Lizzie Snow graduated from High School in 2010 and has represented Area VII at the Adequan FEI North American Junior/Young Rider Championships presented by Gotham North in 2009 and 2010. In 2010 she won Team Gold and Individual Bronze at the 2010 event and made a successful move up to the CCI2* level. The Portland, OR native is now based in Southern Pines, NC.

I can’t believe it’s already the end of March. I feel like the year just began but now the spring season is halfway done! My 2010 season ended well with solid runs around both the Plantation 2* and the Chattahoochee 2* in addition to being named to the Developing Riders B List. So far the 2011 season has been one of the busiest seasons I have ever had with training sessions and having lots of young horses to compete (yay!). In the past eight weeks I think I have spent more hours driving from Southern Pines to Aiken and Pine Top than I have sleeping.

Pop Star (Pop) and I started off the season with a run around the training division at Pine Top just to have a nice, confident round and so he could have some fun and I could get my eye back in competition mode. We had a great dressage test and show jumping round but ended up being 2 seconds slow on cross country because Pop decided that training speed was just not fast enough and he thought he would enjoy giving my arms an extra workout.

We headed back down south to Aiken that following week for our first training session and to compete at Full Gallop with the young horses. To be honest I really didn’t know what to expect from the sessions which are run by the USEF with Chef d’Equipe/Technical Advisor Capt. Mark Phillips. I had been lucky enough to talk with veterans Bobby Costello and Amy Tryon before going to my first session and they both gave me some great pointers to help me not embarrass myself – which I greatly appreciated. The first day in Aiken I had a flat lesson. Pop can be a little evasive at times and scrunch his neck back into his shoulders and not take the contact. Mark had me warm up a little by myself and then interjected about 5 minutes into my warm up. He had me keep Pop long and low in the frame but instead of pushing him more forward to try to get him through he had me push him slower. It was hard for me in the beginning to truly get this concept without pulling on my right rein but we seemed to work it out fairly quickly. We next worked on shoulder in on the circle, which showed how evasive he can be in the contact, so we went back to pushing him slower while continuing to be in shoulder –in on the circle (this I definitely need to practice. A LOT). After I quit pulling on my right rein and used my leg instead, we started to introduce the half pass. I was having trouble keeping Pop equal in both reins so we took it one step slower and went back to the walk to introduce it. Mark gave me lots of tips and homework exercises to work on….and the biggest one was to stop using my right rein so much.

The next day we jumped a few show jumps. We started out on the flat the same as the day before and then had me do my own warm up over fences and Mark chimed in after a few jumps. Pop is too careful in show jumping and if the distance is a slightest bit long, he looses his confidence and sometimes doesn’t jump. Mark had me work on a single oxer and getting him to the base every time and trying to adjust my eye to be comfortable with that. He then had me go through a line in 6, 5, and 4 strides. His point was to make me realize that Pop’s canter does not need to change when the fences get any bigger but that I just need more RPMs. He’s right….

Lizzie Snow and Pop Star at the 2010 NAJYRC
Brant Gamma Photo

The week after that we headed back to Pine Top to run around the preliminary. We warmed up for dressage like we did with Mark – pushing him slower to get him through - and I rode the show jumping focused on keeping up my RPMs around the entire course instead of searching so much for a distance. I took it slow on cross country and came in with some time faults but had a strong, confident ride.

The next week I headed down to take some lessons with Boyd on Pop and two younger horses. This was the first time I had jumped Pop with Boyd and he had me practicing the same things that Mark had me doing…repetition is key in my case. I headed back home to keep practicing what both he and Mark were saying and the next week headed AGAIN to Pine Top. The weekend started out well with a steady dressage test in the Intermediate division. It could have had a little more spark and flare but it was a steady, correct test. Show jumping didn’t really go as planned. I don’t know if it was my riding or if Pop wasn’t quite on his game, but we never really got in a rhythm around the course and took a few rails down. I decided not to run cross country and to go home and go back to the drawing board instead.

I headed back to see Mark for another lesson at the next session and the fantastic Three Runs Plantation with Pop and a cross country lesson at Paradise with Boyd on a young horse. I explained how Pine Top went and so we decided to jump. Pop felt like he was jumping better than he was at Pine Top. Mark really emphasized the importance of the position of my upper body and my release. He had me lengthen my reins and keep my hands a little lower and to not use my upper body so much. It really made a huge difference for me…I guess I try to stay with him too much and it actually seems to make it harder for him to get off the ground. So I took these great pointers and headed back to Southern Pines.

I thought that was going to be my last trip to Aiken for a training session but, no surprise, I was wrong. I was thrilled to get another email saying there was room for me to have a cross country lesson at Paradise with Mark. So…I loaded up the horses and, once again, made the four hour drive to Aiken. Pop felt fantastic jumping around and again Mark emphasized a great deal how important it is for me to be careful with my upper body position with my release and even more importantly to work on riding him up into my hands and finding the deep distance to every fence.

I have Pop entered in the preliminary division at Southern Pines II and hope to keep running him at some horse trials before NAJYRC in the summer. I have learned a GREAT amount of information in the lessons that I have had with Mark and I hope that there can be more in my future. I have started applying this information to all of the other horses I have been riding and making myself watch my position and stop looking so much for a distance and instead just working on keeping a better canter. Hopefully the rest of the season will go relatively smoothly and the horses will continue to be sound and happy!