Notes From My Journey

1983 - Neon Trees

2011-02-01T15:27:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone!
This past weekend was the Rocking Horse Stables horse trials. I competed Irish Odyssey (Audie) and Sportsfield Rafiki (Rafiki). They were both really good and both placed 4th. The show was a two day event so it was very easy to handle on my own. Rafiki was first to go in all three phases. His dressage was good, the transitions were rough. We are still working on making his transitions flow like water. In the end he score a 37.3 which is fine for his first event of the season. Audie was a little feisty in her dressage test and got very exuberant in her canter work. She scored a 36 which seems to be her average, so we are working very hard to change that and get it lower. The stadium rounds on both horses were double clear and extremely smooth. I was very happy with our performances in stadium. Saturday was cross country day! Both horses were so happy to gallop around and jump. Felt good to hear the volunteer count down from 10...gets my adrenaline pumping.
Well I hope everyone has a good week!

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,
Callie Adaire Judy

Hello 2011!!!

2011-01-14T23:36:00.000-05:00

Hello readers!
I hope the end of your 2010 year was exciting and enjoyable. Mine was filled with ups and downs. Let me take you on a quick recap...I spent my summer in Riegelsville Pennsylvania on Buckwampum farm. There I trained my four horses with Buck and traveled around to competitions around the east coast and up to Canada. Ollie "Call On Me" tore his deep digital flexor tendon during this time and went to Cornell University for treatment. He then got a puncture wound into the joint of his right hind fetlock. This occurred 10 hrs before he was due to hop on a trailer coming home to Missouri. He has been struggling with that injury and other health issues since arriving home, he is now doing better at home on stall rest. Having said that he is not out of the clear for a while and will be recovering for at least a year.
I am now in Ocala Florida preparing for a successful competition year! I have Irish Odyssey "Audie", Sportsfield Rafiki "Rafiki", Bayama, Bada Bing, and Bourne Ultimatum. My five year old stallion Bada Bing is doing well, he has bucked me off once but since doing that we have had several great rides. I foresee him cruising through the levels quickly. I am training with Buck Davidson and I am taking lessons with dressage trainer Gunnar Ostergaard. He trained and coached Becky Holder through the World Equestrian Games. I took my first lesson with Gunnar when I was much younger climbing up the eventing levels. I hope to improve my dressage greatly because I strive to ride dressage properly. I will be blogging every Monday and inform you on how my riding and competitions are going. I thank everyone who reads this blog. And I thank everyone that supports me and my horses on our journey to the Olympics. On that note I am looking for sponsorship to help support my riding and I am searching for that special horse that will go all the way with me. Any help is greatly appreciated, big or small. Thank You!!!
Your Future Olympian,
Callie Adaire Judy

How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty

2010-08-13T12:03:00.002-04:00

Hello Again,

I guess I need to update how Millbrook ended. Sunday was a quiet day, Mom and I slept in a bit and took our time doing chores. The horses looked good and I wasn't too mad about how Saturday went. In our sport we can't have amazing weekends every show. We all have crappy days and we just have to shake it off and prepare for the next show. Buck told me to Show Jump Audie for practice, give her a good training ride since we had nothing to lose if we dropped a couple rails. So I got my naughty girl ready and went up to warm-up. She was jumping great which made me a little disappointed about the day before. We went in and I schooled her, bending her in all our turns and giving her good distances. We had a rail at the first fence because she got a little deep and we had a rail at the end of the triple because she sped through it a little too fast. All of that was fine because you have to let your horses mess up in training. You can't always protect them, they are a living animal that has the ability to think for themselves. They need to learn to protect themselves and to do that they must run through a couple fences until they learn to back themselves off the jump, set themselves up, and jump high enough over to not hit the rails. I have a hard time letting go of my control, I like to have control over situations but with horses you have to learn to share the control. That is a part of the partnership that I'm still working on.

I have another event this weekend at Waredaca in Maryland. I'm taking Bayama Novice and Rafiki Prelim. They should do well, they've been doing great in lessons this week. I'll write on Monday about how the show went. Until then I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and weekend.

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

I'M BACK!!!

