News around Lanzelot

Successful weekend at Aspen Farm Horse Trials

9/15/2016

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Aspen Farm Horse Trials was a total success for the small team of Z Eventing riders participating. Sara Sellmer, with head groom TJ Drake, and apprentice coach Madeleine Scott made the drive to Yelm, Washington to compete on 4 horses.

Sara and TF Kreisel (Brad) entered into the “Adequan USEA Advanced Level Gold Cup”. Sara also rode Triple Sec in the “Tin Men Supply Area VII Open Preliminary Championship” and Midnight Tango II in Open Preliminary. Madeleine was riding Eleanor Go Brightly in her debut at the Training Level.

All four partnerships had successful events! Triple Sec was foot perfect in her jumping phases and ended up in 9th place. Midnight Tango II ran his first Prelim event and was a total star in all phases - finishing in 5th place after a double clear cross country round. This was Eleanor Go Brightly first Training event – with Madeleine in the saddle, they improved their standings with each passing phase and the pair looked polished and are a very promising partnership.

The highlight was Brad’s great event and 2nd place finish. They started off on the right foot - tying for 2nd place with a 30.7 in dressage (even after Brad did some extra flying changes that weren't required). But people really started to notice when they came galloping in over the cross country finish line 20 seconds to spare and lots of horse left. They were the fastest time over the course – “Brad was fantastic. He was hunting all the jumps. I knew by fence 3 he was on, and then I just enjoyed it and let him do his thing. He got a bit long to the water, but he is so quick and honest it worked out.” They finished in 2nd place overall by .3 points! ‎

Lots of press coverage was a bonus, people were watching:
http://www.useventing.com/news/mary-burke-secures-lead-adequan-usea-gold-cup-advanced-aspen-farms
http://useventing.com/news/burke-secures-repeat-adequan-usea-gold-cup-advanced-win-aspen-farms

Of course – it only ran so smoothly for everyone because of TJ's amazing work!

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Season opener - Lanzelot Clinic

3/8/2016

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The weather couldn't have been nicer this weekend for our 1st official event at Lanzelot - what a beautiful weekend. Sara conducted her 1st clinic of the season on March 5th and 6th before she heads back down to California next week with Brad for the CIC*** at Galway Downs.

Since we have returned she has been working non stop with both training horses and riders to share everything she has learned along her travels and get us up to snuff for the quickly approaching show season.

This clinic showed off how well we had paid attention in our regular lessons. Lessons were split up into groups and were a whopping 1.5 hrs long. Great on day 1! Day 2 both horse and rider felt the burn. No pain no gain, right :)

Day 1 started with flat work, focusing on straightness, lateral work and square turns. We proceeded with the dreaded canter poles, and a short, small jump course. It is amazing how you can feel like a champion cruising along the rail of the arena and have it all fall apart over a few poles on the ground. Reality can be so cruel.

Day 2 was a quick review on our previous days efforts and then head up to the big arena for a change of scenery. With the beautiful weather and newly positioned bleachers for our peanut gallery it certainly felt like spring. The jump course was fairly straightforward the fences however were all at a related distance....my personal fear. A test of how much our hard work during the flatwork pays off.

Of course it pays off - every single rider got through the course successfully. All of us now have specific things to work on while she is down in California. The beauty of horses - you can never know enough. That's one of the reasons why we ride...to always get better.

A huge thanks as always to Lanzelot Stables and all those who keep it going and looking so beautiful. A huge thanks to our incredibly dedicated coach who works tirelessly to keep us all motivated, learning and feeling our best. And to the family's of our Lanzelot riders....so supportive of us all the time.

Love my barn family!

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Week "off" at Galway

2/16/2016

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So the first event of the year is past us..... The first show of the season, no matter where the location or what level you compete at, is always a huge reality check. You quickly learn what you have as a team of horse and rider and what you need to work on.

No problem, that's why we love the sport of Eventing. With 3 separate disciplines there is always something to improve on!

