CAA Blog

In case you haven't seen it, the CAA Blog can be found here, good info and photos from the Championship:

http://carriageassociation.wordpress.com/page/3/

It's Over!

I apologize for not posting during the Championship. I had to make the decision to totally devote my energy to the task. In fact, I did not go online the entire week. As I now start to catch up on my emails, thank you all for your positive comments and great emails, I appreciate each and everyone of them. Thank you as well to those who are still holding down the fort at home as we work our way home. And the best deserved thanks to Cooper who was a trooper and a star throughout the journey!

Over the next few days I will update this blog with behind the scenes going ons and add photos so you can get a feel for all the ups and downs of the Championship. The good news ****SPOILER ALERT**** is that Team USA won the Bronze Medal!!! We worked well as a team in every phase which was very inspiring. Congratulations to Suzy Stafford who drove as an individual and won her own Bronze Medal, too!!


Thank you all for your support!!!

More Lipica Info Available

Updated info is now available - list of competitors, maps of obstacles, maps of showgrounds:

http://www.lipica2011.si/en/competition-information/programme

Our training camp is over, we are packing today and heading to Lipica tomorrow. Cooper is happy to have a day off today! Michael Freund has worked very hard to prepare us for the Championship, which we appreciate very much.

Jacob Arnold arrived yesterday. He will be helping me and Suzy as a groom during the Championship.

Earlier this week, we had the honor of visiting a private carriage museum in Mannheim, Germany owned by Mr. Scheidel and had a personal tour for over two hours, just enough time to get a short glimpse of this extensive collection. Many thanks to Fred Freund for taking us. There were over 518 carriages beautifully presented, with many significant pieces from all over the world, harnesses and appointments, as well as very interesting artwork on the walls. I purchased a photo book of the collection and can't wait until I have the time to read it!!

We head out on Sunday morning for Lipica, with the ponies following on the van. I'll do my best to write from the Championships as time allows. I may have a guest writer if time is limited to update you on happenings there. Please also check in with Drivingnews.us for the latest results.

Will post more photos later if possible!

It's Finally Official!

It's finally been posted -
http://www.usef.org/_IFrames/newsDisplay/viewPR.aspx?id=7606

We are on the team!

Some Photos from Minden

Thanks to Bettina Ruckelshaus for these photos from our cones round in Minden:

Katia passes through

Today we had hazard practice with Cooper. Better turns, more in sync with each other. The brakes on my carriage decided to stop working just before we started. After practice it was off to the auto repair place to fix a broken brake line. It should be fixed quickly.


Tropical Storm Katia is passing through the area, we are just on the edge so windy with some rain.

Katia coming by

Cooper relaxing after practice, he is getting very dapply

Lisa Stroud arrives at camp tomorrow with her team. We have a practice show on Thursday and one last cones practice on Friday at the sand arena. We head out on Sunday night to arrive in Lipica on Monday morning. It's about a 12 hour drive with the horse van.


The team is supposed to be announced in a press release by the USEF today. We don't know anything yet!!

More Cones Practice

Here are some photos I took at the latest cones practice:

Wendy intent on a clear round

Wendy on the move

Getting those adjustments just right

Laurie takes her turn

Suzy watches on

Randy taking a call after her clear round

Lots of Things Going On.....

Once again internet access has been spotty and I have spend most of the time available to be online getting bumped off over and over again. Hopefully today will be a lucky day!


Earlier in the week we found a Sushi place that was rather unique - the Sushi bar was made around a oval 'river' where small wooden boats floated around in a line, each with it's load of Sushi! You just plucked off whatever appealed to you as it sailed on by. It was a fun idea, the Sushi was ok, not wonderful but not scarey, either.

Suzy, Jennifer and Shelly enjoying the floating sushi

We made a trek to a sand arena about 4 kilometers away to practice cones. Most of our journey was through the village streets

The footing here was very similar to the footing at Lipica, and we had an excellent practice. There was some betting on who would have the best score, those wise men that bet on me were victorious :)


More dressage practice, more hazard practice, more cones exercises, we are all making progress!