2010-08-06T22:00:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone!!! I'm back in full force and ready to rock with my horses. I'm at Buckwampum Farm, where Buck Davidson operates out of during the Summer. I've already competed at one competition since coming back in July. I rode Irish Odyssey in the Intermediate and Sportsfield Rafiki in the Training division at the Jersey Park Horse Trials. Audie competed well and ended up winning her division. Rafiki was a very good boy and placed 6th. He is currently working on reclaiming his prelim qualifications so he can go Intermediate again. I writing you from Millbrook, NY, where the Milbrook Horse Trials is held. Audie rode well in the Dressage yesterday but the judge was hard and scored her a 40. She is in the middle of the pack right now placing wise, I'm very confident that she will move up tomorrow after cross country. Rafiki was very good considering the torrential rainstorm we were warming up in. He didn't like all the rain pounding on us, but he kept it together for his test. He was excellent and scored a 29!! I am so proud of him. He had cross country today which rode great. He was in 6th after dressage and moved up to 5th after cross country. I was planning on riding Ollie in the Advanced but the poor fellow sprung a shoe Wednesday and was still foot sore on Thursday even after getting his shoe fixed. I don't need Millbrook to get qualified for anything, so I didn't want to push him to compete on a sore foot and possibly hurt him more. I'm glad to be blogging again and I hope everyone still enjoys my blog. I'll try to blog tomorrow about Audie's cross country, if I don't I'll definitely blog on Monday.

Until then!

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

Long Hard Times to Come - Gangstagrass

2010-06-17T15:20:00.002-04:00

Hello Again!

I finally made it home and I am enjoying every minute of it. It's not a vacation by any means but its nice to get up, feed the horses, and relax. That routine is only going to last one more day since my horses can't exercise themselves. Speaking of exercise I'm going back to the gym to get more fit for the fall events. I think all riders should exercise on the side. Riding is good physical work but there are a lot of muscles we use that don't always get worked out during our daily riding. I want to continue working on my core muscles, they help with all the phases of Eventing.

Anyways let me catch you up on how Bromont went. Got into the horse park around 2 am on Monday, gave Ollie the day to relax on Tuesday, and we had our first horse inspection on Wednesday. For anyone that reads this and doesn't now how a three day event works there are 3 horse inspections during the whole weekend. First one is usually on a Wednesday. You present your horse to the ground jury and trot your horse in hand to show they are physically fit and sound to compete. The 2nd inspection isn't usually noticed since it happens as you are coming off of cross country, as you slow down after the last jump and trot the vets are there watching your horse to see if they are injured or extremely exhausted. The final jog is on Sunday, its usually a formal inspection which means you dress to impress and its before show jumping. It shows that your horse is healthy and sound to continue the competition.

Ollie passed his first jog without hesitation. Dressage went surprisingly well considering Ollie was full of himself during warm up, he was kicking up his heels and squealing. On the way to the show ring I think he realized what was going on and quickly put on his game face. Our test felt great! I thought it was our best yet, and it scored better than Jersey Fresh. We didn't have the winning test because Ollie just gets a hair behind the vertical, I'm working oh so hard on getting him to stretch his neck out just a fraction more to get those 8's and 9's. We went into cross country day with a 58. The course was challenging, very twisty paths and slight inclines to gallop. There were combinations on course that had a lot of riders questioning themselves if they had walked the best route or did they need to go back out and look again. I walked it twice and went out of the box confident. Nothing on course made me lose sleep, and it rode great. Ollie got tired as I suspected he would. We have been working hard on our conditioning since riding with Buck. But I knew he wasn't 100% fit enough to breeze around the course. We came in with 18.4 time penalties, which isn't bad but it put us down in the rankings. After cross country it's a long day and partial night of continuous icing of the legs, walking, and running fluids. We also had to braid since the jog was at 8 the next morning. My parents were nice enough to come to the barn and braid him for me since it was coming on 10 pm and I still needed a shower. Ollie passed his 3rd jog that morning and returned to his stall to rest and wait for the show jumping phase. I did pre-ride him and he jumped great but I think riding him before showing was possibly the cause of our poor round. It also could have been my riding, I'm still looking at the video my parent's took to find out. Ollie and I dropped 5... yes count it 5 rails. I didn't get qualified for Rolex by one rail, dropping four rails would've been fine but of course we dropped one more than allowed. That was a depressing end to an overall good event, but I looked on the bright side, I completed my first three star safe and sound. Now I'm determined to do more than just get qualified at Fair Hill this fall, I'm going for a win or as close to it as I can get.

