Settling back into reality

Hey Everyone,

Rif and mom made it back safe and sound on Sunday and then I followed on Monday. It is so nice to be back and out of that humidity lol but I must say I miss being around everyone. There's something about being with people that have the same goals and dreams as you do, who understand how much sacrifice it takes, and who just love horses. It's a good feeling to be around a group like that and so it was hard saying good bye as they all headed back to BC and across Canada.
However I arrived back to El Campeon with such a warm welcome and such joy for us and back into the office where everyone was thrilled for me! It's such a blessing to have people in my life like this. I feel so incredibly blessed by you all and I wish I could give you all a piece of my medals because without all your support this would be impossible!!
So now it's back to reality... Rif is getting most of this week off and enjoying some grazing time meanwhile I'm trying to make Stentano feel loved again :)
I had the videographers film all my tests so they are posting them to YouTube so once I get the link I'll post it here!
Once again THANK YOU all!!!!!

<3 Monica

YR Freestyle SILVER!! 70.8%

My apologies for not updating you all last night. It turned into a very late night between the late ride, having a bit of fun at the competitors party and then packing Rif all up for her flight out early this morning! :) So the princess is on her way back to California with mom and I'm here until tomorrow because closing ceremonies aren't until this afternoon where I'll get my medal from yesterday!

So back to yesterday! Wow wow wow! We did it! We held our 2nd place all 3 days right behind Brandi and Magic! I could not be happier with my beautiful girl! She truly brought it all and let me in so we could go out there and dance together.. or prance around as Stephen Colbert put it =p.
I came into this with the goal of top 3.. I knew we were capable of it and that everyone believed I could do it but I really didn't know we could pull it off so well! It still hasn't really sunk in.. I'm just beyond thrilled and I feel so blessed to have been given this incredible opportunity!
I owe huge thanks to my family for all the support and enabling this to all happen and then to all of you for encouraging my every step!
And I cannot forget to thank Sabine Schut-Kery for training me back at El Campeon and then Albrecht Heidemann for his eyes on the ground at this show. :)

This is just such an incredible feeling! I don't have any pictures yet from in the show ring but I'll get some up soon! For now here are a few of our team pictures from yesterday!

YR Individual Silver!!

So am I completely on cloud nine? Holy smokes yes!! Crazy crazy crazy!
Before I rode today it seemed everyone was convinced I was going to medal but I for some reason had a hard time believing that. It suddenly hit me to place top 3 out of 41 riders is not easy! I guess going into the team test I had no pressure so I went and just rode but today I had that feeling of holy shit this is intense! But heck it sure paid off! We had a clean test and she once again gave me her heart and oh it was just so fantastic! A 71.2% to win silver!! Brandi Roenick won on Weltino's Magic with a 75% which was a gorgeous test and then another Canadian from Ontario bronze medaled with a 70%! It is always so neat representing your country on the podium!! I absolutely love it! Poor Rif was terrified in the awards and our victory gallop turned into a full out gallop alright... I couldn't stop her for the majority of it but by the time we hit the out gate we somehow managed to find the breaks ;) poor princess!

Thank you for all the congratulations and Facebook messages and texts! You are all such great support!
Tomorrow are the freestyles which will take place in the evening and so I ride at 7:02pm (eastern time!). One more time to get in that ring and dance with my amazing girl!!

Ready, set, and individuals here we come!

Hi Everyone!

After a morning of light schooling and wandering about the horsepark to see what other disciplines were competing today mom and I made it back to the hotel for a bit of down time and air conditioning!! 

Rif was really good today and all I wanted to do was get her out to stretch her legs and keep it easy because tomorrow I go at 2:04pm and so it will be extremely hot so I don't want her feeling too tired out!!  She is coping with everything really well which is so nice because they really cannot get out very much except for walking them around the barns during the day. 

