Guardian Dressage

We started chipping away at show season this past weekend and put in 6 solid rides between the two geldings I took! Ayako Takahashi’s new boy Oskar who joined the team in December made a wonderful debut with 2nd 3 scoring from 66-69% for the show and being just the best youngster ever. I was so impressed and very proud of how he handled his first show! Learning how a new horse is going to respond to a show environment is not the easiest but he certainly made it fun and we worked on figuring out what he needed in the arena and showed steady improvement 🧁✨ it was truly a privilege to get to show him!
And my sweetest boy Jordan is showing continued development with the more complicated work. He’s understanding the tempis and gave me a lot of clean ones this weekend, and scores from 62-66 with lots for us to continue to get stronger in! I’m so proud of his effort and his improvements and that he’s getting consistent in this work. ⭐️
Thank you Caitlin Oikemus for coaching all of us at the show and for the winter leading up to it. It’s been incredibly helpful and all of my horses are making lots of progress! Thank you Equinavia for the continued support with all of our beautiful equipment and clothes, and thankfully all of it washes up really well after riding in a heavy rain! Thank you to all of our team that’s helped us get here, and a big thank you to Dan Kurtz for all the help over the years with all of my horses feet but especially Jordan!
Thank you everyone at Bruce’s Field for another amazing show. We love that show ground so much!!!

Region 1 Championships finished this past weekend with some great finishes for our team!

Marcello owned and bred by Ayako Takahashi brought home a Champion sash in our 2nd level Musical Freestyle, and with two minor mistakes in our 2nd level open Championship that I knew were costly I was thrilled we ribboned 8th out of 20 with some super competitive pairs!! It’s been such an honor to be able to compete this beautiful boy and be trusted with his development. Can’t wait to see what this next year will bring ✨

My amazing and hard working client Jackie Moore finished Reserve Champion with her mare D’arcy in a class of 40 in the training level AA championship 💃 and although her other horse Fox decided to pull some young horse antics and offering all kinds of lead changes in 2nd level, I’m still so proud of her riding and how much progress he and Jackie have made in the short time we’ve been working together.

Jordan and I made our first effort at 4/3 together just in the open show and our first ride was certainly our best, scoring a 68.9% with a very smooth test and fourth level high score of the show that day. Little mistakes like losing our walk the second day and then a circus horse moment in our first pirouette the third day caught us on our scores but overall I’m so proud of how he’s developing and showing more and more consistency with the bigger asks as he moves up the levels.

Caitlin Oikemus helped so much coaching me through the weekend bringing out the best in the boys, and we always love showing with Stacey Hastings fun team. Big congrats to Caroline Thompson taking home the Championship in her first level MFS with music we did last year too 🔥✨ so happy for everyone who worked so hard to be here this year!!

Thank you Dan Kurtz for keeping the boys happy in their feet. I think we’re going on 3 years working together now and I appreciate your work so much! Super talented farrier with brilliant eye for what these sport horses need.

All of my outfits, jackets, winter hat (when I needed it) and the horses gear is from our sponsor Equinavia ! They keep us looking so fabulous!

This guy continues to grow up and get more confident in the arena, this past weekend in Tryon all three of his tests were above the 70% mark! So proud!! As always thank you to Ayako for breeding and trusting me with your handsome Marcello!
And thank you Equinavia for our always gorgeous outfits and equipment ✨
Also showing major progress was Jackie with her boy Fantastic M.R. completing her qualifying scores for regionals at second level between this show and the last pinehurst show. For such a short time in training with Guardian Dressage her work to improve is paying off!
Looking forward to the next several months for these two as we continue to build a solid framework to aim for those upper levels in the near future!

Dressage in the Sandhills was a blast, the improvements I’ve seen in my two kiddos from when we started working together about a year ago is pretty incredible and I was literally moved to tears on Sunday because I was SO proud of them. Harper has really stepped up her game riding for the FEI Children’s tests and it showed at this one, ending with a big score in the individual test on Sunday! Hayden has also made big strides forward with her young mare that I was privileged to share the ride on, and scored her highest ever at 1st 3 breaking a 67%! Hayden also received a lot of 8’s (her first ever!!) for very well ridden and well presented tests. On top of all of that she also won the ‘you be a judge’ contest scoring a 2nd level test almost identically spot on to what the S Judge in that arena gave it. She beat at least a dozen other people on how accurate she was with the tie between her and second place being broken by her collective remarks being so close to the judge! It was a fun contest and thank you Kay, Bo, and M&M tack for doing that at the show!
We got so many compliments on them as riders and that means the world to me as their coach and trainer 🤍 little miss Havana showed she’s figuring out her buttons putting in very solid second level tests with me over the weekend as well staying relaxed and working for me so nicely.
We also welcomed Jackie Moore to the team, and although we’ve only started working together at the beginning of this month, she made steady improvements every ride with her young horse Fox culminating in harmonious rides Saturday after a bit of a wild start on Friday. We have a bunch of things to continue to improve on and look forward to with this pairing though!

I've been behind on posting about the continued and VERY busy show season, and it could be a novel but I will try to keep it short!

After my gold medal rides with DW, the newest members of the Guardian Dressage team went to a show at TIEC. I took on two JR/YR's that came recommended by a friend back in May, and both girls have been hard at work. Harper earned both her qualifying scores for her first two times ever competing at first level test 3, and Hayden earned the highest score she has ever earned at training level at this show! Both have been improving leaps and bounds since we started working together.

We followed that up with a trip to Aiken where I found some big young horse moments with Cello having been a while since our last show, and a whole new and intimidating venue for us to tackle. The show still culminated in a 70% for his debut at 2nd/1, and earning his first qualifying scores for regionals at first level.

From there I enlisted Caitlin Oikemus 's help to go with me to Pinehurst with E-L Super Star (Jordan) for our first go in our third level music freestyle as well as completing qualifying for third level open. He is really becoming a seasoned show horse and I'm so proud of his clean changes after almost a year of hard work into those things! He scored consistent 69's and I have some adjustments to make in our freestyle for improvements! Thank you so much Caitlin for your help at this show 🙂

Most recently we went to Raleigh for another new environment to expose Cello to, as well as aim for Hayden's first qualifying score for training level for regionals. Both horses and Hayden exceeded my expectations, Cello staying at or above a 70% in all 4 tests, as well as an 80% in his first level freestyle! Thank you Ayako Takahashi for letting me show off her beautiful boy she bred and owns🤩
Hayden rode beautifully in her equitation class earning an 83% which is the highest score she's ever received, as well as two 68%'s in T3 with her young mare! She earned her first qualifying score with room to spare! This kid is going to be one to watch out for!

Thank you Equinavia for the continued support, all of our daily gear as well as our show outfits (horse and human!) get compliments all the time

celebrating my beauties! Thankful for my amazing horses and also sweet Cello and my other client horses over the years!

I’ve been so fortunate to have DW in my life since 2015 when she became mine. I’ve known her since she was 3 and started her under saddle, and she was the first horse I ever competed at a recognized dressage show! Working on aiming for I-2 and GP in the next year!

I bought Jordan as an un-started coming 4 year old, started him myself and in his seven year old year we’ve successfully shown 3rd level and he’s been so much fun to bring along these last few years! I can’t wait to see how he continues to progress🤩

I’m so privileged to have the ride on sweet Cello, who impresses everyone at the shows we’ve been at in his training and first level classes, and is now working on 2nd and 3rd level movements at home! He turns 6 next year and I’m very excited about him and so grateful to for the privilege of working so consistently with her boy!