Of course i'm familliar with the word 'Zenith'.  I as well know it is a T.V brand.  If you're Leslie and speak the "Queen's English" he's known as 'Zen-eth'... but to the rest of us North-Americans we just call him 'Zee'.  I wonder if he ever gets confused?

So i've officially looked the deffinition of Zenith up on an un-official on-line dictionary and came up with this:

'Zenith' - 1. the peak or highest point, 2. the point in the sky that is directly above the observer's head.

Both of these deffinitions work for our Zee as deffinatly this fall season he has proven to be our 'higest point' and also.. he is quite tall so if you stand beside him he would be that point above your head!

Zee's only 7, and we just got him two years ago from Iron Spring Farm.  Iron Spring bred him and so he has their fabulous breeding to thank for his innate talent as he's by their famous jumper stallion Judgement and out of a tb mare.  However, to be fair, when we picked him up he was kinda lumpy, really brown, a bit mouthy, opinionated and not overly attractive.  But he did jump, and he had that breeding.  I remember Leslie driving home and saying, 'Well, we shouldn't loose money on him anyways.'.  That's how we always buy our horses, trying to think that at least if things don't work out we would get our money back. 

Long story short, in just two years he has gone from nothing to placing second last weekend at the two star.  Words cannot describe the pride we had in him.  He's transformed into such a beautiful animal and has the brains and heart to go with the outer package.  He was just beautiful to watch cross country as it just looked effortless.  Leslie never has to kick him or urge him on, there was never a bad jump, just everything was seamless and you could tell that both horse and rider were working together and both just as happy as each other to be out there doing that. 

In the show jumping he showed off a bit of his Dad's talent.  I was very nervous about the show jumping until I remembered watching Judgement and Beazie at Spruce on YouTube the other day winning some kind of derby class that was just massive.  After I thought of that I said, "this will be no problem for Zee" .. and clearly it wasn't as he sailed around one of only three clears.

There is a special kind of feeling you get when you see one of your horses 'grow up'.  Certainly Zee has a ways to go before he becomes the kind of top class /world class horse we hope he will become but so far, he hasn't made a mistake yet.  The best part is that he genuinly appears to love his job and his Rider.  Iron Spring has came along for 'the ride' with us and continues to support Zenith and we are ever so grateful for them both for their financial support and their moral support.  Truly without them I think we would have had to sell Zee by now so we are very grateful to them.

The rest of us Law Eventing Crew also had a good weekend.  Our students were unbelievable with Dana Carlin winning the prelim, Ashley Dalton placing third on both of her young horses, Christa Gandolfo placing fourth in the prelim, and my young horse won the training by I think 9 points.  So we were very proud of all!

Zee is now out in the biggest field we have enjoying his well deserved vacation time.  We haven't even so much as put a brush through him.  Just lots of grass and carrots.. the way horses should be on their time off!  Poor Leslie is in Europe now for two weeks horse shopping for people.. he has to wait until December for his grass and carrots!  The rest of us are getting ready for the Ocala event in two weeks which will be our last event of the year. 

Below are some videos i put together of the three day.  I took them on my ipad which sadly has no zoom (hope Apple is working on that!) but they will give you an idea anyways.

   Since our last post which was around the end of July we have had many ups and downs which is par for the course really with this sport of ours.

  In August we all bundled off to Millbrook Horse Trials where Rehy Lux and Leslie had a freakish fall on the flat just prior to the second last fence.  Millbrook has a famous slide at the end of the course and Rehy caught a toe or God knows what and slipped thus somersaulting down the slide.  A freak accident and luckily noone was hurt worse however Rehy was hurt badly enough to end his season and all of Leslie's hopes for going to the Pau four star this fall and possibly the Olympics next year.  It makes you sick to your stomach.  I felt awful for the horse who now has to spend a few months stuck in a stall, awful for his fabulous owner Ann who was starting to get very excited, and mostly awful for Leslie who is ever stoic about life and horses but had just started to allow himself to dream a little bit about this horse and their future.  This has been a big blow for all of us and another reminder that we must not take ourselves too seriously when it comes to the horses and the 'plans' as they can so easily change despite our best efforts.  It has served as a reminder to find our happiness in our family, our friends and love of animals and not in our 'goals'.

  It hasn't been all doom and gloom however.   We returned to Florida at the start of September and it is always wonderful to be home.  Our farm looks beautiful and it is always great to get home to your own bed and all of your 'things'.

  Our young horses are starting to shine: 

  Zenith ISF:  How wonderful is this ugly duckling tale?  We bought him just under two years ago as a horse with no 'purpose' being neither the dressage horse that his breeders usually produce nor a grand-prix jumper. Now he is heading to his first two star having placed in the top four of almost every intermediate he has done at just the age of 7!  He is the sweetest 'black lab' of a horse and I really believe he will be a star.  His breeders, Iron Springs Farm, have been 100% supportive to us in our adventures with Zee and we are forever grateful for their help and encouragement.  With any luck the horse they bred that didn't quite fit into their program will hopefully become a star and open up another outlet for them to be recognized for.

