Merry Christmas, Here's to the New Year

Merry Christmas everyone!

It is amazing how fast the year 2011 has flown by and now year 2012 is nearly upon us. I am one step closer to achieving my degree from OSU, and therefore, closer to marrying the man of my dreams :) I have decided that we are going to have a little fun with the blog now, and we are going to do a little bio on each of our horses that are currently here at Rockin' Shamrock Ranch. Back when I first created the blog, I gave a quick run down on each horse, and now I am going to go in depth on each horse, and will even bring back a few familiar faces, and horses that I rode for extended periods of time for people.

So our first entry in the "Biography of our Horses" section will be...

CASTLEBAR FRIDAY

O'Malley as he is known around the barn, is a coming 13 year old Bay Irish Sport Horse gelding, He stands right at 17 hands tall. I imported O'Malley as a 7 year old from Ireland, in January of 2006 and he has been a blessing to my life for the past 6 years. After arriving in the states, O'Malley and I did our first event at Holly Hill in the Open Training division, we had an okay dressage, a good show jumping, and a very educational cross country round. He was amazing, until jumping into the main field, and suddenly there were tons of people, and that was it and he wanted no part of the people. Our next outing was a success compared to our first outing. Greenwood was next on the list, and our dressage, since we had another month to prepare, was remarkably better, show jumping great again, and he ran around cross country clean. Since, we were improving by leaps and bounds, we decided to go ahead and bump up to Prelim, at Crosstar. Dressage was good, and then cross country was next. After starting out the cross country well, I fell at the water, as O'Malley decided to leave the stride out to the hanging rail, and then stop at the bank, I did NOT get wet :) however, I did leave the show with a prize, a broken thumb. By the time I was home, I had called the vet, who I had planned on fixing my hand, until we realized that it was completely shattered, and surgery it was. After, my trainer rode O'Malley all summer, as I was off from surgery, and then at Young Riders with Vince, we came out in the fall, and had success at Greenwood, and Holly Hill. Both at Training level.

Spring of 2007 came and we started out our year at Training, O'Malley won the dressage, and held on to the lead after a perfect show jumping. However, again it was not our show, and he injured himself in warm up for cross country. After a month off, and slow rehab of a torn hamstring, O'Malley came back out at Briar Fox placing 6th. He had a very successful fall season after a very success summer of 2007.

Spring of 2008 we decided to go east for some early spring shows, catching Poplar Place and Pine Top, both at Training level, and both with super results!! 5th at Poplar, and 6th at Pine Top. Holly Hill in April, we would move back up to Prelim again, and this time would have good results. He ran Prelim at Holly Hill, Greenwood, Mill Creek, Briar Fox (which he won) Maui Jim, Plantation, the AEC's and Greenwood again for the area Championships.

2009 brought good results again for O'Malley and I runs at Prelim at Holly Hill, his first CIC* at Greenwood.

2010 O'Malley came out at Holly Hill again in the Prelim, and we got about half way around the course, when I realized, that I had no breaks left... So decided that I wanted to go home in one piece I walked off the course, so we reevaluated our breaks, and moved back to Training. He ran Training at Greenwood, had a win at Briar Fox, and a great outing at the Colorado Horse Park, and then for the fall we took a break from competing and worked on getting better.

2011 we came out with a vengeance for wanting it all again. O'Malley competing at Feather Creek, Mill Creek, Texas Rose, and Holly Hill, and he placed at every single event. O'Malley and I will be moving back up to Prelim at the beginning of 2012, and will be looking forward to Intermediate hopefully spring of 2013.

O'Malley around the barn is the fun, lovable, giant teddy bear. Everyone can ride him, and he loves attention. He absolutely loves food of any sort, and his all time favorite treat has to be applesauce. Yes, my horse eats applesauce, and eats it right out of the container. He has never met a stranger, and will give kisses to anyone who stops long enough at his stall. In the field, O'Malley is near the top of the pecking order, and his best friend would have to be Harry.

