Take a look around this easy to navigate website and gallop, jump and splash your way into the wonderful world of the Olympic sport of eventing!
Once you get a taste of this exciting sport you are going to want to indulge yourself in this thrilling lifestyle.
Another way to get involved is to be a sponsor. Look for more information on Liz's sponsorship link and check out her current sponsors!
Liz is currently located in the USEA Area IV, including the states Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan Upper Peninsula, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada & North Dakota & Wisconsin.
Liz is someone that will bring you the joy of helping a competitor perform to her potential.
"I hope you enjoy my website, take a look around, if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at eventrider@lizlund.com and I will answer any of your questions!." -Liz Lund
NEWS
UPDATES (beginning with most recent)
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*Now updated through Midsouth CCI* 2007!*
Lucinda Green: Gettin it done and gettin over it!
Lovely Miss Lucinda Green back again for one of her infamous clinics. This time I had a clients horse to ride in it. Sugar N' Spice, owned by Sue Slocum. She is a 4 year old, Pinto/TB/Oldenburg cross and this was one of her first times out.
Day One: Cross country over show jumps. Lucinda set up a variety of different questions including corners, points, skinnies, barrels and a few straight forward fences. We worked on jumping all of these straight forward, from an angle, from a walk, off a turn and any other possible way you can imagine it. Spice was a super star! Her first time in a clinic situation and it didn't even phase her, which is good since I am preparing her for her first event at Otter Creek Spring HT May 16th-18th. Everything done on day one is cross country related. Setting up awkward fences to almost always give you an awkward ride can simulate anything that could happen cross country.
Day Two: Cross county. I have only had a handful of rides on Spice and this was one of her first cross country schools. She was a superstar. We headed out and began with just a small coop and she didn't even think twice about it. Next we did the water and she walked right in and even thought it was fun. We jumped up and down banks through the water then moved on to ditches and skinnies and dry banks. She did everything like a seasoned (BN) professional! I am hoping that her boldness will carry through at Otter Creek in a few weeks.
Brad Cutshall: A look into Dressage always leads to jumping
March 29th-30th 2008
Being at Otter Creek presents me with lots of new and exciting learning opportunities. One of them being the chance to ride with Brad Cutshall. Otter Creek Farm sponsored me two rides in the clinic. I learned so much by just watching everyone else's rides and was able to use what I learned from watching others and incorporate it into my own riding.
I warmed up Hannah and brad really helped me to get her moving from behind and stepping under while staying in more of an upper level frame without just getting short in her neck. One exercise we did was doing a medium/extended trot on a circle, which really makes the horse have to step under themselves and push off with their inside hind leg. Once we got her to do nice extensions on a 20m circle, we worked them down the long wall and instead of just using my hands to collect her at the end he had me do lateral work and put her into a leg yield, shoulder in or haunches in to keep her thinking about what I was asking her to do. We worked a lot of her trot half pass and being able to change the bend and amount of angle but keep her moving sideways.
Next we worked on my canter. I got her into a nice collected, but still engergetic canter and we worked on her counter canter and being able to change her bend and hold her on the outside rein without having her swap leads. Then once I was able to maintain a strong counter canter he had me ask for the flying change, but if she did it when I didn't ask I would halt and pick up the counter canter again. This was very helpful because it caused her to be really sensitive to what I was asking her to do and listen to me instead of making up her own mind that she would change automatically. Once I was able to get the changes on the circle we did changes across the diagonal. We then worked on using the canter half pass across the arena to a change and half passed back. All of these different exercises were great for tuning both of us to be really alert to the feeling of one another. I really had to know where my body was and what I was asking her to do so that I could be clear for her to understand. This experience really helped us in our preparation for us to ride third level this spring.
So now having my horse listening and understanding what I want her to be doing and each exact footfall it has transformed our jumping. Hannah has become much more supple, quiet and responsive. I am now out of the Mikmar for show jumping and I am riding her in a loose ring snaffle with a Kineton noseband. A kineton nose band applies a little nose pressure where a drop noseband would lay when I apply pressure to the bit. I am looking forward to getting outside and doing some show jump courses in the outdoor rings.
Spring?
Any day now...we are still waiting for the weather to warm up here in Wisconsin. I just returned from my first clinic of the season in Delano, Minnesota with Eric Dierks. I rode Hannah in a private dressage lesson on Friday night. We worked on keeping her relaxed and slow so she was able to work on her tempo and thoroughness.
We talked about what it means to make a horse "through". A horse must contract their stomach muscles and hold themselves in order to relax and stretch over their back. Eric explained his theory on riding. 1. Position 2. Engine 3. Tempo 4. Track A horse can only be as good as its rider so a rider must have an excellent position in order to offer the horse the best ride. A horse must be willing to move forward and maintain and tempo. Also the horse must be straight. We worked Hannah so she began to hold herself using the correct muscles.
Saturday I rode Worth The Wait in his first eventing clinic. I learned that he really likes to be rewarded for moving forward and once rewarded really seems to enjoy his job. I rode Hannah in a private and Eric got on her to feel her out. We rode her in her snaffle and she was fabulous, kept a steady rhythm and was very soft in the bridle. He showed me how to keep her soft with out having to use a stronger bit.
I then rode a horse for Jean Kunz, Hamel. He is a 6 year old TB off of the track. He was a fun ride too and I helped him be quite, work on his canter. The first day was great and everyone learned a lot. Eric had us starting to see our distances by having us count our strides down from 6 strides out from every pole or fence.
Sunday I rode Worthy in the morning again. We jumped a indoor coffin with barrels and a liverpool. At first he wasn't willing to move forward but Eric had me stay quiet and reward him every time he would move forward weather we were just standing and moving from the halt to the walk or asking him to canter forward or finishing a line of jumps. Throughout the lesson he became softer and more willing to move forward.
I rode Hannah in a private and she was even better then the day before. We worked on adjusting her strides within a line without going to my hands and just using my body. Then we worked on my jumping technique and Eric showed me some ways to use my body more effectively over the fences. We also worked on Hannah's technique by setting jumps so she would really have to jump up from the base of the jump and land at the base on the other side of the jump. We also ended on jumping a single barrel to the liverpool to two barrels standing up, really working on our accuracy.
I finished on Hamel and he was soft and so much more adjustable then the day before. I felt that everyone at the clinic had a great benefit from riding and auditing. We look forward to having Eric back again for a clinic.
Brr..Happy New Years!
Writing to wish everyone a happy new years! We made it through Holiday season with a lovely break for friends and family. Hannah has re-grown her full winter coat after being body clipped for Midsouth in October and looks like a wooly blanket! She is enjoying the snow and fun! I brought Hannah out to Otter Creek on January 3rd so that I can prepare to move back to school on the 20th and get my wisdom teeth out on the 11th. I taught Hannah how to pull a sled around the farm in Minnesota and there is a fun video on YouTube.com. Hope everyone had great and happy holidays and look forward to seeing everyone in the new year! Take care!
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