Kelsey Briggs Eventing | Official Website of Eventer Kelsey Briggs and the Gentleman Pirate

Keep the Faith

April 30, 2013 by admin

: Pirate has a huge fan club around the barn; he is the world’s best babysitter.

It is surreal the way a moment can change a life. It just doesn’t seem possible. You take your beloved horse on a hack up the road one afternoon, and suddenly it’s his last. In an instant, your world is turned upside down, and you walk through the days as if they, or even you, aren’t real. All you want is to wake up from the dream, or perhaps to stay in that state between sleep and awake before you remember what’s happened, and what you’ll have to face. Your reality can break your heart…and you start to wonder if it will break you. Read More »

That’s A Wrap

December 31, 2012 by admin

I am “that girl” during Christmastime – you know, the one annoyingly obsessed with the holiday, who insists on wearing red & green and buying a tree as soon as the calender switches to December. The second a local radio station I never otherwise listen to switches over to 24/7 Christmas music, it’s all I have on in the barn. Students got in the spirit by decorating the barn for me one morning, and each horse had a glittery little stocking. I even made time for something other than horses and actually went SHOPPING a few times during the holiday season. Now, of course I procrastinated, and still found myself wrapping presents at approximately 11:59pm on Christmas Eve, but my heart is always in the right place. I think I do it on purpose, actually, just trying to make the holiday last. It’s the days before Christmas itself I always like best; the excitement, the anticipation, the magic quality of the holiday that can make us all children again and kind of want to put sugar cookies and milk out for Santa, even though you’re 24. There’s all the build-up, a wonderful couple of days with family, a million candy canes being passed around to the all the horses, and then BAM. Over. Done. And I’m always a little bummed out…even if I do end up with new toys to play with. Read More »

Posted in Blog · Tagged 3 Day Eventing, American Eventing Championships, C, CCI**, charlotte nc, CIC**, Clinic, Cross Country, Cutter's Southern Jaz, Dressage, Equestrian, equine, Eventing, Eventing Clinic, FEI, Fox Hollow Farm, foxhunt, Francis Whittington, Francis Whittington clinic, Gibbes Farm, Horse, Horse trainer, horse trials, Horses, Intermediate, Intermediate HT, Kelsey Briggs, Kelsey Briggs eventing, Off Track Thoroughbred, OTTB, Prelim, Prelim HT, Show jumping, The Ark HT, The Fork Horse Trials, The Gentleman Pirate, Thoroughbred Training Center, Three Day Eventing, TTC HT, United States Eventing Association, USEA, Whittington Eventing, Why Not An American Ark, WNAAA, XC · Leave a comment

Jump To It

October 22, 2012 by admin

Sometimes, I feel remarkably motivated to sit down and write a blog. Then, after a couple of lines, I realize it’s a beautiful morning, and I really can’t stand another moment in the house. This happens during the spring and fall more often than any other time of the year, when I have lots of exciting things going on to write about, but beautiful weather (and all these exciting things) keeping me from it.

Since my last blog, our weekends have consisted of Jumper shows, cross-country schoolings, and of course, horse trials! Most recently (and notably), all three horses I took to Windridge Horse Trials won their divisions! I felt like a Hunter/Jumper (or maybe just Phillip Dutton) bringing home THREE blue ribbons, I have to say…but of course, only one was for me to keep, as one went to the Hamiltons for their lovely “Malibu Will,” who won on his dressage score of 31.0, and another went to Kathy Ashrafi, who was unfortunately in the hospital and could not attend to see her little Appy win her second attempt at Novice level! Jaz had a lovely dressage test and put in the calmest show-jump and cross-country rounds of her career to date, and I’m so proud of the little mare, as was her momma. The third blue went to MY little mare, Gracie (now “Three Days Grace”), the super cool Jumper who came to me in August and has now won her first event on her dressage score of 31.4, thank you very much, with several 8s on her test. (By the way, I may have been just as excited to get an 8 on riding on all 3 of my tests as I was to have had all 3 of them win, mostly because it’s much easier to score that on The Pirate than it is on The Greenies…small victory dance, not gonna lie, before I remembered the highest level I rode all weekend was Novice). Read More »

