#ctjl monaco

[ariadnew]

Here's a [very] quick little look at a set I'm working on. Yes, from that show last year; no, I don't really feel ashamed about this sort of thing anymore. :') I believe I've lost the capacity.

Fun fact about Agatha; she's totally a Billie Holiday fan. When I say fan, it is important to remember that she is a fan in the way Agatha is a fan of anything, which is quietly, inwardly, and generally privately.

[simmedaway]

It's funny how quickly things change. Catch riding at CTJL Monaco was never in the plan, but it set off a butterfly effect Ginny could have never anticipated. Six weeks following her win at Monaco, an envelope showed up. It was thick, both physically and with possibilities. It felt weird, opening this document with phrases like "sponsorship" and "brand ambassador" at the hand-me-down table of the apartment Ginny shared with her sister, Savannah. Two weeks later, and the sponsorship was finalized. Her first sponsorship. Her underdog win at Monaco put her on the map in ways she could have only dreamed of. It was this moment she realized her career was truly a professional one. Her amateur days were over. Ginny is proud to be the newest sponsored rider of IHTL.

Big thanks to @ihtl-co for making this happen!

[thedanishsim]

CTJL Monaco 2023 - Part 2

Monte Carlo, Monaco, The French Riviera, Europe - September 2023

The first few days in Monaco had been very chill and easy for Mia and Ballerine. Mia had given Ballerine lots of time to settle in at the showground, had been out for lots of hand-walks and just done some light jogging-sessions. The show was set to start in only a few days and you could really tell how big it was by the number of horses and people running around now. Everywhere you looked there were at least ten horses being groomed, taken in or out for the stables, hand-walked or on their way to the warm up- and training arenas. Anne and Ellie had joined Mia and Ballerine for almost everything they had been doing, but a few times Anne had gone back to the hotel so Ellie could get a nap.

The areas around the showground was slowly starting to take shape; food areas and shopping areas were popping up all over the place and a lot of different equestrian companies were attending with small shops - and of course, it was Monaco, so also a few more exclusive brands such as Gucci and Hermés had brought their equestrian collection to the show. Mia and Anne had spent an afternoon walking around and looked at the first few shops that had opened up already, but Mia knew they would be spending a lot more time during the next few days.

The show schedule was packed with lots of different events; Polo matches, Opening and Closing ceremonies, a Charity Auction and a Mare & Foal Inspection with also an auction. Mia and Anne had agreed on going to the Polo matches with Ellie, and Mia was also going to attend the Opening Ceremony which also included a Luncheon. 

The weekend before the show week was a few smaller classes, and Mia had signed up for a 1.20m. class as a warm-up round and to also let Ballerine familiarize with the big arena. She would be entering in the 1.30m. class with a qualification round Tuesday morning and the finals on Wednesday afternoon. 

Ballerine had been a tense ticking bomb just waiting to explode in the 1.20m. warm up class. She’d had a hard time finding her focus in the big arena. They had been in some big arenas before, but something about this one was just different and Mia couldn’t really tell what it had been about it. Mia had done a light jog with Ballerine the following day to make sure the mare wasn’t stressing too much. 

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Mia had been up early on Tuesday morning to get over to the stable tents and feed Ballerine before taking her out for a short walk. Their starting time in the qualification round was at 10:35 am, and Mia had taken her time to let Ballerine have an easy morning. Anne and Ellie had joined Mia at the stable around 8:30 when Mia had just finished braiding Ballerine. Ellie had - as always - been very excited to help out grooming Ballerine even though she could only reach up to Ballerine’s belly. Ballerine had enjoyed the attention from both Mia, Ellie and Anne and felt a lot calmer when Mia took her to the warm up arena. “Just take your time and don’t put too much pressure on yourself in the warm up,” Anne had said when Mia had started. Anne had always been with Mia when she was out competing and had been standing 100s of times on the sideline during the warm up. Mia nodded and decided to just follow Ballerine’s mood and only take a few jumps. There had been a lot of horses and riders in the arena, and Mia had started to feel the tension in Ballerine again just as they were called for from the main arena. “Breath, focus, and let her do her job.” Anne had picked up Ellie and walked beside Mia and Ballerine on their way to the arena. “I know, I know,” Mia had answered, a bit more tense than what she meant to be. Anne smiled up at her, and just as Mia and Ballerine were about to enter the arena for their qualification, Ellie had started to giggle. Mia couldn’t help but let out a sigh and a laugh and let Ballerine enter the arena.

