2013 Thoroughbred Alliance rankings

Happy to learn our year-end standings in the point-earners for Briar Rose in the Thoroughbred Alliance Show Series of 9 shows with 150+ horses (of which we only showed in 3 shows), for Rose's first year:

Fillies/Mares 13th out of 24
Maryland bred 13th out of 32
Listing service horses 6th out of 9

Adult Amateur Riders 25th out of 52
Masters Riders 5th out of 8

(Results just show horses/riders who were nominated and accrued points, not total number of entries.)

Many thanks to trainer Julia Jesu for all her expert assistance throughout the year!

Introductory Dressage Champion again!

Briar Rose had an excellent day at the Women Supporting Women (wear pink!) dressage show in Willards, Maryland on October 5, 2013. She had her personal record dressage score (75.31%), won the Introductory Level championship, and earned the highest score of 53 entries in the entire show!

Here's her winning test, with Julia Jesu riding:

Briar Rose videos

I have a lot of short videos of Briar Rose. Here are a couple recent schooling sequences (Julia Jesu riding):

Canter, left lead, May 19, 2013:

Schooling over crossrails, February 2013:

And here's one from May 15, 2013 where we were having a little fun lungeing on the cross-country course:

RIP Storm Cat

Rosie's grandsire Storm Cat died today at age 30 in Lexington.

Champion in Introductory Dressage

On April 14, 2013 Briar Rose completed the LKMDressage series of three schooling shows as Introductory Champion and Reserve Champion overall for the day! We're very proud of her! Thanks to trainer Julia Jesu for giving her some great rides.

Here's a video of her Introductory A test (score 74.06%) complete with uneven footing, shrieking seagulls, a dog walking around that she wasn't sure about, and a trailer pulling out right next to the arena:

Thoroughbred Celebration

Yesterday we showed in Salisbury at the Thoroughbred Festival.  Briar Rose aka "Dizzy Lizzy" (Jockey Club name) made some major breakthroughs in staying focused on her job in a busy distracting environment and we had some great moments in warmup! She earned 7s on her medium walk and on her gaits in the collective marks.

Pretty darn good weekend for a young mare just turning 5 in 3 days and a little over a year away from the racetrack. Her excellent warmups didn't all transfer into the show ring, but that's okay, each show is just training for the next!

7th - Introductory Dressage A
3rd - Introductory Dressage B
4th - Introductory Dressage C