T Minus One Month and Counting!

We're about one month out from our big adventure! We received our official itinerary from New Zealand Pony Club today and it looks like we will have an action packed 2 weeks of sight-seeing and riding. (More on that in a later post!)

I am Janna Bankston Ritacco, the coach for the USPC Inter Pacific Exchange Team. I am excited to meet up with the team when we all convene at the Wylie's Sandia Creek Ranch near San Diego. We start our training session & team building at their USPC Riding Center on April 27. This will give me a chance as the coach to assess each rider's personal riding style and get a feel for what type of horse each of the team members will do best with when we are in New Zealand. (For instance, who can deal with a naughty pony, who can inspire a slow moving warmblood, who has a calming effect on a hot TB, and so on and so forth!) We will have two days or riding and fun social type activities to build team cohesiveness before we depart for New Zealand late on the night of April 29th.

I have already had the privilege of meeting some of the team. Robyn Whitten, our "chef d'equipe," is a good friend of mine. I have taught her daughter, Sarah, for several years, and their baby horse Wiley is boarded at my barn. At the USPC Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN in February I was able to meet Kiersti Wylie & Kaleigh Quinn. They were both National Youth Congress delegates. At a clinic in New Jersey a few weeks ago I was able to work with Kelsey Hamilton and Kaleigh Quinn and get a sense of their riding style. I cannot wait to meet Alexa Wolf & Susan Thomas, although I feel like I already know them thanks to this blog, Facebook, and the DVD's that they each had to submit as part of the application process for the team.

I was happy to be able to view each of the girls' DVD's and feel like it has already helped me feel each one out as a rider. I was impressed by their level of riding... all I can say is "Watch Out" to Hong Kong, Canada, New Zealand & Australia... the US team is rock solid and is ready to bring home the Nation's Cup!

If you're still reading at this point I'll tell you a little bit about me... I am a graduate H-A Pony Clubber from the Carolina region. I am a National Examiner for USPC which means that I get to travel around the US and conduct Pony Club testings. I am an eventer (competed through preliminary level) and have recently started foxhunting. I have a young elephant sized drafty-cross gelding that is perfect for hunting and we've enjoyed learning the ropes together. (Hopefully he agrees!)

About two weeks before we leave for California I will be moving my boarding/teaching/training operation to a 66 acre equestrian center near Furman University. I hope I can get all the critters settled before leaving for the other side of the world! I have the creme de la creme of barn help and I'm confident that they'll keep things running smoothly while I galavant around New Zealand.

My husband, Daryl, is still upset about me leaving him for a month last summer when I coached last year's Inter Pacific Exchange team in Hong Kong & China. He was not thrilled to hear that I had applied to go to New Zealand. He will be stuck at home taking care of our "wonder-dog" Charlotte, a stereotypical black & white high octane Border Collie. Last year I had to pay my barn help to come pick her up and take her with them to do the barn so that she could "work" while I was gone. (She is very serious about her work which includes, but is certainly not limited to: supervising the gelding's pasture, supervising the mare's pasture, supervising each pasture again, herding the wayward chicken, "helping" longe horses, and herding anything that might need herding.)

Until next time...

Janna Bankston Ritacco

Crunch Time

After hearing that I had made the IPE New Zealand Team for 2011, I knew that I would have a lot on my plate this semester between class, taking finals early, work, competing, and foxhunting. The past 3 months have flown by and its getting close to crunch time with less that 7 weeks until we depart for New Zealand. Although completing my finals close to two weeks early may prove to be stressful and challenging, I am so excited to be a part of this team. I have been in Pony Club since I was 9 years old and I feel that it is responsible for my horsemanship skills, as I come from a family of non-horse people. I feel forever indebted to Pony Club for all of the opportunities that it has provided!

My name is Susan Thomas and I am a junior at the University of Georgia. After a freshman year full of the common mixed emotions that go along with choosing a major, I decided to study Equine Science Management and minor in Agricultural Business with an emphasis on Marketing. I couldn’t be more pleased with my decision, especially after taking my Advanced Equine Reproduction class through the UGA Vet school this semester. We have been busy palpating, ultrasounding, and will soon AI the mares at the UGA undergraduate research barn and then recheck throughout the first month of their gestation. Equine Reproduction is not my central interest; however, I have really enjoyed the chance to get some hands on experience with such a fascinating process!

