Aspen Farms Eventing News
Chauncy, Uno and I- Galway, March 2010
April. 7 2010
Ok so I have yet to get on my monthly news schedule, sorry, work
in progress! At least I have a bit of an excuse this time with the
website being down for a couple of weeks! In the meantime, Uno and
Chauncy have had a super start to the season with Leslie Law getting
us started with the clinic in February. Both jumped very well and
Leslie gave us great feedback and things to work on. Next we headed
to Temecula for the Event Derby at Kingsway, the training camp with
David O'Connor and Galway the following weekend. Unfortunately, we
found out the night before leaving that the training camp was
cancelled. I was very disappointed but ended up having great jump
schools with Jon, and had the chance to have a dressage lesson from
my friend Niki Zamorra which was also very helpful. Jon
designed the course for the Event Derby and taught a clinic the day
before, both at Kingsway Farm across from Galway. The courses rode
well and everyone seemed to have fun while getting a good school in
before Galway. After a relaxing week with 4 horses between myself,
Char and Caitlin, dressage day of Galway snuck up on us rather
quickly! Chauncy's flatwork has been steadily improving over the
years but has always been his difficult phase as he is not naturally
blessed with superior movement, and is easily distracted and
excitable. So, you can imagine how excited and proud I was to be in
1st place at the end of the dressage day with him! He put in a
relaxed, accurate, obedient test to lead with a score of 34. It was
a nice birthday present for Jon since he owns Chauncy! Uno was not
far behind in 4th with a 37. Caitlin's hard work over the winter
showed in the ring, leaving her in 6th with a 36 in the training.
Char's and Bam's nerves got the best of them, which was
disappointing after the many hours they have spent improving their
flatwork. Char's show jump round the next day proved that the
weekend was going to be a learning experience for a very talented
horse and rider that we expect to see great things from once they
figure a few things out. Caitlin and Mav had a lovely, clean, show
jump round, and a silly run out xc spoiled an otherwise spot on
ride. Caitlin will be working on her rider fitness and turning with
her outside aids before the next show! Chauncy and Uno jumped
brilliantly for me both XC and SJ. They both had about 7 time faults
XC which I was pleased with for their first outing of the season.
They also both jumped double clean SJ rounds to finish with Chauncy
in 2nd and Uno in 3rd! They came out right where they had left off
from last season which was a great feeling! Thanks to Char and
Caitlin for helping me switch horses efficiently and smoothly with
the tight times. Ellen Guthrie was able to continue Ideal Life's
winning streak from last year with a win in their Novice division!
Ellen's also finished 4th with her other horse, Son of a Gun.
Whitney Weston and Gin Fizz look to have solidified their
partnership over the winter and finished 6th in OT. As well as
helping all of us throughout the week, Jon was able to get a few
games of golf in to celebrate his birthday week. My parents brought
their RV down and joined us at Galway to cheer me on, keep Jon
company on the golf course and keep Odie happy and well exercised!
After a quick break in rainy WA, we head back to CA for Twin Rivers,
this time with Chelsey joining Jon and I to ride Cindi Carrell's
Stormont. Chauncy is entered in his first Advanced, so it will be an
exciting weekend! We hope you can join us the following
weekend for the AF derby, this time to be held out in the water jump
field for the BN- P. The hopeful will be in the sand arena, followed
by schooling rounds at all the levels. We are also offering dressage
for those that need a chance to get in the ring. See you soon,
fingers crossed for a bit of dry weather before then!! Suzy
 Chauncy
and I .......Leslie Law clinic
JANUARY 24 2010
Happy New Year! Aspen Farms is gearing up for an exciting year!