Posted in Blog · Tagged 3 Day Eventing, aec, American Eventing Championships, charlotte nc, Cross Country, Dressage, Equestrian, Eventing, Fox Hollow Farm, Gibbes Farm, Horse, Horse trainer, horse trials, Horses, Jumpers, Kelsey Briggs, Kelsey Briggs eventing, Mooresboro NC, Off Track Thoroughbred, OTTB, Show jumping, The Gentleman Pirate, Three Day Eventing, Tryon HT, Tryon NC, Tryon Riding & Hunt Club, United States Eventing Association, USEA, Windridge HT, XC · Leave a comment

Patience Pays

August 22, 2012 by admin

I’m fairly certain that, as Pirate watched every other horse BUT him load up onto the trailer at some point over the spring and summer, he was starting to lose his patience. Yes, he was ridden every day, but it was never more than a hack and a light trot-set, and this isn’t REAL riding at all…not for Pirate, at least. This boredom led first to him being “the fat kid,” who walks along at a snail’s pace trying to eat grass, leaves, weeds, etc. the entire time, looking for food to fill the void in his life generally filled by exciting things like cross-country; and later, “the bad kid,” the one who so desires to be the center of attention that they will do anything, anything, to get it. In Pirate’s case, this involved spooking violently at the same exactly set of mailboxes every single day, often throwing himself in front of moving cars to do so, and also being terrified of the photo of himself jumping a ditch & brush at The Fork that makes up part of our sign at the end of the driveway. One can only expect a horse with Pirate’s wiring to wait patiently for his turn for so long before he just starts to lose it a bit. Read More »

Posted in Blog · Tagged 3 Day Eventing, aec, American Eventing Championships, Cross Country, Dressage, Equestrian, Fox Hollow Farm, Horse trainer, horse trials, Intermediate, Kelsey Briggs, Kelsey Briggs eventing, Off Track Thoroughbred, OTTB, Show jumping, The Gentleman Pirate, Three Day Eventing, United States Eventing Association, USEA · Leave a comment

Flirting With Danger

April 6, 2012 by admin

If life itself is a game of chance, this sport make us all stellar players. What better example of risk and reward than, say, galloping a horse at speed to a solid fence and making it safely to the other side? There are about a million things that could go wrong, and about as many that you darn well better be doing right, but there are also factors out of our control…that’s the scary part to some, but to others, that’s what makes it exhilirating. I suppose for most, it is such because it’s a little scary. But either way, we’re all out there doing it, and no matter if you’re jumping around a 4-star or running your first Novice, the thrill of crossing through the finish flags makes you come back for more. Read More »

Posted in Blog · Tagged 3 Day Eventing, aladdin's treasure, American Eventing Championships, Cross Country, Dressage, flirting with danger, Fox Hollow Farm, horse racing, Horse trainer, Intermediate, Kelsey Briggs, Kelsey Briggs eventing, Off Track Thoroughbred, Show jumping, steeplechasing, The Gentleman Pirate, United States Eventing Association, XC · 1 Comment

November Blue

November 19, 2011 by admin

Rachel prepping for a bit of foxhunting this fall!

I’m convinced the sky is never quite as blue as it is in November. There’s just this brilliant quality to it, one you don’t quite see in the South’s hazy summers. It makes me wonder if The Avett Brothers (my favorite band for the past 7+ years since I met them at The Fork HT back in early ‘04 – and now look, my friends are all famous!) were thinking along those lines when they named an old song of theirs “November Blue”….possible, but it’s more likely that the guys were just singin’ the blues.

Come on, we can all relate to that, right? Okay, so maybe I can’t personally relate to a girl breaking my heart (such good fodder for a song, apparently), but I do know the general “if only things were different” feel of the song. I’ll pull a line from it: “November shadows shade November change; November spells sweet memory, the season blue remains.” If we’re going to talk “sweet memory,” I’ll jump back to this time last year, when I was walking on air over Pirate’s success in our first Intermediate, finishing 4th at Rocking Horse HT down in Florida. And if you want to talk change, this year poor Baby P is hanging out at home doing…well…a whole lotta nothin’. Let me tell you now that he is NOT a fan of this.