Their round was great! Mia had let Ballerine take control of the distances and had kept her in a relaxed form. They could have been faster during the round, but the most important thing had been to let Ballerine have a good round. Ballerine had felt way less tense and felt like she had been enjoying it a bit more than last time. Mia smiled and gave the mare a pet on the neck on their way out of the arena where they were greeted by a clapping Ellie. “Good job! She looked much more comfortable today” Anne smiled and gave Ballerine a treat. “She was! I just hope we weren't too slow” Mia laughed and reached down to hug Ballerine before entering the warm up arena again. Mia let Ballerine canter around the fence of the arena and then took her back to walk and rode out of the arena to take Ballerine for a hack around the showground for their cooldown. 

Mia, Anne and Ellie had spent the rest of the day exploring Monte Carlo and the streets of Monaco. It was such a nice place and even though it was already Mid-September, you could still feel the summer heat.

Wednesday was the big day; The final of the 1.30m. class. Mia and Ballerine had placed as number 18 out of 65 riders in the qualification - only a single penalty due to the time, but other than that a clear round. Mia, Anne and Ellie had spent the morning watching the Six-Bar Challenge, but after a while, Ellie’s patience had run out. They had then gone over to the stables to get Ballerine ready for the class later in the afternoon. Just before lunch they had gone back to the hotel for a few hours rest.

“Do you want anything else?” Anne smiled at Mia as they walked towards the stable tents. Anne had just offered to run over to get them something to drink. The weather was so hot today.  “Just water, I think” Mia replied, “oh! and maybe a crêpe if the line isn’t too long, please”. “Why did I even ask?” Anne let out a laugh and changed her direction towards the ‘food-court’ area near the main arena. Mia and Ellie had continued towards the stable tents when a woman had stopped Mia to smalltalk about Ellie, which had resulted in Ellie running off into one of the stabletents. Mia had started to run after her, but there had been so much activity inside the stable tent that she couldn’t find Ellie right away.

“Alex, who’s child is that?!”“I don’t know”“What do you mean you don’t know?”

Mia had followed the voices of a woman and a man, and when she looked around a corner she had seen Ellie sitting on the floor in front of a stall, playing with some brushes that definitely did not belong to her. Mia had gone over and apologized for Ellie’s mess, but the man had just smiled and told her not to worry about it. 

“You can’t do that. You can’t just run away and go through other people’s stuff. That is not ours. We need to clean this up, ok?” Mia squatted down in front of Ellie and pointed at the brushes laying all over the ground. “I’ll clean it up, it’s fine. Don’t worry, nothing happened.” The man kindly smiled at Mia and Ellie. “I'm so sorry about this. Thank you.” Mia smiled at the man and reached out her hand to take Ellie’s, “Come on, we have to get Ballerine ready”. Ellie’s face lit up in a big smile as she carefully stepped over one of the brushes on the ground and followed her mom, but before they got too far away, Ellie stopped and turned towards the man and waved with her little hand: “Bye!”. Mia couldn’t help but smile and picked up Ellie to bring her outside and over to Ballerine’s stable, “Come on you”.

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The warm up went really well. There had been two arenas in use for the warm up before the finale which had increased the number of horses in each arena. It had been easier to take it slow and easy without being in the way of others, and Ballerine had been much more relaxed without all the horses around her. The sun was high in the sky and due to the warm weather Mia had decided to do her round without her jacket on to not get a heatstroke. Mia and Ballerine were one of the last ones in their class, and as they entered the arena there were only a few riders who had been doing a clear round. She had heard multiple of those who had already been riding in the class talking about how difficult the course was. Mia had walked through the course just before the start and the class and had been taking her time to look at where they might get into trouble. 

With two riders left before her turn, Mia left the warm up arena and went to wait outside the main arena. Ballerine was standing completely still and just looked around with her ears pinned forward while Mia went through the course in her head again. The rider before them finished his round and gave Mia a nod on his way out of the arena, “Good luck!”. Mia smiled slightly and gave Ballerine the signal to start cantering and entered the arena. Mia gave the mare a light pet on the neck and went around the arena before the bell rang. “Let’s do this, B,” Mia whispered and rode Ballerine towards the first obstacle. 

Mia looked over her shoulder at the last fence. She had heard Ballerine scratch the top pole, but it stayed in place. She then heard the crowd cheering and clapping and before she could think she reached down to give Ballerine a big hug. Ballerine had just given her their best round ever. The mare had felt confident, calm and balanced, and had performed so well. They had had only one turn where they had been a bit too close to the fence, but Ballerine had somehow managed to save it round by stretching out over the fence. Mia went for the exit of the arena and was greeted by Anne and Ellie, both full of joy, cheering and excitement.