  Billy Wiz:  This one is my baby.  We brought Billy over from England just over a year ago.  He was Leslie's 'last choice' of that particular trip but having watched the videos, when the other horses failed the vet, I told Leslie to have a go at this horse as he wasn't expensive.  I must have seen something in the video as Billy is now my favorite.  I have never loved a horse this much aside from my Timmy (Timber Spirit).  He is like a pet dragon in his stall always threatening to bite or kick but once you are on his back he is ad happy as larry and magical.  He is still young and gets into some trouble at times but that is just his spirit and I wouldn't take that away from him.  He placed in almost every event he did and has now just done his first prelim where he was magic in the dressage and xc and started the show jumping very well until he came across some butterfly standards and reared up and struck out at them.. (this is his 'spirit' i spoke about).  However, he jumped very well and we were very proud of him as it was just a year ago now that he did his very first event.

  What Law:  This is my other 6 year old that we recently imported from England.  So far we've had a pretty good streak with three ribbons in the top four out of four events.  Leslie's brother rang us up and told us he had seen this horse and that I should buy it as I'd love him..so we did (the name seemed to fit anyways).. When 'Jojo' showed up I thought, "What was Graham thinking?  This is one of the most common looking horses I've ever seen and also its barn name sounds like Micheal Jackson's pet monkey!"  But having had the gelding now for just over a few months I have come to see what Leslie's brother saw in him.  It's not his looks or his movement or even his jump that are 'wow'.. those are all good.. but what is wow is his head and his heart and with those things going for him and the 'good' everything else he is highly trainable and wants to do everything right.  He is a fabulous worker and it will be interesting to see what we can get up to in the next few years.

  Kool Aldo:  This is a young horse that I rode last year and brought up successfully to the prelim level until he sustained a freak injury at Rocking Horse last March.  Aldo had always been a very good jumper and when he stopped at Rocking Horse we knew something had to be off.  Sure enough we checked him out and he needed a four month vacation to prevent a small injury from turning into something major.  Aldo is definitely the 'fanciest' and most naturally talented of my horses.  He is the one that everyone will stop and look at at the events.  He is back in fine form now but I have handed the reins over to Leslie to have him since he is down a mount.  Everyone says what a nice wife I am to share my horses but in reality it has nothing to do with that: a) life is better with a balance of power, b) truth be told although Aldo is my fanciest horse I have more of a relationship with the other two for whatever reason and c) if the tables were turned Leslie would do the same for me.  Look for them to be tearing up the scene this winter, their dressage is certainly looking fairly unbeatable.

  In other wonderful news we have been blessed with great clients right now and students.  It is wonderful when you get to be around fun and happy people all the time and we are lucky to have great kids, parents, adult amateurs and staff right now.  I can't wait for the winter season to start and for everyone to get down here.

  Leslie will soon be off on a mega horse shopping adventure in November for two weeks.  He is going to England and France to find horses for clients so get your order in now if you are looking or that special horse! 

  On the topic of horse shopping.. The other day we had a very nice girl we were trying to help find a horse on a limited budget.  We showed her horse after horse and she just kept saying that she hadn't found the 'perfect one she fell in love with yet'.  We never did find her a horse.  Thinking of it later I realized that not one of the three horses I have now did I even cast eyes on; let alone try, let alone 'fall in love with' before I bought them.  A year later I have now fallen in love with the one and have an admiration for the other two.  I guess I spent a long time working riding for others where I was never asked whether I loved the horse or not but expected to produce them to the best of my ability.  I think one's relationship with a horse is something that is grown over time and cannot be expected to be instantaneous like other things in our consumer based "NOW" society.  Truly the horse you sit on when you try it is, for better or worse, not going to be the horse you sit on a year from now so you need to buy what you think are all the right qualities you need and then work together to create a partnership not just buy a partnership.

  Which brings us to the hot topic of today .. money in our sport.  I just read our friend Kyle Carter's blog about how to compete with the mega-millionaires in our sport today.  I believe the short answer is that you cannot compete with them ~ not as a general rule if you are dealing with ribbons as your currency for 'success'.  Leslie and I came to the conclusion a while ago that short of finding a fairy god-mother that there was no way in North America to compete with those that have the backing that some do.  Yet where we can compete is with a good business and in good riding.  I know that 'my dream' of having a string of horses to compete with internationally is very unlikely to come true when we are a middle class working family (short of the arrival of aforementioned fairy) but I have switched my focus to coming out of the ring every single time and knowing that if anyone was watching they would think.. wow.. what a beautiful or effective Rider.  Whether I am sitting on a novice horse or an upper level horse, if we can ride to the best of our ability and have our ability be very tuned and trained then that is how we compete.  If you knew the background of Leslie you would know he was one of those Hollywood type movie stories where he grew up in an assisted housing development and went on to win Olympic medals.  He is one of the hardest workers I know paired with a god given talent who grew up in a society of deeply infused horse culture.  However, in North America the Cinderella stories exist prodominantly in baseball and football and not so much in horses.  That fact gets us all down from time to time but what I keep telling myself and our students is that the goal should be to become a respected Rider above all else.  Leslie frequently muses that he is a much better rider now than he was when he won the gold yet has no horses to compete on.  That pretty much sums up the limitations of our sport right there.  However if he can go on to produce Zenith into a winning horse from the horse that noone wanted at the time we bought him than I think in some ways that success is as great as any other.

  Until the next post...