My blogging may not be as frequent now that I'm home, but it will go back to every Monday after I go back to Buck's in the middle of July. There will be more horses and more shows to keep you updated on then but for now I'm just enjoying a short break and riding my horses. Hope everyone enjoys my blog, if you have any questions or tips send an email to eventer92@mac.com.

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

Ain't Back Yet - Kenny Chesney

2010-06-01T21:04:00.002-04:00

Hi Again!

This past weekend was great, I am so happy and proud of Audie. I would like to politely say to the man who said she was too careful to go intermediate "Put that in your English pipe and smoke it." Moving on....

Audie really tried her hardest and for all her effort I'm giving her a short break. I am really surprised at how well she scored in the dressage. She had a slit on the left corner of her mouth, I could really tell it was bothering her and didn't push her as much as I could have. The hill the arena was on worked in our advantage thankfully, it really helped her actually lengthen her stride on the diagonals instead of speeding up. Her counter canters were a little unsteady which led to our simple changes being sloppy, more of a canter to jiggy walk. The judge obviously saw something better than what I was feeling because we came out of that test with a 32.4. Show jumping I didn't get to walk because of my ride time. I went and watched a few rides, then warmed Audie up over a few jumps. She wasn't feeling like her perky self which made me a little worried about how this course was going to ride. I literally only jumped her over 4 fences before entering. I was afraid to tire her, we still had a challenging cross country course ahead of us. After seeing plenty of people drop rails I went in, we went around effortlessly. Everything flowed so smooth out on course, it kind of felt like her and I were dancing. After our double clear round we headed off to cross country, all I could think about was the drop called the cliff. Out on course near the end is a combination called the hobbits cliff, it's name suits it quite well actually. We had to jump a skinny and rather wide cabin, three strides to the 5'4" drop, three strides to another identical cabin. It might sound easy but it was pretty intimidating while standing next to it. I quickly put everything I was thinking out of my mind as I left the start box. I never go out on course analyzing something, because the moment you start over thinking something you have unintentionally set yourself up for failure. I go out with the mind set that I will ride what I feel at the moment. You can mentally ride the course as many times as you want but in the end what happens on course is a total mystery until it occurs. The course rode great, we were a little slow only because I forgot my watch. Oh well lesson learned, make sure watch is super glued to arm...check! I won't write again until I get home because the Monday after Bromont I'll be driving back to good ole Missouri. I hope every ones week is wonderful.

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

The House that Built Me - Miranda Lambert

2010-05-16T20:40:00.002-04:00

Hello!

I'm going to start off with a great quote I've recently heard from the movie Robin Hood. It's a great movie if you like action. "Rise, and rise again. Until lambs become lions." I feel that it means to never give up, go for the impossible and don't quit trying. I think this is something everyone should believe in.

This past weekend was wonderful! I took Audie in the Intermediate division at Fair Hill Horse Trials on Saturday. Her dressage was fairly good, not as great as it has been at the past events. Audie's canter work was a little tense, and her trot work was steady. She scored a 38 and then continued to jump a double clear show jump round. The cross country was quite challenging and Audie ran well. I kept her very forward throughout the entire course and jumped clean. We took home third place which was a surprise considering how many were in the division.

I'm having a hard time finding good topics to talk about, if anyone has a suggestion or a question you would like me to answer just send me an email. Emails come straight to my phone, I should be able to reply quite fast. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

Airplanes-B.o.B

2010-05-10T11:15:00.003-04:00

Hello!!

