I have a really good excuse for being so late with the blog this time. Selena and Colombo have been named to the Olympic Team and it has been very hard to concentrate on much else on the weeks preceding the announcement. Now that it has finally happened, it’s all go, go, go. Selena will ride this year’s YEH five year old at Wit’s End on July 1st and drive back home to Hawkridge. Selena and I will both have a nap and then start off overnight to the USA with Colombo. He goes to Bruce Davidson’s first, then David O’Connor in Virginia and finally to training camp at the O’Connor’s in Ocala.
Solo was wonderful at Checkmate and finished 5th on his dressage score. He rocked around the cross country and is looking confident and relaxed at the Training Level. All looks good for our plan to upgrade him before the end of this year.
Selena is getting as many hours in on Solo as she possibly can before she leaves. From then on, I have to ride him. I am really looking forward to it. My job for the Summer is to improve his dressage and with that aim in mind, I hope to join the local Cadora branch and do some competing in the dressage arena before Selena comes home and swipes him back. Solo is Solo….he is a happy soul for the most part but he really likes to work. I hope that he will find dressage interesting enough for the six weeks he will NOT be challenged in his jumping….LOL. He still looks wonderful and still needs more neck on top but it IS improving steadily.
The weather has been so cool and pleasant that Solo has spent more of June hacking and doing hills and grasswork than normal. There have been very few buggy days so far and the cross country fields and the trails through the woods have been irresistible. The deerfly have just started to move in this week which is probably good for our horse’s dressage schooling! Now we will be much more agreeable to staying in the sand ring on hot afternoons.
The other thing of note that happened is that Solo cut his hind leg quite badly on the front of the left hind cannon bone. It came up in a nasty bump and some proud flesh evolved. It may or may not leave a scar but I think it’s a possibility. My point in mentioning it, is that he has been a complete stoic about it. Well behaved and mannerly about having it treated and bound, and NEVER showing a lame step. This is a very good trait in an eventer, the horses that wimp and limp look after themselves well, but don’t always tough it out enough for the sport. It’s a bit like being an American Footballer, or a Rugby Player against the All Blacks, the horse has to have a bit of an ‘attitude’ to getting the job done regardless of bumps and bruises.
We have our dressage arena up for the summer which is a huge asset. The horses work in the arena at least twice a week. It makes a big difference to how the go into the corners and use the arena on the day of the show. We almost never run through the tests, but the horses school all the movements in the correct size ring regularly.
I will let you know when Solo and I are going to make our dressage debut, let’s hope it’s not going to be too entertaining.
