Final Day!!!

Today started at 4am, getting up before the sun to prepare for jogs. All the horses were a bit tired from cross-country the previous day. But that didn't stop them from all passing the final inspections. After Clark Kent, Scott's horse was accepted him and his coach got together and decided to with draw him from show jump. Clark looked off his game today and didnt want to risk anything. While rider's were getting nervous to ride in the BIG rolex stadium the horses were relaxed and looking spiffy in their Antares saddle pads.

Madison Loving was first in the ring, riding super smooth and solid. Unfortunatley 2 rails fell from the cups with a total of 8 jump penalties. Piper Leddick was second in the ring, taking 3 rails with a total 12 jump penalties. Piper said she felt the nerves got the best of her. Zach Brandt gave our team a boost with one of the few double clean rounds of the day. Kaitlin Veltkamp with a bold round knocked the last rail of the triple combination. Keeping her 6th place individual position and contributing to the team silver medal.

Receiving the silver medal on the podium in the rolex stadium was not only an emotional moment for the riders, but for their parents and support system. This weekend overall was a success for Area VI CHJ* Team!!!!

Madison Loving:

As for me, riding as the individual from Area VI. This weekend was quite an experience, i feel so blessed to be riding at the junior olympics at The Kentucky Horse Park. The site where a lot of my idols have made their name. Miles was in the zone this weekend, acting as if he was from Kentucky. NAJYRC 2011 was a memory and learning experience for me. Making my one mistake on cross country when my horse jumped boldly off the bank and i rode straight and made a U-turn back to the C element crossing my tracks costing me 20 points. This was the first and hopefully the last time i make that mistake. I'm so proud of all of our riders from Area VI, what an adventure!!!!! Huge thanks to the grooms, coaches, and sponsors none of this could of happened with you.

Cross Country Day=Game Day.

Madison Reeb and Kelly Loria our amazing grooms in the rain!

Yes, those are rivers forming in the barn isles...

Madi Loving and Mile High in the coffin

Piper and Emmie, the first on the 1* course.

As our second day of competition rounded out, luck was on the side of Area VI. Riding in our Ariat polos of Navy and white with APF logos on the sleeve, we all looked completely snazzy, and so did the horses in their fleece works pads custom for Area VI! Driving to the barn in our ritual car ride with Coach Dayna, she explained to us about letting "your inner idiot out", so we all pretty much took it as going about your day light hearted and not taking everything so seriously. Good words of advice. On the other hand, we noticed a few days ago that the rain was supposed to hit on Saturday along with some thunder and lighting...Let's back track a little bit first.

Scott started out our day of cross county with a solid round except for one minor technical mistake which led to one refusal and 20 penalty points, but to anyone watching from the sidelines, Clark Kent was pumped and ready to go. Scott had to really bring back Clark for the first part of the course, but as the crowd watched, his horse was all game. Although one refusal did earn him some points, Scott moved up two placings into 17th.

The first one star rider on the team was Piper who ate up the course and too, had a strong horse out of the start box. Piper and Emmie were picked as the trail leaders of the 1* team because of their strong cross country record. Although the pressure was on, Piper and Emmie followed through and rode to Dayna's expectations with a clean round...minus 2 seconds time because of a slight detour towards the end of the course. After their round Piper was successfully able to fill Dayna in to prepare the other riders how the course was going.

Maddie Sexton was second out. Peter the Great was jumping like the champ we all expected, until Maddie and Peter parted ways several jumps from home. Maddie luckily had her Point Two Air vest on when unexpectedly she lost some impulsion going up to the big table in the woods off the steeple chase track and came off of her horse. Both Maddie and Peter were unharmed, but unfortunately Maddie was eliminated due to RF (Rider Fall). Maddie still kept up great spirits and never was seen without a smile on her face, that's the spirit!