I hope to one day take O'Malley Advanced, and he would then be the first horse that I would have produced to the top level by myself. I have been the only one to ever compete O'Malley and I hope that never changes. I hope that our success will soon land us some very valuable sponsors, who want to be a part of the great horses' career. I have pledged to doing things right by O'Malley and if we ever, need to, we will drop back down the levels, to get it right.

Fall Fandango and new ponies

So this post is long overdue. But here are the results from Fall Fandango

We arrived in Houston late on Thursday night, unloaded the horses (Bennett, Foxy, Sugar, Pancho, Playgirl, Wee Man, Tina, and Chiquita) into the huge arena pasture that they would be living in for the next 4 days, gave them hay, and grain and then headed to the hotel.

Friday morning we (Rader, Jules, Kallie, and I) got up early, ate breakfast at the hotel, and went out to take care of our ponies. We decided the night before that we would ride the ponies in the morning to tune them up and ourselves up before our match at 3:30. We proceed to feed the ponies, clean take and exercise our noble steeds. We had a meeting at 1 for the players, so we grabbed a quick lunch, and went to the beautiful facility where the matches were going to be held. On our way to lunch, the wonderful, Parker, made an appearance to help us for the weekend.

The meeting was held, and as soon as it commenced we raced to the barn and picked up our ponies, arrived back at the arena and watch the Texas A&M girls finish playing the Texas Tech girls.

Our game started a little late, but we played the University of Texas girls first. We played a hell of a game and won with a final score of 15-4 YAHOO. That brought us our final qualifying score for regionals in the spring!!!! After finishing our game, the boys of A&M, Tech, and SMU played a "round robin" type game and we hot walked the horses for the SMU boys. During the boys game, my wonderful parents arrived to watch us play on Saturday. :) We finished up with the boys, loaded our horses, took them home, gave grain and hay, and headed back to the hotel.

Saturday morning brought an early morning, as our game was at 11. So we were at the barn by 8 am, and loaded and headed to the arena around 9:30. Our second game, would be a rematch again Texas Tech. Our game started on time, and by the end, we had dominated with a commanding 16-2. That ended our weekend, with 2 wins, and a total of 31 points for us, and only 6 points against us!! GO POKES!!!

We loaded our ponies after our game, and took them back to the beautiful farm where they were staying, went back to the hotel showered, changed, and then my parents took the 4 girls to a late lunch/early dinner at a great little mexican place that we found! After eating, we returned to the arena to watch the boys play again. After some great polo, we went back to the hotel, and got some much needed sleep, so we could load up and head home Sunday morning.

We were on the road by 10 am Sunday morning, and we were back in Stillwater by 9pm. We picked up 2 new polo ponies on the way home, and while we were picking up the 2nd, we got in a few "Sunday Chukkas" in Decatur, Texas!! WAY TOO MUCH FUN. The OSU polo team received an 8 year old bay mare named Berlin, and an 18 year old grey gelding named Tornado. They are great ponies!!!

That next week we gained another new horse, a 3 year old black/brown mare named Skyy who we got off the track. You would never know that she was off the track however, other than her first time out in the pasture when she ran around like a madman lol. I sat on her 2 days after getting her, we did a little walk and trot, and I could swing a mallet, and hit balls, as well as have Meaghan throw balls at her!! What a star!!

That is about it for now, so until next time...

*Kick On* *Bump Harder*

End of Fall Eventing Season and Polo

So the Fall Season has come and gone, and for my horses, O'Malley and Harry they only got out once this fall. But man, did they come out with a bang!!! Both boys competed this past weekend at Holly Hill HT, and Holly Hill is probably my favorite event of all times! I had a great weekend, and a great support team behind me now. While my summer was turned upside down, I now know that I do have the greatest people behind me! Thank you to my wonderful groom, Meaghan, my daddy for driving down Friday and completely taking care of O'Malley after Cross Country to so I could jump on Harry for Show-jumping, my amazing coach Meighan who was behind me all weekend and to everyone else in the barn who was there to cheer us on!!!