Posted in Blog · Tagged 3 Day Eventing, avett brothers, avetts, charlotte nc, Cross Country, Dressage, Equestrian, Fox Hollow Farm, foxhunt, Horse trainer, Intermediate, Kelsey Briggs, Kelsey Briggs eventing, Show jumping, the avett brothers, The Gentleman Pirate, United States Eventing Association, USEA · Leave a comment

No White After AEC’s…

October 12, 2011 by admin

Dressage warmup at Middleburg HT. © Jamey Price

There’s something about that week in mid-September that signifies the end of summer for me. It’s always felt as if I leave summer behind when I head to the American Eventing Championships, that during that week the seasons change and I come home to autumn. Yes, there’s the obvious – temperatures begin to fall, days begin to shorten, light begins to lose its hazy summer filter – but it’s more of a, “Yeah guys, this fall season is ON!!!” attitude for me. I had big plans for this fall in particular, plans that included letters like “FEI” and “CCI”. But oh, horses…how they remind you it is so rarely up to us! The word “plan” shouldn’t be used with horses, because plans – like rules – are made to be broken.

We’ll get back to “broken” in a moment, though. First I’d like to chat a bit about AECs. From the second we set foot at Chatt Hills and went on an evening walk, P’s eye was off in the distance, looking at cross-country. He wasn’t interested in the grass, or the other horses, or even his momma (sorry I’m so boring, P!)…he knew he was there for a purpose, and it was as if he was drawn to the course. He studied it from afar, and after a moment he took in a deep breath like, “Mom, I’ve got it. Now let’s hurry up and get there because I am READY!” The following morning’s dressage wasn’t up to our usual standard, but I’ll chalk that up to my boy not feeling much like playing in the sandbox. He was much more interested in the playground, thank you very much. Cross-country morning dawned sunny and cool-ish, and even on the hack over Pirate felt fantastic. He’s never felt better than he did in warm-up, and by the time we made it to the start box, I had lost most of my jitters because I KNEW the horse underneath me could handle everything out there. As usual, he bounced up and down on the “3, 2, 1″ and was out of the box like a rocket on “Go!”

Posted in Blog · Tagged 3 Day Eventing, aec, American Eventing Championships, Cross Country, Dressage, FEI, glenwood park, Horse trainer, Intermediate, Kelsey Briggs, Kelsey Briggs eventing, middleburg, middleburg horse trials, Off Track Thoroughbred, Show jumping, The Gentleman Pirate, United States Eventing Association, virginia · Leave a comment

Nothin’ Lasts Forever But Old Fords…

September 6, 2011 by admin

The infamous Laddy Pony jumping "Dutch's Ditch" at his second AEC, Sep. 2005 – Shannon Brinkman photo

C’mon, you guys know that line out of an old Willie Nelson song, right? “Nothing lasts forever but old Fords, and a natural stone…” Well, I have no diamonds to talk about, unless you count the rhinestones on Pirate’s fancy dressage browband made by Momma Briggs, but I DO have an old Ford F350 whose odometer currently sits at about 312,000 miles, and I would very much like to think that it’ll last forever.
That truck and I have been through a lot together – the good, the bad, and the…scary Together, we have seen Ocala, Florida, where Pirate and I won our long format three-day in April 2009 (and later, in November 2010, finished 4th in our first Intermediate); on up to Chester County, Pennsylvania, where I finally got the chance to train with my idol, Bruce Davidson; and in between, so many trips to Aiken, Southern Pines, Georgia, Virginia, etc. that I’ve lost count.

Posted in Blog · Tagged 3 Day Eventing, aec, American Eventing Championships, Cross Country, Dressage, Fox Hollow Farm, Kelsey Briggs, Kelsey Briggs eventing, Off Track Thoroughbred, Show jumping, The Gentleman Pirate, United States Eventing Association · 1 Comment

Girls Rule, Boys Drool…

August 24, 2011 by admin

Oh the ladies are totally dominating at the barn right now.