Next was Zach who was standing in 7th place on Cavallino Cocktail(Scotty). Zach was confident going into his ride, but like Piper took the same "detour" towards the end of the course causing him some time penalties. The competition is so close that even though Zach only had a few penalties, he did not move up in the placings. BUT the show isn't over until it's over, especially in this crazy sport. It could all change tomorrow.

Madi Loving on another big grey beast followed after Zach, having a virtually clean ride. Until, it wasn't. Madi had trouble with Miles going into a down bank-coffin combo and when she couldn't get him back had to circle before the C of the combination, but the technical delegate of the show said because she crossed her tracks it was an error of 20 points, counted as a runout. Had she not had that error, she would be currently sitting on an individual score in 5th place.

Lastly to round out the team was Kaitlin. She felt pretty good going into the start box because she had gotten so much feedback, and sure enough, she went double clear! The only one on the team. Kaitlin now sits in 6th place going into tomorrows show jumping on Flashpoint D.

All of our riders truly had a great day, because despite any flaws, everyone held their head high as Dayna told us to when the day began. Like I said, luck was on our side because as soon as the last horse of the 1* division ended, the sky got black and the rain began. We suffered through about 4-5 hours of downpour in the barns and man did we get wet. Luckily, we are in an elevated barn on a hill so we didn't quite suffer the floods as bad as the other barns, but we did get a bit moist...Everyone keep your fingers crossed that we get sunshine tomorrow for stadium and some clean rounds!

Cheerio!

Area VI event team.

"Red Sun, Blue Winning Day"

The onlookers watching over Dressage...
Madison Loving and Mile High
Zach Brandt with Dayna Lynd Pugh
One of our amazing grooms and previous NAJYRC Gold Medalist, Kelly Loria, with Cavallino Cocktail
Piper Leddick with Dayna Lynd Pugh after her test!

Hello all!
For those of us who rode in Dayna's car on the way to the Kentucky Horse Park, our morning started off with this wise and ambitious saying, stated by the Dayna herself. As she gazed up at the red sun, she spoke of the luck it would bring us today, and after the success that we saw, I would say it was wise indeed.
Today was the official start to the riding part of the competition for us CH-J* riders, and a successful one for all of us on the CH-J* team. We all rode fairly early in the morning and, with coats waived, the weather was not too hot. Since we couldn't rock our shadbellys, we all got to sport some awesome Ariat polo shirts that were sponsored by the beautiful 3 Day Ranch and Southern California Equestrian Sports. The morning began with Piper Leddick on her horse Emmie Lou. She had a nice, consistent, and relaxed test, in which she got a qualifying 70.8. It was a great way to start off the morning and the rest of the day flowed just as smoothly. I rode next, on my horse NVR Peter the Great, and he looked quite flashy in his fluffy Fleeceworks dressage pad and his Professionals Choice boots. We scored a 63.5, which placed us in 20th, and I am very happy with how our test went. Following my ride was Zachary Brandt on his mare Cavallino Cocktail. His test was beautiful and scored an excellent 56.0, the highest of our team. Soon afterwards was Madison Loving on Mile High, who also had a very nice and smooth test. She scored a 57.3, just a point and a half away from our last rider, Kaitlin Veltkamp, who scored a 58.8. Our scores combined placed our team in 4th place with less than 10 points between us and the gold. After today's close scores, we have all realized that any point over the next few days will make a drastic difference in the competition.
Besides the dressage tests, today also proved to be a very smooth day in the barns. I would personally like to thank our grooms, who all woke up extra early to braid our wonderful horses. They helped around the barns and have proven to be good teachers when it comes to helping us learn how to manage the aisles. Since they woke up extremely early, they went back to sleep early, and my teammates and I showed that we can take the lessons that our grooms have taught us and we can step up and take care of business on our own. We worked quite well together and have been able to work as a cohesive team throughout the last few days, which I am extremely excited about and I cannot wait to continue to experience throughout the rest of the weekend!
Maddie Sexton
P.S. Tomorrow begins the eventful part, Cross Country, and after each walking the course three times, I know we are all excited and well prepared for it! I am also absolutely looking forward to the blog entry afterwards by my fellow teammate, Piper Leddick :)

