Sidelines Blogs

During the week when I’m not in Florida, I take lessons at a dressage barn near my house, with trainer Lendon Gray. I lease a dressage horse named Tawny, and ride my mom’s horse, Lassini. It’s a great supplement to my jumping, and keeps me in the saddle during the week, since my horses are in Wellington. Probably the biggest lesson I’ve learned since I started doing this last year is that dressage is a lot harder than it looks. Before, I had never realized you could get so out of breath riding on the flat. So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last two weeks: trying to do a proper medium trot to shoulder in.
I’m back in Florida now for the next two weeks of spring break, but there were nearly two disasters on the way down here. I arrived at the airport from school Friday before my mom got there from work. I had my carry-on and checked my bag, and nothing seemed amiss. My mom arrives several minutes later with an extra bag and hands it to me. I look inside and what is in it but my helmet. I had forgotten it in her car and not even realized. As I take the helmet from her I do remember something else: I forgot my boots! I quickly called our nanny of many years, Aimee, and beg her to go home, get my boots, and come back. Reluctantly, she agrees. About an hour later I get the call from her to come out front, and there she is with my boots. Close save. I owe her for that one.
This weekend is the barn’s weekend off showing, but we can still have lessons. Saturday morning I had lessons on my horses. After that I tried another wonderful equitation horse, Cupid. Sunday I had lessons again. My dad was down from Ocala this weekend, and he patiently threw Jack’s ball countless times while I rode. Jack is one of the many dogs at the barn.
When I was done riding yesterday we drove out to Loxahatchee, about twenty minutes away. My dad and I followed my mom’s car out of Wellington. We were going to Loxahatchee to see part of a dressage show. Lendon, who I take lessons with at home, was training there and, since she knew we were down here, she invited us to come watch the Grand Prix freestyle with her. It’s so cool to watch the horses perform their tests in time with music, and it was a fantastic learning experience to hear Lendon’s commentary on each one. It was incredibly nice of Lendon to take the time to do all that for me given what she is dealing with right now. As a person extremely close to Courtney King-Dye, who had a very serious accident recently, Lendon has spent much of her time in the hospital with Courtney, and somehow still found time for me.
Wednesday and Thursday I’m going to show in some schooling jumper classes.
Until then,
Audrey

I’ve got to follow up on my recent post about the cloning of polo horse Califa. In that post I also mentioned the grand prix jumper – and gelding – Sapphire. The dapple grey Holsteiner earned the 2003 Pan Am Games individual gold medal in show jumping with rider Mark Watring (Puerto Rico) and had an illustrious grand prix career. At shows, Mark would often get breeding inquiries from people who’d seen him go and assumed he was a stallion. Mark always thought it was a shame that he couldn’t breed his superstar jumper, so when he was approached last year by US company ViaGen with the idea of cloning Sapphire, he agreed to give it a try. I wrote an article about Sapphire’s cloning last summer for California Riding Magazine, and posted it on my website (read the article here).

And then the magic of the Internet stepped in. Some months later, I got an email from a woman in Germany who had read my article after it popped up in her google search. The woman, Katherina Tansley, was 14 when her father bought her a newborn foal that she named Lindor. She hand raised Lindor until he was six, and then reluctantly sold him on to a family in South Germany. He then found his way to Mark via a few dealing barns, and in the process was renamed Sapphire. Katherina had been following his career since the Pan Am Games.

After she read about the cloning, Katherina asked me to help her get in touch with Mark. She wrote to me that “when I first read, that there will be a clone, I didn’t know what to think. Right now I think, he must be very loved and appreciated, that they want to clone him.”

Well, he is, and they did. The healthy clone was born in Texas about two weeks ago. I may have come off as a bit cynical in my previous post; a polo team of identical clones is still just so very sci-fi. But that was before I put the following two pictures side-by-side. It’s enough to melt any cynic’s heart.

Here is Sapphire as a foal in Germany, circa 1992:

And here is the newborn clone in Texas, just a few weeks ago:

Will you just look at that? Tell me that these are not the most astounding pair of baby pictures you’ve ever laid eyes on. Cloning inevitably begs the question of nature vs. nurture, and there is no sure answer yet. But modern science is well on it’s way to solving that little mystery.

I want to wish Mexican team members good luck in the $75,000 FEI Nation’s Cup this Friday in Wellington. I’ve been trying to follow their successes after being a working student in Mexico City last summer. Let me share with you some things I loved about my experience and some I did not.

There are 4 things I love about riding in Mexico City. It’s a male-dominant environment, which is refreshing after two years at an all-girls school. It’s more relaxed. The Mexicans make riding fun above all else. The food has a culture; it’s real Mexican, not like the white-washed version we get on the West Coast. And for a working student, they put you on anything, even a crazy, young stallion.

There are 4 things I don’t love about riding in Mexico City. It takes forever to memorize how to drive to the stable because street signs are non-existent or hidden. It gets old being trapped in the roundabouts. While I didn’t mind riding under armed guards, I couldn’t help but wonder if they would just shoot me if I missed at a big oxer. The “party all night/work all day” mentality can be fun unless you’re stuck at a night club with 8 riders who want to dance until closing. You have to be on your first horse in 4 hours and can’t remember enough Spanish to give the driver the directions home. I knew there were loads of street dogs but I didn’t realize people would try to sell me tiny puppies through the car window, like a piece of candy or soda.

I flew down by myself and spent a month riding at 3 different stables. My Spanish improved along with my flat work and I met really fun and handsome people. I’ll never forget petting a 2 year-old Bengal tiger, rescued by one of the riders and placed on his wildlife sanctuary outside of town. The private stables were stunning. I especially liked the stables of Federico Fernandez, past Mexican Olympic, WEG and Pan Am Game’s team member. There was this life-size statue of a (quite frankly) not very attractive horse in front. I later saw that same horse grazing in the turnout.  It was Bohemio, his famous Olympic mount in 2004. He obviously loves his horses so much that he replicates them in bronze. My month of riding in Mexico City remains was one of the best experiences of my life so far. So I’ll be cheering for Antonio Chedraui, Nicolas Pizarro, Patricio Pasquel and Jaime Azcárraga as they compete Friday night against teams from  the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Ireland, Columbia, Venezuela and Argentina to name a few.  Buena suerte.

Federico Fernandez Stable

Another Private Stable

I’m sitting in an office building in downtown San Francisco, but my mind is 2,557 miles away. That’s how far it is from California to the International Ring at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Florida, where the WEG trials have just gotten underway.

USEF provided a free, live webcast of Trial #1 that was pretty damn good – I don’t know who was commentating but him and the camera guys did a great job of presenting my favorite sport professionally. It wasn’t their fault that I had to watch it in one itty-bitty corner of my computer screen, from my 6^th floor office with not a horse in sight. . .

I’m grateful I live in an age of live webcasts and new realities (see previous post), so I’m going to bite my tongue and not complain about the troubles of the worker bee, unable to take a week or so off and flit over to Florida when the mood strikes. Nope, not complaining. It’s super to watch the WEG trials live from my office, and I now know where I’ll be for the remaining four trials. Right here, in front of the trusty old desktop computer. That is, unless I happen across a really good deal on a round trip ticket to PBI. Then, flit, fly, whatever, I’ll be there!

Pinehurst Stables, in Jupiter, Florida will be hosting a 2-day clinic with Mr. George Morris on April 29-30, 2010. Move in/schooling date will be April 28th.

Three height sections will be offered both days, open to the public:

* 2′6 Hunter/Equitation

* 3′ Hunter/Equitation

* 3′6+ Equitation/Jumper

Auditor tickets are also available!

See George Morris Biography, clinic details and registration forms at http://www.PinehurstStables.com/clinics

Register early; spaces are expected to fill very quickly!

A fabulous catered lunch is included for riders and auditors this year!

Feel free to contact Sean & Christina Jones with any questions.

Pinehurst Stables

(561) 758-1664

www.PinehurstStables.com

To many East Coast riders, winter means one thing: Florida…going to school during the week, and flying into the West Palm Beach Airport every weekend. It is great to go to Florida in the middle of a New York winter but anyone who spends his or her winter doing this knows it can also be tiring and hard to juggle with school. This is me most weekends between January and March. Depending on how much work I have, I either fly down Friday after school, or Thursday night, missing school Friday. I try to do my homework on the plane ride down and at the show in the golf cart between classes. After showing on Saturday, I’m usually dying for a shower and starving…. all while dreading the final act of the day, polishing my boots. I also usually pack my suitcase on Saturday so that we can head to the airport from the horseshow if the equitation runs late. During this time of year I use my rare weekend home to spend time with my friends and boyfriend, all of whom are incredibly tolerant of my schedule.
To give you some background, my name is Audrey Keller, and I live in Bedford, New York. I’m a sophomore at Greenwich Academy, and I ride at Heritage Farm. I started riding in the lead line when I was around three, progressing into the ponies, and eventually horses. Currently I am showing in the modified children’s jumpers and the equitation classes in Florida, and I’ve been riding at Heritage for (almost) three years. I’ve given up all of my school sports since starting high school to do riding as my sport.
Despite all the work it takes to have balance in my life, between school, social life, and riding, it’s definitely worth it. Those Friday night flights, still wearing my school uniform, aren’t really so bad.
Last weekend I was double clear in the jumpers, on the horse I lease, Aiden, otherwise known as CR Erin Go Braugh. It’s classes like those that are really rewarding. I’m taking the next few weekends off to give the horses a rest, but I can’t wait for my next flight to Wellington. Below is a picture from last weekend, of me showing a horse I tried in the Medal.

To all you juniors out there who juggle AP classes, school sports, homework, college searches, SAT prep, social events and family time with riding, I’m here to sympathize. I’m a high school junior and have been show jumping for 9 years. The old saying’s true, there just isn’t enough hours in the day to get it all done and believe me, I’ve tried. I just got back from HITS Thermal where I tested the limit and lost. You can’t ride only two days in three months and expect to do well in the junior jumpers. I did win one of my classes which helped to make up for some of my mistakes, but that could be due to my horse being a saint who would chip the Great Wall of China.

Back at school and my other life, it’s lacrosse season and I have mono. I made it through death week of conditioning and tryouts, then the horse show, and now I get to have high fever, swollen glands, headaches and lying in bed for countless hours. Awesome! I go to an all-girls Catholic school in downtown San Jose, California where the motto is “share everything,” from water bottles to boyfriends. Right now I’m thinking the “sharing is caring” people never had mono. You are probably saying, “I’m trying to do too much,” but isn’t that the point of being a teenager?

I’ve decided a private jet would be really helpful. My horses are with Mandy Porter in San Diego but I live 8 hours north. Thank God for Southwest Airlines of which I’m almost an A-List member. The only negative was when I tried to bring my lacrosse stick to a horse show to practice. Security told me it was a dangerous weapon. I was dressed in my school uniform, grey skirt and polo shirt. I’m sure I looked like a threat.

While in bed, I’m working on a new schedule, one that better organizes my absolutely normal chaotic life. I have a lot of school work to make up so until next time…

Louvre the Saint

Which Should I Wear Today?