Yes yes, you’ll get the recap of River Glen in a minute…but first I have to brag on the mares a bit. Rachel (Mind Over Matter), my lovely bay OTTB mare (a.k.a. Pirate’s girlfriend), won her first little Novice CT over the weekend, and totally owned it by finishing on her dressage score of 25.0 with a test full of 8s. I’ll say, for a “little Novice CT,” the stadium course had it’s tricky moments with a very spooky double of rolltops that loads of horses wanted to stop and have another look (or 2 or 3) at…but not my Rachie girl! She’s such a fancy thing, and super sweet, and I’m really looking forward to competing her this fall. It was also a first outing for Becca Macanas’ “Delilah,” and what do you know…she also won her division of the CT! She was quiet and settled in the dressage and didn’t look at a thing…not even those horse-eating rolltops.

Posted in Blog · Tagged Cross Country, Fox Hollow Farm, Horse trainer, Kelsey Briggs, Kelsey Briggs eventing, River Glen Horse Trials, The Gentleman Pirate, Three Day Eventing, XC · Leave a comment

I Remember MY First Cross-rail….

August 3, 2011 by admin

Let’s face it: ”I remember MY first cross-rail…” is the “I remember MY first beer…” of the event world. It is generally saved for a joking insult to a friend when they have one of THOSE jumps, or a way to tell a student to clean up their act when they look like an untrained monkey in warm-up. But this time, I am truthfully reminded of those first few awkward jumps we all took for a number of reasons…not all related to my inability to look for a fence at the start of my jump lesson yesterday. (Hey, just getting this out of the way before my event this weekend, okay?).

First of all, there have been some literal first cross-rails around the farm with the morning pony camps my mom has run out of my farm for a few weeks this summer. While mornings are busy for me with all the rides and farm work, they are generally quiet, but these camp weeks were full of cute little kids running around learning how to jump, or post, or simply lead a pony from Point A to Point B. Pirate was, and still is, convinced that these little mini-riders are there solely to entertain and love on him. He’s highly offended if anyone else gets attention and thinks it is SO unfair that fat little ponies get to trot through the sprinkler while he has to school his simple changes.

Posted in Blog · Tagged Cross Country, Fox Hollow Farm, Horse trainer, Kelsey Briggs, Kelsey Briggs eventing, The Gentleman Pirate, Three Day Eventing, XC · Leave a comment

Pirate could fake a British accent, right?

May 4, 2011 by admin

Do you know one of my favorite things to do on a rainy morning? Fix a cup of English Breakfast tea, pop in a Badminton Horse Trials video from the ‘90s (VHS, obviously), and then go gallop my horse in the rain and pretend I’m British.

Posted in Blog · Tagged 3 Day Eventing, Badminton, Cross Country, Dressage, Kelsey Briggs, Kelsey Briggs eventing, Show jumping, The Gentleman Pirate, Three Day Eventing, two star eventing, USEA · Leave a comment

The Fork, and all other Utensils.

April 19, 2011 by admin

Going into The Fork, I asked Pirate to please use his very best manners as this was a formal affair, one for the fine china. This would not be the time, for instance, to scream for a mare in the dressage judge’s face, or use ugly language in the stadium arena (oh wait, that’s me). It would seem that he listened to me, because P really brought it all to the table last weekend.

We’ll talk about tables in a minute, though. Dressage for our division of Intermediate was Friday morning, and P had a nice long hack to the grass arena to really stretch over his back and begin to settle. He always gets a little lit up when he trots up centerline, but he was pretty obedient for most of the test. Neither shoulder-in was very good, and he was against the hand in the simple changes (he’s starting to really anticipate those, perhaps I should rethink how we school them), but the medium work was nice and the test was all around good enough for a 37.6, our best score to date at this level. It put us middle of the pack in a field of some very nice horses (ridden by very good riders), so I was really pleased. There is still much room for improvement, of course, but isn’t there always?!