Notes from Nora: Updates from Our Summer 2022 ESS Recipient

Aug 14

Summer is in full swing for Ever So Sweet Scholarship recipient, Nora Huynh-Watkins. Nora is the third recipient of the scholarship, which provides funding for coaching, training, and accommodation for a period of three months. Nora recently provided this update.

It feels like I just got to Virginia last week. It’s easy to get sucked into the current, cascading along, forgetting to take a moment to reflect on just how far we have already gone. This past week, my horse Druzy and I got to go to the Kentucky Horse Park with the Overlook team. I have seen the horse park on TV, and I never imagined I would see it in person. It was absolutely stunning in real life. While I was there, I realized I might never ride at the Kentucky Horse Park again. From Washington, Kentucky is quite the trek. Who knows what the future holds, though? I never thought I would temporarily live and train in Virginia. Instead of dwelling on what may or may not happen in the future, I am trying to cherish the moments as they come, being present and enjoying every experience. Some of my rounds at KHP did not go as I was hoping they would, but that’s ok. There are a lot of goals I have yet to reach – but over the past month and a half, I have been empowered by the lovely supportive team at Overlook to fulfill a lot of other ones.

Creating Opportunities

Something I wanted to learn was how to run an event or schooling show in a way that fosters community and offers opportunity for riders in the area. Sara knew this is something I wanted to see, and she and her whole group have been really open to adding this to their busy schedule. We hosted the first of a series of three schooling events with great success, and are gearing up for the second one right now. Relationships with trainers who might want to bring students, young horses or training horses; a broad-reaching social media network to spread the word; being friends with people who can judge dressage and offer great feedback for participants; and having good helpers are all really important parts of hosting a successful event. Someday I would love to have a farm where I can host something similar. At our schooling event, I loved chatting with riders and trainers in the warm-up, videoing rounds for new friends, scribing for a kind and knowledgeable judge, and watching some talented riders.

Evolving Goals

I myself am not the most talented rider, but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn to be one. Another goal of mine for the summer was to have a clean showjump round. Though there is always more progress to make, my horse and I had a double clear round during one of our classes at HITS Culpeper, and we even got a yellow ribbon. I can technically check that off my list, but goals evolve as we learn, and I think my new goal would be to have a showjump round where I get all my stride numbers, make the turns and lines I set out to make when I walked the course, and jump in the middle of each fence. Sometimes you can have a really nicely ridden round and still get a rail down, or like my clear round at Culpeper, you can have a messy ride and get lucky with the rails. I am making my way toward this goal, and I’m sure my goals will continue to evolve as we get more experienced.

On the Road with Druzy

A big part of getting more experience is simply practicing going on outings. As an amateur, it can feel like I have made a ton of progress with my rides at home, and then as soon as we arrive someplace new, things start to fly out the window. I have struggled with keeping my horse happy during our travels, and remaining calm and relaxed is a big part of retaining good new habits. During my scholarship time, I wanted to learn if there was anything I could do better to keep her happier. The horses at Overlook travel much more frequently than Druzy has, and they do it quite well. There are a few things that seem to be helping my horse to settle into new places better. The first part is better gastric support – I used omeprazole for my horse on the trip over to Virginia, but in retrospect, I don’t think I was using enough. Now I have a better idea of how much to use and when to use it. The next part is that my horse travels better with other horses. This I already knew, but the more positive experiences she gets traveling to new places with a good group of other horses, the more open she is becoming to traveling. The last thing I noticed which seems to have a big impact on my horse’s stress level is simply offering quiet times to relax. This isn’t always possible at every venue, but having her in a stall where she could see familiar horses, taking her for walks in a non-chaotic area with a more experienced buddy, and slowly introducing the more busy areas to her all seem to help her a lot. I am really happy with the way my horse is learning to settle in at shows, it helps both of us focus more on what we are there to do.

Nora and SEE Co-Founder Heather Gillette

The Ever So Sweet scholarship is teaching my horse and I so much – a lot more than I can even list – and the fact that I get to reach some goals while I am here in addition to learning life lessons is just an added bonus.

I think when you are in the right environment to learn and grow, reaching goals just comes naturally. As the month of August quickly ticks by, my scholarship end date just around the corner, I am feeling inspired to keep chasing after the bigger more elusive goals that I have – and I feel that I am gathering the tools I need to reach them. It may be a once in a lifetime experience, but the effects will last forever.

Check out a few of Nora’s recent social media posts: