10/8/10 - Just wanted to pop in a quick note saying that the F.A.C.E. Team is having a great, and so far successful, time here at WEG! All of our training has been paying off - we are in the lead of the competition after compulsories (Score of 7.207)! Yay! Go USA! Second comes Germany, with a score of 6.996, and then Austria with a score of 6.990.
Today we will be competing our first round of team freestyle around 5:30pm (Eastern time). We are very excited, and of course a little nervous. This morning/ afternoon we will be preparing for our performance - hair, make-up, sports-psychology session with Katie, and warming up for our go. We'll also be supporting our fellow Team USAer's as they compete individually.
Taking lot's of pictures. The horse park is absolutely beautiful! I've gotten to watch some Stadium Jumping, but I've mostly been spending my time in the vaulting arena, the barn, walking around the shops, and trading pins! It's tons of fun!
Palatine is doing marvelously! He received the highest team horse score on Wednesday, and we are VERY proud of our beautiful, amazing boy! He's doing such a good job. He's happy to be here! We love you Pally! :-)
Keep us grounded! Wish us luck!
Friday, October 8, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Quick note - Training update!
9/16/10 - Training Update - Week 2 -
Every day, we go to the barn between 8 and 10am. From then on, practice, walking horses, cleaning stalls, grooming horses, turning them out, working-out, washing horses, riding horses, having fun, going in the boat at the lake, etc... starts! It's so fun to be there all day! I've been able to ride Cheval around - Trails, road, arena, in the fields, we can do it all, and BAREBACK! He's so much fun to ride! And just want to say, a big THANK YOU to Tammy (barn owner) for her amazing hospitality. Thank you for opening your home and facility up to all of us crazy vaulters. Without you and your family, this would never be able to happen!
Ok, so for that training update, we've been working pretty hard in this hot, humid weather. Every day we've been working on the barrel, going for a short run, and doing lot's of stretching. Conditioning, too. It's like being in Europe, it feels like Germany, looks like Germany, and we're doing what we'd be doing if we were in Germany. It's great! The only thing that's different is that everyone here speaks English, and Cheval, Pally, Spike, Rubin, Phoenix, Hobie, and Hudson are here. All of out babies :-) They're such good ponies!
Our last freestyle training practice went quite well - I did all of my freestyle parts just about perfectly! The beginning of the freestyle is on it's way to WEG quality, and Devon't Pas de Deux is looking great with Rosey. It's really coming along well. Compulsories are proving a little more challenging, but tomorrow (Friday) we are only going to focus on them. We are also going to try a little different surcingle that proved to do us better before.
Today, we did a lot of compulsory drills, too. Mount, mill, scissors, and 1st half of Flank were the main focuses. And, I'm so excited, I FINALLY got a little sore on my belly button! Now, mine isn't bleeding (not that much) like the other girls were not to long ago, but hey, I finally earned my bruises! I'm so proud of myself! HA! The things I get excited about in this sport, gotta love vaulting!
Today we also did each of our freestyle mounts 6 times, and I did all of my parts 3+ times. That was fun. Devon, and Nanners, I have a nice little bruise on my arm from one of your vice-grips! I haven't figured out who this one is from.... hehehehe ;-)
So... I'll be waking up bright and early tomorrow to training my brain with homework, and then training my body for WEG! WHOOHOO! I had, yet again, another extreme realization that we are GOING TO THE WORLD EQUESTRIAN GAMES!!!!! YAY!
Talk soon! And don't worry, I'm taking some pictures!
Every day, we go to the barn between 8 and 10am. From then on, practice, walking horses, cleaning stalls, grooming horses, turning them out, working-out, washing horses, riding horses, having fun, going in the boat at the lake, etc... starts! It's so fun to be there all day! I've been able to ride Cheval around - Trails, road, arena, in the fields, we can do it all, and BAREBACK! He's so much fun to ride! And just want to say, a big THANK YOU to Tammy (barn owner) for her amazing hospitality. Thank you for opening your home and facility up to all of us crazy vaulters. Without you and your family, this would never be able to happen!
Ok, so for that training update, we've been working pretty hard in this hot, humid weather. Every day we've been working on the barrel, going for a short run, and doing lot's of stretching. Conditioning, too. It's like being in Europe, it feels like Germany, looks like Germany, and we're doing what we'd be doing if we were in Germany. It's great! The only thing that's different is that everyone here speaks English, and Cheval, Pally, Spike, Rubin, Phoenix, Hobie, and Hudson are here. All of out babies :-) They're such good ponies!