NAJYRC Day 4: Two-Star Dressage "It's Business Time"

Today is the fourth day at NAJYRC and the horses are doing great. Everyone was so relieved after getting through the jogs. Before I get too far into the day it is important to give recognition to the people behind the scenes who don’t always get the appreciation. The grooms did an excellent job today getting up early to braid the horses and helping maintain the horses all day. Also we wouldn’t be here without the support of sponsors such as Fleeceworks who was generous enough to donate the sheep-skin dressage pads that I used on my horse today and Ariat who donated the team jackets that we will definitely be wearing in future shows.
In regards to dressage, the day went well but it was slightly disappointing that the ground jury imposed a mandatory waive on coats and top hats so I got to ride my dressage test in my team polo. Clark Kent went really well today and I’m proud of how well he did in the test today. Needless to say, I needed to work on my halts with him. I would like to personally thank Dawn Benson for the gift she worked so hard to send me. The team worked really well today and was nice enough to come out and support Clark and I. Finally, I would like to thank Dayna, Shannon, Tami, and David for their help in the warm-up.
The one-star team and their horses had a great jump school with Dayna and all the horses are jumping well and I hope the riders are feeling confident because they worked hard to be here and are going to do great on Saturday. After the jump school, Dayna walked the two-star and one-star cross country courses and gave a lot of excellent insight to the course. The two star course poses a lot of challenges to both the rider and the horse and will really test the horses’ endurance but I have a lot of confidence in Clark and I know whatever happens on Saturday he will try his heart out. At the end of a long day, Dayna and Shannon gave one of their Area VI famous speeches and got everyone motivated and properly organized for tomorrow. Thank you for following along with the blog and supporting Area VI in whatever way you can. It’s Business Time One-Star team!

And now the fun really starts

It has been another insane, yet absolutely fantastic, day at the Kentucky Horse Park! The day started out with another well-dressed (thanks to our sponsors at Professional's Choice and Antares) dressage outing for the entire team. According to our lovely coach, Dayna Lynd-Pugh, we were all looking great, and feeling pretty dang happy about it! My horse, Flashpoint D (a.k.a. Undie), while thinking it way too hot for riding, gave quite the effort to do everything I asked of him, and made me feel like we're gonna have a good round on Friday. Then it was back to the barns to clean, organize, and take care of all of the chores required to "intimidate the competition with our professional appearance" as Dayna put it. Thank you to our sponsors at Burlingham Sports for giving us discounted prices on the saddle and bridle racks used to keep our tack room looking so nice and manageable!
After lunch the preparations for the afternoon jog were shifted into high gear. Bathing, braiding, hoof painting, outfit changing, coat shinning, and pre-jog walking all came together to give us a greatly successful afternoon! Everyone looked absolutely stunning, and our horses cleaned up quite nicely indeed. After only a couple minor hiccups, our entire California eventing team passed the jogs, with navy and yellow colors flying. We are all totally thrilled to have passed our jogs with such ease, and are so happy to be able to call our portion of the NAJYRC officially underway :)
After a few group photos in front of our sponsorship banners, Zach went off for a jump schooling on his horse Catalina Cocktail which seemed to go fairly well in spite of the unfamiliar heat and humidity. Then it was off to the cross country course to get a taste of what we should expect come time to run cross country. David O'Connor has designed us a course that looks to be challenging yet fun for everyone on our team! Can't wait to get out there on Saturday and enjoy the reason us eventers do what we do!
The day ended with the official opening ceremony here at the park. It was so fun to see all of the different teams from all across the country, as well as Mexico and parts of Canada! It was held in the Rolex arena, and having finally been in there, I can not wait to ride in on Sunday and take our stadium round in there! The ceremony was fantastic, with a couple short speeches, individual introductions of each team and all of it's members, and a vaulting demonstration to close it all off. I must say, that is going to be one awesome addition to an already incredible championship horse show- some of the moves those kids pulled off on the backs of those horses were absolutely mind-blowing...
All in all a very happy and successful day today, and I'm sure we've got a few more in us :) Congrats to everyone on the team for having sound happy horses at the start of our three day competition! Best of luck to Scott Kuhlman tomorrow as he rides his two-star dressage test, we'll all be out there rootin' for him! :)
1* rider
Kaitlin Veltkamp