It's been a while since writing, I've been really busy getting ready for Jersey Fresh and all my hard work has paid off! Let me start from the very beginning and catch you up on how the past week has gone. We've been working hard and we are down to the last days before jog on Thursday. I go out to feed Ollie and Audie Tuesday evening and Ollie is limping around in his paddock. I get a vet to check him out and we find he has an abscess. We drained the abscess and I got to work soaking his hoof in Epsom salt and packing it with ichthammol salve. I continued soaking his hoof all weekend to keep the hole clean. He passed jog without a problem on Thursday. Our dressage on Friday was quite good for Ollie, he was very calm throughout the test. We weren't scored exceptionally well but I wasn't complaining because I was in 7th after dressage. The cross country course was very good, it definitely tested our horses stamina and athletic ability. It was a 7 min course with a large hill that we went up twice and the jumps were large all the way to the finish line. I was very proud of Ollie, I could really tell a difference in him and his conditioning. After cross country we moved up to 3rd. He passed his final jog on Sunday morning and looked ready to jump. The course was large and difficult, if it wasn't I guess it wouldn't be a three star. Ollie and I had a good warm up and went out to do our best. I didn't have a good pace going to the Swedish which resulted in knocking the rail down. We had a cheap rail in the triple, barely tapped it and it fell. Ollie and I placed 5th which is excellent for our first CIC***. I was still slightly disappointed in my show jumping round but I can't go back and fix things, I just have to work harder for Bromont. Over all it was a great weekend, I learned a lot and have plenty of things to improve on. I'm taking Audie Intermediate at Fair Hill this coming weekend, I hope all goes well. I'll write again next Monday!

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

One Day- Matisyahu

2010-04-20T21:57:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone!

I've been very busy packing and mom took a load of horses back home. My two young horses Biko and Bing are going back to boot camp with Ed Slemp. They will be there until I get back in June after the Bromont CCI ***. We recently bought Rafiki back, he will start competing again as soon as I get home. I am now determined to make him into a horse everyone doubts he can be. Rafiki is not a perfect horse in any way but he has the heart and the ability to be an Olympic Champion. I will work my hardest to make Rafiki the best he can be, that is a promise.

This past weekend Audie and I completed our first Intermediate together! It was such a confident booster even though we had a stop on cross country. Audie scored a 34 on her dressage test, that surprised me because I forgot a movement in the test and we still scored great. On cross country she stopped at the hanging log into the dunes at the Florida Horse Park. I didn't have enough bit in her mouth to help me get her head up before the jump, so by the time I got her balanced she didn't have enough energy to jump. She jumped it great on the second try and continued around the rest of the course great. Audie had a double clear show jumping round and I had a smile on my face. I always knew her and I could compete at the Intermediate level successfully, I just needed my trainer to say Audie could do it. Buck believed in us and we had a successfully weekend. I don't need my coach to coddle me but sometimes I like knowing my they believe in me and my horses.

I hope everyone has a wonderful night.

Sweet Dreams and Good Night!

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

Home - Marc Broussard

2010-04-06T23:24:00.007-04:00

Hello!

It's been far too long and I apologize! Let me catch you up on the past week. We left for The Fork horse trials on Monday. I didn't have Internet where we stayed, that's the reason I've gone so long without blogging. I had lessons on Ollie with Buck Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. He helped me a lot in just a few days. Ollie likes to go around with his chin pinned to his neck and his head up like a giraffe... attractive I know. Buck made me make Ollie go forward and get his head as low as I could. We were literally trotting as fast as Ollie could go and he eventually stretched his head down low. That's his problem, he doesn't respond to the leg as efficiently as we would like him to. Without the leg his head can go as high as it wants, so me kicking him forward entices him to stretch that neck down nice and low. Audie did dressage on Thursday and was being really good in warm up, I felt confident and ready to win the dressage. She went out and all the trot work was smooth and flowing. The counter canter was rough and Audie all of a sudden knew how to do flying lead changes. It's moments like those that you just have to salvage what left of the test you have. She earned herself a 37, not what I wanted but I really haven't had much time to practice with her. Ollie did dressage on Friday. He was wild during his 9 am pre-ride, Buck said he was looking good though. At 2 pm his warm up was good and he was still acting a little wild, shaking his neck and jumping around in the canter. I was worried about not practicing the flying lead changes in warm up, I thought if I did one or two changes I might not get them in the test. I went into the ring and all the trot work was good, he kept his neck out and his lateral work was really nice. The canter work got a little tight when we had to do our half passes and the flying changes weren't that bad. The first one wasn't really one, we kind of walked then cantered. The next one was ok and the last two were pretty good. Ollie scored a 37 also, I thought it was a good test since I had just changed trainers a few days before the event. Cross Country for Ollie was intimidating, very big and wide jumps on the course and a lot of corners. He was a superstar though, jumped everything clean and had a bit of time. I didn't push him to go too fast because I just wanted to make it through the course clean so I would be qualified for Jersey Fresh. Audie had show jumping the same day and was a speed demon. She flew effortlessly around the course and jumped clean. On Sunday Audie had cross country first and she once again flew around like a racehorse jumping clean. Ollie's show jump round was good, he did drop two rails but it was my fault. I didn't see the distance at the first jump and slowed down too much taking down that rail. I then struggled to get back into the correct pace taking another rail with me. I wasn't too disappointed because I was still qualified for Jersey and I didn't fall off!! Buck said he's going to have me play around with saddles because the one I use is a cross country saddle, so it puts me behind the motion too much. Since changing Ollie's bridle he's been jumping so much better and using himself properly. The weekend was fun and I'm ready for the next show!