Our last freestyle training practice went quite well - I did all of my freestyle parts just about perfectly! The beginning of the freestyle is on it's way to WEG quality, and Devon't Pas de Deux is looking great with Rosey. It's really coming along well. Compulsories are proving a little more challenging, but tomorrow (Friday) we are only going to focus on them. We are also going to try a little different surcingle that proved to do us better before.
Today, we did a lot of compulsory drills, too. Mount, mill, scissors, and 1st half of Flank were the main focuses. And, I'm so excited, I FINALLY got a little sore on my belly button! Now, mine isn't bleeding (not that much) like the other girls were not to long ago, but hey, I finally earned my bruises! I'm so proud of myself! HA! The things I get excited about in this sport, gotta love vaulting!
Today we also did each of our freestyle mounts 6 times, and I did all of my parts 3+ times. That was fun. Devon, and Nanners, I have a nice little bruise on my arm from one of your vice-grips! I haven't figured out who this one is from.... hehehehe ;-)
So... I'll be waking up bright and early tomorrow to training my brain with homework, and then training my body for WEG! WHOOHOO! I had, yet again, another extreme realization that we are GOING TO THE WORLD EQUESTRIAN GAMES!!!!! YAY!
Talk soon! And don't worry, I'm taking some pictures!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
First Day of Training in TN -Compulsories
9/12/10 - On Sept. 10, the whole FACE team was reunited to each other after 10 days off of team training. While we are here prior to WEG, we will be training 6 days a week (Monday we have off). This was our first 3 day weekend "clinic." It went ok. It deffinatly proved to be a "LEARNING" weekend, really enabling us to set into WEG training mode.
Day 1 - Friday Compulsory Day - Today was the first time I'd ever been to the barn, and boy did (and do) I love it! It's so beautiful there - The horse facility is lovely, the grass is all green, and the environment refreshing and relaxing (well, when it's not pouring rain with thunder and lighteninr!). All of the horses are happy and healthy. Pally, Cheval, and Van Dyck made it to TN piece of cake! I helped Carolyn with some horse chores for the firt part of the day. Turned out the horses, took Pally on the walk, groomed Pally, cleaned his stall, etc... It was fun! Right in my element!
Training was ok, not perfect, but there were good qualities. Everyone was a little rusty from the time off of team training. Some of us had actually almost 10 days off of vaulting completely. Pally had some pent up energy from being in his stall, and is still recovering from the drive to TN. He was a little frisky at practice! We worked a lot on the first 3 comps, also a little scissors/ clicks and stand. With some more focus and "grounded" energy, it would have turned out 10 times better, but hey, first practice! :-)
Barrel training consisted of drills and compulsory run-throughs. Some strength training on the ground, stretching, and a short run.
Blake and I trained on Cheval in the early afternoon, just for fun, but it was actually really good training. We only worked on first 3 comps and stand. Cheval is perfect for that kind of training! I am focusing more and more on my riding seat - Conciously trying to do it like I am riding in the perfect dressage seat, totally in flow with the horse. Let me tell you though, it's much more difficult when you have short legs! hehehehe ;-) My flag seems to be getting stronger. And my mill is on it's way.
Day 1 - Friday Compulsory Day - Today was the first time I'd ever been to the barn, and boy did (and do) I love it! It's so beautiful there - The horse facility is lovely, the grass is all green, and the environment refreshing and relaxing (well, when it's not pouring rain with thunder and lighteninr!). All of the horses are happy and healthy. Pally, Cheval, and Van Dyck made it to TN piece of cake! I helped Carolyn with some horse chores for the firt part of the day. Turned out the horses, took Pally on the walk, groomed Pally, cleaned his stall, etc... It was fun! Right in my element!
Training was ok, not perfect, but there were good qualities. Everyone was a little rusty from the time off of team training. Some of us had actually almost 10 days off of vaulting completely. Pally had some pent up energy from being in his stall, and is still recovering from the drive to TN. He was a little frisky at practice! We worked a lot on the first 3 comps, also a little scissors/ clicks and stand. With some more focus and "grounded" energy, it would have turned out 10 times better, but hey, first practice! :-)
Barrel training consisted of drills and compulsory run-throughs. Some strength training on the ground, stretching, and a short run.