O'Malley started the weekend in 3rd place after dressage in the Senior Training Rider with a very respectable 35.5, then went on to show jumping and with 1 rail, moved down to 7th. Sunday morning brought cross country day for O'Malley and after a blazing fast clean cross country run, O'Malley finished the weekend in 4th place!!! WHAT A SUPER STAR. Not too shabby when you consider that I haven't had a lesson since August, and we haven't competed since June!

Harry started the weekend off in 12th place in the Beginner Novice Horse with a fabulous 38.1!!!! GREAT considering that his last time out he earned a 49... Then Harry went on to cross country after his dressage test, and had a very shaky warm up, Harry had a blazing cross country round for a double clear ride :) Harry was unbelievably rideable after we left the very scary warm up ring, that contained killer ponies :) Then Harry show jumped Sunday early afternoon, and while I had to work for it, I got the wonder pony around clear and inside the time!!! He truly is amazing. (and still for sale hehe) Harry finished the weekend in 5th place!!!

Polo has been amazing this semester, with the announcement of the Varsity team who are, Julie Fitz, Brittany Rader, Kallie Hainline, and I, and then us deciding that we are going to compete at Fall Fandago this coming weekend!! We played Texas Tech 2 weeks ago and our Varsity team slammed them all the way back to Lubbock winning 17 to 6!

Until Next time,

*Kick On, and Bump Harder*

1st Polo Match, and Gallery Farm CT

The first polo match of the season has come and gone. The OSU polo club had an inner-club exhibition match on September 24. It was awesome!!!! We played 3 chukkas and I was in on two of them. The first chukka I played Bennett, and was part of "the dream team" :) which consisted of Aaron on 8, Jerzey on Sugar, and Me on Bennett. AMAZING to say the least. Then the third chukka I played Pancho, and had some amazing plays on my part. I some how by the grace of god, got Pancho moving and we were very competitive, and fast. Then I had an amazing off-side back shot from a full gallop :) SO MUCH FUN.

After the match I had lunch/dinner with my amazing friends and family that had come to watch us play. Then on Sunday, I loaded my own horses up and drove to Gallery Farm for a little schooling show just to get the boys out and keep them tuned up. Harry competed in the BN division, and he was great, earning a 41.9 on his dressage test, which for us score wise is the best so far, but considering what he has been doing at home, wasn't quite up to par. Harry did not like the half walls of the indoor in which we rode our test, but I kept his lid on, and we kept all 4 feet on the ground and in the ring. Then he did XC, and he was amazing, we are actually trying a new bit, less bit actually. I was having bitting issues while trying to turn, as I had too much :) so Harry pony is awaiting his new "Nathe" snaffle to arrive from SmartPak. O'Malley just did 2 dressage tests. I rode Prelim Test B and Intermediate Test A.I thought personally, that the Intermediate Test was better than his Prelim Test, he was much more relaxed, and was through completely. However, because he was a little bit "hot" for his Prelim test, it was a very fancy test and scored an amazing 26.5 :) what a good boy. His Intermediate Test had 1 break in his counter canter, which was my fault, I didn't keep his hindquarters perfect... But for his first Intermediate test, and in his double bridle, I will take the 42.3 that we earned :)

Needless to say, I am very excited for Holly Hill, both boys are entered, O'Malley will run Training and Harry is in the Beginner Novice. Texas Rose is hopefully next for the Event boys. As for Polo, Texas Tech will be here October 22, and we are trying to get in for Fall Fandango in Houston on the first weekend of November!!! Included are pictures from the match and one of Harry at Gallery Farm.

Until next time,

*Kick On* *Bump Harder*

Fall Season Eventing and POLO

Hey guys!

This fall is looking like it is going to be fairly light. My classes are not going to be as easy to skip as they have been in the past. Holly Hill is still on my calendar and I am planning on going but it might not happen... If it does then O'Malley will run Training more than likely, maybe Prelim ;) and Harry will do one last Beginner Novice!! Then Texas Rose is for sure on my calendar! Definitely going back to Tyler this November, happy birthday to me ;) O'Malley will run Prelim and hopefully Harry will do Novice.

Harry will also be competing at Gallery Farm in a schooling show, BN, and the great Dash De Kas, aka Troll will be making an appearance once again. My mom will be brining my old partner out of retirement and they will be doing the Intro dressage tests (hehe a Prelim horse doing W/T). They should fair pretty well at their debut together. Troll was my partner from 2002 to 2005 jumping from Novice to Prelim in 7 months. Troll was retired at the end of 2005 due to injury, and has sense been a pasture pet. However, my moms' riding interest has been sparked again, and Troll is the man for her.

As for Polo, the first match is Sept 24 in Stillwater, then we have the lovely Longhorns from UT coming to Stillwater on Oct 8 for a match, and then a match again at the end of October during Homecoming weekend!! Look for the Oklahoma State Polo Club around this fall :) Currently I have been schooling off of Chiquita, and Bennett, and recently (as in yesterday;)) Sequal. This year should be solid for the women's team!

Look for some new photos of Harry soon, the wonderful team photographer, Meaghan, took some great ones of him this past week!! As, keep an eye out for some polo photos soon hopefully!

Until next time,

*Kick On, and Bump Harder*

ReCap of Spring/Summer of 2011

First off, here are some pictures from this spring, Harry and O'Malley at Mill Creek P.C. competing at the Beginner Novice and Training levels respectively.
A lot has changed around Horse Heaven Farm this past spring and summer. As most people know, I lost my beloved Shorty this past spring. I had to make the hardest decision of my life, but I know that he is no longer in pain, and he is forever happy and running cross country with the likes of Teddy O'Connor and the rest of the fallen event horses.

On a brighter note, O'Malley and Harry have both been going great lately. O'Malley finished up the spring season with a run at Feather Creek in the Open Training finishing 8th, a run a Mill Creek P.C. in the Open Training finishing 3rd, and a final run for the summer at Texas Rose finishing 5th. He is getting faster, stronger and easier to ride every day. He went to a rated jumper show, which was the Go Preview in Oklahoma City, and he showed in the 3'3 and the 3'6 classes all week. He was good for most of his classes, and we used this a learning experience for the two of us to strengthen our show jumping abilities together. He placed 6th in the 3'6 High Adult/Am jumpers which in turn was the "Ride for the Ribbon" class, bringing home $50 :) I was so proud of him. He fall season is looking like Holly Hill running one last Training level, and then onto Texas Rose for his first run a Prelim again in 2 years!

Harry has been improving day in and day out. He still at this point remains for sale. He ran Feather Creek at Beginner Novice and it was an eye opening experience for the two of us. Harry then ran Mill Creek P.C. at Beginner Novice and he was night and day difference from Feather Creek just three weeks earlier. He finished 7th in a very competitive division, and he would have been higher placed if he would had a better warm up for dressage, however, when you are only allowed 15 minutes from the start of one ride the the start of your second horse, you don't' get much warm up to say the least :) He would have gone on to compete at Texas Rose, but a quarter crack gone bad, sidelined him for most of the summer. So Harry, spent his summer doing dressage and getting his fancy pants tuned up. He is now solid Training level with his dressage and is starting to learn Should In. What a star :) I took him to Feather Creek in July to school cross country and by the end of the he was jumping Training level, and never took one look at the Training Level water at the end of the course. Harry also did the Go Preview in Oklahoma City, and he did the 2'9, 2'11 and the 3' jumpers. By the end of the week he was back to the horse I knew he could be and was confidently cantering around the 3' courses on a loose rein. His fall season is looking like Holly Hill at Beginner Novice, and then Texas Rose at Novice if Holly Hill goes well.

So that's pretty much my spring/summer in a nut shell. School has started and Polo starts next week :) Until next time, Kick On