These last 24 hours have been kinda crazy because suddenly the reality of medalling tomorrow could come very true.  You can see the excitement in everyone's eyes when they talk to me about tomorrow and I just keep telling them anything can happen let's wait and see ;)  I'm so ready for this though.  I know exactly what I've got to do but most importantly I want to go out and just have fun again with Rif and go out there like it's just her and I.  =)  So who knows what will come of tomorrow but no matter what I want to thank you all for the incredible support and encouragement especially on facebook!  You guys are such an inspiration!  Thank you!!!



Andrea Taylor snapped a quick picture of us a few days ago warming up!

Team BC at opening Ceremonies!

Thank you People on Horses for the beautiful browband!!!  I think Rif feels like a true Canadian pony now ;)

http://www.peopleonhorses.com/

 Out for our ride today and feeling mighty fine :)

A ride never to be forgotten

I don't even know where to start! This has been an incredible day! My heart is just overjoyed because I think, actually I know I've been blessed with the mare of a lifetime. Today we danced together and it was amazing. She gave me her all and I had the absolute most fun out there with her!!
It was one of the moments where you salute to end the test and tears come to your eyes because you know you left everything out there in the ring! I am just beyond thrilled! I owe a huge thank you to you all for the support and to everyone else who was cheering ringside and of course my amazing mom! Albrecht was there to support me and had a few words here and there to keep us on track :)
I don't have any pictures at the moment from today because my mom was so nervous for us she forgot about that detail ;) We ended up with a 69.6 and individually placed 2nd but that doesn't much matter today as it was the team test but that gives Friday a lot of excitement for the individual round!

I want to write more but I'm so tired I can't even think clearly so hopefully tomorrow on our "day off" I can find time to write more!

All the best,
Moni

Live stream!!

Hey guys!
Had to drop y'all a quick line..
I just found out we'll be live streamed on usefnetwork.org in case you're interested :)

Moni

Holy craziness!

I think that was officially one of the most hectic days I've had in all my 4 years of coming to najyrc! So much went on!
It's just about 11pm and to explain things a bit we finally found out our ride times for tmrw at 9:30pm where we were all waiting anxiously in the barn! Our first rider goes at 7AM... so apparently sleep these days is underrated! The weather has suddenly taken a turn and the temperature has spiked along with the humidity!
I go at 1:06pm tmrw and I'll be the last ride for our team! Let's go team BC!

To back up quickly we had our warm up in the Rolex arena today and Rif was amazing!! We then went on to the jog at 4pm and passed beautifully. From there we proceeded to opening ceremonies and then a big BBQ/party at the neighbors big farm next door!

So as you can imagine I'm exhausted and tomorrow calls for an early morning so I shall leave you with a couple pictures and be off to bed! Thanks for all the love and support! We are finally here and ready to do this!!! Time to dance!

xoxo
Moni

Hello and goodbye Monday!

Well I have no idea where today went! That was one crazy day! I'm exhausted now and feeling rather grubby so I'll just update y'all quickly.

I had some help from Albrecht today and it was one of those learning experiences where you realize no one knows your horse better than you do. He realized he's not here to change anything.. he's needed to be that eye on the ground to tell me I need more angle in that shoulder-in, or that pirouette smaller and so tomorrow we are going with that approach. I am so grateful he has stepped up so kindly to help me out!!

This afternoon we were given all our swag!! And oh my goodness we have some amazing sponsors this year!! Thank you 2012 sponsors!

We then proceeded to have a mock jog for all the Canadians to make sure we are all set to go for tomorrow! That went well and was great to have people like Evi Strausser, Tom Dvorak, and Albrecht there to tell us exactly what we needed to do more or less of.

This evening ended off with a patio party at the USEF head quarters on the grounds so that was very nice of them to invite us fellow Canadians!

Here are a few pictures from today and I shall let you all know how the jog goes tomorrow! And then Wednesday is the team test :)

Love you all!
Monica

Sunday - a day of rest.