Once again I'm sorry for taking so long to write. Hope every one's night is wonderful!

Goodnight!

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

Say Hey (I Love You)- Michael Franti & Spearhead

2010-03-27T23:41:00.002-04:00

Hello again,

Today has been an unusually exhausting day. I was in the barn till around 10 because I had to clip Ms. Audie. Her and Ollie look smashing with their new haircuts. I'm so glad it's staying warm, it finally feels like Florida. I was beginning to wonder if we were still in the correct state. Our neighbor's mare FINALLY gave birth to a beautiful light bay filly with 4 white fetlocks and extremely long legs. We have been waiting for this little one to arrive since Feb. The poor mare looked like she was about to explode or carrying two little ones. Low and behold it was just a stubborn girl with long legs. Tomorrows a gallop day with Ollie and Audie. Then we leave for The Fork on Monday. Hopefully this event will be better than Poplar was. My Physical Therapist said I don't need to come in that much more, he thinks I didn't tear my MCL that bad, really it was the amazing PRP that has accelerated my healing time.

Well I'm about to fall asleep on my laptop. Hope every ones night is good.

Your aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

Hey, Soul Sister - Train

2010-03-25T12:04:00.002-04:00

Hello again,

I've come to realize its very hard to write every single night. I'm afraid I'll run out of good topics to write about. I have recently changed trainers, and I'll be riding with Buck Davidson from now on. I really liked riding with Leslie but there comes a time when a change is needed. I learned a lot from Leslie and I hope to learn more from Buck. I take what I can from everyone I ride with, I think you learn more that way. Ollie has been put on a strict conditioning schedule, and he will start doing a lot more 45 min and hour long trots. He will also swim more often so he will be ready for Bromont CCI ***. Because of how Poplar went, we must do the advance at The Fork, then the CIC at Jersey Fresh and if all goes well the CCI three star at Bromont in Canada. At the Florida 3 day Audie will try going at the Intermediate level again. After that event I will go to PA where Buck's farm is and I'll train there until after Bromont. From there my show schedule is a little blurry, we try not to plan too far ahead because when your in the horse business nothing goes as planned. My two four year olds are doing well. My friend Cristin Stoop has been riding them for me. She does a great job with young horses, and she really enjoys riding them. I have thought about taking them to a Young Event Horse Trial this year, I'm not sure if they are ready right now. Maybe near the end of the year they will be, if not I do want them to go into the 5 year old division of the YEH series in 2011. My young horse's goals are to become great athletes and to learn the phases of eventing correctly. I don't want to create problems that I will have to fix later on in their careers, which is why I'm taking my time with them. What's the rush?

I'm off to ride! Hope your day is wonderful!

