Judge My Ride welcomes Just World International Ambassador Francie Steinwedell-Carvin as our Guest Judge
Francie Steinwedell-Carvin is one of the United States most accomplished competitors. Based in California, she has represented her home country on 11 Nations’ Cup teams as of December 31, 2007. In 2006, she was a member of the West Coast Active Riders Team that spent the summer competing in Europe under the guidance of chef d’équipe, George Morris.
During the 2008 Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida, Francie enjoyed success with both Splitfire and Twistar, including a second place finish with Splitfire in the $20,000 1.50m Classic during the final week of competition.
Francie is married to fellow show jumping competitor, Dick Carvin.
Francie gives her evaluations to: Ceilidh Feetham and Twisted
Greetings Cieldh,
When I looked at your photo on twister, I was very happy to see you are both turned out very well. To me, looking the part is important in becoming what you want to be in riding and in life.
I love your pony’s expression and I love love love that your ‘focus’ appears to be spot on! I clearly see both of you preparing for what is coming up in the line ahead of you. My suggestions for you are that I notice that you are ‘laying on the neck’ with your forearm pressed down to support your upper body. I hope your trainer or coach has begun to introduce you to various releases.
An ‘automatic release’ is one way to help you get your weight off your hands. Another suggestion is to allow your hip angle to be a tad more open and then you will be able to keep more weight in your stirrups… Your lower leg can then come under your hip instead of your thigh, so you can get more support of your upper body. In opening the angle of your elbow into an ‘automatic release’ your body will end up in the proper position instead of way behind the girth (frequently when working on arm position, it will fix your leg position and vice versa)…your center of gravity will be in the correct position and not ‘in front’ of the saddle so you will be able to support your upper body and stay off your pony’s neck. One more thing is that I would like your stirrup to be straighter on your foot so you can step down on the landing and allow your ankle to be a shock absorber.
In closing, I want you to know that all in all, I am impressed with you and your pony. Best of luck in 2013!
Francie Steinwedell-Carvin
Francie gives her evaluations to: Cali Kirker and Reno in the CET Medal Finals
Hello Cali,
My first impression of you and Reno is that you two are a lovely pair. You have great focus with your eyes up and forward to what is coming up in the line so you can react with proper timing to the question the course designer is asking in this phase of the CET finals. By the look of your position, you have met the oxer coming forward. It also looks like you will be asking Reno to steady on the landing having your upper body ever so slightly behind the motion, which to me is helpful in getting the job done! Reno’s expression tells me he is also beginning to stuffy what is coming up in the line. I love that! Your heel is nicely down, however, I would like to see your toe and ankle a bit more parallel to your horse’s ribcage rather than turned out that much. I do love the fact your leg is secure and your arm is soft yet you have a nice contact with Reno’s mouth. My question is – will you be landing on your hands to keep your balance or will you open up your body a little too early when landing? It is very important to have a strong core with enough elasticity and weight in one’s stirrups to control the upper body. The rider then can react quickly with good balance in these classes that have become so very technical.
All in all, I love the look of your partnership with Reno and think you have a good future in front of you with this horse.
Respectively,
Francie Steinwedell-Carvin
Judge My Ride welcomes Just World International Ambassador Samatha Lam as our Guest Judge
Born of Hong Kong parents in Vancouver, BC, Canada on 29 June, 1978, Samantha Lam started riding at the age of seven and got her first pony, the chestnut mare Weecha, a year later. Her first Grand Prix horse, Manadi, was originally bought for her father Solomon to jump in amateur classes, but Samantha took over the ride.
After a couple of training sessions with celebrated American trainer George Morris, Samantha started training more intensively with Morris, making her Grand Prix debut at the age of 14. In 1996 she finished third in the prestigious US$100,000 Budweiser Invitational in Tampa, Florida. Later that year she went on to claim sixth overall in the selection trials for the Canadian Olympic team and was named as first reserve for the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.
In April 1997 Samantha became the youngest-ever female rider to compete in the World Cup Final in Gothenburg, Sweden and the following year she moved to Germany to focus on her riding career. During an eight-year stint in Germany she earned the respect of her colleagues on the international jumping circuit and was awarded the German Golden Riding Medal, the German Equestrian Federation’s highest honour for professional riders.
During her time on the Florida circuit, prior to her move to Germany, Samantha had met up with Nelson Pessoa, Brazil’s best-known coach and a five-time Olympian himself. In March 2006, Samantha relocated to Pessoa’s stables in Belgium to work and train with the maestro, whose son Rodrigo is the reigning Olympic jumping champion and winner of three World Cup Finals in a row.
Samantha, who was born in the Year of the Horse, is one of a squad of riders to receive sponsorship from The Hong Kong Jockey Club and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust Fund. She qualified two horses for the Olympic Jumping events, Jockey Club Tresor, and the Lam family-owned Coco.
Samantha opted to ride the more experienced Jockey Club Tresor, but she was battling against an agonising back problem after aggravating an old injury. Despite constant pain, she completed two tough rounds of jumping and won applause from the spectators for her grit and determination. After gaining precious experience from her Olympic debut, Samantha went back to Belgium to continue training and competing in Europe. Her next goal is a high placing in the 2010 Asian Games.
Sam gives her evaluations to:
Kirsten Reinhart and Ryan J from Singapore
The angle of which this photo is taken makes it a little difficult for me to see the rider’s position accurately. From what I can see, she has a good upper body balance over a larger vertical. However her lower leg has slid back and her foot has slid all the way through the stirrup. Shortening the stirrup length by a hole and pushing her heels down more would help secure the position of the lower leg. Also jumping some cavallettis without stirrups would help train the position of the leg as well.
The rider has a nice solid crest release and is following the horse’s mouth nicely. Perhaps with more experience she could drop her crest release down into an automatic release. When the rider’s base is more solid, the automatic release is certainly not far away!
Overall, Kirsten and her horse are well turned out and her horse is giving a great effort over the vertical with nice even knees!!
Kimberly Loushin and Correlation from USA
The rider’s upper body is in good balance with the motion of her horses jump. She also has a lovely release. However her stirrup length is too long causing her lower leg to slide back quite severely. Her foot and toe are turned out too far as a result of her stirrup length. Shortening her stirrups would help secure the lower leg position. Riding without stirrups would also help strengthen the inner calf muscles which would also help her to control how far her toe turns out over fences.
The horse is showing a very flashy jump with lovely even knees!
Both horse and rider are beautifully turned out for the hunter ring. Braiding his tail would be the icing on the cake for this lovely horse and rider combination!!
