Week + Weekend #2

4/20/10 - 4/25/10 Team Training.

This week/ weekend we successfully completed runthroughs at the canter multiple times. It was very pleasing. Of course, there were imperfections throughout, but only small details. It was tons of fun! Pally was so good, especially on Sunday for our last runthrough. He was so easy to vault on! I am so proud of that horse, I love him!

First, I'll tell you a little bit about our week... Tuesday was a compulsory day - Serious concentrated work on the horse and barrel. We really worked on our flight (handstands during the scissor exercise) and on our stands. We've got to be very concentrated and steady during our compulsories - we take time to visualize what we need to work on before we get on the horse, and then really focus on certain things once we're on. Comps have to be sooo perfect! Perfect practice makes perfect! All the same for freestyle! Wednesday, we only worked on the barrel, pin-pointing our choreography. Thursday was the first of our multiple run-throughs. We worked on the freestyle a lot on the barrel, did a lot of run-throughs, and then took it to the horse. SUCCESS!!! After the horse, we returned to the barrel and worked on the things that needed to be addressed. After practice, I went home to celebrate my dad's birthday - Happy (belated) Birthday Dad! Friday, just like Thursday, except the horse work was spot cleaning - work on certain parts rather than a run-through. We went good run on Friday afternoon, followed by some intense stretching! Now for Saturday and Sunday...

The focus of the weekend was freestyle, freestyle, freestyle. It was tiring, but very successful! We listened to our music, let it seep inside of us, and we vaulted to it with expression and passion. I love the strong dance influence that we have on the team! It gives vaulting so much more feeling! On Saturday, we went straight to the barrel in the morning and started to spot clean and choreograph EVEN MORE of the freestyle. Then, we did freestyle, after, freestyle, after freestyle! Lunch, and then more work on the barrel and freestyle parts on the horse. Sunday, DRESS-REHEARSAL! We did a very successful run-through on Palatine. I really think that the audience is going to enjoy our performance!

Speaking of performance, we will be having a F.A.C.E. Team Benefit Performance on May 9th at 5:00pm, at the Stanford Red Barn. If you would like to find out even more about our event, please e-mail me at horsetrayner@sbcglobal.net and/or find our event page on facebook. You can search "Equestrian Performance at Stanford Red Barn." I hope that you will be able to attend and be one of the first to see the F.A.C.E. Team perform in 2010!

Weekend #1 of 10 day training

4/15/10 - 4/18/10. Weekend #1 out of 10 day training camp. Just a short note -

Wow. Yawn. Ouch. Yay! Cool. Good boy Pally! Along with many more little comments like those... Successful weekend, very progressive. We did so so so sooooo much freestyle, on the horse and on the barrel. It was tiring, but defiantly fun, exciting, and enjoyable. I love this team to death! Palatine never ceases to amaze me. The increase in his abilities from last month to this month are huge! He is doing so well! In 2008, the last thing that came to my mind when I saw Pally was "freestyle horse," now, it's the first! He's an amazing freestyle horse! His canter flows so fluently and swiftly, he has such great movement. I can't wait to compete on him, he completely completes the performance! I love you, Pally!

Anna (banana waffles) and I got a lot of practice in on our part. It was really nice to be able to practice it over and over and over again. Although, it was pretty hard-core! Speaking of hard-core, we all went on the coolest bike ride around Woodside on Saturday. I got to ride my Bertin Racer bike for the first time. I was a little bit proud of myself for making it all the way up the hill on my bike, even around the "curve of death!" I've never been able to pedal all the way up! The nice sunny weather was inspiring this past weekend, it is so much better to vault in the warm, beautiful sunshine. I feel so much stronger, and much more fresh when it's nice out. I'm sure that is the same for the rest of the team, too! I hope that the weather stays on our side for the next weekend, crossing my fingers!

We'll be practicing all week and weekend long, so I'll write more in just a short while! I hope that you enjoy reading my blog!

Easter Weekend Training

4/1/10 - 4/4/10 - Our training weekend was a little different from the past weekends. We worked a lot on compulsories, horse and barrel, and a lot on stretching and strengthening. On Thursday, our team was moved from the gym that we were in, to a different room with a much lower ceiling, which made us hate the rain even more. Lot's of rain this weekend....

Thursday brought most of us sore arms. I wasn't sore, but I could tell that I used my arms a lot the next day! Compulsory drills on the ground, torcher stretching, workout, coping with low ceiling day. Friday, the sun came out and let us vault on the horse and outside in the sun for most of our practice. That was nice!