Your aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

Never Say Never - The Fray

2010-03-23T00:44:00.002-04:00

Hello! Sorry for not writing the past few days. Last weekend was a rough go for Ollie and I. Dressage was ok, we scored a 42.5 which isn't bad by any means but I'm picky and that score is not good enough. Ollie was a little wild in dressage warm up and at 8:40 in the morning the shadows looked really scary to him apparently. His trot work in the beginning was pretty good, he probably was a little tight in his neck. Shoulder in to the left had better bend than the one to the right. I don't think the turn on the haunches were all too great. His canter work was alright, he felt like if I let go of his mouth he might run off. Because of that he probably seemed tense and tight in the throat latch. The flying lead changes were very exuberant, at least he changed though, he could have half trotted through them. Saturday was not a great day for us. We're galloping around the course great until the first water complex. The question appears simple, but its advance so of course it isn't simple. It was a house one stride to a large log drop into the water. You had to gallop at a good clip to get into the one stride just right. Of course when I gallop into it Ollie decides to tap the breaks just enough so we're crawling down the drop into the water. In result to that I get catapulted off the right side and I'm holding onto Ollie by my left bad leg. I pulled myself back on and kept going up the bank out of the water and over the "catfish" jump. That was probably not pretty to watch but at least I stayed on. Then Unfortunately Ollie decided to sneak out to the left at jump number 18, which was a small chevron skinny. I made it through the course with a run out and a ton of time penalties. On Sunday it was Show Jumping day. I got Ollie ready to go and missed the course walk. That didn't bother me, I just needed to watch several rounds and ride like I was at home. Ollie warmed up good, a little feisty but I didn't mind that. We go into the ring jump number one and I'm cantering up to number 2, at the last possible minute Ollie taps the breaks and swerves left sending me flying forward. I somersaulted over the jump and hit the ground. Falling in stadium jumping results in elimination. I felt like I embarrassed myself, messing up big time at my 2nd Advance. I now realize that I didn't embarrass myself because mistakes are what we learn from. I have to keep riding advance and learn what the level requires. I'm only 17 years old, I don't have nearly as much experience as the other advance riders. I will do better and I will show this sport of can't that I can do this. And I do belong at this level. I hope everyone has a good week.

Until Tomorrow,

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

Breakeven- The Script

2010-03-18T22:42:00.003-04:00

Hello from Columbus, GA!!

I am getting ready to get some rest before my 8:40 dressage ride time tomorrow. I haven't been to Poplar Place Farms in almost 2 years. I'm very excited to be competing this weekend! Ollie was good for his ride today, I think he's glad to be back into action also. Poplar has live scoring via evententries.com for anyone who would like to watch how everyone at the show is doing. I feel ready for the weekend, I'm excited to see how our second advanced goes for us. I feel bad but I am going to hop off. I know I didn't write about anything exciting or interesting this go around, but I'll have some good dressage talk tomorrow night.

Hope everyones night is well.

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

Follow Me Down-3OH!3 (Inspired by Alice in Wonderland)

2010-03-17T21:01:00.005-04:00

Hello again!

Today has went by fast, I felt like a chicken running with it's head cut off. I had to rise early for another session of physical therapy. It went well, they say my knee is healing faster than they thought. My knee is healing as fast as it is because of the PRP injection. Thank you Crane Clinic Sports Medicine and Dr. Kristin Tate. PRP ( Platelet rich Plasma) aka RIT ( Regenerative Injection Therapy) is a wonderful procedure. Platelet growth factor is obtained by drawing a venous sample of your blood and then using a special centrifuge to remove the red blood cells and the plasma component. There are approximately 12 different growth factors present in your platelet rich plasma. These growth factors are concentrated to approximately 300 times your bodies normal levels. When injected at the injury site, they promote or regenerate an accelerated healing cascade. It works so well that football players with my injury (MCL) have been back playing in 2 weeks! PRP is also a well known procedure in Equine Medicine. After my therapy I packed my weekend bag of clothes and homework, loaded the trailer, and got my horses ready for their lessons. Audie was a handful in my lesson with buck! She is a very solid looking Irish Sport Horse, but geez that girl can act like a thoroughbred some days. She was testing me since I haven't ridden her in almost 2 weeks. Three stops into the beginning of my lesson she realized real quick that I wasn't putting up with her attitude. She was still wild but finished good, probably because she ran her energy down by the end of our lesson. Ollie was really good for me, the bridle I just started using really helps. A friend of mine has a horse that is exactly like Ollie, they even have the same name. She's the one that thought I should try it. So I put a loose ring snaffle on my bridle and instead of a normal cavesson (noseband), I put on a western hackemore. It allows Ollie to stretch his neck out and use his body while jumping, and it still allows me to have control for when he gets a little strong with me. I'll still use my full cheek gag on cross country, but this new combination has been working magic for us. My knee felt fine through both lessons, a little sore right now but nothing I can't handle. We were going to leave for Poplar this evening, except when I made contact with the couch I knew there was just no way. We were all very tired and I didn't want to search through the dark at Poplar for my stalls and Ollie would've hated being alone. That right there is Ollie's kryptonite, without a friend Ollie will have a meltdown. He is such a character, never a dull moment with the big grey steed. I'm exhausted and I still need to jump in the shower. I'll write again tomorrow.