Blake and I trained on Cheval in the early afternoon, just for fun, but it was actually really good training. We only worked on first 3 comps and stand. Cheval is perfect for that kind of training! I am focusing more and more on my riding seat - Conciously trying to do it like I am riding in the perfect dressage seat, totally in flow with the horse. Let me tell you though, it's much more difficult when you have short legs! hehehehe ;-) My flag seems to be getting stronger. And my mill is on it's way.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday - Team USA Clinic - 8/21, 22/10
Sunday - Team USA Clinic -
More vaulting on Sunday. At 8am, we had an hour follow up Sports Psychology session with Katie Purvelle, doing a couple communication exercises and learning a couple more tools for focusing, concentration, preparation, and all that good stuff! Also going over some of the tools we learned the day before, settling into the ones that we all agreed would really be beneficial to us.
For the next hour, we had a session with Isabelle Bibbler. With Isabelle, we watched our freestyle on the computer and took notes on things that we needed to work on. Things like where we were looking, straight legs, pointed toes, making things exact... Mostly fine details. Then, Isabelle took her notes to the barrel and worked through our freestyle with us. It was very helpful. I am working extra hard on my straight legs and pointed toes after all of the critiqueing that Isabelle gave me!
The team continued to work on the freestyle with Emma Seely after our time with Isabelle. Emma continued the critique of our freestyle - little details, finess, and pin-points. We made a simple change to my flying part, which made it much more steadier. We were also made very clear that we need to have our freestyle set, and stick with it. I think that this was one of the last changes to be made.
After Lunch, we went back to the barrel to prepare for our photo-shoot with Lynne Owen, and Compulsory training with Craig Coburn. Pally was washed and braided and in all of his beautiful clean tack, and we were dressed in our freestyle uniforms with our hair up and makeup on, just like competition. One of the photos that Lynne took will be used for the cover of the Equestrian Vaulting Magazine. Can't wait to see which one!
Finally, after the photo-shoot, we got back into our training clothes, and got back on the horse. We all worked on flight and scissor turns with Craig on the horse. Craig also gave me some helpful tips on making my mount better. By the way, my mount has improved! YAY! Craig told us alot about the scoring of the scissors. A lot is based on the scissor turn - 1/4 turn at the top. Even in a complete handstand, if you aren't turned at the top, you could still get a 5 on you scissors!
TEAM USA BONDING - All of the girls, all of the guys, and the team joined together after the vaulting part of the day to have a group bonding/ sports psychology session with Katie. Katie led us through visualization, focus/ preparation tools, and she had us list our personal, team USA, and the sport of vaulting goals for WEG. It was great to see all of the ideas from ALL of the vaulters. I think that especially after this session, we are ALL going to be working as a WHOLE TEAM at the games. CAN"T WAIT!!!!! :-)
Last part of the day - more vaulting! Blake, Rosey, Mary, Mary, and I did a jumping workout. Following that, we worked lots on mounts, clicks, scissor clicks, 2nd half of flank clicks, and just flat out compulsories! Mary McCormick coached me as I did a runthrough of my compulsories. I learned an important factor of the mill, and a technique that I think is really going to be helping me get into a handstand in my flight more often. Thanks Mary!
HOME - Rode Okie down the road. Fed the horses and said "Good Night!" to a great weekend!
More vaulting on Sunday. At 8am, we had an hour follow up Sports Psychology session with Katie Purvelle, doing a couple communication exercises and learning a couple more tools for focusing, concentration, preparation, and all that good stuff! Also going over some of the tools we learned the day before, settling into the ones that we all agreed would really be beneficial to us.
For the next hour, we had a session with Isabelle Bibbler. With Isabelle, we watched our freestyle on the computer and took notes on things that we needed to work on. Things like where we were looking, straight legs, pointed toes, making things exact... Mostly fine details. Then, Isabelle took her notes to the barrel and worked through our freestyle with us. It was very helpful. I am working extra hard on my straight legs and pointed toes after all of the critiqueing that Isabelle gave me!
The team continued to work on the freestyle with Emma Seely after our time with Isabelle. Emma continued the critique of our freestyle - little details, finess, and pin-points. We made a simple change to my flying part, which made it much more steadier. We were also made very clear that we need to have our freestyle set, and stick with it. I think that this was one of the last changes to be made.