First and foremost, our Canadian horses are super FIT!! I guess there is something to be said for running around in a snow bank... literally! All the horses were ready to go! The length of the cross-country course was easily attainable for each horse and they all came to the finish feeling great and cooling out quickly. Yay!!!!

Stadium jumping was a great demonstration of the effectiveness of all the technical exercises we have been doing in the compact space of our indoor arena. The horses were confident and ready for anything tricky that may show up.

Dressage day, however, was a different story... dressage is often considered a necessary evil to eventers everywhere. Lets face it the cross-country is where our hearts are at. We all make sure to do a few mins of flat work each day; go through the paces... was it good? It was great! Good enough!

Sigh...not so much. ...our incredibly fit horses were quite finished with the strictness of dressage by the time we finished warm up and had plenty of exuberant energy to release once in the "white fences". The pressure of the dressage ring was very apparent in our performance - so what have we been doing in our week "off" in the scorching heat of California while waiting for the next event? Dressage, every single day, without fail and for longer sessions each and every day.

Stay tuned on startbox at the Fresno County Horse park to see if all our dedication has paid off. Not quite the vacation we were picturing, but at least our farmers tan is well under way!

Fresno County Horse Park Horse Trials: eventingscores.com/eventsr/fresno/ht0216/
CIC2* on Sloan McQuick
Advanced on TF Kreisler
Open Intermediate on For Pleasure
Open Training on Tonlong Rubia

For Pleasure (Aro Gold) with Lanzelot Stables at Galway Downs

TJ Drake with Lanzelot Stables at Galway Downs

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Road Trip - getting to California

2/3/2016

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Sunny California here we come....who would have thought it would be cold and raining the entire way!!! I packed sunglasses and shorts! This horse girl planned for an early tan!

Day 1 started off with our beautiful black beast of a truck "Rowanda" protesting against the length of our trip.....a full tank of fuel and some lovin' we were on our way! Good girl 😊 By 8 am on we (Sara, TJ, Femika, Ari, Brad and the stowaway Rubicon) are officially in the truck , loaded and on our way. A snowfall on the Coquihalla made us choose the Fraser canyon - but we were en route! We ended the day at our favorite layover Roseburg Fairgrounds (http://www.co.douglas.or.us/dcfair/arenas.html) in Oregon. By 1:00 am the horses were settled and we moved enough "stuff " to crash for a few hours. After a full day of rain it wasn't too shocking that the trailer had a wee leak... or 2.

Day 2 is a 6:30am start. The constant snowfall warning along the Oregon mountain passes started to make us a bit apprehensive. But we were prepared (and appreciative) with a new set of tire chains for the trailer. However winter in Oregon is no quite the same as ol' BC ..so we were fine. We reached our second layover in Fresno California around 7 pm. A quick dinner of pizza and wine and we were DONE!

Day 3 started off a bit more exciting. Fresno offers a great opportunity for schooling cross country so we took full advantage! For us girls living in the "tundra", this is the first time our horses have seen a cross-country fence since last fall. A perfect opportunity to dust off the cobwebs, build some confidence and start the season off with a bang!

After a great school on all horses we hit the very straight, very boring 3 lane traffic of California. This is the ONLY stretch of the 2437 km that I (TJ) can't stand! It's sooooo boring! This is where Sara steps in as the driver for a few hours. When we hit the grid lock traffic of Sacramento, 5 Lanes going 120 km /hrs, I take over again.

Through the beautiful Tejon pass followed by the incredibly barren landscape of the desert we hit the 4 lane gridlock traffic of LA...we are almost there! I swear anyone who repair brakes would make a fortune in this country!

By 6:00 that evening we were finding stalls and settling our beautiful horses in for the night. Galaway Downs (galwaydowns.net) in Temecula California hosts big beautiful cement stalls, hooks for our buckets and a welcoming atmosphere. We all slept well!

Tomorrow is the start of a new season of opportunity ....

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Successful weekend at Aspen Farm Horse Trials

Season opener - Lanzelot Clinic

Week "off" at Galway

Road Trip - getting to California

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