Update on Ghlenlivet (thank you EquiOtic!)

Well.  It's been a long, long time since I've posted here.  Ghlen has been through a lot.  I have been through a lot.  And we are both mending and heading back in the right direction.  As many of you know, Ghlen had a run in with EPM in June of 2015.  Since that time, there have been quite a few ups and downs.  He is doing well, under saddle, working on his good days (which is most days now), and is having days where his movements are even more astounding than when I first started with him.  If I can say so myself, this gorgeous mover is getting better with age.

I would never have gotten him back without the help of EquiOtic and Doug Froh.  He talked to me on the phone the night we thought we were going to lose him and offered his help.  Ghlen's response to the EquiOtic was nothing short of miraculous.  I had him on probio's.  But not live EQUINE sourced microcial probiotics.  I cannot thank Doug or EquiOtic enough.  They literally gave me my horse back.  If you have not checked them out, look them up HERE - or go to www.equiotic.com

Out goals have not change - just the timetable.  We are eyeing para nationals,  para weg, paralympics and able bodied nationals, as well as some other things, if he is able.  One day at a time but things are definitely looking upwards! As always, thank you, Nancy Stanton, for entrusting this boy with me.  I hope we can do you proud one day.

Sun News Article

Photo by Lindsay Yosef McCall 2012                
 Horse's name is misspelled on scoreboard.  He is Ghlenlivet, owned by Nancy Stanton of Chardon, OH

Steve Palisin recently did an article on Olympic and Paralympic Dressage and was kind enough to include Ghlenlivet and myself in the article.  You can find that article HERE .

Thank you Steve!

I promise to bring you up to date on my blog before too much longer.  Thank you to all my family, friends, supporters, coaches, horse owners, vets, farriers, grooms, and everyone else who makes this possible for us.  We are completely indebted to you all.

Dylan, Nancy Hinz and Yellow Rose Dressage

Update 7 June 2012

Pictures are here.  Nancy Hinz, Dylan's owner, sent these pictures of Dylan - the awesome Welch Cob she allowed me to ride in TX.  They have continued to keep in touch since then and even helped raise some funds to help me get to Selection Trials!  Thank you Dylan, Nancy and all of Yellow Rose Dressage!!!!

***************

Pictures coming, pictures coming!  I don't have any pictures back from my picture taker.  But they are coming.  I'll add them when they do!

I recently competed in Katy, Texas and the CPEDI 3* there, which was the final requirement of my being invited to the Selection Trials where the team for the 2012 Paralympic Team to London, England will be selected.

I was unable to raise the funds to bring "my" horse(s) and wrote the organizers to ask if they might have a horse I could catch ride.  They put me in touch with Nancy Hinz of Yellow Rose Dressage of Montgomery, TX.  She offered her pony, Madoc Dylan - and it ended up being a match made in heaven.

Because of finances, I could not afford to come a week early to train on Dylan.  Bill Stapleton traveled with me, did all the driving, pulled my wheelchair in and out of the car, bought food and pushed me around.  For the record, within 20 minutes of Dylan arriving at the show grounds, Bill was mucking stalls, unloading trailers, filling water buckets and giving out hay just like he had done it all his life.  He gets 5 gold stars for this trip and lots of hugs.

We arrived in time to have 3 rides on Dylan at Nancy's farm, Yellow Rose Dressage.  Then Nancy hit the road to bring him to the Great Southwestern Equestrian Center in Katy, TX.  Dylan is so awesome!  He is a Welch Cob pony, not a spooker, and boy, if you insist on it, he delivers.  I had a little trouble with my insisting sometimes (something I am working on), but he still was rock, solid stable.  For the team test (and on our 5th ride together), he delivered a 65 and some change.  The next day was the individual test for 62 and change.  Sunday was the freestyle, which I basically made up as I went along.  Dylan loved the music and  gave a 66 and some change.  I would have loved to have had Dylan's first 70%, but I was very happy with all we did.  It wasn't that he couldn't do a 70% - it was that I wasn't able to ride him at 70%... YET, lol.  He is a lovely pony.  Nancy, his owner, bent over backwards to make it happen for us both (thank you, Nancy).  Cindy Moriarty was fill in groom when she could and Nancy couldn't ... both of them totally rocked (thank you, Cindy/Nancy).  Everyone from Yellow Rose Dressage did GREAT with their classes.  Allie, on her pony Maple Lane Kero, (also known as Peaches) did a wonderful freestyle and brought the house down on Saturday evening.  Everyone, including Dylan, was awesome.  In addition to the above scores, we ended up being Reserve Champions for each of our Grade II classes.  Thank you, Dylan!   Just think of how well we would have done if we had had a week or two together before hand.  I was completely impressed with Dylan, Nancy, Cindy,  Allie and EVERYONE at Yellow Rose Dressage.