Everything is starting to come together and more and more people are arriving on site.
Today I gave Rif her "day off" meaning I just walked her undersaddle and gave her bit of a stretch in the trot.  She needs one down day before the madness begins!! ;)
She continues to be a happy little clam and is not phased by the atmosphere at all!  She however has decided she does not like her friend that moved in behind her so we had to put some curtains up to avoid the dragon girl from coming out.  Other than that I could not ask for anything more from her :)  I really feel like she is starting to trust me but more importantly respect me as well.  I never quite understood when I first got her how people would tell me when you have a good mare - she'll do anything for you.  Well I think I finally understand that.  When we are clicking on the same page I can't describe what a neat feeling that is to have with a mare - especially Rif. 

I received a really nice email from her previous rider when the Leatherdale's owned her and it almost brought me to tears.  She wrote about how thrilled she was for me but more about how much of an amazing team the two of us have made together.  That really touched me.

I'm starting to feel the reality of the competition hitting and for a moment I had that feeling of oh my gosh I'm about to shit my pants.  It's an incredible feeling to know the potential to do really well is there but to keep myself in the zone is going to be 100% the key. focus. focus. focus.  Oh and smile somewhere in there too right ;)  I was told before I left - don't worry about what's going on around you, just ride for yourself and your best.  I want to canter down that centreline with that huge smile on like I know together Rif and I will do our absolute best and put it all out there.  I want to show this amazing horse off and how much of a blessing she is to me.

So with that, tomorrow Albrecht will be here to see what's going down and hopefully he can just be that last little (or big) voice in my ear to really bring it all out! 

It's almost show time.. but until then it's time to take in every moment and enjoy the entire experience!

Thank you all for the support and encouragement!!  I feel so blessed to be here and to have all of you following along with me :)

xoxoxo
Monica

Welcome to Kentucky - Canadian style!

Hello!  Sorry to those who saw the jumble of pictures on my blog earlier with no writing.. I quickly threw them up yesterday.  Somehow the day I thought would be rather easygoing became a lot busier than I thought - surprise surprise lol

We have started to mark our territory in the stalls just in case our eh's aren't a clear enough give away of where we're from. ;) Team BC baby!!

And thought you might like to see the weather forecast..... ya wonderful eh?  But it's sure heck of a lot better than last year in the sweltering heat and blazing sun!!  I'll take the odd thundershower here and there over the nonstop sweating!

And here is the girl midflight on our way to Kentucky!  She was such an awesome trooper!  I could not have been happier with how she travelled!!  She was so relaxed about the whole thing!

It was really awesome to be able to travel with fellow teammate Sydney and her horse.  She has been training down in the San Diego area for the past couple years so we were able to depart on our adventure together. 

Here is the plane we travelled on.  We flew with the company Tex Sutton http://www.suttonforwarding.com/ and they were fantastic!  Such a great experience and the grooms on board were so great with the horses.  You can see the ramp on the left side was what they were walked up into the plane on and then their "stall" was built around them.

I could not help but share this =p  I've made 2 really good girlfriends who ride just down the road from El Campeon while I've been out here and they came by the barn the night before I flew out with Rif and brought this poster for me!!!  They are adorable!!  And then when I got here I opened my trunk and found another poster!  Thanks Amelia and Morgan <3 You guys rock!!

Settlin right on in y'all!

You know you've made it to Kentucky and the midwest when y'all is attached to everything they say... I guess that's how people feel about us Canadians and our 'eh,' eh?
Anyways.. back to the stuff you actually all care about! The flight was fantastic! I could not have been more impressed with HE Tex Sutton. They were so professional and just all around great horsemen. Rif was such a champ and walked right up and remained a happy clam for the entire flight :)
We had a transport company pick up up to the airport for the 20 minute ride to the horse park where mom was awaiting us with everything ready! Thank you mom!!
She settled in right away and you'd never have known she'd just come from California that morning!

Today I rode her early and just kept it easy and she felt really great. The weather is a million times better than last year!! Of course it's humid and all but not sweltering hot!
Tomorrow I'll put her to work and see where she's at! Albrecht is going to be helping me here so I am really looking forward to that!