After Lunch, we went back to the barrel to prepare for our photo-shoot with Lynne Owen, and Compulsory training with Craig Coburn. Pally was washed and braided and in all of his beautiful clean tack, and we were dressed in our freestyle uniforms with our hair up and makeup on, just like competition. One of the photos that Lynne took will be used for the cover of the Equestrian Vaulting Magazine. Can't wait to see which one!
Finally, after the photo-shoot, we got back into our training clothes, and got back on the horse. We all worked on flight and scissor turns with Craig on the horse. Craig also gave me some helpful tips on making my mount better. By the way, my mount has improved! YAY! Craig told us alot about the scoring of the scissors. A lot is based on the scissor turn - 1/4 turn at the top. Even in a complete handstand, if you aren't turned at the top, you could still get a 5 on you scissors!
TEAM USA BONDING - All of the girls, all of the guys, and the team joined together after the vaulting part of the day to have a group bonding/ sports psychology session with Katie. Katie led us through visualization, focus/ preparation tools, and she had us list our personal, team USA, and the sport of vaulting goals for WEG. It was great to see all of the ideas from ALL of the vaulters. I think that especially after this session, we are ALL going to be working as a WHOLE TEAM at the games. CAN"T WAIT!!!!! :-)
Last part of the day - more vaulting! Blake, Rosey, Mary, Mary, and I did a jumping workout. Following that, we worked lots on mounts, clicks, scissor clicks, 2nd half of flank clicks, and just flat out compulsories! Mary McCormick coached me as I did a runthrough of my compulsories. I learned an important factor of the mill, and a technique that I think is really going to be helping me get into a handstand in my flight more often. Thanks Mary!
HOME - Rode Okie down the road. Fed the horses and said "Good Night!" to a great weekend!
Saturday - Team USA Clinic - 8/21, 22/10
8/21, 22/10 - Team USA Clinic - Saturday
Congrats to all of the vaulters (and other equestrians) who have qualified for the World Equestrian Games! Now, it's all of matter of perfect practice and preparation this month, really getting into gear for the next! It's going to be so exciting! For vaulting, the qualified athletes are:
Womens:
Megan Benjamin
Mary McCormick
Ali Divita
Katherine Wick (Alternate)
Mens:
Kenny Giesler
Todd Griffiths
Kristian Roberts
Patrick Stevens (Alternate)
Team:
F.A.C.E. Vaulting Team (WHOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!)
All of the qualified vaulters participated in the Team USA Training Clinics.
Following the session with Sarah Ike, our team a 3 hour Sports Psychology session with Katie Purvelle. We worked through lots of communication and bonding exercises, learned tools for "grounding" ourselves, focusing, communicating, preparing, etc... It was very interesting, and very helpful to learn all of the valuable tools that Katie had to teach us. I really think that they are going to help us make the most of our training to come, and make the best, most enjoyable experience out of WEG.
During lunch break, we learned to be models for our professional headshots, taken by Lynne Owen (for press releases), and we were custom fitted into Ariat Clothing for opening ceremonies. During the fitting, I found out that Ariat was going to make a custom sized outfit for me, because the picked out outfit didn't come in my size. So, I'll be the only 4'6, 14 year old girl in an Ariat adult outfit that's her size! COOL!
Our last class of the day was a session with the USEF Media Trainer. Our 3 hour session consisted of learning all the little hints and tricks of interviews, how to present ourselves during an interview, how to speak properly during an interview, how to get YOUR point across no matter what kinds of questions are asked, etc... We were also interviewed by the media trainer as testers so that the trainer could pin-point little things that we need to work on for our real interviews. My mom was very excited to hear that we got media trained, she now has no doubt that come an interview at the games, I'll do just fine!
Lastly on Saturday, we vaulted on the barrels for a couple hours. I worked on compulsory exercises, drills, stretching, and runthroughs of my compulsories. Then the whole team worked on the freestyle on the barrel. Lynne Owen took some really nice pictures of our freestyle on the barrel, which next day lead to her taking some outstanding pictures on the horse!......... :-)
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Training Weekend - 8/12, 13, 14, 15/ 10
8/17/10 - Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, few! What a few days. Very accomplishing weekend. Got lots of good work done, on the horse and barrel. Thursday, was compulsory and freestyle based - the typical weekday practice. Friday, same thing, but no horse. Saturday, C O M P U L S O R I E S, followed by a choreography clinic with Katie Puevrelle. Sunday - Compulsories and freestyle - Big time!