We are adding a CIC* and CIC** to our fall event which will
hopefully save a few area VII riders from having to make the trek to
CA to get their qualifications! We have several students ready to
move up a level and I am looking forward to getting back to the
advanced level. Chauncy and I are long listed for the Canadian Team
so will be heading to CA for a training session with Canadian Team
coach David O'Connor. The Adult Riders are having the Leslie
Law clinic at Aspen Farms again this February. I have enjoyed
watching Leslie teach the last couple years so this year am excited
to be riding in it! I am going to do one day each with Uno and
Chauncy since neither one will be fit enough to do both days. They
enjoyed a well deserved holiday after the CCI**. Jon has been busy
with farm improvements as usual; his latest task has been to cut a
wide path over the ridge between the two main rings and create a
plateau on top of the ridge. It should make life easier for
spectators and competitors at the next event! Check out our
new videos of our young horses on the sales page, Chelsey and Char
have done a great job of getting the now 4 year olds going and they
are both showing a lot of potential. Bye for now, I will report on
the Leslie Law clinic in a couple weeks, hopefully with pictures!!
Suzy
GALWAY 2009
After the fall horse trials I was eager to break out of organizer
mode and back to riding and competing mode! My horses had not
competed since Rebecca Farm and my goal was the CCI** at Galway. So
both needed to jump well (and clean xc) at NWEC to have a qualifier
within 3 months and so we would feel prepared. Luckily they were
both super, clean xc with some time and double clean SJ. Both
Whitney Weston and Chelsey Sevigny were aiming for the CCI* at
Galway. Whitney had a great weekend on Ted at NW, so was also ready
to tackle the challenge of Galway. Chelsey had an unfortunate fall
off Stormont at the keyhole which proved to be educational as we
discovered schooling after that Story was a little unsure of how to
jump keyholes. So, hoping we had filled in that little hole in her
education and gaining confidence from the fact that she and Story
have had a fabulous season, we set off for the long trek to CA. The
horses arrived feeling quite fresh thanks to a relaxing overnight
layover and unusually chilly and windy CA weather. They schooled
well all week, with Chauncy getting more and more settled as the
week went on and the wind died down. I made sure to spend extra time
relaxing him in the walk as the test had A LOT of walk work which
can be tricky for him. All four AF horses passed the jog with ease
so we could breathe a sigh of relief and really focus on dressage.
Uno ( Ogopogo ) got the early draw, I was first and last in the CCI**
with having two horses. He was on form and ready to put in a
brilliant test but unfortunately I was not! He scored a 52 which
could have easily been in the 40's if I had ridden a more accurate
test to show him off. Determined not to make the same mistake with
Chauncy since he can't afford to give away marks, I watched some
tests and got myself mentally prepared. Chauncy had his best ever
test and I was able to ride for every mark. I was practically in
tears I was so happy with him!! He is not naturally gifted in the
dressage department and has made huge improvement with a lot of hard
work. So we scored a 55; I was hoping for a little better but
overall thrilled. Chelsey and Story had a lovely test showing huge
improvement in Storys gaits and also scored a 55. Whitney and Ted
had a pleasant test but a few bobbles left them on a 61. The xc
courses were quite challenging but looked like they would ride very
well. The CCI* course had a lot of questions and really tested the
horse and riders ability. I loved the CCI** course and was eager to
see how my horses would handle the second water. It was a decent
sized bounce in and a bending 6 strides to a left point corner in
the water. Neither one of them had done a either question and left
corners are their ( or perhaps my?! ) harder side. There was an
angled ditch & brush question early on in the course that I had
decided to ride a different line through than most riders, I wanted
to try to put a bending 3 strides in instead of the more direct
severely angled 2 that most were planning on. I missed my line
coming in with Uno and ended up pointing him at the right flag of
the second brush. He still tried to jump and hit his head on the
flag, pour guy. We circled and popped the second one and were on our
way. He jumped the rest of the course brilliantly, a little green in
places but very honest and brave. I of course was kicking myself,
and still am, for presenting him so poorly at the angled ditch &
brush. Chauncy again benefitted by being second as I went the
straight way on him and it jumped great! He really felt like a pro
around the course, it's easy to forget that he is only 7 when he
makes it feel so easy. I was up on my first minute marker so made
the mistake of backing off a bit in the next couple minutes which of
course was full of technical stuff so got behind and couldn't make
it up. I ended up with 14 time faults. I hope I am slowly knocking
the rust off my upper level riding!! Chelsey and Story had a super
day finishing the course with just 1.6 time penalties! Chelsey was
more nervous than I have ever seen her but she and Story have a
great partnership and Chelsey is a very strong competitor. She has
an amazing ability to perform better in competition than at home
which is rare and I think a very valuable tool. Whitney had an
unfortunate run out early on; Ted was thinking about which way the
barn and his next meal was instead of his job! He was able to focus
after that and the rest of the course looked spot on. Our horses
were very sound and happy after the xc so it was a fairly easy night
as far as three days go! They all got their fair share of ice and
hand walking but no major concerns and no nasty surprises in the
morning. An uneventful jog so another sigh of relief and on to SJ!
