Dempsey's 2014

The season has come to a close and I really couldn't be more proud of Dempsey and his progress this year. 

He went from a training horse to a confident CCI1* horse is the past year and has proved to have the pieces to become a top horse. 

Dempsey finished in the top 5 at most of his events this season, most recently earning reserve champion in the Preliminary American Eventing Championships and earning the Presidential Award from Jo Whitehouse for the highest placed Young Event Horse graduate. 

Dempsey completed his first CCI1* this fall at Galway Downs and ended on his dressage score finishing 12th out of 60 horses and placing 3rd in the 6 year old division.

I am thrilled with his progress and most of all beyond proud of being the rider that gets to sit on his back. He's been such a joy to watch progress and I couldn't be in this position without each of you. 

Here are a few pictures from the season. Dempsey will now go out in a field and have a couple months off to get fat and be well rested for the upcoming season 2015! 

The tentative plan will be to take him to some dressage shows and work on getting his ridablity in the competition ring. We will remain at the 1* level until we can have his total confidence and understanding at the level. I have no doubt he would have jumped around the 3* course this weekend, however his talent exceeds his smarts right now so we will be doing a lot of work to train the ridability into him. 

Thank you all once again for all of your support. 

Cheers to this talented and exciting horse!! 

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!!

Fondly, Tamie

Eventing.......I love my sport!

Someone asked me today how I could continue to Event...it actually made me angry, as if I purposely put myself and my horses at risk. I have a family, 2 kids and a husband who I love more than life. My daughter competes at the one-star level and I would never intentionally risk my life nor my daughters to go out of the start box. Eventing has risk, so does driving to the grocery store at 11:00 at night. Traveling alone, motor sports and even walking across the street. 

 

I know this will be controversial, however, I believe this needs to be addressed and feel like someone should talk about it…so here we go.

 

This last weekend was a tragedy. Eventing didn't need something like this to happen but it comes with living. Yes....living. We live and therefore we risk our lives. Tragedy is a terrible thing.....we question ourselves and others, "Why compete in a sport that could cause you or your animal harm?"

 

We as an equestrian community shouldn’t quickly place blame on the sport. We compete in a sport that has risks. It's what makes each of us who competes in Three Day Eventing live our lives to the fullest. Our horses love it as much as we do and if they don't it's our responsibility to put them in a job they do love. We owe it to ourselves and the people we teach to prepare over and above the challenge. When you choose to put your foot in a stirrup of any breed of horse and ride you are risking your life. When we choose to gallop cross country like our ancestors did and jump natural obstacles there are risks for us as well as our horses.

 

We have to come together and embrace each other. Never forget we are all part of a wonderful community that most sports can’t brag about ....it should be all about camaraderie.

 

Was there something that could have happened differently to prevent the deaths of these two great men? Possibly......but probably not! Sometimes life isn't fair. It's not ok, we want to find a reason but sometimes things happen. It's ok that some things happen for seemingly no reason at all. It's part of living our lives to the fullest. These tragic deaths don't make me second guess my sport or my profession. I’m very sad that this happened, it is tragic. I do not know how you move on from something so devastating, but I know that the sport of Eventing has never been safer. I believe we all just have to accept that bad things happen sometimes to wonderful people.

 

Slowing the speed on cross country will not make the sport safer. As a rider at any level you have the ability to go the speed you choose. Yes, to be competitive you have to make time, but I would never risk my horse or myself to make time........if the course is riding well and my horse is rideable I will make the time. 

 

So let's focus on the things that our sport teaches us......work ethic, commitment, partnership, teamwork and the list goes on.There isn't always something or someone to blame. Sometimes we just have to morn, live on, and be strong together.

 

Team Milton Update....

Twin Rivers was another success. Milton had a very nice dressage test and a beautiful show jumping round. 

I was leading going into cross country by 6 points, but knew that Milton wasn't quite ready to go for the time just yet. 

The speed is in him and the jumps he understands but putting it all together is a bit premature right now. 

I have many places to improve on the dressage so I'm pleased that we have more work to do. 

My plan is to work on our galloping and take him to the CIC2* at Greenwood in Texas in a few weeks and then to look at entering the CCI2* at Rebecca Farm this summer should his progress continue to grow. I still can't believe every time I go out of the start box and we gallop through the finish flags how incredibly lucky I am to be sitting on him!!

We have been in dressage boot camp with Niki and we also went to Thermal this winter to improve on our show jumping. He is very suspicious of liver pools so we work on walking over them daily to teach him that he can trust me and liver pools are ok!

Monday we will be going to the beach to take the 1* and above horses to gallop to see how their fitness is for their respective level. Most of the horses have been swimming this winter due to the lack of rain and the ground is very hard. 

