Bromont didn’t quite go as hoped. It’s hard to say why. Colombo has only eliminated Selena twice in six years and unfortunately Bromont was one of them. It may have been the grueling schedule he had followed this Spring, five three star in four months! We had hoped that the selector might not run the Canadian Olympic hopefuls at Bromont, much as the Americans did not run theirs (dressage only for most of them). However, we had to run and Colombo did not go in the first water. Better that it happen at Bromont than at the Olympics. Fortunately Canada is rich in good horses and riders this year and we have a fantastic squad going to London.
The good news is that Colombo is in good health, sound, happy and putting on weight now the gallops have stopped. He goes out in the morning with his friend Peanuts and in the afternoons he has been hacking and doing a little flat work. All of a sudden his life is stress free.
Selena of course has to look towards the future and has already decided to try and run both Foxwood High and A First Romance at Fairhill CCI*** in the Fall. Those two have some very big shoes to fill and need to get their best game faces on this Summer. Foxwood High has not competed at the Advanced level yet but he is more than ready with a consistent year of Intermediate and two stars under his belt. A First Romance is romping around the Advance courses but is appalling in his dressage. He has had the summer off to concentrate on his dressage scores. He is going to a local Cadora Dressage Show on Saturday to strut his stuff. We hope the lack of a cross country course will take some of the excitement away. Lots of our students and boarders and going to the Bronze dresage show the next day, we are all looking forward to it and tomorrow we are having a ‘practice’ show to iron out all the glitches.
We have a lovely new horse that Selena has just started competing on. His name is Bellamy Rock and he is usually ridden by Jean Rablat. Jean has a hectic work schedule and Selena has been lucky enough to be given the ride on ‘Rocky’ who is for sale due to Jean’s lack of time Selena took him Open Prelim last weekend and he won, she will run him Intermediate next. Maybe at Stuart. Foxwood High will also have to get into show duds out the closet. He had a couple of weeks off after Bromont, where he did very well in the two star. He finished in ninth place with some very unnecessary time faults on cross country. Selena felt she was going to make the time easily and unfotunately galloped down the wrong side of some roping and had to turn back on herself therefore earning time penalties. Selena was SO mad at herself, but Woody didn’t in the least mind the little extra gallop around, he doesn’t understand about time penalties. All he knows is that he was having a great time and he got to do a little more gallop than the other boys…..
We have some home bred youngsters that are badly in need of some outings. They are by far the most neglected in the barn…it’s always the cobbler’s children that need new shoes! They are both out of Selena’s first Advanced horse, Be Bold Juliet who was all of 15 hand standing on her tippy toes. The gelding is about seventeen hands! Where did that come from? Not his sire, ‘Rather Well’ who is sixteen hands….maybe with new shoes and studs in. The older of the two half siblings is a mare and they are both more than ready at five and six to be out and about. This is thier summer!
Hope you are all surviving the heat. We are fortunate at Balsam Hall here in Kingston as there seems to be a perpetual breeze that flows in off the lake and sweeps across our paddocks and sand rings. It stops things getting unbearable and keeps the bugs down to a minimum. Personally I love the heat and always get much more done in the summer.
