New KSE website coming to a computer near you!
The new website will include new syndicate options!
Sorry, technical difficulties with the first post. More lessons with Gerdt tomorrow and I will update afterwards.~ Kim
Fun in Ireland!
Hi all.
I had my first experience of shopping for horses in Ireland at the age of 37. My wonderful agent and driver, Yvonne Monahan cannot go unmentioned. Not only for her Mario Andretti like driving skills, but her taste in horses that were much like my own. By the end, she and I were commenting simultaneously about the horses. I mean like, “pinch poke you owe me a coke.”
Can you believe it is daylight until 11pm?! And daylight at 5am?! I took Gabby Dickerson with me and she and I couldn’t believe that it was 8pm when we thought it was 3pm and shared yawns in the morning. Talk about some long days. It is likely that Gabby and I, were the only people in history to have 4 consecutive sunny, 70 degree days in Ireland.
We looked at 80 horses! I sat on at least 40, half of which I could “ride” the other half “not so much”. There were a handful that I really enjoyed riding, everything from 4 year olds to 3* horses, a few of the young horses really stood out. There was also one 2* horse that “wowed” me. You know the kind, you sit on and just “click” with and you can easily see a distance every time…and if you don’t, they help you out?! When you sit on 40 horses you realize there are few you can do this with. The experience was really phenomenal for me, because I had to sit on a strange horse and jump higher than I would’ve been comfortable with. An experience that everyone should have, because it makes you bolder and more confident than you were before.
I have received some emails from people about the fact that they are unhappy I went to Ireland to look at horses instead of the U.S. First, I will say, I really really wanted the experience. Second, it is impossible in the U.S. to put together 80 horses to look at in 4 days. There are quality horses in the U.S. but we need to figure out how to get them together in one viewing. So for those of you, that have those horses, let’s get them all together on one website so that we can have those choices in America. I would suggest doing it through the EOTF website (Event Owners Task Force) with a section for promising horses looking for succesful event riders.
“Wear the pants”,
Kim
Tragedy at Boyd’s barn…
My heart goes out to Boyd, I can’t even imagine what he is going through.
http://eventingnation.com/home/2011/05/fire-at-boyd-martins-barn-at-true-prospect-farm.html
It sure made me appreciate all of the horses and puppies in my life a lot more. Extra hugs and kisses for my horses, Gouda and Ling today.
Kim 
Thank you…
Thank you to all who have supported me, and for all of the awesome comments!
I hope to have another update following a trip to Ireland to look at some young horses next week!
Until next time…wear the pants!! (You know… who wears the pants in your relationship, you or your horse?)
Kim
How about kicking my blog off with a bang…
After much deliberation, I decided to sell Paddy. Today he eats grass that’s greener (you know, on the other side of the fence) at his new home. Although it was a very tough decision to no longer have an Advanced horse, I know that Paddy and his new rider will be quite happy together…and besides, who wouldn’t want to ride that horse around cross country; I wouldn’t want to keep all of that fun for myself.
So from here I march forward, on to locating a potential 4 star partner. It may take some time as my budget only allows for a young horse. In the meantime, I look forward to getting on with all of my other horses.
For those of you who don’t know, I pulled Wiley Post up in the water at Jersey Fresh due to a “bad feeling”. Sort of like the nervous feeling you have before you get in the tack for cross country but for me, it was a bad feeling. The problem was, it never went away, so I chose to pull him up in the water. The first five jumps were great, but coming down the hill to the water, I knew it wasn’t right. It was reported as a refusal, but it was my decision to stop; I want to be clear that I was stopping and not Max, he shouldn’t be blamed. I’ve always lived by the rule that it is never a bad decision to pull up if your gut tells you too. As it turns out, after having the vet go over him, we found that Max (Wiley Post) has a pulled muscle. He looks forward to being back in competition shortly.
In closing, I want to say a big thank you to Paddy for all of the great cross country rides he gave me! Until next time…
Kim Severson and Lisa Darden's Thoroughbred Gelding Wiley Post
