Julie and Henry who both went to thier first ever Short Course and came home with Fourth! If they hadn't got speeding penalties.....sigh
The weeks have galloped by again. So many things were set for ‘After Bromont….’ The build up to a major three day event is long and unwavering. Sometimes it can be too hot/cold to ride some of the others, but a horse that is being brought up for a three star is going to have to work, somehow, somewhere, sometime in the day. This year with three very big bodied three star horses, when they are in work on the run up to the competition, they take 1.5 – 2 hours each to ‘work’. The work itself can consist of everything from a hack, lunging in the pessoa, ponying off another horse and of course the usual dressage, jumping and galloping – or a mix thereof. By the time those three horses are cosseted before and after their rides, three sets of tack done and three horses watered, fed and looked after, it’s already a two man job just to get them through their ridiculously busy week.
Everything that is time consuming is therefore “after Bromont” which has left the weeks succeeding Bromont as busy or busier than the weeks preceding it! Lots of local showing, lots of driving the other horses to different locations to school XC. Thank you Dick and Cathy Bayly and Burle Summers of Canterdown and of course Mark and Ruth at Oakhurst, thanks to your generosity in sharing your facilities our team has been having an incredible run of successes. Our half Irish sales horse Roisin went to her first two Training level events. She was a superstar and was third in the first one, then won Napierville. She is such a fun horse and will probably not be here long enough for Selena to do her four Trainings and take her out Preliminary as quickly as she can. She is SO ready! Our students have also been racking up the ribbons and the barn is in full show mode with everything from Dressage through little Short Courses to major Events seem to take place every weekend with fencing filling in the weekends that are free.
Fencing inspectors arguing with barn manager...
This week is typical, Monday and Tuesday The Big Boys, are going to Training Camp in Orangeville with Canadian Coach, Clayton Fredericks. They are not back jumping yet after thier break, post Bromont, so they will work on their weak point….dressage, on both days. Selena is looking forward to it as the build up for Richland CIC*** begins. Wednesday she is home then Thursday morning VERY early she leaves to drive to Vermont to give a clinic there on Thursday and Friday, home Friday night, school the horses she is riding at Oakhurst HT on the Saturday then Oakhurst on Sunday…..phew… Today we were trying to work in a few days where we could take the Big Boys down to Bruce Davidson at Chesterland for a little school before Richland and take some of our sales horses for him to look at…it’s already looking almost impossible to fit that in. WHERE DOES SUMMER GO?
Angie Huber, our oft time student from New York State has come to train with us for a year. She brings her one star partner ‘Wisher’ with her. We have been looking forward to this year with Angie and Wisher for ages. Its going to be so much fun having them here. The barn is crammed to capacity, in fact for a few days at the end of this month someone is living in the indoor! I love the summer and coaching everyone for their upcoming outings, it’s a blur of dressage tests and jumping sessions.
We are already planning ahead to Fairhill CCI***, can you believe it? It seems like five minutes ago we were at Bromont.