Mia had been trotting around in the warm up arena when the last rider went into the main arena. A few moments later she heard the crowd cheering again and looked over at Anne sitting with Ellie on her lap and her phone in her hand. Anne had been following the last riders on the livestream to see how they were doing and where Mia and Ballerine would end up. She then stood up with a big smile and started to jump with Ellie in her arms. Mia had been riding a clear round in a great time, but this could only mean one thing; She had also had the best time of all the finalists! The speaker confirmed it shortly after by calling out the names of the placed riders of the class - with Mia and Ballerine placing first.

Later that night, after the prize giving ceremony and after Ballerine was all set and back in her stall with lots of hay, carrots and other treats, Mia, Anne and Ellie went out for dinner. Mia had been calling home to tell both her dad, Olive and Ryan about their round. And now - now she was tired and ready to go home in a few days..

[chloe-d-stories]

Time of the CTJL Monaco Grand Prix :) best of luck to Team Sycamore Farms!

[kullabergs]

CTJL MONACO, MONTE CARLO 1.30M CLASS – 3:15PM

And so she found herself astride on another midnight black stallion, several years after her soulmate had retired from showing. They were each others’ complete opposites; where he was grouchy, Capri was kind. Where he was demanding, Capri was lenient. Where he was strong, Capri was gentle. Yet they both gave Iris that indescribable, unsurmountable feeling in the saddle. She hadn’t found him in any other horse before, until now. She experienced a mixture of melancholy and euphoria when they were about to enter their first international show together, as her memories of someone so different yet so alike, blended in with what was yet to come. Even though this was a big moment for the two of them, her mind still couldn’t grasp the earlier events of the day, it all came back to her in dizzying glimpses; surprise, anger, confusion … Her name sounded in the speakers and she came out of her haze as she spun her head around and briefly locked eyes with the source of all the chaos in her mind. She gently shook her head, took a deep breath and put all her focus back on Capri; on the bubbly texture of the rubber reins in her hands, of how the sun glistened against his neck, the squeaking sound of a saddle she had sat in so many times before on a different dark horse. She softly nudged the black stallion, ears pricked forward, and entered the Monte Carlo show jumping arena together; for the first time.

Everyone meet our newcomer to our stables; CT Great Contender (out of the legendary stallion Great London and powermare CT Chadino Z). We decided to take a leap of faith and bring Capri to Monaco for his first international show after two years of being out competing in the lower classes and getting used to bigger show environments, and it seems to have gone fairly well as he managed to bring home a first place ribbon! Thank you to @calveroterranorasj for trusting me with this beautiful boy <3

[cavernsofdarkness]

CTJL Monaco 2023

Akil and Tore placed fourth in their class at the @calveroterranorasj Monaco show, over on @equialitysims

[whats-going-on-ire-then]

CT Paddington Bear & George Forbes compete in the evening GP class of CTJL Monaco.

[cantersims]

Bekah Korte and HDL Golden Man Blues at CTJL Monaco!

[ariadnew]

Last week was the first time I've opened my game in roughly 15 months (truly; I checked) for the express purpose of taking pictures of the Lowmax characters, and this is what I was confronted with.

I am not sure what else I expected.

[ariadnew]

MONACO 2023

Absolutely, categorically, not even slightly a date.

Which is why I listened exclusively to the soundtrack from A Room with a View while making these photos. Because it's absolutely, categorically, not even slightly sweepingly romantic and beautiful and evocative of grand but devastatingly ephemeral holiday loves.

Not even slightly.

@highgrovesims3 can even confirm.

The thing about this blog is that I'm a bit like an ice-berg: a lot more going on than first meets the eye. You could also say extremely cold and largely void of life at its core. That would technically be correct. But mostly the other thing. The activity thing. That.

-I'll stop with my bad jokes. This set was/is yet another of the many I begin with big plans, then sort of lose drive to finish after my ideas become too big for me to realise. It was, in all seriousness, a spontaneous idea conceived to cheer up my very good pal Maria Jones- I'd never planned to do this; we never discussed doing anything like it. I took all these photographs before I even took my entry pictures (I'm responsible like that) This set really could have been done better, but I'm really lazy when it comes to the game now, you know? There's also writing I began to go along with it, but if we waited for that to be finished it'd be another two years before anyone saw this post (if at all) so... that's that.

Anyway: the point of all this rambling is that I'm on a hard-drive cleaning kick at the moment, and as such I'm queuing a few things— more CTJL Monaco; old CTJL side projects; a winter series; random tomfoolery and more— to appear at arbitrary points over the next few months. Take cover, in other words.

[ariadnew]

(@highgrovesims3's dreams, that is)

(I know you have a rubbish-res version of something like this saved somewhere; you might as well have a proper version)

[thedanishsim]

An unexptected encounter - 2/2

Please be sure to read part one over at @highgrovesims3 and Maria Jones ❤️

Mia and her mom had been watching some of the morning events for the last couple of hours, but Ellie’s patience had run out after a while, which had made Mia decide to go to the stables and get Ballerine ready to go for their round in today's class at the main arena.