A very huge hug and thank you to everything Yellow Rose Dressage did and everything they ARE doing to help us on our journey to London.  A very big hug and thank you to Missy Ransehousen and Sharon Schneidman for all you guys do to help make us all be our best as well.

If you are in TX, check them out HERE!   (pictures coming soon!)

Free Gas!

I am still raising money to try and make it to Houston, TX to the 3* there and then to Selection Trials. The ipod raised $200.  $200 down, $54,800 to go.

Anyone who makes a donation (tax deductible!) in my name to USPEA (our non-profit for our international riders) this month will be entered to win a free $100 gas card.  Every $2 will generate one raffle ticket.  You will be contacted with your ticket numbers.

The dates are from now through the end of the month.  The winner will be notified by phone or email on April 1st with a blog post to follow here not long after.

There are two ways to give:
1.  Donate by clicking on and following the directions of the purple label near the top of this page OR by going to www.uspea.org   Donations MUST be earmarked for Kim Jones or it goes to a general fund and I won't know of your gift.

2.  Paypal as a gift to my email:  kimjonesmaestro@yahoo.com

Thank you so much and good luck!

iPod Touch Raffle

Photo from Apple

We are raffling an iPod Touch 8Gb to try and raise funds to compete in Del Mar at the Dressage Affair, Texas, and the Selection Trials.

The raffle cost is $2/ticket.

Drawing is on February 29 at 5pm EST.

Drawing will be videoed and posted.

I will contact the winner and let them choose white or black (the only two colors offered in the iPod Touch) and if they want their name engraved.  The iPod will then be send directly to the winner from Apple.


There are 3 ways to pay:

1) pay pal @kimjonesmaestro@yahoo.com as a "gift".

2) click the purple link on my blog www.disabilitydressage.blogspot.com below the opening picture and follow those directions.  This take you to the USPEA (United States Para Equestrian Association) and will make your donation tax deductible.  Be sure and designate that it goes to me under "special instructions".  Otherwise I will never know you donated and your money will go to a general fund.

OR

3) write a check to USPEA for the amount you want to spend on the raffle and contact me under the comments section of this blog for a mailing address.

Good luck!  Thank you to all who have entered so far!  I couldn't do it without all the wonderful friendships and support I have been given.  Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

Here's What's Going On!

Mom grooming Lou Sept 2011

Well, alot has been going on, which I will tell you about.  I am still hopeful to make it to selection trials.  But first, let met tell you what is going on in my world.

As you know, we had to pull out of nationals last year.

Star has started with his rehabilitation.

I had a wee bit of a horse accident in December and am not back to riding.  I am hoping to be back in the saddle very soon!

I missed my two Florida 3*'s.  I wasn't able to locate a horse in time.  Not to mention I was not back to riding yet (although if I had found a horse, I would have been there anyway).  There was also the small, wee little issue of not having raised enough funds to get there.

The Colleen Kelly clinic was canceled, but we are working on rescheduling for either May and/or August.  I'll keep you posted.

I have, so far, been unable to raise enough funds to go to Del Mar.  I have to have an entry in by Feb 17, so that does not leave much time to raise the funds.  I'm working on it hard every day though.  After Del Mar, there is only one more 3* left before selection trials.

Even though I made my qualifying score for the Selection Trials for London in 2010, we also have to go to a 3* between Dec of last year and April of this year to remain eligible.

It's getting down to the wire.  If anyone knows of any immediate like, good fundraisers ideas, contact me right away.

Thank you guys for all your encouragement and support these last few years.  I still plan to make it to London!  I'm not sure how, but I still plan to make it.  I plan to not only make it, but make it and kick butt.  Stay tuned.  I'll try to do better with the updates!

Congratulations to all my teammates who have been out sweeping up competitions left and right.  I am so proud of them!

Well, it looks like it's time for an update here!   The horse pictured above was my Radical.  Oh how I miss that boy.

2011 ended with a bang.  Ha, in more ways than one.  I trained with Missy and Jessica Ransehousen for a couple of weeks in September, there was an awesome clinic by Robert Dover in Gladstone, NY,  I took a lesson from Walter Zettl courtesy of Challenged Athletes foundation, I audited another clinic given by Walter Zettl, started rehabbing Classic Star,  finally got to clinic with Karen Rolhf at Michelle Donlick's of Avalo Farm (I've been wanting to for years now), started learning how to make horse hair bracelets, fell off a friend's horse, and did a whole lot of resting and recuperating.  I hope to resume riding this week!

I'm in fundraiser mode now, hoping to make it to Del Mar.  I was registered to compete in FL these last three weeks of January, but was unable to find a horse.  I even had Hope Hand and a few others scouting for a horse for me and did not hear back from any of them of finding one either before the entry deadline.  So I had to withdraw.  I'm hoping for better luck for California!

Fundraisers:
Horse Hair Bracelets!  For a donation of $30, you get a horse hair bracelet made with hair from your horse (if you wish).

Colleen Kelly is coming to town.  For those of you who don't know her, she is an expert in rider biomechanics.  For those of you who know ME, you know that is a big interest of mine, especially with all the compensating I have to do just to live through a day, much less ride!  She also has hooked up with Pat and Linda Parelli - which is a huge plus.  I regularly toot the horn of natural horsemanship and believe it goes such a long way to develop that relationship we all want.  You can find out more about Colleen Kelly here.
SHE WILL BE HERE FOR A LECTURE ON FRIDAY, FEB 10 AND A CLINIC ON SATURDAY, FEB 11!
If you are interested, give me a ring - or comment on this entry form.  I'll get back to you with more information.
Also, I'll be posting a whole post about the up coming clinic once we get the details ironed out!

The road to 2012 has been varied and quite bumpy.  But my nose is still pointed in that direction.  Stay tuned!

Update

It's been quite a while since I've written, so I thought I'd give you guys some updates.

Equifit has this awesome product, ShouldersBack.  My shoulders tend to hutch forward because of all the time I have to spend in a wheelchair.  I've been using it and it is AWESOME!  You can find a ShouldersBack and other products HERE.

The pancake breakfast fundraiser had to be canceled for not enough interest.  We are currently working on a CT, a golf tournament, a spaghetti dinner, and a clinic with Colleen Kelly in February.  Contact me if you are interested in helping with any of these!

Lou is back from PA and is doing well.  I miss him so much.  He was such a sweetie.  Hopefully I can get out to see him in the next week or two.

I had to withdraw from Mexico for lack of funds.  The next competition is Portugal and I need to raise about $15,000 in about a week.  Anyone with any ideas of quick fundraising, let me know :)

Last week, for my birthday, Challenged Athletes Foundation paid for me to ride with Walter Zettl.  I always love learning from him. I rode at Houghton College in New York on a 23 year old horse named ET.  I was able to work again on my flying changes (needs LOTS of work from right to left and my hip tends to get stuck going that direction), canter pirohettes (they are improving a little), piaffe and passage. ET was a lovely partner and I enjoyed learning from Walter.  Thank you Challenged Athletes, Jo-Anne Young, Houghton College, ET, and especially Walter Zettl.  I have a small clip of some of my riding but need to get permission to post.

That's it for updates.  Next month will see if the funds come in for me to compete in Portugal (actually, the next week will tell that), I will audit the clinic Missy Ransehousen and Robert Dover are giving at Gladstone, clinic with Walter again possibly, train with Missy and Jessica Ransehousen.  December will be Portugal and continuing to raise funds and look for a horse.

Thank you all for your friendship and support!

No Mexico For Us

Wellllllllllllll, Lou is back home in his new digs at Heritage Hall, owned by Vicki Hall.  It's a wonderful place and she and the staff take great care of the horses there.  Sara Kinard, Lou's owner, is back from Germany... and my lease of the lovely Lou has come to an end.  I miss him already.

Just to update everyone, I was unable to raise the funds needed to compete in Mexico and have let them know I cannot compete this go round.  The definite entry is due by Friday, and with the little bit of bake sales I've been able to do, it's just not enough.  I will have to aim for Wellington in December - unless a miracle happens before Friday of this week.

Ya'll take care and I will update you soon!