses and I do the prep and the bathing afterwards. She says she loves having a groom. The plan is, if my wrist is better, that I'll ride two horses at Encore in Ann Arbor late June and then drive back to Bruce's to prepare for Jersey Shore which is early July where I do two Intermediates. Ann Arbor is pretty quiet in the day this summer because everyone I know has summer jobs. But life lights up here at night.

May 21, 2007 -
Unionville, Pa.

I’ve been in Pennsylvania for over a month now.  My experience has been a very good one but  I struggled in April with getting my horses ready for intermediate. I had an interesting time at my first intermediate which was the week before Rolex.  I rode my thoroughbred mare Havi and my Irish gelding Pair.  Dressage was NOT good with my mare, so I scratched her before the jumping phases because I couldn’t see wasting her legs.  My gelding’s dressage was mediocre but overall we finished up placing 2nd.  I was very happy with that result.    Then Bruce returned from Rolex and he began giving me several lessons a day and he has continued to help me alot throughout May.

I’m in a dressage phase right now with my mare where she’s actually in a better frame - as we’ve moved her up off her forehand.  But she’s decided not to go on the bit so it looks horrendous.  This dip in our performance reminds me of my golf swing when I played on my high school golf team.  I shot very well for the first season, and then in order to improve for the second season I had to fix my swing.  Before any benefits showed up and I was just learning my new techniques my scores and shots worsened.  But finally I got competent at my new swing.  So my dressage scores with Havi will suffer in the meantime, but in the long run they will be much better (or I keep telling myself that!).  The Irish gelding is getting more fit – and he’s so strong that maybe he’s a male’s horse.  Facing up to these untimely difficulties with my horses, I’ve decided to postpone my two-star debut.  I’ll play it safe and compete in the one-star at Virginia.  I can hopefully qualify this year for the Young Rider’s National team that competes at the one-star level for kids 19-21, instead of the two-star competition in August.  I’m okay with this decision because I definitely want to become more competitive and comfortable at the intermediate level before I will feel 100% ready for a challenging two-star. 

My other horses are doing great.  My young horse has really shone in Pennsylvania.  She still has her green moments but a few weeks ago we had a jump school that Bruce said was “worth the entire summer.”  She has realized that her job is incredibly easy for her.  Bruce regularly calls this mare “amazing, very special, brilliant and definitely a four-star horse.”  He told me not to sell her because people look a lifetime for a horse like this, and I own it.  I’m not completely sure if I’m going to keep her now because it means I have to sell one of my made horses to finance this summer’s eventing, but his words have definitely made me think! 

Work has been hard at Chesterland this spring. There's been a lot of it, mostly.   And Bruce has had a couple of injuries.  The most recent may keep him out of the saddle for a while. Therefore the other student and I split the rides on about 16 competition horses, not including the babies we’re now starting under saddle, on top of my four that I ride daily.  Needless to say, it will be quite busy until June when a few more working students show up! Jimmy Alliston comes back from England and Frenchy comes from, well, France. Indie returns from California. All in all, it’s good fun to work at Bruces barn.  While the nearest towns are tiny, Unionville and Kennett Square, and aren’t nearly as exciting as the more urban Ocala, we still find ways to entertain ourselves. 

 

April 2007
Olivia's Ocala Horse Life

Katie Daratony, from Dexter, Olivia's friend and roommate, rides Intermediate on Nero at Poplar Place.

 

Georgia trot up for Olivia and Havi

I just finished the Poplar Place event in Georgia and am driving home to Michigan for a quick break.  What a winter!  I had so much fun and my riding has really improved.  Bruce has been great to work for despite his reputation for being tough. Living in Ocala was a blast.  I met so many kids my age that have the same goals as I do, which is a completely new experience to me because I rode alone at my own barn with my mom.  I grew in my riding skills, my working skills, my level of responsibility and my physical strength.  I can now carry an entire bale of Bruce's ridiculously heavy hay, compared to the one flake maximum when I arrived!  This is definitely an experience I recommend to anyone, and hopefully I'll be able to do it again next year (I just have to convince my parents!).

As for now, I'm taking the week "off" back home.  Giving my horses a few days rest, riding the ones I left home, and further along in the week I'm going to take some dressage lessons (dressage is my true weakness).  I'm meeting Bruce back in Unionville, Pennsylvania next week to start working again up north.  Things will get more serious and tense because the Rolex is coming up for him, and my first intermediate with two of my horses is in mid april.  I'm looking forward to a new
type of atmosphere.  Ocala had so many things to do - a big city, clubs, restaurants, bars, etc.  Unionville is a very small town with a speck of a town but Bruce will have new blood working for him and everyone is ready for a bit of change.

I'll keep you posted on my progress!!

March 2007 Olivia takes a break from Ocala and hits a flea market in New York City

February 2007
I've been in Florida for a month now.  the work is hard but always entertaining.  i quickly learned how much work i still need on all of my horses, but they're  all going well.  we went to the rocking horse event last weekend, but there was a big storm and several tornados.  the first day of the show was cancelled shortly after my dressage ride because all the EMTs were helping the tornado victims, rightfully so.  Prelim and intermediate remained a regular event, but i got to ride my dressage round twice - which was great, because the second time around was much better!!  the lower divisions were turned into combined tests, but jag (the young horse) had a nice dressage test and clean stadium round.  a successful show!  the weather is great down here - 60s and 70s and sunny , whereas in michigan the windchill in well below zero!  so thankful :-)  i'm having a lot of fun down here and i've met kids from several different barns.  bruce is good to work for and loves to crack jokes.  some days my horses are so bad i feel like trading them for a bag of peanuts and giving up horses altogether, but then miraculously they're wonderful the next day and i shower them with carrots.  i guess it's just the way things go!  i have several events coming up and hopefully a one star in march and or april.  i'll keep you posted.