Mid-America Eventing Xc Schooling
August 23rd, 2025
It was a great, but full, day of wranglin’ ponies & riders at the MAE open XC schooling at Heritage Park, in Olathe, KS.
The morning started out with me unloading Ginger Stiver’s Hennessy Venom “Vinny” only to find out he had a very loose shoe! Thankfully, my farrier (Ben Goddard) is truly a saint, and he went out of his way to come out and tack it back on. Since we had a busy day ahead of us, while I waited for Ben to arrive, I went ahead and tacked up my next ride to hopefully keep the day moving seamlessly.
I had an absolute blast taking Jennifer Zielinski’s Hugo around XC while she’s been busy girl bossing! At 20 years young, Hugo has become quite the novice packer for Jennifer, but he is an older guy who needs to have his confidence built up in order to have faith in his ability for anything new. Well, this guy continues to step up to each new challenge with SO much heart and was happy to jump over training level no problem. Not once did he offer a refusal or even say no, he just kept trying his hardest over each new thing thrown his way. He is the shining example of “it doesn’t matter the breed or the age, as long as they have the desire to try!” And THAT he has in tenfold.
Next, I went out with Emilia and Bernadine Blazewicz and their two wonderful super ponies, Apallo and Bullseye! It was only Apallo’s third time ever jumping and first time seeing cross country, and he answered every question thrown his way brilliantly! Millie did an excellent job piloting her new horse around and made sure he had a very confidence building session. He started out by trotting starter fences, and ended the day confidently cantering over beginner novice with gusto! Bernie and Bullseye were both little spitfires, and despite both of their small statures, they kept up with Millie and Apallo no problem, sailing over beginner novice jumps that were almost the same height as Bullseye! It takes a lot of natural balance and courage to take a pony out on cross country, and Bernie absolutely nailed it! I am so proud of the rider these two young girls are growing into, and so proud of how they managed their ponies for their specific needs!
Lastly, after Ben got Vinny’s shoe tacked back on, I went out on Vinny while Nicole Jackson, Erica Garman, and Michaela Holcomb went out on Huey, Archer, and BT. While all three riders have different experience levels, they were all facing different challenges or riding completely new rides.
For Nicole, her mustang Fireball just got his hocks injected and was out this weekend, so to see her adapt to 17.2h thoroughbred Huey (a polar opposite of Fireball) was one of the highlights of my day. She started the day off slowly cantering over starter logs, but ended it galloping and sailing over training level fences – dressed with a giant grin on her face.
This was Erica’s second time schooling Archer XC (the first time being in June), and she gets the award for most improved because she has changed so drastically in her riding in such a short amount of time! She is always so willing to ride whatever horse I throw her on and is learning how to adapt to each one’s idiosyncrasies and get the best out of them. While Archer is tricky because he’s light in the hand while being heavy on his feet, Erica figured out his way of going quickly and was nailing some BN combinations by the end of the ride.
Michaela has quite a bit of riding experience, but it has been almost a decade since she competed regularly. So while she is the most experienced, she is the one getting the least amount of saddle time at this current moment. Despite being out of regular practice, she did an excellent job piloting BT over many starter and BN combinations. BT is quite the humbling ride, and reminded Michaela why we LOVE our thoroughbreds so much, because he is the boyfriend that always promises “this time things will be different” only to pull the same moves over again. Michaela did a great job keeping her whits and getting him to the other side!
After getting his shoe tacked back on, I schooled Ginger Stiver’s Vinny over the entire prelim course in preparation for the fall season. This was the first schooling all year that he was finally relaxed and didn’t spook at random leaves or dead patches of grass in the ground. To have his complete focus made my job so much easier as he was completely locked on to the task at hand. He was jumping out of his skin and even managed to jump out of his shoe (sorry Ben😭) and felt like the freak of nature Vinny that I have grown to love.
Lastly, I want to thank Cade Kress for spending 7 hours on his day off waking up early with me to load horses, hold Vinny for Ben, and follow my students and me around the XC course getting some professional grade video. I am so beyond grateful to have such a supportive and amazing partner who fully embraces this crazy horse life.
Until next time, we look ahead to Otter Creek’s Fall HT!