We have been busy setting everything up and so tomorrow I'll have more time to get some pictures up and fill you all in better! Just thought you should at least all know we survived the flight :-)

Xoxo moni

Heading off on a jet plane.. horsie style

Well holy crap it's really happening!! This is crazy!
So I got myself a short and sweet 2 hr power sleep in before rising bright and early for 1AM and now currently I'm sitting in the passenger seat as a very friendly Scottish man with a ponytail escorts us to the airport.
We left El Campeon just before 3AM and I drove up to the barn to find the head groom there waiting for us to make sure we loaded up and got off okay. That made my day! I was driving up to the barn thinking this could be interesting arriving in the pitch dark up in the mountains.. so I was so happy when I pulled up to lights on in the barn - thank you El Campeon for the amazing staff!
My heart broke a bit when Stentano realized he wasn't coming but I told him he'll be much happier staying home this trip ;)

So now we are just about at the airport so this shall be a whole new exciting experience!!

I'll catch you all on the other side in Kentucky and let you know how we faired the flight!!

Moni and Rif

The countdown is on!

Hello :)

I hope all is well with everyone.  It looks like the weather back home is finally starting to cooperate so that is finally nice to see!

As for me here, well Kentucky is all of a sudden literally right around the corner!  It's crazy!!!  Rif and I fly out Thursday EARLY in the morning.  We have a 5AM flight out of the Ontario, CA airport so that means we have to be there at 3:30.. which requires us to leave El Campeon at 2AM.. So Rif and I will sure be bright eyed and bushy tailed - ya right lol.  I'm so excited to get to fly with her but have no idea what to expect so it will sure be an experience!

Training has been going really well and we are going through our tests on a regular basis now and getting as prepared for everything as we can!  Of course with horses you can never be totally prepared because there is always a certain amount of unknown but that's the fun part right ;)

Mom and Dad fly in tomorrow night and then mom will be here Tuesday to help me get the last few things together and then she flies out Wednesday to Kentucky and I'll meet her there with Rif on Thursday.  Dad won't be joining us this year because he has to make a trip out to Holland and then April has her beach volleyball summer games the weekend after that dad will be cheering her on at! 

As soon as I get to Kentucky I will be blogging on a much more regular basis.. so keep tuned!  Right now things are crazy trying to tie things up at the greenhouse so I can leave for 10 days nevermind getting everything packed for KY so I'm a tad bit busy at the moment if you can imagine ;)

For now a couple pictures :)

Stentano and his friend?  Or..... somewhat terrifying looking creature!

And then my wonderful sister and I were able to spend a really nice day together on Tuesday up in Santa Barbara.  She stopped in LA for a couple days on her way back from Guatemala :)

Miss you all back home!  All my love xoxo Moni

O Canada, O Canada

Happy Canada day to all my Canadians!!  I have to say O Canada has sure become a sweet sound to my ears and there has not been one day that has gone by down here in America where I have not been proud to be a Canadian.. even though the eh's and polar bear jokes seem to be never ending! ;)

I finally have a day to catch up on things and relax.  So hence with the Canada day theme going on why not share the latest that we are proudly sporting..  A huge thanks to dad and the company for being such an incredible support and allowing me to live out my dream!

And my beautiful girl posing for her photograph.  Thanks to Arista Equestrian for the jog jacket!

Our journey is about to once again get very exciting again and I cannot tell all of you how much your support means.  I never would be able to do this on my own so to everyone who has been apart of getting me to where I am - THANK YOU!

A special horse, with a special place in my heart.

We've reached the point in time where I have to put Stentano up for sale.  It absolutely breaks my heart to do this but dad has been pushing this and I can only keep delaying it for so long.  He has been incredible to me and has taught me so much.  We've been through our up and downs.  Our moments of thinking both of us are completely crazy, and then our moments of making it the podium 3 times at NAJYRC together where we both knew we did it.  I cannot express how much this horse means to me and I truly hope I can find him the right home to someone who will truly understand the special boy he really is.  If you know of anyone who may be interested you can send my contact info out.  monica.houweling@houwelings.com or (805) 907-0915