Whitney rode a very nice SJ round but Ted thought he had worked a
little too hard the day before to pick up his feet so had an
uncharacteristic 4 rails. Chelsey and Story gave us all a thrill by
jumping clean and moving from 7th to 3rd place!! It was a pretty
special day for Storys owner, Cindi Carrell. It was also Chesleys
best finish at a major competition and her mom ( Shelley) was there
to share it with her. Thank you to Cindi for allowing Chelsey to
ride your amazing horse! My SJ skills decided not to be present that
day much to my disappointment! I got flustered with having to be in
a rush, with two horses in a small division, timing gets dicey with
SJ. Luckily my horses tried to jump well despite me, Uno had 2 rails
and Chauncy had one. So Chauncy finished 9th and Uno 14th. Not quite
what I was hoping for but on the positive side I have two very nice
confirmed CCI** horses that I have done all the training on so now I
just need to believe in them and myself a little more next time so I
can be more competitive. On top of helping Chelsey, Whitney and
myself ( thank you Jon!!), Jon was also coaching the Area VII young
riders team in the CCI* long format. The team members were MacKenna
Shea on Landioso, Tessa Beckett on Sound Prospect and Brooke Bailey
on Savoy Six. Jon walked them through the full format process having
done it countless times himself and really pulled the team together.
They all rode to the best of their ability and finished with
MacKenna in 1st place, Tessa in 2nd and Brooke in 5th. Well done!!
So after some minor truck trouble we made it back to rainy WA and
the horses are enjoying a well deserved vacation. We plan to do a
few schooling shows over the winter
( including the derby series here at Aspen Farms) and then head back
down to Galway in March. Thank you to my super groom Caitlin for
your hard work, to Jon for your support, advise, help and coaching,
to Chelsey for helping Caitlin and I with my two, your superb
packing skills and for riding so well, and to Shelley and Cindi for
your help and for providing snacks!
Happy Thanksgiving!!
September 15
AFHT SEPT 2009....Hopefully rain is not our fall trend?!!
Well it was another wet one at AFHT in Sept as most of you are
well aware after braving the pouring rain on Sunday! Luckily the
footing held up very well on xc and just required some smart riding
in the SJ ring. I think the worst problem we had was the poor people
in barn B-1 getting flooded! Thank you to those in that barn for
being so good natured about it. Jon, Trav, Matt, Joe and Josh put in
many happy hours leading up to the event working on their bunker
complex complete with very realistic looking tanks for the prelim to
jump. I think everyone would agree the time spent was well worth it,
the complex looks amazing and seemed to ride very well. The
team competition was as entertaining as ever with some fierce
competition in the musical chairs portion. We decided to test the
riders knowledge over the rulebook a little bit in the trivia
section which was educational for all, myself included thanks to
Malcolm! A huge thank you to all our wonderful volunteers who do
such an amazing job, I really can't imagine doing this without the
incredible crew we are so lucky to have. Competitors, please
remember to thank the volunteers at all the events and treat them
well, our sport would be lost without them. Another huge thank you
to our sponsors. Toklat & Irideon, Gallops
Saddlery, Devoucoux, Revitavet, Auburn Laboratories, Ice
Horse, Baydo Chevrolet, World Equestrian Brands, Four Star Equine
Therapy, Yelm Farm & Pet, CWD, Moving Images, Bobcat West,
Tack Room Too, Olson Mills, US Rider, Antares, Northwest Equine
Practice, Meriwether Saddlery, County Saddlery, Sauvie Island
Coffee, Valley Vet, J&I Power Equipment, Dover, Safer Building
Materials Inc. We are able to have wonderful prizes and equipment
thanks to the generosity of these companies. And finally thank you
to all the competitors for coming out and supporting us and cheerily
riding in the rain! We are very excited for next year with the
addition of a CIC** and CIC* in September. Goodbye for now,
Suzy
Well as usual I have a lot to fill you in on and not a lot of
time as we are busy preparing for our recognized event in two weeks.