On Saturday, we drove out to Half Moon Bay and used the Palmer's wonderful gym (with a high ceiling) to vault on the barrel and work out. Thank you to the Palmer family for opening up their place for our team's use! When we went back to Woodside, the sun had stayed out since Friday, the arena had drained, and we got to work on Palatine. We worked on compulsories, followed by my flying parts at the canter, and some other freestyle work. I stayed at practice for about an hour longer so that Devon and I could work on our second flying part. Now, I'm not going to tell you anymore about my flying parts, they are surprises and you'll have to come to the competitions and watch our team to see them! I will tell you one more thing though, they are pretty cool!

For me, Easter Sunday meant church and Easter stuff with my family in the morning, so I was a little late to practice. The day was short, and packed with lots of compulsory drills, and jumping drills, and handstand/ scissor exercises. O yea, and we had a major meeting about the uniforms, which I think people will really get excited about this year! Devon and I carried on the smoothing process of my flying parts, and although we didn't get to go on the horse, we watched it rain and made the best of what we had. Simple weekend. Not everyone was there and the sky was against us, so please, come back and read more within the next couple weeks, for an exciting dose of our team's training! We have a 10 day training period starting Thursday, April 15, and I might even get my dad to take some pictures!

See ya!

P.S. Please visit this website - www.facevaulting.com and if you can, please make a donation! Anything is extremely helpful, even $5. Our team is in the hopes of going to Aachen, Germany, in June to compete in the Aachen CHIO*,**, The World Equestrian Festival. Please help us get to Aachen, and Kentucky, we need YOU!!!

Team Training Weekend of 3/5/10

This weekend was major progress - Everything is flowing so smoothly, and working so well! This weekend was long, and packed with hard work, both barrel and horse. We can all be proud of ourselves. On Friday we put almost all of the freestyle (only one part left out) on the horse at the canter, and each of them worked successfully! I did all 3 of my flying parts a lot on the horse this weekend. With some edits and new ideas, we put a few things on the horse on Saturday, and met success once again! On Sunday, we were all tired but we managed even more freestyle success. YAY! Many thanks to Carolyn for longing us, and many more thanks to Palatine - the BOMB freestyle horse!

Palatine pushed past all of his little problems this weekend and gave our team an exquisite freestyle canter. He was such a good boy, I mean really, this weekend he was absolutely amazing! I love that horse, I'm sure I've said this a million times, but Palatine has so much expression, attitude, and determination to please. He really stands out.

Compulsory wise, we did ok this weeknd. We were focused a lot more on our freestyle so the compulsory quality didn't shine as much.... Although, Rosey, Mari, Nicole, and Anna (Banana) were all hitting handstands! It's so weird that I have to do my compulsories internationally this year. It's an odd thought when I really think about it.

The team will be training through this whole week and through this next weekend. Half day's on Tuesday and Thursday and all day (9am 'til 6:30pm) Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'll be writing again soon! I'm going to ask my dad to come and be our team photographer/ video guy for this weekend. I miss him taking lots of pictures - In 2008, my dad was the team's constant, personal papparazzi!

Talk to ya later!

Training and Adventures - Weekend of 2/20/10

Hi readers! This past training weekend was far different from any other we have had so far. It was fun, and we got very dirty! Friday was usual training - Running, conditioning, stretching, freestyle, and compulsory work. We got Pally out to find that he was going to be the farthest thing from naughty, or stiff, or tired, or slow. He was SOOOOO good! Pally was light and floaty under saddle, and he gave us the greatest compulsory canter. I love vaulting on Pally, we just have one conflict - my height vs. his height/ the handles.... Blah..... I canter on the ground just barely enough to get a jump, and where I ideally want to reach is just out of range... I'm drinking lots of milk, maybe a half more inch will get me there! Ok now, back to this weekend.....


So as I said, Friday was normal training, good hard work, but we get to Saturday and it's a whole different story - we went on a team adventure, a real adventure. Due to the USEF High Performance Camp being at the Frankel's on Saturday, we couldn't be in our club house, or use the arena. Really, there was no where for us to train, so, we all piled into my mom's truck and drove to Hallmark Park for out first adventure - a 3 mile cross country run. Devon and Mary finished in 27 minuets, while Karly, Nicole, and I (Mari went on a bike ride while we ran because of her ankle.) finished in 29. For 3.1 miles, that's not bad! The whole time I was looking down at animal tracks, and grabbing twigs and tall grass along the way. I like to do funny things like that when I run :-P We saw some jack rabbits, but nothing else. It was a good run.


After the run we piled back into the truck and drove to the Santa Cruz mountains where we went on a hike to a "secret" cave entrance where Devon took us spelunking, or "cave diving," in Hell Hole (also called the Face's Cave). Let me tell you, it was very intense. We had to fit through little holes and spaces, up and down, and squeeze through the treacherous "birth canal." Ok, so it wasn't treacherous, but Devon admitted that he was a little scared and that his butt must have grown a little since college. Sorry Devon, I just had to say that! It was easier for me to go through all of the little spaces but I thought that I was going to die at one point when I couldn't reach any of the hand or foot holds climbing up a rock, and not just any rock, but the side of a wet, muddy rock, with 50 foot holes on either side and a little rope to hold onto.... I was sincerely scared! Without Devon and Nicole I would not have made it out. FINALLY, we emerged into the sunlight, caked with mud and sopping with wet, muddy sloshed clothing, after 2 hours in the cave and hiked back to the truck, drove to lunch, and drove back to Woodside.

