On a Roll: Broxton & Take No Prisoners

Fueled by the prospects of being able to tackle some major endurance challenges in the coming year, Teresa and I began strategizing how to prepare our horses for some of our sport's rockiest and most difficult rides.

Teresa and Siena at Broxton.

As a baby, Teresa had kidney issues and was treated with steroids, a side effect of which was growing up with a DDD chest that made riding horses a sometimes uncomfortable experience, even wearing two bras. She'd decided to get breast reduction surgery in February, and we were able to enjoy 50 miles at Broxton Bridge in SC the week before, with me aboard Gryphon and her on Siena. Back in Virginia, my new friend Azzam, a mechanical engineering student from Saudi Arabia, kept

Siena and me at Take No Prisoners

Welcome fit while Teresa recuperated.

My mom and I were enjoying an afternoon in Virginia Beach with Teresa post-surgery, when I got a call from Barb asking me to fetch Chrome, who had gained weight and height over the winter and was becoming a bit of a pest. Gryphon needed a break anyway, so I swapped him out. We'd taught Chrome how to lunge and started him under saddle the previous summer, and to my delight he remembered enough so that I could pick up on his training to lunge and be backed.

Meanwhile, my friend Caron began patiently schooling Siena into a dressage frame, having great success in getting her to round, use her back and develop the neck muscles just in front of the withers. I could tell the difference by early March, when I competed her at the Take No Prisoners ride in South Carolina.

My friend Lily Kuhn and I packed up Chrome and Siena, heading southwest on I-85 just in time to escaping the brunt of a windstorm that caused hundreds of thousands of power outages. After a short warm-up ride together the day before the competition, Lily took Chrome through his first pre-ride vetting experience. he also got his first experience staying behind in camp the next day while Siena was on trail, devouring almost an entire bale of hay. As we began the trek home last that afternoon, it felt great to watch the two of them munch clover at a roadside stop.