So as some of you may have noticed, I haven’t updated anything on horse shows lately. Unfortunately this is because my horse is lame (injured). She has tender feet and from time to time they can be challenging. Because of her pads, causing a soft spot in her hoof, it had to be dug out. This caused bleeding in her hoof. She has been sore for a little over 3 weeks now so we had to miss our last 3 shows we had planned for. The vet hopes she will make a full recovery in about another week or so. Hopefully this is true so we can attend our last three shows of the summer. Keep your fingers crossed for us please!

Here is a short update from the last horse show! We showed in hunter under saddle, equitation, halter and showmanship. We had some very nice improvements in the hunter under saddle and had some nice placings. My equitation class also went well. We went in halter for the first time to fill and actually did surprisingly well and ended up with a 3rd and 4th! This was also Dolly’s 3rd show doing showmanship and we received a 1st out of 13 horses! That was definitely the highlight of the horse show. Our next stops are to Winona, MN in 2 weeks, followed directly by another show in St.Paul, MN the next week. Updates on those shows will be coming soon!

Sorry friends! I haven’t been doing too much updating lately on the Dolly horse show summer! We have been busy at work this summer with a long horse show schedule. Our first horse show was in St.Paul Minnesota at the state fairgrounds. We had a great show for our first go at it. This was Dolly’s first time in showmanship and equitation. I was quite happy with her debut. We even had a nice visit from one of my teachers at UWM, Rachael Jurek, and had a really fun time.

For the 2nd show we moved on to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It was yet another good show with some decent Dolly improvements. For her 2nd time showing in equitation and showmanship, we placed in both! This coming weekend I will be in Jefferson, Wisconsin at the Cap Gun Circuit. Updates will be coming soon following that show. In the mean time, below are some proofs from Bar H Photography of Dolly and I in showmanship and equitation for the first time!

This last Saturday the 7th was my first horse show of the season at Mandt’s Equestrian Center. The show was in honor of a young girl, Kara who died 2 years ago of a drug overdose. Kara loved to show horses and her horse Hip Hop was shown by one of her good friends, so it was a great show to attend in remembrance of her.

For the second time, I showed my horse Dolly in showmanship. She was a good girl, she nailed everything until we got to the set up and she drifted away into “la la land” pretending she had never set up before. We ended up getting fourth out of about 12, not bad for the second time! She decided she wanted to be a little sassy because the weather was pretty chilly. After she worked out her sass I showed her in two walk-trot classes. We got a 2nd and 5th out of about 20 horses. Then my trainer, Alison showed her in a few pleasure classes. We weren’t going for the win, just schooling so it was a great opportunity to get some schooling in before the big shows start this summer.

Dolly and I may be showing this coming weekend at a Hunter- Jumper schooling show in flat classes so more updates will be coming soon. We plan on doing out first big show at the end of the month, May 25th- 30th in Minnesota.

Stay tuned!

On April 9th, 2011 3 Milwaukee Equestrian teammates competed at the Regional competition for IHSA (Intercollegiate Horse Show Association.) Those members were Emily Bea, Kayla Reithmeyer and I. I just wanted to say congratulations to the three of us on a very nice regional competition. The competition was very tough but we all held our own. Showing in IHSA has been a great experience for me. I would recommend it to anyone who shows horses. I think it makes you a better rider in so many ways because you have to ride so many different types of horses.  Not only does it make you a better, more well rounded rider, but we also have a lot of fun. I am sad that the IHSA horse show season is over but I am very excited for next year, which will be my last year. In the meantime I will shift my attention to showing my own horse this summer, Artful Doll. I am sure you will be seeing some updates from me shortly as it gets closer to show season #2!

Here is how a typical day begins for a Milwaukee Equestrian team member. You wake up around 5am, quickly pack-up your belongings and get ready to ship out to the show destination by 5:30am. On the way there we generally fill ourselves up on excessive amounts of caffeine and loud music. However, that does not always do the trick to wake us up but we always to our best! Recently the UWM Equestrian team traveled to Wauconda, Illinois for the Northwestern/Augustana IHSA show.

I don’t know many people who would enjoy sitting in a small indoor arena with the sides open, (creating a very large wind tunnel) in 20 degree weather. Other than Milwaukee Equestrian of course, because we can handle anything! I would like to say that I am very proud of my team for what we had accomplished at the show. Currently we are only a small team of about 6 members, but have a lot of increasing interest. It isn’t possible for us to win the team awards currently because of the size of our team, but I have been very impressed with the individual and team effort regardless of winning or not. For the first time since I have been on the team, teammate Kayla Reithmeyer was awarded the high-point rider of the day, which was an awesome accomplishment for both her and the team. We also had a new saddle seat rider who placed well in both of her first two classes at the show!

I would like to congratulate Kayla Reithmeyer, Emily Bea, along with myself on qualifying for IHSA Regional’s on April 9th, 2011. This show will be in Dousman, Wisconsin.  As our regular show season draws to an end, I would like to thank all my team members for putting in an awesome effort and making this show season fun and successful.  I can’t wait until next show season when we have even more team members and of course most importantly, more awesome memories.

If you or someone you know may be interested in joining the UW-Milwaukee Equestrian team please visit our webpage at www.milwaukeeequestrian.weebly.com or e-mail me and [email protected]

GO MILWAUKEE EQUESTRIAN!!