I forewarned Bruce and told him about the horse’s checkered performance.  Of course he knew the horse I meant and had seen him be naughty in the jumping field one day with Selena, but Solo had always managed to be pretty angelic when Bruce was in his immediate vicinity.  I told Bruce about the horse […]

Taking Solo to Bruce Davidson and asking for his help has always been an option. Bruce Davidson has been a coach, mentor and role model for Selena since she started having lessons with him at age nine. Bruce is a tough, no nonsense trainer – it’s sink or swim, nobody is ever rough but the horse is […]

Happy New Year everyone! Solo has had an unexpected hiccup in his training since boxing day. We had a huge downpour of rain and ever since then we seem to have ice growing out the ground! As a result, Solo has only made it to the arena once since Christmas Day. This is an unheard of situation here […]

All is going well with Solo at the moment. His aggressive winter schooling schedule seems to be helping him grow up. He has a softer look in his eye at the moment and doesn’t seem to be arguing over things any more. The worst thing is still the spooking. It’s such a game with him, he does it […]

We have had Solo on his ‘no mercy’ work schedule for a couple of weeks now and I THINK I might see just the tiniest improvement.  He is certainly a lot softer and calmer in his eye. We changed a lot of things so it’s hard to tell what is helping and what is not.  […]

Well Solo appears to be thriving on his present regime. He is not in full ridden work since this is meant to be his downtime before Florida, but he is in regular work. Last week he did his three consecutive days of serious overtracking on the lunge, an energetic form of exercise for me if not him. He […]

Well Oakhurst was not exactly an unqualified success. I was not there to see the disaster myself, but it would seem that on cross country Solo was well behind the leg and convinced that there were spooky beings, under or behind every fence. He stopped on cross country, grumpy and unfocused as he came to a corner. […]

Well I have a lot of catching up to do, but life is slowly returning to normal for Solo, Selena, Colombo and the rest of the gang. The Olympics were wonderful.  I was in Hong Kong and watched Selena and Colombo, it was an amazing experience and I was very proud of the whole Canadian […]

Selena has been gone for most of the month of July and Solo and I are surviving.  Actually, it’s going a lot better than expected and I am thoroughly enjoying the ride on the flat.  I am not going to be jumping him and I am not going to be hacking him.  I have injured […]

Well Solo is in Canada and Selena and I are in the USA so his life is fairly quiet right now.  I am helping Selena drive Colombo down to training camp at David O’Connor’s farm in Ocala, Florida.  En route, we had a two day stop with Bruce Davidson at Chesterland Farm in Pennsylvania and yesterday […]