This month and the next, the team is really working on all of the fine details - Perfecting each and every motion, move, finger, toe, arm, leg, face, etc..., in the freestyle. We did so many runthroughs. We are really focusing on boosting our composition and performance scores. We did lots of good composition boosting work this weekend, now it's just gonna be building on that and adding in all of the work to benefit our performance score. We have to become sooo steady - there can't be a single bobble in our freestyle, nor compulsories! Devon, Mary, and I have added in a pretty cool move to our first part. I think it's going to be a pretty amazing surprise! It's a little scary for me, but I have 100% trust in my base, so we're gonna rock it. I have a pretty good feeling that this year, the WEG audience is going to get the performance of their life! Knock on wood!!!
Compulsories are coming along. We'll have to do lots of work to accomplish gold medal compulsories. It ain't easy! On Saturday, we did compulsory work upon compulsory work. Everyone hit a handstand on the horse that day, but the whole team needs to put so much effort into gaining the perfection consistency. It takes more than just repeating compulsory moves, too. We have to be physically strong in so many ways. Core, arms, legs, back, push, pull, sprint, jump, coordination, all that good stuff. On our clinic weekends especially, the whole team does all kinds of exercises to improve our comps. This weekend, on Saturday, the team went on a good, 2 mile run in Woodside. We all have to keep up on our cardio fitness as well as strength, and FLEXIBILITY, which I need to do some more work on...
Palatine is doing very well. He is getting stronger and stronger, more aerobically fit, and supple, and gaining more dressage skills, which makes for the perfect vaulting horse. We are all very proud of him. He is the horse to be representing Team USA! Pally's one of those horses who you just never doubt. He's so good for us, and he knows his job. I love him so much. When I run out to him, I look him in the eye, and just think, "We got this, Pal," and he just knows. I've got a pretty good bond with that amazing horse, and I feel so lucky, so fortunate to have it.
Can't wait to write again about next weekend's training, and USEF camp. Talk soon!
P.S. Thank you everyone for your support so far, it's been such a huge help! I hope that you will be able to continue to help me - you can click the link to my website, and then from there, click the "MAKE A DONATION!!!" link. I could use all the help I could get. Please, please help support me, and the F.A.C.E. Team in Tennessee and Kentucky this Fall! GO USA!
This month and the next, the team is really working on all of the fine details - Perfecting each and every motion, move, finger, toe, arm, leg, face, etc..., in the freestyle. We did so many runthroughs. We are really focusing on boosting our composition and performance scores. We did lots of good composition boosting work this weekend, now it's just gonna be building on that and adding in all of the work to benefit our performance score. We have to become sooo steady - there can't be a single bobble in our freestyle, nor compulsories! Devon, Mary, and I have added in a pretty cool move to our first part. I think it's going to be a pretty amazing surprise! It's a little scary for me, but I have 100% trust in my base, so we're gonna rock it. I have a pretty good feeling that this year, the WEG audience is going to get the performance of their life! Knock on wood!!!
Compulsories are coming along. We'll have to do lots of work to accomplish gold medal compulsories. It ain't easy! On Saturday, we did compulsory work upon compulsory work. Everyone hit a handstand on the horse that day, but the whole team needs to put so much effort into gaining the perfection consistency. It takes more than just repeating compulsory moves, too. We have to be physically strong in so many ways. Core, arms, legs, back, push, pull, sprint, jump, coordination, all that good stuff. On our clinic weekends especially, the whole team does all kinds of exercises to improve our comps. This weekend, on Saturday, the team went on a good, 2 mile run in Woodside. We all have to keep up on our cardio fitness as well as strength, and FLEXIBILITY, which I need to do some more work on...
Palatine is doing very well. He is getting stronger and stronger, more aerobically fit, and supple, and gaining more dressage skills, which makes for the perfect vaulting horse. We are all very proud of him. He is the horse to be representing Team USA! Pally's one of those horses who you just never doubt. He's so good for us, and he knows his job. I love him so much. When I run out to him, I look him in the eye, and just think, "We got this, Pal," and he just knows. I've got a pretty good bond with that amazing horse, and I feel so lucky, so fortunate to have it.
Can't wait to write again about next weekend's training, and USEF camp. Talk soon!
P.S. Thank you everyone for your support so far, it's been such a huge help! I hope that you will be able to continue to help me - you can click the link to my website, and then from there, click the "MAKE A DONATION!!!" link. I could use all the help I could get. Please, please help support me, and the F.A.C.E. Team in Tennessee and Kentucky this Fall! GO USA!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
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