Jennie Brannigan

Greetings to everyone from lovely Aiken, S.C., where it is not as cold as I feared it was going to be.  

I’ve had quite a trip—from Wellington to Ocala to pick up horses for my friend, then to Aiken where I got in at 3 a.m, and then back to Pennsylvania the next morning to pick up six more horses. I got to Aiken yesterday late afternoon!

After three days on the road I am feeling a bit rough and a big thanks to all my friends who were on the phone with me the whole time keeping me awake.

Well it seems like just yesterday that I was writing the closing of the season blog here on the Chronicle.

Time sure flies by, and I really have had plenty of reasons I should have been writing in the off-season. I would love to announce that Nina Gardner now officially owns Indie!

The USEA Convention was amazing and a wonderful time as well as very interesting, and I was thrilled with Cambalda (Ping) being named Horse of the Year and Indie being training level Horse of the Year.

Well, as I sit here on Hawley Bennett’s couch, a lot is rolling on through my mind about how the last few days have gone at the Galway Downs CCI*** in Temecula, Calif.

Today was quite the day at Galway Downs with dressage and show jumping in full swing. I started off my day by hacking Ping out and watching Livingston show jump with his new rider doing her first preliminary. I would be pretty pumped if I was her!

After my warm-up hack I jumped on the Ian Stark course walk, which was wonderful and very informative. He also gave me some new insight to some of the cross-country efforts and how to ride them.

Greetings everyone from sunny Southern California! The competition really started today with the jog for the Galway Downs CCI***. All the horses were truly in good form, as they all passed the first hurdle in a long weekend.

The weather has been fairly unreal except for a fair bit of Santa Ana wind. It's been pretty neat to be back home for the first ever CCI*** on the West Coast, and I would lying if I said I'm not loving being here. Nina Gardner flew in last night, and she is very excited about the weekend as well.

My friend Jimmie Holotik and her Aussie lover Dominic Schramm are getting married this weekend, so instead of competing at the good old ‘Daca I am currently on a plan to be a part of this wedding. It's pretty neat how horses can bring people together, and this is another example of it!

Sitting on the plane has given me some more time for reflection as I think about how Fair Hill went for me this year.

Greetings to everyone out in eventing land! Again I apologize for not writing since Plantation Field. Though things have been busy, I should have been on here sooner!

I had a good weekend eventing at Flora Lea Horse Trials after Plantation. Indie won the training horse division there, while Nina Gardner’s Celtic Heritage and Catching Melody both placed third in their respective divisions.

I have come to the terms with the fact that, at the moment, I am completely incapable of sleeping in anymore. This really is quite unfortunate.

I am currently sitting on my friend Lillian Heard’s couch at 6:30 in the morning on the Monday following the Plantation Field horse trials, which was an exciting weekend for me.

Well we are on the road again, leaving for the American Eventing Championships. I realized I have yet to talk about my weekend at Richland Park, which I was very pleased about.

Cambalda did his second advanced, and though his dressage test carried a bit of tension in the walk work, I was happy with it. He is still green at the level, obviously, but he is handling the challenges fairly well.

Walkabout, who is very, very green at the level, did his first two-star dressage test. He handled the pressure well, but there is still room for improvement.

Well it’s 1:30 a.m. on Monday morning, and as I'm lying here sitting in the back seat of my truck with Bizzie and Emma Ford’s dog Charlie, I'm reflecting over the past two weeks of my life here in eventing land. I really lead an interesting life...