Go Eventing! by Jennie Brannigan

Greetings everyone in horse land. I am excited to say that I am now safely back in my home base of West Grove, Pa. The horses are happy and out in pastures grazing and have come out of there spring events well! I have had an interesting spring season with the kick off being in Wellington, Florida this January to get some extra help with our showjumping coach Katie Prudant. With some showjumping lessons and rounds under my belt I headed to Aiken to start off the Eventing season. It was great to get my upper level horses, Walkabout and Cambalda, back in action and though I wasnt running them fast to start off the season I was thrilled with how they were going. Some young horses I had in training had some good results at their events and Indie made the move up to preliminary winning his first two! Thats when things got a little more exciting. When schooling a young horse XC I had a big slip and fall on a turn immediately breaking my collarbone in two and leaving me out of action for a bit. I was lucky to have a great Doctor and he was working with our team physician Craig Ferrel who is an amazing doctor. I had surgery on it and one screw, six pins, and one plate later was back in action. With the help of some Sore No-More and a bone stimulator I rode in the USEF training sessions with Mark Phillips a couple weeks later. I have to say that though some people thought I was a bit crazy Craig did approve my riding for these sessions. I was thrilled with how my horses were going and with the help of my boss Phillip and coach Mark made a plan to get me back into the eventing ring. Ping didn’t event while I was broken, while Will and Indie both evented once with Phillip, and Ryan Wood rode a young one for me and did a great job. A few weeks later I was sitting in the start box on Cambalda sitting second in the 50 plus CIC*** at The Fork Horse Trials. Though I was a bit nervous about my time off Ping/Cambalda jumped around like a pro putting in one of 9 double clear rounds that moved me into the lead. Ping got iced and Sore No More’d and was jogging like a champ the next day. I have to say that after putting him on the Aleira by Arenus he is breathing better and felt like he had more energy going into the showjumping at The Fork. He jumped a clear round after the 5 riders before me had a rail down and I was nervous to say the least. I am so thrilled with how the horses are going. It was a great comeback weekend and Indie was third in the preliminary while Walkabout was 7th in the intermediate. We packed all the horses and equipment up and headed back home and here I sit! Thank you all for having a look into my spring season and I hope everyone is doing really well. Go Eventing! Jennie Brannigan