Gypsy Station
  • Home
  • Ocho Fan Club
    • Spanish Flat Open House and Pony Rides
    • Firecracker Frenzy
    • Ocho's Awards and Honors Page
    • Renaissance Performances
  • the MOB
    • Mob Pictures >
      • 2014 >
        • Dist. 45 Buckle Series 2014
        • D' Alonzo September 13, 2014
        • D' Alonzo September 14, 2014
        • Black & Whites
        • 2014 CGA Convention
        • Sonoma County Ag Days 2014
        • Stable Fun
        • Skyline 2014
        • Beach Day 2014
        • 2014 CGA State Show
        • Butts Fire July 1st, 2014 >
          • Butts Fire Videos, July 2014
      • 2013 >
        • Maddy and Payton August 13, 2013
        • Sebastopol Wranglers Gymkhana, September 7th, 2013
        • Rio Linda Creek Adventure
        • D' Alonzo Ranch 2013 Winter-Spring Series
        • Pony Express 2013 Field Trip
        • June 2 2013 Skyline Picture Gallery
        • May 5, 2013 NVEC
        • 2013 CGA State Championships >
          • ...And the winners are...
        • D' Alanzo Show May 25-26th, 2013
        • April 27 Circle D Gymkhana
        • D' Alanzo Show April 20, 2013 Picture Gallery
        • D' Alanzo Show April 21, 2013 Picture Gallery
    • MOB Lesson Programs and Information
    • 2011 Holiday Camp
    • 2011 Murillo Classic
    • Starr Vaughn Equestrian Center, for Star IV. 9/10/11
    • Ranchotel English Schooling Show 3/13/2011
    • 2009 CGA State Show >
      • Mandy 2009 CGA State State Show
      • Clair 2009 CGA State Show
      • Maddy 2009 CGA State Show
      • Caroline 2009 CGA State Show
      • Cornball Follies 2009 CGA State Show
  • Guest Book
  • Calendar/Camps
  • Gypsy Horses
    • Blog
    • Ocho >
      • Romni Loo`Loodi’ Y`aven
    • Zen
    • Gypsy May
    • Zen's Comet
    • Zen's Mercury
  • Merchandise
  • Announcements

Notes From Around the Arena

May 28th- June 3rd, 2013
The NVEC English Show in Napa.

Most of you know Melissa Kalember, she does our equine body work.  She is also a rated judge and is currently working toward her Large R cetification.  She is also our advanced level trainer, working with Clair and Myself.  She is preparing us for the next level of english show with emphasis on jumping.  So we have another show circut we ride with Melissa.  We used the NVEC show as part of the training for this next level. 

NVEC - Napa Valley Equestrian Center in Napa, is a nice place right in town. 
They are a show barn training riders to ride the A and B circut.  We had a great time and it was lots of fun.
 
We met brignt and early which was grey and a threat of rain.  We had a lesson in the main arena over the big jumps at 6:45 in the morning. 
We were only jumping 2 foot but for me they might as well have been 3 or even 4 feet.  Yikes. 

I rode Tikkun at this, understanding this is his arena, being a former 3 day eventer and a pretty good one at that.  
As Clair said "you are not in any danger of hitting anything, except maybe the moon".
We put a lot into getting this horse feeling good and he was thrilled to be in the show ring.  And he turned on the jump power.  He did not get the memo that i am a beginner to this type of riding.  I hung in there, litterly.  We had a fast first round and i kept landing in a heap which allowed him to pick up more speed, and with 8 fences you can imagine, we were flying.  We did not place out of the 12 riders in our division in the first of our three classes.  The Second class was a little better as far as i was able to sit up sooner and check him back a little better.  We even had like 3 really nice jumps.  The final line was two fences toward the gate and he got pretty fast and we rapidly were over the two and on the rail so I pretty much ripped him into a turn and his front end lost footing and he slipped and started to go down, but somehow after smashing my helmet and glasses on the flat side of his neck we popped up together, and a few large circles later i put myself back together and got him to the trot.  He is a lot of horse.  We actually placed 5th of our 12 rider group.  With 12 riders we had plenty of time to recover.  I stopped shaking, his hart rate settled, then my body started to cramp up and show me that i am just not fit enough to do what we needed.  So for our final class Melissa agreed to set us up to finish with a few good jumps.  We selected 3 jumps that we could do nicely, went in and did those three.  We were called off course and excused.  It was great.  After almost falling down we were able to have the final memory be more about those three good jumps.  Tikkukn was so enjoyable he seemed to like his bath, he stood quietly and even kept his head do so i could wash his face. 

Clair and Pharaoh were amazing. 
They rode several classes, Jumping beautifuly in the first series at 2 foot.  Placing in the top 3.  And then dominating the flat classes winning eq, hunt seat, and pleasure,  and on to the  2ft 3in class holding their place very nicly.  Clair and Melissa have worked hard to learn an outside rein collection on Pharaoh and he was perfect.  Clair ended up with the reserve Champion for our division.
Congratulations!
Picture
NVEC Photo Gallery