Here’s an update!

After my amazing 2012 working student experience working for Lainey Ashker...

 I came home. I hadn’t seen my family or my best friends in 5 months so I focused on them, thought about school, and my next plans for a bit.

In December of 2012, I began working for Earl and Jen McFall at their own Dragonfire Farm in Wilton, CA. I’ve since had the opportunity to ride very nice horses and increase my horsemanship skills. Jen and Earl helped me along with my horse Sunny when we got back from Virginia and a few months later I started off the season at training level with the hopes to compete at Rebecca Farms Training 3 Day. Which we successfully did. The cross country course was 7 minutes long! My kind of heaven right there! (Thank you Earl and Jen!) Then we competed at our first prelim a few weeks after Rebecca Farms, I thoroughly enjoyed the bigger fences, tougher courses and faster speeds!

I also began grooming for the McFalls at the horse shows we went to just getting to know them and their horses.  Especially Jen’s now four star horse High Times or “Billy.” This year I have been grooming for them without my own horse being there sadly. I am now trying to sell Sunny so I can move up the eventing levels.

Since I have been home, I have been going to the local community college to work on the general education requirements. It’s been a challenge for me to juggle school and horses but where there’s a will there’s a way! “Horses” includes my many jobs too! Three to four days a week I drive 35 minutes to Georgetown to ride hunter and jumper ponies, it is the perfect job for me because it’s outside, flexible and I get paid to jump ponies! Two days a week I go to Dragonfire to teach lessons to The Dragonfire Academy students, and then I usually ride horses and do any kind of barn work on Saturday and sometimes the same thing on Sunday.

This year has been especially exciting at Dragonfire because we had a goal in mind to compete at a certain big spring event back east… ROLEX!

My Training Level Debut

July 15, 2012 I am writing this as we crawl along in traffic outside DC. We are on our way home from a really fun, successful Maryland HT at Loch Moy Farm. This was Sunny's second training level. Her first training level was last weekend at the same place. She put in a good test at the first MDHT, a good SJ round, but we had a rail anyway. At least I rode well! And then a fabulous double clear XC ride, finishing in 6th place! Lainey was so proud of us! I have to say, I love my horse! Also, before the first LochMoy, I was very fortunate to go up to Buck Davidson's farm and have a jump lesson. He had us jumping around a prelim show jump course.  I learned so much, and he had some great  exercises for us to work on. Thank you to Lainey for setting the lesson up! And thank you Sheila for driving up with me!  **A few of my Buck lesson notes** Hips first to jump, shoulders last More balanced canter, bring her head up. Think "dressage in front of the fences" Make only one decision in front I then fence Heels down for a more stable position "see how Lainey brings his head in before the jump?" When you screw your distance up, change something such as the approach  Rounder on right rein Hold posture over jump Second Loch Moy.... We improved our dressage test! And Sunny got a 7 on her gaits which was really nice to hear. My show jump round needed some adjusting that didn't quite happen this time around, but fortunately Sun Bun helped me out and we had only one rail. She rocked around XC double clear, finishing in 7th place and  Lainey and I were really happy how quickly she cooled out after XC!  I'm so proud of my girl these past two weekends! She has placed in her first two training levels!  We are going to a jumper show this next weekend to work on show jumping. Sunny has plenty of talent, I just need to work on riding her a little better in the ring. And then we will be heading up to New York for Millbrook HT, I'm super stoked for Millbrook! My goals are to improve our dressage, and go double clear SJ, and double clear XC, LET's DO THIS!  Thank you Lainey for being such a great coach, thank you for the Buck lessons. Thank you for everything!!!! And once again, Sheila, thank you so much for the pictures! I love them! I have to go see the video still! And thank you for driving up to Buck's, and MDHT with me! I really appreciate it! 

Here's a little more of the adventure!

