August 1 ,2013
*guest commentary at the end by Sammi.

Today we had a clinic with the world famous games clinician, Collin Carson from Ireland. And I am not using that title lightly. This guy knows his games and he is good at working with the riders.

He started off with an individual 10 minute session with each rider to asses their skills and experience. Then he had them mount up as a team.

I was on foot for the clinic trying to absorb every word and I definitely learned a lot as both a rider; heads up to my team, Old School, back at home, and as a trainer for this team.

The session went for about two hours and then we took a break. Lunch was devoured and then everyone went or a swim. The girls tossed each other in, and as you can imagine it was pretty chilly compared to the weather and the water back at home. The girls even managed, with very little arm twisting I am sure to get Rob and Mark to toss me in, towel and all.

The clinic resumed with Collin going over additional races and skills and me jotting notes and drawing diagrams.

To Old School, my team back at home, Collin gives adult games clinics too. and no worries, I already signed us up for a clinic when he comes by our neck of the woods!

Today also included some packing for the weekend, cleaning tack and boots, and Chinese for dinner! Yea!

We leaves bright and early tomorrow for Wales and the Welsh Champs competition. We are slotted for the 5th heat in session one. We are riding as West Hants. I think there are 41 teams in our division. It should be incredible.

I am not sure if we will have any Internet access while we are away so of you do not see a blog until Monday please don’t worry. We will type them up in real time and post them as soon as we can.

So wish us luck, GO USA!

Guest commentary by team member Sammi.

Well readers, it was a mighty fine day in royal England. With a criking (produced crickey but with an -ing) hot temperature of 77, we started the morning earlier than normal because of a 10 o’clock clinic with the one and only Colin. To start the morning, Leah and Julia quite promptly jumped on Megan and Megan was less of a zombie, but I was. At 10 Colin took us one by one to ask us questions and study how we ride. I was the first victim, and I determined Rob still doesn’t know my name, for I am “the short one”. After everyone was interviewed, we rode for 2 hours practicing new ways to do handoffs, turns etc. *they call handoffs “handovers” here* after those two hours we decided to go cool off in the pool. Leah was the first victim of getting pushed in the pool by me. Julia was being pushed in my Leah and Julia was winning so I made Julia my second victim. And then Leah just chucked me in. The water was cold, I don’t know how the little kids do it. I also had to save a piece of Leah’s clothes and literally dived out the window while the held me by my foot. It’s a very good thing they did not drop me… it was a long drop. After that we had another clinic with Colin and we feel we are ready for what happens this weekend.
YEAH ‘MURICA!!!
We then proceeded to clean tack in the back by the garden. They have really nice and soft grass. After that we waited by watching some of Lady and the Tramp for Mom to feed us (SHE WAS A WEE LATE) and the food was quite delicious. Then we chilled on wifi and looked up at stars (Megan and I saw multiple shooting stars-obviously our good luck star from the universe). Now we are heading to bed and taking showers getting ready for this weekend. LET’S GO TEAM USA !!!

July 30, 2013

Day four was another fantastic day in the New Forest. It started off rainy so we slept in a little late and then Leah made us egg sandwiches before we headed out for some sight seeing.

We stopped at Scatts, which is an agriculture store and is sort of like a Southern States. We picked out a tou for me to take home for my dog Daisy, who I am missing incredibly. And then we headed to nifty town who’s name is evading me at the moment. Lym-something.

It was really neat with older buildings and some cobblestone streets that ended at a harbor. There were a lot Of neat shops to check out. And the girls helped pick me out a shirt and a scarf to accessorize it with. They are so good to try and make me more cool and fashionable.

While we were there we hit up the bank and did a little people and duck watching at the boat dock. We also wondered through a cemetery that was behind a church and marveled at the history and age of this country compared to our own.

On the way home we made a stop at the grocery store which was interesting and entertaining to do in a group of six.

When we got back we made some frozen pizza for a late lunch and then mounted up for practice.