Crazy Karts

Hey everyone! Today was another hot and crazy day at the horse park here in Lexington Kentucky. All the horses looked bright eyed and ready to go! All of the riders had dressage lessons this morning with Dayna and are feeling confident about there upcoming tests. They looked fabulous in their Antares saddle pads and Professionals Choice white brushing boots! My fellow groom Madison Reebe and myself felt pretty classy in our Ariat Polos and Jackets-Thank you so much to all of our lovely sponsors! We are trying to get more pictures since our Grand Meadows banner arived!!
The main event of the day was the golf cart parade, in which area six made quite an impression. All of the riders helped to coat our tiny little cart in all things blue and yellow, in a crazy explosion of California spirit! Scott Kuhlman and Zach Brandt even went so far as to dress up and dye their hair blue! The poor cart was a little overwhelmed when all nine of us drove it over to the competitors barbeque. We lost some plastic flowers but not our pride!
Later on in the evening we all met up at the parents house where Mrs. Loving kindly had dinner waiting. I’m not sure where all us young riders would be with out our supportive parents who help us do what we love! After dinner Dayna and Shannon held a brief team meeting to plan out lessons and tell us the our ride order. Luckily we rew one of the later time slots, but will still have to wake up bright and early to start lessons before the 10 am briefing! -Kelly Loria team groom

Traveling

The horse’s journey to Lexington officially started this morning at 2:00 AM with a road trip to LAX. At 3:45 AM the EquiAir crew met us at the FedEx loading area to help get things in order for our 6:00 AM flight. They were awesome and have definitely done this a few times before. We quickly realized with all of the AREA VI equipment in 1 place, WE HAD A LOT! They managed to squeeze it all in.

During the hour plus while we were loading equipment, the horses were patiently waiting in the trailer, without food! It was finally their turn to load, Undie first followed by Miles, Peter, Emmie and Skotty. All loaded beautifully into the containers which looked like a 3 horse straight load with feed waiting for them. We filled two horse containers. Bruno from EquiAir was impressed with how well behaved our little beasts were.

After a long morning, we still had a long day ahead of us. I was lucky enough to have the honor of flying with the horses and the experience was amazing—one that cannot be described through writing! Needless to say, I will give it my best shot! So after we loaded all the equipment and all the horses onto the shipping containers, I hopped in and traveled from the FedEx loading area to the tarmac where we loaded the horses onto the plane. Then we loaded the shipping containers onto the plane. It was so cool to see how these horses travel and how calm they remained throughout the process. We took off from LAX at 6:15AM with the horses and the four other passengers on the plane—the pilot, the co-pilot, the flight attendant, and the groom from EquiAir, Tony. We landed in Indianapolis and the horses couldn’t have traveled better! I was absolutely exhausted from the day that I had had so far but I couldn’t have been more excited so I mustered up all the energy possible to get me through the rest of the day because I knew that in a few hours, the horses would arrive at the Kentucky Horsepark in Lexington, KY! By 5:30PM, it had hit! We were here! It was a wild feeling driving into the horsepark and knowing that all the hard work we had put in all these years had finally paid off! The horses’ ears were pricked and they were aware that something was in the air. Go Area VI!! We have quite a week ahead of us!!!

Your 1* team member,

Zach Brandt