Mia’s mom had been offering to come along to Monaco and Monte Carlo as a babysitter for Ellie, and the three ‘girls’ had been having a great time so far! They were having a lot of fun and Ellie was - as always - just the easiest to bring along, as long as she got to say ‘hi’ to as many horses as she wanted.

Mia had been hand-walking Ballerine earlier this morning and also got her braided and almost ready, which made the grooming easier before the class. On their way to the stables, Mia had stopped for a quick change of clothes, but now she was ready.

“Do you want anything else?” Mia’s mom, Anne, smiled. “Just water, I think” Mia replied, “oh! and maybe a crêpe if the line isn’t to long, please” “Why did I even ask?” Anne let out a laugh and changed her direction towards the ‘food-court’ area near the main arena.

Mia smiled at her mother, then directed her focus on Ellie running happily in front of her.

“Come on, Ellie, this way” Mia said, heading towards Ballerine’s stable tent. “Oh, what a cutie! How old is she?” A woman smiled at Mia, nodding towards Ellie. “She just turned 2” Mia kindly answered.

Ellie looked at her mom and pointed at one of the tents. “No, that’s not ours, we need to go this way” Mia said and pointed at one of the other tents. “Is she easy to bring to this kind of event? It must be a hard job?” “She is pretty easy actually. She loves to be here” The woman smiled and was just about to ask another question when Mia interrupted her.

“I’m sorry, I just have to stop her” Mia just saw Ellie heading towards the wrong stable tent in a run only one up to trouble would do, all giggling.

A lot was going on inside the tent - people getting horses in and out, horses getting showered in the washing area or being groomed inside or outside of their stalls. Mia looked around when she suddenly heard the voice of a man and a woman;

“Alex, who’s child is that?!” “I don’t know” “What do you mean you don’t know?” Mia looked around the corner and down the next aisle just to see a man and a woman looking at Ellie right in front of them, playing around with some brushes from what it seemed. Mia couldn’t help but smile, but at the same time the embarrassment took over - not only over not watching her kid, but also over the fact that her kid just seemed like it was totally normal to just look through other people’s stuff.

"I’m so sorry! Ellie! What are you doing??” 

Mia rushed down the aisle towards the man and woman, and Ellie. 

“I’m really sorry! Oh gosh, look at that mess!” Mia tried to find a fitting smile, but the embarrassment was too much to handle. Ellie started giggling like nothing had happened. Well, nothing did happen, the brushes laying all over the floor were showing that clearly. Mia squatted down and looked at Ellie.

“You can’t do that. You can’t just run away and go through other people’s stuff. That is not ours. We need to clean this up, ok?”

“I’ll clean it up, it’s fine. Don’t worry, nothing happened.” The man kindly smiled at Mia and Ellie.

“I'm so sorry about this. Thank you.” Mia stood up and reached her hand down to Ellie, “Come on, we have to get Ballerine ready”. Ellie’s face lit up in a big smile as she carefully stepped over one of the brushes on the ground and followed her mom. Then she stopped and turned towards the man, waving her little hand:

“Bye!”

[ariadnew]

CTJL MONACO.

Agatha Foskett & CT Calanta (2022 SWB m.) in the 1.30m class.

Agatha did not follow the CT team's advice to ride Lizzie in a gag at competitions, and Agatha's arms paid the price.

Someone else's arms also paid a price that day, but that's a separate story.

@calveroterranorasj

[ariadnew]

CTJL MONACO

Archie Vandover & White Rabbit (2016 Holsteiner g.) in the 1.40m class.

I wasn't going to share any of my Monaco entries here, the reason being that I did not (do not, really) think them anything special. But I have since been talked around, and besides that, I suppose it's not a bad thing to occasionally provide proof of life (and relevant activity) on one's blog.

Anyway- this picture.

This picture is dedicated to the schoolmaster every rider has known at some point; the one who'd faithfully plod around for a novice but would go like a firecracker for someone capable.

For me, that was a horse named Sandy. At Lowmax, it's a horse named Rabbit.

If anyone else wants to indulge me with stories and reminiscences about such an old schoolmaster you've known, you have the floor 👇

[chloe-d-stories]

Team Dunbar has arrived in Monaco for the 2023 CTJL Gala Welcome Dinner. They're enjoying the bright sunshine and sea breeze after the dreary drizzle of Surrey.

[ariadnew]

CTJL MONACO

Today on risky entries:

(Dorothy Lawley & RDEC Gotica; 2015 KWPN m.)