Aside from school, I have a part time job at Inyazura Farms, a boarding facility outside of Athens that specializes in foxhunting and eventing. Through Inyazura, I have become active with the Shakerag Hounds Hunt Club and try to hunt as much as possible between October and March. I also plan to spend quite a bit of time at the kennels this Spring and Summer getting to know the hounds through unmounted hound exercises.

When I’m not in class, working, or foxhunting, I try my best to make it out to a few events each season. Currently, my horse(pictured top) is being leased to a young girl in Cleremont, Georgia while I finish school, but I am lucky enough to get the chance to compete two of the horses from Inyazura: Crimson and CC. While my beloved horse, Camel, is teaching his “new girl” the ropes of eventing, I have been exploring the perks and challenges of balancing two very different horses at a horse trials. Crimson (pictured below) is a 15.3h crossbred mare who has been very successful at Training level the past two seasons. We hope to move up this fall if everything goes as planned over the Summer. CC (pictured right) is a more hot and sprightly mare who has gone back and fourth between foxhunting and low level eventing. This is my first season with CC and we still need to work out a few small kinks in our dressage and showjumping at Novice before we make the move up to Training, which I also hope to accomplish this fall.

As the Exchange approaches, I will be busy with finals and preparing to move to a new place to finish out my last year of school- one of my roommates is graduating and will be missed greatly! My Spring event season is coming to a close so hopefully I’ll be able to have a little bit of down time before flying out to California at the end of April. Until then, I’d like to wish my teammates good luck with all of their endeavors and I can’t wait to meet you all in about a month’s time!

Less Than 50 Days!

Less than 50 days until I leave New York for California to meet up with my team! When I heard I made the IPE Team to go to New Zealand I though May would never come....well I was wrong. Time is flying, and May is right around the corner and there is so much to do between catching up on school work and keeping my own horse in condition for this competition season.

I am 18 and a senior at the Port Jervis High School in New York. I'm taking all AP and colleges classes and I get to miss my AP Chemistry exam while I'm in New Zealand (oh darn), but I'm sure anyone would rather be riding in New Zealand than taking a four hour exam! I plan on going to Quinnipiac University this fall and majoring in Athletic Training/ Sports Medicine. I am so excited!

I have been riding since I was 11 years old and have been eventing since I was 13. I'm 18 now and have a 15.2 hand Irish Sport horse named Toy Story. I got him two years ago and

competed him preliminary last season very successfully. I also achieved my B rating this past August on him which was a huge accomplishment. This coming season, I hope to move up to intermediate by June, which means while I'm in New Zealand for this amazing opportunity, my wonderful mother will gallop my horse and keep him in shape.

I cannot wait until I fly out to meet my team in California. I was very excited to meet one of my team members, Kiersti Wylie while we were in Tennessee for the USPC annual meeting. I also met my coach Janna and will be training with her in New Jersey in a few weeks.

I am excited to meet the rest of my team and for our trip to New Zealand! It's coming so soon!

Kaleigh Quinn

A Chaperone's View

Janna asked me to post on the blog and since this is my first "blog" experience, bear with me. I am so excited to have the privilege to participate in the IPE exchange to New Zealand!

Horses have been a part of my life for years-as a young girl then again when my two girls started taking lessons at ages 9 and 6. Katie, now 22, went on to other interests after several years but Sarah, 19, has never looked back. Some of the best training she has had has been through Pony Club the last 5 years, and I have followed, hauled, brushed, bathed, worked rallies, and everything else moms of riders do and loved every minute!

I've lived in Greenville SC for 30+ years and have been married to John for 25 years. Katie graduated from Presbyterian College in May and will be getting married this July. Thank goodness we started early with the wedding plans so I will be in good shape for this trip. John and I are empty nesters this year since Sarah started school at the University of Kentucky. She is studying Equine Science and Management and loves it! I am writing this from Lexington, on a visit for one of her functions.

I spend my time working part-time, taking care of my dad who is in a local assisted living facility, babysitting Sarah's new baby horse- Wiley, and doing "wedding" stuff. Oh, and I make quilts sometimes. I am off to check out some barns for Sarah's horse in the fall. Looking forward to meeting all of the team very soon!

Robyn Whitten