Milton is up to 14 laps with ease. 

In comparison Landioso will be competing at the CCI3* this spring and he is swimming 30 laps. 

Impressive!!! 

I hope you all are doing well! Milton and I have been working hard to be very prepared for Rebecca Farms CCI2* and Greenwood's CIC2* in a few weeks. 

I will continue to keep you all posted and thank you again for believing in the Milkshake!! 

He's quite a special creature and deserves a huge spotlight!! 

Til next time......

Tamie & Milton

Team Dempsey

It's been a very busy season for Dempsey and I this year and I am very happy with his progress. 

He has started to mature and fill out into more of a horse than a young guy which I'm very happy about. 

Dempsey is physically ready to move up to the Preliminary level, however after a recent stomach scoping performed by Merial we found some ulcers in his stomach. I consulted with our veterinarian and performed a bone scan of his top line as well to make sure we were on track for our move up and we found some discomfort in both TMJ's. Crazy right!! Well this would explain his behavior at times and we want to make sure that he is at the most comfortable and optimal health and therefore we will be treating him with a month of ulcer guard and getting his belly feeling much better, in addition we injected his TMJ. 

He has done 5 training levels and went to HITS Thermal for a week to get acquainted with a big show atmosphere. 

My goal with Dempsey will be to take him Preliminary at Copper Meadows in June and if things go well to take him to Rebecca Farm to compete in his 2nd preliminary horse trials with the goal of competing in a CCI 1* in the fall. 

This is a very similar plan that I had with Milton and taking things slow has certainly paid off. 

Since Dempsey has been put on his ulcer guard as well as his injection in his TMJ's he has been working in the round pen to help him get stronger and learn that he isn't hurting any longer.

I will probably compete him at Woodside Horse Trials in May training level to give him one easy go before his debut at the preliminary level. 

I wanted to thank each of you for your support and I'm looking forward to a bright future with Dempsey! 

Til next time......

Tamie & Dempsey

Team Milton Syndicate

It's been quite the journey with this quirky gentle giant and the journey really seems to have just begun. 

I knew when I saw his eye that he was intelligent and very suspicious. What I didn't know is that a horse and I could fall in love the way we have. He looks at me with the most affectionate and soft look but when I put my foot in the stirrup he is fierce and ready for any challenge. My faith in him has really become strong and I am so excited for his future. 

Each of you have been instrumental in my success with Milton and I thank you for your continued support. You each took a leap of faith and it's starting to turn into an exciting and rewarding process. 

So my deepest thanks go out to each of you for your generosity with keeping Milton and I on track for a bright future. 

He started out the season with an amazing accomplishment by scoring a 31.2 in the CIC1* at Fresno Horse Park. Having him finish on his dressage score was just icing on the cake and winning the division with a 20 point lead. I decided with that great of a performance it must be time to move him up to Intermediate. 

This past weekend at Galway Downs Milton exceeded my expectations and was very solid in his performance. He show jumped clean and jumped around a difficult Intermediate cross country course.

I'm trilled with his performance and looking to compete at Twin Rivers in a few weeks. 

If he is solid there I will take him along with Katie & Kaylawna to the CIC at Greenwood in Texas with the goal to compete in the CCI at Rebecca Farm this summer. 

Plans are never written in stone as we all know and if you had asked me if I would be doing the Intermediate this time last year I would have laughed at you. But I'm happy to say Milton is in good health....knock on wood, and our partnership is more solid every day! 

Thank you all again for all you do for Milkshake and me.......we are very blessed to have you all a part of our journey!!

Go Team Milton!

xo T

NLE Working Student Position

NLE has one working student position available. This individual must be eager and want to ride more than they want to breathe. Yes.....I said it, you must want to ride more than you want to breathe or eat for that matter because unless you can eat and run, we don't eat much.  

Limited cell reception at the facility unless you have AT&T. 

Hours are from 6:30am til we are finished. 

This person must have an understanding of riding with their legs......if they don't they must have the desire to learn and not think they already know everything, because even at 38 I still know I have a lot to learn.

You must be willing to learn correct use of your aids as well as true horsemanship. If you do not know that when you open a gate you should close it, or that when your asked to get something no matter how far, you should run, this isn't the job for you. 

If you have a work ethic and a desire to learn you will have the opportunity to ride A LOT! Which, if you would like to someday become a professional hours in the tack, and I mean A LOT of hours is what you need to become good. And to become great you need even more. 

This job is for serious riders with a serious drive to become true horseman. 

This job is very intense and requires someone who has an ability to have fun and still stay focused with getting better with every task they perform. 

If this seems like the job for you, feel free contact NLE direct at info@nextleveleventing.com.