Goodnight,

Your Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

P.S. I think I may start making the titles of my blogs song titles. Maybe as well as introducing people to my life, I can introduce you to my extremely large music library which is continually growing. As I always say, a person's musical taste says a lot about their personality. Hope you enjoy.

Tuesday

2010-03-16T21:59:00.003-04:00

I would like to apologize for not writing yesterday. My blog slipped my mind and I will try my very hardest not to miss another day of writing. My gallop on Sunday went well, the knee held up thank goodness! Let me fill you in on Monday, it wasn't at all exciting. I don't want to disappoint anyone, but a horseback rider's life is up and down on the excitement scale. I went to physical therapy at 8 am yesterday, then I went back home to mess with my horses. Ollie had the day off since he galloped Sunday, he did get a good bath though. I love Ollie but man it is hard to keep him clean! I did work on my homework, I try to do it everyday and it takes a lot of discipline. I will be honest I struggle keeping myself focused on the school work, I am getting it done though. If I hadn't of started homeschooling I wouldn't have made it this far in my riding. It gives me more freedom to improve my riding skills and makes my schedule way more flexible. To anyone that wants their riding to take off and have goals like Young Riders or the Olympics, think about homeschooling. It has some positives and negatives but in the end it was the best decision my family and I made. Enough about school talk, let me clue you in on how today went. I got up early because Scott Chandler, my farrier while in Florida, had to come tack on shoes. It bewilders me when horses pop their shoes of perfectly without damaging their hooves. And where do all the shoes go? I search the fields and I feel like I hit the jackpot when I find one! After Scott left I worked on my English homework, then I got ready for my dressage lesson with my trainer Leslie Law. I wore a neoprene brace on my knee for the lesson because I'm not completely comfortable riding without it. The lesson was great and Ollie was going really well. We worked on shoulder-ins, traverse, half passes, simple changes from the canter, and flying changes. His flying changes are still a little rough but we're working on it. Tomorrow I am taking two jump lessons, this should be interesting. Will my knee take the jumping well? I sure hope so. I have PT again in the morning at 8, then I have to run back home to pack my trailer, clean my barn up and get a health certificate from Dr. Trimble. I'm taking Audie my prelim mare to Buck Davidson's at 12 pm to jump, then Ollie is going to Leslie's at 2:15 pm to jump also. Right after my last lesson my mom, grandma aka "Nanny Grate", and I are bound for Hamilton, GA. I'm riding Ollie in the Advance at Poplar, I feel very confident about it. I'm so excited to run another Advance, I'm ready to compete again! These past few weeks have been torture not being able to ride. Well it's getting late, and I have an early morning ahead of me.

Good Night to all!

Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

The Beginning

2010-03-14T11:05:00.003-04:00

Hello to everyone that reads this. I hope this is as enjoyable to read as it is to write. I've decided to start an online blog for the next two years, writing about my life and experiences as I work my way to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, England. I'm a 17 year old Three Day Eventer, and I am competing at the advance level of my sport. I have a lot of goals that I've set for myself, many people call them unrealistic, but as of right now I've accomplished many of those goals on my own. My parents have gotten me this far by backing me financially and believing in me when others have not. Without their support I'm not sure what my life would be like, I guess it would be very boring and not very exciting. Today is Sunday, Ollie has to get a gallop in before the Poplar Advance. The gallop is also going to test my knee, hopefully it will hold up. I will write again tomorrow, until then I hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Aspiring Olympic Rider,

Callie Adaire Judy

P.S. For anyone who doesn't know what I did to my knee,

I tore my MCL when my four year old, Biko, reared and fell on me. I had it injected with PRP and now I'm getting it back to work slowly but surely.