This past weekend, there was a medival festival in Dreieichaim, around the castle, from Friday until Sunday afternoon. This is the largest in Germany and drew a very large crowd. My camera was misbehaving most of this time so the majority of my pictures did not come out, but here are a few that did:

You could be bathed in the communal tub

Xenia, Warrior Princess

Fran trying bread on a stick, a popular snack

There was excellent people watching during the festival, lots of  people dressed in different centuries,  a man dragging around a woman on a chain, a man with an owl, a woman with a falcon, lots of knights in armor, women and men dressed in every conceivable way and lots of kids, too. A very, very lively crowd.

Some Random Photos



This large Rooster hung out all day at the Egg Sellers booth at the Farmers Market in Mainz, preening.



Doesn't everyone?

The Colonel gets around....





This one's for you, Nancy!
 These two had a black boat bumper that they were using for a game of Tug O' War



Training Time and a Bit of Sightseeing....

We have been busy training each day to be our best at the Championship. Each evening Michael posts a schedule for the following day, and keeps us to date on plans for the week. He gets input from each of us about what we would like to work on and adds his ideas.



Michael and Fred's Training Field

 There is a good training field just up the hill from the barn with a grass arena, dirt arena, a permanent hazard and several portable elements. There is plenty of room for cones, too.

When we got back from Minden, I gave Cooper a few days off, then it was time for some hazard practice. I asked Michael that morning if he would like me to learn some hazards (there are some marked at the training field) and he smiled and told me no, that I would follow him. Not sure what that meant but I soon found out!

When we were ready to begin, he ran through the hazards, making all sorts of turns and had me chase him! It actually worked really well as it made me (and Cooper) think quick, focus ahead, and it was fun! We did that a number of times with different twists and turns in both the portable and permanent hazards, then he gave me a pattern to drive, turning right, then left, then right and so on. I got braver about getting closer to the elements (sometimes too close but these were the portable elements, fortunately forgiving). We got a good workout and we got to work on our timing.

Since the footing at the Championship for dressage and cones will be on sand, Michael made arrangements for us to ship to a local place with sand to practice cones. It was a big production to get all the ponies and equipment loaded and moved, as well as the cones.

Getting everything there

As soon as we got there, Michael and his crew got busy setting up a challenging course. We all had time to walk the course and get our ponies ready, then it was time to drive. The sand was quite deep in this arena, and there was a lot of sliding going on. It was deeper than he had planned, but we all got some time in learning how our carriages handled and the ponies sure got a good workout!

Michael puts Laurie's ponies through their paces for a double clear


Michael was not happy with the footing as he thought it was too deep. He has found another practice field to use and we will drive the ponies over on Thursday for more cones practice.


Between lessons we have been driving out in the forest nearby, and I have also been riding Cooper.

After working Cooper each day, we have been trying to do some local sightseeing. Fran has done a wonderful job finding interesting places to see. One day we went to a nearby city called Mainz and Fran somehow found the town square and there was a wonderful outdoor farmer's market surrounding a beautiful cathedral. There were many lovely buildings in the square. 

The next day we went to see a castle, Burg Eltz, which has been in the same family for thirty three generations. It was located in a picturesque valley near the Mosel River. We took a tour through many rooms of the castle. The original tapestries, furniture and artwork is still there and very impressive.

That area is famous for wine making and it was amazing to see how the grapevines were growing on nearly vertical slopes. How they care for the vines and harvest the grapes I do not know as it looks impossible to stand up on those hills.

Monday after I worked Cooper, we went to nearby Bad Holmburg. Fran used his festival radar and we came across a Lantern Festival, which spanned about a mile of city streets blocked off from traffic. There was every conceivable type of food available and we had a great lunch sampling German fare.

This is a very small park next to Michael's training field with this unusual sculpture.

We are very curious about what this sign says, can one of our German reading friends enlighten us?