It quickly became obvious that the ponies and the riders were tired and it was not the best practice. Although, in general, the vaulting showed a lot of improvement.

While we were slowly muddling through practice the Denmark party arrived. This included our other host, Juliet’s brother Rob, his daughter Emma, Irishmen, Collin and Mark, as well as New Zealander, Jasmine.

Rob came out and met the girls and at the end of practice I introduced them to Collin Carson, who will be giving them a clinic on Thursday. Score!

After the ponies were put up we all headed up to the Rising Sun pub for dinner. I had fish pie, which was amazing. I’ll have to try making it at home.

We enjoyed chatting and eating and then returned to our home and settled down for the night. Which seems to take a lot longer than expected.

Tomorrow the ponies have the day off but we are getting up bright and early for the New Forest Show. It sounds like it is going to be awesome!

July 29, 2013

This is a guest blog by team member, Megan.

Greetings blog readers! Here goes my blogging virginity.

I started today a little less zombie like. I had the other Half of Julia’s bagel and some seltzer lemonade.

After getting ready I wasn’t really sure where we were going but we wound up at Bournemouth. We went to Primark, which is like a TJ Max combined with Forever 21. The purpose of this shopping adventure will be revealed at a later time.

Four of us riders made Krista nervous with our gremlin looking faces and lack of speech. She didn’t realize it was past out feeding time.

She revived us with a meal of the infamous British fish and chips which we ate with our toes in the sand along the English Channel.

We continued our journey with a walk through the Bournemouth gardens. And then stopped at an interesting party store on the way home.

Once we got back we tacked up and went on a hack through the forest, attempting to avoid the crab flies (unsuccessfully), and made a pit stop along the way at the local pub. It’s interesting how horse friendly the area is, they even had a hitching post in the back.

When we got back a really awesome mini games practice. Things were going quite smoothly. Krista put us through some drills, one took Leah a few extra minutes to understand.

After practice Annie and I made chicken stir fry for dinner and ended the day with a quick team meeting.

If the first three days have been this exciting I an only imagine how the next two weeks will unfold.

July 28,2013

So to recap on this mornings practice. Julia was leaning off of Jack when he did a buck and twist, and she took a very minor tumble onto the extra fluffy pillow like footing – it really felt like pillows (julia says). She bounced up and we spent a while catching Jack. (No worry momma gates)

Julia… i mean Leah (note to self – get the blondes names straight-lol) figured out Cisca, the tallest pony we are working with. She is very different than the teams US ponies. You do not want to touch her reins until you need to stop. And then she STOPS.

Enough about practice, this afternoon Juliet showed us around. First we we had a photo shoot with some wild New Forest ponies. We saw a lot of them as we continued our afternoon adventure.

We stopped in Burley, which is a cute little town that markets itself around its history of witches. We looked in some shops and enjoyed some ice cream.

Then we went to High Cliff Castle, which is a lovely restored castle that sits above the beach. Of course we had to scale the cliff down to the beach. Which was aweeee-sommme.

We could see whitecliff in the distance. I noticed the ocean smell was not as string as home. Not at all as salty. But it was the English Channel not the Atlantic Ocean.

On the way back we stopped at Rob’s house and saw his foal, Sky.

We enjoyed a fan-tab-u-lous dinner that Annie prepared (super sweet to have a group that cooks).

And now we are writing this blog together, eating Hobnobs and discussing tomorrow’s activities.

July 28, 2013
Day 2
This morning we had a really good practice. One of our additional ponies, Jack, lent by our new friend Steph, joined us. Julia clicked with him right away. Great match.

For a while we had six ponies going so I sat and walked around on the spare one while everyone warmed up and swapped around on the ponies, until it was time to get to coaching.

We started with some hand off drills and then moved through an assortment of races, getting used to the ponies and difference in equipment. After a good two hours we called it for the day and put the ponies back up.

We enjoyed lunch, trying new potato chip flavors, and had a good team meeting. We discussed the ride and ponies and what’s to come.