I suppose the first local event, NWEC Mothers Day Classic is a good
place to begin. Aspen Farms had a great showing with everyone coming
home happy with their performances and most with a ribbon to show
for it. Working students Lexy Funk, Laramie Maxwell, and Char
Paasche placed 6th, 5th, and 6th in
their respective divisions. Aspen Farms assistant trainer Chelsey
Sevigny rode Alison Uttings Aerolite to yet another win in the
Novice and also rode Cindi Carrols Stormont to a 4th
place finish in training in their first event together.
I was lucky to ride 3 very nice horses; my own Chauncy did his
first OI at the age of 7 and was super. Bridgette Sales lovely young
horse Dane the Great was very fun to ride around the novice and
finished 8th. Tiger Time did his first training and was
green but wonderful to finish 1st! I am so very excited
to share the news that I have been given the permanent ride on Tiger
by my good friend and mentor Dale Irwin. Tiger is a very talented
horse and I am honored to have this opportunity given to me and
excited to see how far we can go with it. Thank you Dale!
Lauren Benge rode Obsession to an 8th place finish in
the training while Whitney Weston finished 6th and 4th
on her two training horses.
After recovering from NW, we hit the road and headed down to CA
yet again, this time to Woodside, to contest the Preliminary
Challenge. The Challenge is a wonderful new idea of Robert
Kellerhouses and I would encourage anyone who qualifies to go down
and do it next year. There was 30,000 dollars worth of cash and
prizes up for grabs, a super course to jump and show jumping in the
evening in front of hundreds of rowdy spectators and sponsors. It
was a great atmosphere and a very fun competition to be a part of. I
competed Ogopogo in the horse portion of the challenge and finished
3rd , so shockingly came home with a check that paid for
my trip! I also brought Chauncy and did his second OI. It was a much
more challenging course than NW and he handled it very well other
than one steering mishap early on! He had a lovely clean SJ round
the next day to finish 7th. Lexy and Laramie made the
trip with me and both rode their personal best dressage tests on
their current horses. Lexy sat in 1st place after
dressage with a 28! Both had super xc rides, other than Laramies
horse deciding to amuse the crowd with an impressive bucking display
in warm up! Laramie had a clear SJ to finish 5th in
training and Lexy also had a very nice round with one rail to
finished 2nd in training.
Then it was back home to deal with the mound of entries,
unanswered phone calls, and ignored emails waiting for me! We are
full and have a waiting list which is great, thank you to everyone
for entering and supporting our show. We are excited to see everyone
in a few short weeks. If anyone wants to be a part of the action but
is not quite ready to ride, we are always looking for volunteers to
help things run smoothly…there’s even a free T-shirt involved to
sweeten the deal! Be sure to stick around for the competitors party
Saturday and watch the games portion of the team competition, it was
highly entertaining last year and I think I can safely say a good
time was had by all!
Bye for now,
Suzy
12/21/08
Merry Christmas!! I hope you are all enjoying the winter
wonderland! Safe travels to those that are off to see family or
warmer weather, Jon and I are doing both. We will spend Christmas
with his family then to Canada for a quick visit with my family,
then off to Mexico for a belated wedding present! We will rely on
our super barn girls; Chelsey, Char, and Lindsey, to keep the horses
going so we can get straight back to work and head to Jumpernite
soon after getting home. I will be posting our clinic and schooling
show dates very soon so check back so you can mark them on your
calendars!
Wishing everyone safe and Happy Holidays.
Suzy
10/14/08
Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians! Jon and I returned
from a wonderful trip to Germany yesterday. I am inspired to work on
my dressage after having a couple lessons there and seeing the
quality of riding around me. My poor horses are going to wonder what
hit them! We attended the elite Hanoverian auction and saw many
beautiful and talented horses, but what struck me more than their
talent was how well trained and well behaved they were at 3 and 4
years old. They do an incredible job of giving the young horses an
excellent start. We also had the chance to preview the horses that
will be sold at the event horse auction in two weeks. It was pretty
amazing to be able to see 20 of the nicest young event horses in the
country in one place. Thanks to Jean and Jim Moyer for a great trip!
