Our Path to Rolex series continues with a good friend of mine, Lauren Kieffer. I met Lauren and Snooze when riding on the first of our two Young Rider teams together, and since then she has developed into a fantastic rider under the tutelage of David and Karen at OCET. Lauren's OCET teammate, Hannah Burnett, will also be writing about her spring for us (check back soon), and both Lauren and Hannah are two of America's rising stars. Thank you for reading.
From Lauren:
Hello Eventing Nation! I'm really excited to have been invited to keep you all up to date over the next several months as I make my first attempt at Rolex Kentucky CCI****. If I were you I wouldn't always believe all the nice things John says about Hannah and I, he's just trying to keep on our good side since we are letting him sleep on our couch, but I'll try not to disappoint all of you.
I'll start by just telling you all a little bit about my horse Snooze Alarm and what we have been up to so far. I've had Snooze AKA The Maggot for 9 years now, and just as a side note I would not recommend for anyone to buy a four year old, barely broke, redheaded, Arabian as their 13 year old kids first event horse, of course my parents can't be blamed because I did bust out the tears and a "but, but Daddy, I LOVE him!" when I got told no. We had a great time until I tried to move up to Intermediate and broke my back when I was 17 and once I recovered from that and my parents realized I was too ignorant to be scared they shipped me off to Karen and David's, which is where Snooze and I have been ever since. We've done a lot together including three NAJYRC's (Go Area VIII!), we've been named to the Developing Rider's List twice, the B-List, and have spent the last two years doing advanced horse trials, CIC***'s, and a CCI***. I have a lot to thank him for.
He had a nice vacation this winter and is rarin' to go. He's been going for long trots and flatting and had his first jump and canter last week. His work load will start getting upped over the next couple weeks and the plan right now is to do an Intermediate at the Florida Horse Park Winter II and then we'll head up to Pine Top to freeze our tails off and do the Advanced.
Go Lauren, what a treat to see you and Snooze on course at Rolex. Both of you stay healthy and safe at least till after Rolex 2010, well, for ever, of course! What will be your and Snooze's best test at Rolex?