         I've been having the time of my life here in Virginia! I've been able to ride so many different horses, and I am really excited about how much I've learned just by riding other horses.  Sunny arrived in Virginia looking very good, it was a pleasant surprise since shipping a horse across the country can be stressful. She has settled in well, and she has really stepped up to the plate as far as training goes.               I've been having a bunch of lessons with Lainey, in 2 flat lessons on my horse we've gotten so far! We have many more to go, but that's ok, that's why I'm out here. I always learn so much from Lainey's lessons.              I've always had some rails in show jumping, which always bums me out. But Lainey discovered the problem. I need to get sunny more round, and forward. And I need to bring her ears up and balance her in front of the fences so she can get her feet out of the way. It's really good to know that my horse is scopey as heck, but I just need to work on riding her more balanced.  Lainey also has been having me ride in a half seat in front of the fences because i have developed a driving seat, and i have the tendency to drive her past the distances sometimes. Sun Buns doesn't like it when I sit the trot and have contact on her mouth, so we have been working on getting her to accept that. That's a problem that Lainey says we have to fix NOW, so we will continue to work on it.          The Cross Country (xc) schooling out here is amazing. In fact, everything is amazing here in Virginia!          I went to my first event out here called Surefire HT. Lainey and her horses went on Saturday, and I rode Sunday. I got to get up at 2AM both days, and work the whole day at the horse show. It was exhausting, but I loved every minute of it. I learned how to put in studs, and I learned the workings of this one day horse shows. I wish we could have one days out in CA, they are so much easier and faster!        Sunny was very good on Sunday. We had our personal best dressage test, we had two rails in show jumping, and of course a double clear XC at Novice level. She was a very good girl, taking very well to standing at a horse trailer all day. Very proud of my girl!             I am so glad I get to have this experience with someone like Heidi, who has done this before. It's so much work but it's a little more fun when your with someone else! Heidi tells me that all the time. She had a great working student experience last summer and she's back for more!         We wake up at about 700 AM and get to the barn about 800 and  feed the horses. We either flat, hack, trot set or jump, some days we get lessons from Lainey. We get done riding around 400 or so, and then we feed again at night at about 500 or 600, depending on how hot it is. Sometimes we even turn out a little later if it's really hot. Which brings me to the weather... We've had everything from rain practically flooding the barn to 100 degree heat and humidity. The heat is bearable, you just drip sweat all day,  and drink so much water.    And then do it all again the next day! I'm always so excited to go to the barn, I absolutely love it! If anyone else gets an opportunity to be a working student for such a great rider and coach  like Lainey, go do it. It's the best experience.           My next show is the first Lochmoy up in Maryland, and  I'm moving up to training level! Very exciting!    That's all for now!  And thank you, Mom, Lainey, Yvette, Val and Heidi for everything!!!! And also thank you Shiela, Bethany, Sam, and Lauren for being so nice and welcoming to me! And Shiela, thank you for the pictures! They are truly amazing , I love looking at them!!!   I really appreciate it all  since I'm 3,000+ miles from home and everything I know!                  

Introduction

Hi, my name is Sophia Zeier, I'm 18 years old and I LOVE eventing. I'm headed out to the east coast for approximately 3 months to be a working student for Lainey Ashker. I will be shipping my lovely horse, Sunny, out east, and then flying out myself. Sunny is a Chesnut mare, Thoroughbred off the track (OTTB), she is 7 years old and she has competed to Novice level.

I'm in the United States Pony Club and one of the previous DCs of my El Dorado Pony Club was talking about her good friend, Valerie Ashker, and her daughter, Lainey. I ended up going to watch Kentucky Rolex 3 Day Event CCI 4*in 2008. They have all sorts of talks and activities, and we were at a pony club talk and I recognized Lainey so my dad went up to her an introduced us, we talked to her for hours about eventing. She came out to Caifornia and my family invited her over for lunch and that's when I had my first little lesson from Lainey. It was about 20 minutes long and she set up this grid. I remember I learned a lot from that short little lesson, "THIS is what 4* rider's lessons are like!" Soon, Lainey would fly out here for clinics and I would ride in pretty much every single one of them. But now, 4 years later I am going to her for the ultimate working student experience!

Let me say a little bit about my horse now... Val Ashker has this brilliant eye for horses so we started having her help us look for my next horse. She found Global Children, and when we went to go look at her Val patted her on the butt and said "This is your horse!" I rode her and loved her. When i got her she had raced 3 times and won a whopping $1,200, and she had had a foal too. She was all fat and cute, the first thing I did when I got her home was take her on a trail ride and she was so good! I love the way Val starts all her horses off the track, she trail rides them for months before they ever see an arena. It helps them learn to have fun and be a horse, it gets them in shape, racehorses are flat landers so the hills, rocks and ruts teach them where their hooves are, and it also establishes trust between horse and rider, and it's a FAST way to get to know what kind of horse you just bought.

 I call her "Sunny" or "Sun Buns" now. But I trail rode her for a while and then I started having weekly lesson with Val. Then Lainey came out and we started working on flat work and grid work (jumps set at different distances appart, to teach the horse how to jump correctly). After lots of Lainey lessons and Val lesson we did our first event in July. I got her in October of 2010, and 8 months later she did her first event, just Summer Moon at our favorite, Eventful Acres. She completed her first recognized in August at Woodside.

I love my little Sunny Bunny, and we both love this eventing thing! Especially Cross Country (xc)! We are going to compete in VA and work very hard. I plan to absorb everything Lainey can possibly teach me , from horse management on the ground, to riding in the saddle.  I'm so excited! I have already entered my first event, Surefire HT June 22-24.

Thank you Lainey, Val, mom, and dad for giving me the chance to go out to VA and do what I love!

That's all for now!
~S.