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| About Me |
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I’m Ashley Kriegel and I am currently
a sophomore at Clemson University. I’m majoring in Communication
Studies with a minor in Journalism. My ultimate goal is to be a
successful Advanced eventer, but just in case that doesn’t pan out
like I want, my other dream job would be to write for a horse
magazine like Practical Horseman or Dressage Today.
At Clemson I am in the Alpha Chi
Omega sorority and I am on the Clemson Intercollegiate Eventing Team
(CIET). I really enjoy both clubs and I definitely encourage any
upcoming college eventers to join CIET. In CIET we’re trying to get
together a full team to compete at horse trials. Hopefully we can
achieve this goal either this semester or next semester.
While I do spend a lot of time with
my sorority, CIET, in class, and of course doing homework, I usually
have the time to go out and ride my horse. I try to ride five to six
times a week and if I can’t ride, I still like to go out and groom
and play with my pony. |
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| The Horse |
| As of right now I have only one horse, Maybelline’s Cover Girl
(May for short). May’s name comes from her beautiful face and big
cover girl eyes. I bought May, a Trakehner/Thoroughbred, two years
ago from a breeder in North Carolina. At the time she was a gangly
six year old who knew how to walk, trot, canter on the wrong lead,
and jump very small cross rails and verticals. Together we have
gone through our different trials and tribulations (you should have
seen how huge and unbalanced her canter used to be!), but everything
is finally starting to come together. I started her off at Beginner
Novice for an entire year, ending the season with our first win at
Poplar Place. I moved her up to Novice for only one season and we
did very well, ending up with another first place at Poplar. Now we
are going Training very successfully and we’re schooling lots of
Preliminary fences. May is an absolutely amazing horse and I can’t
believe how far she’s come.  |
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| 2007 Wrap-Up |
Fall of 2007 May and I moved up to Training Level. Our first horse
trial was at Poplar Place. My only goal was to finish and not get
eliminated, since it was our first Training and the course is known
to be challenging. We did have two stops at the trakehner, but we
met my goal of finishing the course. The next horse trial, River
Glen, I set my goal a bit higher and wanted to get through the
course clean. We got a 36 in dressage and went clean in both stadium
and cross country. Our first Training ribbon, a third out of about
18 riders, was well earned. At Pine Top my main goal was to lower
our dressage score and we ended up achieving that with a 34. Again
we went clean in cross country and stadium to earn a second place
ribbon. Our last show of the season was the Jumping Branch schooling
horse trial. Unfortunately, our dressage was less than perfect and
we got a 41. We did have a great show jumping round and a clear
cross country to make up for it and earn us another third place.
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| 2008 Goals and Objectives |
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Consistently get dressage scores lower than
35.
- Go clean
on cross country for the Training level horse trials.
- Get May’s
canter to stay more up and balanced for all phases, but especially for show
jumping.
- Keep my
shoulders up and my stomach stronger.
- Be able
to conquer corners (a certain type of cross country jump).
- Go
Preliminary at least by the end of the year.
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| Shows and Clinics for Spring 2008 |
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January 26: Philip Dutton Clinic
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February 2-3:
Pine Top Horse Trial
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March 8:
Schooling dressage/CT show at FENCE
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March 22-23:
FENCE Horse Trial
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April 11-13: The
Fork Horse Trial
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April 24-27:
Rolex (attending, of course, not competing)
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May 24-25: Full
Gallop
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June 6-8: Area
III Championships at Poplar Place (May and I have already
qualified)
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