2010 TEAM TRYON NEWS UPDATE*
(January 2010)

Greetings and happy New Year to friends, family and fans of Team Tryon. If you haven't yet checked the website, there are adorable pictures of Pogi, MUCH happier in his retirement now that his constant companion is the irrepressible Jethro (all you NCIS fans will recognize that name). Jethro is a charcoal gray miniature donkey who now has a matching raincoat for turnout. They dote on each other...totally. USEA members can see Pogi and Jethro in the latest USEA Eventing USA magazine, page 42, in an article about "Retired Greats (horses)...Where are They Now?"

The website will always have the most up to date news about Amy, the horses and their plans for this exciting year, as she'll be writing updates from the road.

Amy left on Wednesday, January 13, at about 4:30 am for southern California, at that moment mostly underwater, with predictions of more rain to come. The weather gods, however, had other ideas, and provided smooth sailing on the entire trip. There wasn't even any snow on the road over the Siskiyou passes. After 24 hours on the road, 14 horses and about 8 drivers arrived to see the sun rise in the east over clear roadways. Amy stated confidently, "Mom...NEVER believe what they tell you about the weather!"

Their home for the next month is the extraordinarily beautiful El Campeon Farm, situated on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Amy declared quite enthusiastically, "All the horses are thrilled with their roomy stalls and grass turnout pastures." El Campeon Farm is also the site of the USET training sessions, the first of which was this past weekend. Leyland and Devon (show name "Coal Creek") on the "A" and "B" lists respectively, worked with Captain Mark Phillips on their dressage, and Amy was pleased with their levels of work after only a month or so back in work after their vacations.

A word about these two incredibly talented horses and their generous owners who have given Amy the rides. Leyland comes to Amy from Elizabeth Nicholson and her family in Michigan. Elisabeth has balanced her college commitments with coming to Mapleleaf Eventing in Washington to learn all she can about the competitive horse world and what it takes to get a horse to the top. Amy found her other advanced ride, Devon, at about the same time as Leyland, and Kathryn and Tim Sullivan of Oregon stepped up to purchase this wonderful horse for Amy. Without these and other generous owners and sponsors, Amy would not be where she is, and she is always grateful for their help. After Pogi retired, these two gifted horses, now nine years old, were ready to step into his footsteps, and both won a 3-star event their first year at the advanced level. And now, in 2010, both are poised to give the 4-star level a go against a probable huge showing from European horses testing the course at the Rolex competition in Lexington, Kentucky, April 22-25.

The first competitive outing for all the horses will be January 30-31 in Temecula, CA, just a short drive from El Campeon. Though the miles are few, the trip could take hours, as the majority of it will be spent crossing Los Angeles from one corner to another. Amy is riding a number of horses other than Leyland and Devon, and one wonders where all that energy comes from.

After several more training sessions for Leyland and Devon, most of the horses will head north to their second competition, at Twin Rivers Ranch in Paso Robles, in the beautiful central California wine country. From there, it's home to Seattle for most, but after that competition, Amy will travel with long-time friend, student and groom, Allyson Green and groom Lauren Ferguson, Leyland and Devon to Southern Pines, North Carolina, where they'll headquarter at Will Faudree's. More training sessions and two more competitions (Southern Pines and The Fork) will polish Amy's preparations for Rolex.

After Rolex, all will return home to Washington and await the selection of the short list for the WEG. Hopefully one or both of Amy's rides will be on that list, and at some point they'll return to somewhere in the East for final team preparations.

At this point, the beginning of the journey, Amy would like you all to know how much your support has meant to her over the years, and she hopes some of you who haven't met will introduce yourselves along the way. I'll be in California for Twin Rivers, and at Rolex in April and (hopefully) the WEG in September-October. I treasure my friendships resulting from my involvement with Team Tryon, as so many of you have introduced yourselves to me along the way. Please continue to do so. It means a lot.

Jemi Cain
(aka mom)

*If you would like to receive these fun updates from Jemi direct to your email inbox, please drop her a note at jemicain@aol.com