November 1, 2024
A few weeks ago, I entered a contest on instagram to win a tailgating space at the Maryland 5 Star for cross country day. I enter contests on Instagram a lot (shamelessly), so I often will enter them not really ever thinking I might win - but with sheer luck I won this one!
I was so excited about this win for many reasons, but mostly because after having such a great time last year, Drew and I discussed how maybe one day we could do the tailgating thing in the future instead of just the general admission passes. We had no expectation that we would be doing that this year at all!
We also got a few extra passes as a part of winning the tailgating experience, so I invited a few friends to make the experience even more enjoyable. We were so excited to take the truck, Wally, and some great snacks and drinks on the road to go watch some high level cross country action!
We drove down after work on the Friday night and made it to Maryland just before midnight - about an hour later than planned due to some crazy highway closures in New Jersey. We were then up fairly early the next morning in order to get to our tailgating spot on time. We met up with my friend Julia, who also drove down the night before, and drove about 20 minutes to Fair Hill. We ended up having a great spot for tailgating that was about halfway between the vendor village and the furthest part of cross country, and right in front of the sunken road complex. Julia, Drew and I set up our space and started digging in to the drinks and snacks. What was really funny is we happened to be parked between several clearly well-seasoned tailgating groups who had full on set ups and tons of decorations for their spaces. Our spot looked like a hole in comparison - complete with a table we needed to duck tape together upon removing from the truck because it had broken at some point during the journey down 🤣 We made do, and got set up with our chairs and Wally with his x-pen.
My first order of business was wandering over to the vendor village to take a peek at what shops would be on display. I made a mental note of the booths I wanted to make a second run through later in the day, and we then made our way back to the tailgating to get ready for the 3* cross country action.
As previously mentioned, our spot was located right near the sunken road exercise, which provided us with fun viewing all day in both levels. The first few horses from the 3* all had different takes on their path through the sunken road, and it didn't take long for me to get that deep feeling of admiration you find when watching those at the top of the sport. It takes so much to get there, and I find it very inspiring.
I was so excited to run into Jacqui during the early part of the day. I had sent some tickets to her, and it was great to see her and catch up on all that has happened on both of our ends the last few months. I already have big plans for the spring, so we discussed that and started getting excited about what's next for me and Sophie, as well as her and her string of horses.
We continued watching the 3* from our spot, and I had us wait until my friend Sara Schulman came by before moving on to watch a different part of the course. To get those who might not know caught up, Sara was who I worked with for a few months at Jan's. She competes her horse Cooley Chromatic 'Caden' at the 3* level of eventing with aspirations of reaching the top of the sport. I've heard that the Maryland 3*-L is one of, if not the, hardest 3*-L tracks in the country, but Sara and Caden made it look smooth sailing. They are amazing and Sara is a huge inspiration to adult amateurs everywhere that you can still be 'an adult ammy' and make it to the top amongst the big wigs. This article on Eventing Nation is such a great read about their journey!
Once Sara and Caden had zoomed by, we went to go walk the rest of the course and catch the remainder of the 3* action at different spots. We popped by the second water that had the new waterfall jump to be used in the 5*, the roller coaster question, the insane ditch and wall skinnies, and even trudged all the way up to the infamous crab water question. By the time we got up to that part of the course, we were sweating and about ready to turn around. We watched the few remaining 3* riders take on their rides at the crab water, and then we turned and made our way back to the tailgate. When we got back, we ran into our friends Elaine, Terrence and Azula. It was so nice having Elaine be local to us in VA, and we've missed them!! I was so happy to get a few minutes to catch up with her while we were there.
For those that paid attention to the 5*, you might have heard or seen that of the 20 something riders who entered, only 8 completed cross country. We were fortunate having our tailgating spot be so early on the course as that allowed us to actually get to see most of the 5* riders come through.
Of all the riders, it was really special to get the opportunity to see Tamie and Mai Baum tackle some tough questions on a 5* course one last time - even though she retired later on course, it was still special to see them come by our spot.
Once the 5* action concluded for the day, we packed up our tailgating spot and made our way back over to the vendor village for some shopping and socializing. Wally also did some socializing, and met up with a mini-me. Way too cute!!!
Patrick Ennis of Devoucoux New England, and a client & friend of AKF, invited Julia and Drew & I to come and spend some time at their booth in the vendor village after the competition had wrapped up for the day, so we spent some time there having drinks and snacks. What was super fortunate during that time was that Sara happened to walk by with her family so we got a chance to catch up in person. We were keeping all of our fingers crossed for her heading into day 3 of competition - she was in 2nd place in the 3* overnight!
Drew and I ended the night eating at Cane's, and then we hit the road early the next morning to get back to MA. We had such a great time, and I am grateful to both The Cross Country App and The Maryland Five Star for hosting the tailgate giveaway! Extra shout out to Bonnie with the Cross Country App for checking in with us during the day and giving us some hats.
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Back at home, Sophie and I have been working really hard to get back to a normal schedule. I looked back at my calendar and realized that Sophie has not been in a regular weekly program since early July!! After the Maryland International, Sophie's been flexing between time off for vacation, time off for rehab, a little prep for Town Hill, time off due to my injury, and being ridden by others a few days per week, up until about three weeks ago. And her and I haven't had regular jump rides together for about two months now - so we have a fair bit of time to make up for.
I am so grateful that Julia was able to help keep Soph's fitness at a good level while I was out, and now that the spotted unicorn and I are back together, I am trying to work her in some capacity 5-6 days per week. At the moment that is looking like one solid jump school day, one lunge day in the Pessoa, one day of light trot / canter sets, and 2 -3 days of flat work. I have been struggling in our first few jump schools back with Sophie being overly eager to take over and jump with or without me, so I have just started taking lessons with Adrienne to have support on the ground as I work through this. I am pretty confident that once Sophie feels settled in our regular routine, she will find the jumping to be a little less exciting, as it will hopefully feel less like a rare occasion.
We had our best jump school back so far today with Adrienne, and I only had a few jumps that really felt like I had no say. I am grateful that my horse is always so keen to jump, but I am looking forward to when it feels more like a partnership again and less like a battle of strength! I also really think the loss of muscle tone in my right leg has not helped with this either, as that's Sophie's heavier and tighter side, and so I am having to work that side of my body 10x more to get through to her while I am still working on strength building. But we are getting there! And it's nice to know we have the whole winter to keep getting at it before we start our spring show season.
I am excited to continue to get stronger and work with Sophie to get us back to feeling normal. Alongside riding consistently again, I am also SO thrilled to share that I am officially back to teaching lessons! Adrienne has been kind enough to add me to her string of incredible instructors, and she has so many wonderful school horses and ponies at her farm that have already proven they are worth their weight in gold in my first few lessons back. I am very much so looking forward to the winter season of spending time at the barn with my horse and with students!
Thanks for reading this update and continuing to support the blog. Hopefully only up from here!
K
oh she is SO back