Aiken Spring 2026 Part 3: Shine Bright Like a Diamond

To end another fabulous week in Aiken, we entered Stable View dressage. I entered my First Level Freestyle which is so cute and features The Chicks and other country artists. 

Our freestyle was pretty darn smooth, other than letting myself anticipate and get ahead of my music at times. But still good enough for a 70%.

And that makes the last score for my Bronze Freestyle medal.

AND the last score for my USDF Diamond Achievement.

On the USDF website, the list of Diamond riders is not particularly long. And I am curious how many earned their scores on the same horse.

Pretty darn special achievement for myself and for Hampton. How did I do it? I think I am either too stupid or too stubborn to have given up. I have no other explanation.

Newly minted Diamond rider!

Hampton looking cooked for almost 19!

The dressage show was Day 1 of our Weekend Double Header Before We go Back Home.

Day 2 coming up next.

Spoiler alert:

Aiken Spring 2026 Part 2: We don't need roads

Hacking down the road, not too bad!

After our little XC jump sesh at the Vista, we spent the remainder of the week doing Aiken things like:

> Dressage lessons with KE

With a focus on body work for the horse, straightness, balance and swing. I love her lessons as they are so detailed and focused and Hampton always comes out better than when he went in. I really appreciate an instructor who seems to really enjoy teaching and seeing the results.

> A jump lesson with LH

I have taken two stadium jumping lessons with Lillian back in KY and have LOVED her. More importantly, her thoughtful approach builds up both horse and rider and Hampton comes out of those lessons feeling like a superstar. That is on top of his already large ego. So we swung by her winter base while we were in Aiken and skipped over some BN fences. I am starting to get my jumping sea legs back bit by bit!

>Over eating at delicious restaurants

TakoSushi, Pizza Joint, Feed Sack, French Bakery, Whiskey Ally and others. I am not a "foodie" but there is something about food in Aiken.

> Shopping (I won 2 raffles at Aiken saddlery - thank you!)

Silva commenting on warm ups

>  The Eventing Showcase at Bruce's Field

We stopped by on Friday to watch some dressage and listened to Silva Martin comment on some rider warm ups. It was interesting to hear her thoughts about how one might warm up a very fit upper level enter horse for the dressage. Many ride their horses in the morning and then do a shorter warm up before the test.

Bummed to miss the jumping portions but we had other plans ....

Aiken Spring 2026 Part 1: Test flight

Not pictured: The profanity leaving my mouth

The annual pilgrimage to Aiken in late February was yet another amazing time. I am so lucky to have a horse like Hampton who puts up with my shit rolls along with anything I ask of him, and the friends who enable the insanity.

We spent the first few days hacking and lightly schooling. Sunday included a trip to The Vista where I was peer pressured and tricked encouraged to try some cross country jumps and see where we were at. The Vista is absolutely gorgeous and features a very friendly starter/BN field as a warm up, complete with a little water and tiny banks. 

Yep that's a jump saddle!

To my surprise, Hampton was GAME and jumped everything I pointed him at. Keep in mind, we maybe schooled 5 xc jumps in Aiken 4 years ago? It's not something we do.

We moved to another field which has BN/Novice and maybe some Training Questions. (I mind my own business in the big Training/Modified/Prelim field.)

We ended up jumping a number of Novice questions (including mine and Hampton's first corner!), unbeknownst to me as I was TOLD they were BN. I had one messy jump where I missed the distance, but Hampton took care of me and got us over the jump safely. That was actually a huge confidence boost that it can be messy and nothing bad happened.

What a good little test for my secret little plans I had for the end of the week.