The USEF Camp was over by the time we got back to the Frankel's so we stretch and did some compulsory work for a couple hours. Nicole and I drove the truck back to my house (over Hwy 17 for the 4th time in a day) and slept like rocks! We awoke Sunday morning and drove the truck over to a real day of practice in Woodside, though we had to endure hours of indoor compulsory work due to the rain. In the evening we were able to get the horse out, thank God the rain stopped! And after that, we concluded the clinic with freestyle run throughs. Few! Long weekend, as you can see!

Sun and Vaulting

O my gosh, thank you God for a beautiful, warm, sunny week! I'm able to go outside without a snow or rain suit on (we don't get snow, but it does get cold and icy...) and do something rather than slosh around in puddles and watch all of the sand in the arena flow as a river into the road. Yay! This time, I'm going to tell you a little more about my individual vaulting -

I'm training a new horse, my mom's horse, Bosco Allegro, for vaulting. He is learning very fast. So far, I can do anything I want at the walk, a bunch of moves and all of the compulsories at the trot, along with mount, and a few moves at the canter. I love his canter, it has a very flowing rhythm! I can't wait 'til I can canter my whole freestyle on him. I'm hoping he'll be ready for Ca. Gold at the Garrods Spring Fest. That would be nice... In the mean time, I'm getting Buddy back in vaulting shape. He takes a little more work than the other horses, actually, a lot. Buddy gets fat just looking at the hay barn!

A day of training with my horses usually includes hand walking or riding them up El Solyo (a very large hill just down the road) to warm up and strengthen their hind ends, then I ride Buddy and Handsome to warm them up, mom longes Bosco, and THEN, we vault on one horse after the other. My mom makes all of this happen. She does so much for me and the horses - longing, coaching, all kinds of things! I love her. My mom is a brilliant horse person - she has had horses for her whole life. Thank you mom for all you are doing for me, and what have already done!

Since we didn't have a team clinic this week, I was really able to focus on all of my training with Bosco, Handsome (my other vaulting horse), Buddy, and my individual vaulting. Riding Okie, too! I've been getting in some really good workouts and real time to isolate my freestyle and drill it to music. You must know about my vaulting, that my arm movements are never the same - I let the music influence them so that I can dance during my freestyle. I can't wait to compete/ perform my freestyle this year. It's going to be fun! I really would like to do some performances at big horse shows.......! It would be so so so much fun!

Well, that's it for this time. I've got a team clinic this weekend (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) so i'll be writing soon again!

Training Weekend 2/5/10

Training week of 2/5/10 - This weekend's training was good, hard work, exploding with artistry, emotion, and sweat. It was very productive, and fun. This weekend, we definitely pin pointed the performance aspect and the little things that we really need to focus on, like hand holds, foot placements, etc... Lot's of little exact things... On Saturday, we sat down for hours, and HOURS talking and focusing on the freestyle, move by move. Refining, editing, cutting, and redoing our "old freestyle" into the real thing that is going to make you shiver. The same process on Sunday, except the sky was blue and we took a lot of it to the horse. I'm feeling very successful after that horse practice, and I'm sure the whole team is as well. Thank you to the Palmer's for letting us use their wonderful gym on our rainy Saturday! It really helped us out!

I think that the audience will enjoy our freestyle, and possibly even find the beautiful story within. It's so interesting to make up a freestyle with this team. The funny things we do, say, and act out... It's so fun. The whole process of going through the year and editing, practicing and performing the freestyle is great. I love it, and I always will! I can't wait until Garrods... and everything else ahead this year!

I am feeling very good about my vaulting this year. Probably more than last year. I keep excelling - reaching my higher goals, like flexibility, stamina, and strength (I've just about gotten that perfectly perfect needle on my right as well as my left getting close!). The same is happening with the rest of the team. We are all becoming stronger, more flexible, and can run a lot farther that we could when we started! And, the best part is, we all seem to have a lot of fun when we workout and train for those long, long clinic days! This weekend was a good example.

Now, the most important part of this weekend our horse, Palatine. He was such a good boy. He carried us very well. Palatine definitely felt better than he did during our last training weekend. He's all recovered from his shots and has a, clean, fixed up, happy mouth! "Pally" has his little ups and downs every now and again, but doesn't every horse? He's such a cool horse because he is aware of his job, and he knows what he needs to do. When he has a tough time, you can tell that he is trying really hard to push through it. Pally has an amazing mind set. I love him!