Cheers!
Suzy
Ups and Downs
Date: 9/1/2008 1:04:58 PM
Written By: Suzy Elliott
Link: www.aspenfarmseventing.com
Well once again it has been far too long since I last updated the news.
Spring in the NW eventing community was started on a very sad note with the death of Robert Leyen. His passing hit everyone at Aspen Farms very hard as we had all come to rely on and enjoy his presence and sense of humor in the barn. I still find myself looking for him at the events only to sadly realize I will not find him. Montana especially was not the same without Robert, his family and Marge. We all miss him dearly. Every time I have a great xc ride I think of Robert and the grin on his face as he galloped around on Marge, waving and chatting to the crowd as he went!.Robert took a keen interest in and was very supportive of the students of Aspen Farms and I think he would be proud of their accomplishments this season.
Some of the highlights the 2008 season were;
Chelsey Sevigny rode Aeorlite to a 1st place finish at AFHT on a dressage score of 18.4.
Laura Johnson and Simon Says won the OI division at WIPC HT
Jonathan and Chelsey Sevignys Independence, 1st place WIPC HT
Lindsey Scharmachs Forbidden won the 4 year old Young Event Horse at Rebecca Farm while Ellen Guthries Ideal Life was 2nd in the 5 year old section, both with myself aboard.
Forbidden was also 3rd in the ON at RF.
Tiger Time and I won his first ever event at RF in the ON.
Lexy Funk and her lovely new horse, Notting Hill, won the Training at RF
Ellen Guthrie was 4th in the ON aboard Sunny and had a very successful first novice on Ideal Life.
Whitney Weston won her division of Training at RF with Ginn Fizz, purchased from Hawley Bennett.
Anne Rowland and Aviator were 3rd in the JN at RF and had a personal best performance in all three phases at Caber.
Chauncy and I finished 10th in his first CCI*, 6th in his CIC* and most recently were 3rd in the OP at Caber.
Hunterville, owned by Kate Pond, ridden by myself, was 7th in his first OI at RF and was brilliant XC over quite a challenging track.
Josh Lacy finished 3rd in the JT at Caber Farms with a great XC ride.
Char Paashe and Aspen were 3rd in the ON at Caber.
Jonathan and Whitney Westons Royal Heights were 3rd in the OT at Caber.
Alisa Sprouffske and Tonga Coral placed 8th in the BN at Caber.
It has been great to see everyone riding so well.
Horses sold by Aspen Farms have also had good results including Alexa Perkiel and Cover Charge (Taos) with several placings at the prelim level and Sarah Clancy and Piko with a 5th place and a 1st place in their first 2 novices.
Aspen Farms Horse Trials was a great success again this time, with much improved weather conditions! Everyone seemed to enjoy our version of the team competition, and we certainly enjoyed watching it so I think we will keep the format for events to come. Plans are being made for changes to the course for next year as well as additions of new parking and stabling areas. We are planning for spring and fall events next year. We are very lucky to have such an amazing group of volunteers, thank you very much to each of you!
It will be the last quiet fall here at Aspen Farms before the start of the fall event so Jon and I are taking advantage and joining Jean and Jim Moyer for a trip to Germany in October. I am sure we will see many fantastic horses and wish we were staying longer! We will be joining friends at a wedding out east instead of competing at NW so we wish everyone the best of luck there. I will do my best not to let another 6 months go by before the next news post!!!
Previous Articles
| | 8/26/2008 | | coming soon | | 3/4/2008 | | Aspen Farms Derby | | 3/4/2008 | | Aspen Farms Derby | | 1/2/2008 | | Happy New Years | | 11/11/2007 | | Fall News From Aspen Farms | | 8/1/2007 | | Where did July Go? | | 6/24/2007 | | Inavale Farm Horse Trials | | 5/21/2007 | | Aspen Farms Successful At NWEC Mothers Day Classic | | 4/16/2007 | | ASPEN FARMS IS GEARING UP FOR THE 2007 SEASON |
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