Life goes on here at Balsam Hall, one thing when you work with horses, there are no days when you can slack. It doesn’t really matter if you are feeling great or not, the show must go on. Horses need fed, loved, turned out, groomed and mucked out no matter what. The only part of the day that it is possible to leave out is the riding and in a competition yard that is not an option. It is also the best part of the day, the time when your worries disappear and all your thoughts are with the animal you are partnering with. It’s a good thing.
Selena and Woody are in full preparation for Bromont. It is coming up fast. The two one star horses are on a mini version of the same program. We work on a four day program as I have mentioned before, today will be a day two almost certainly making it a flat school. Last night the denizens of Balsam Hall turned out in force to put up the dressage arena. Sadly our tractor is presently stuck in low gear so harrowing the arena took longer than putting the ring up!. Our arena is huge and this year we are putting up two dressage rings side by side, one large and one small.
You never know when fate is going to clip you on the ear to make you pay attention. Our trailer didn’t pass it’s safety. We have been talking about upgrading to a six horse for years but our lovely four horse head to head was such an easy trailer to work with that we never quite got around to it. Rather than putting money into getting our four horse fixed we are biting the bullet and buying a six horse. We have been scouring the internet for a six horse head to head, did you know these are like hens teeth and about as expensive as a small island? We hope we have found one, fingers crossed. More on this to follow….
Not absolutely sure about the whole ribbon on my halter thing.
Last weekend saw some of the horses at a local Trillium jumper show. Anne Marie took Riley and won a ribbon. She and Riley are going Training this year.
Our program lately has been to watch Michael Jung then go out and watch Woody or watch video of Woody. I remember Mark Todd’s advice during an advanced clinic I had the pleasure of riding in (I rode in three Toddy clinics and they were all awesome). He advised us to watch top riders and emulate them. “Monkey See Monkey Do” was his phrase. I use that in my own teaching all the time. Mark told us these were “free lessons that everyone could take advantage of” and of course he was absolutely right. With all that is available on the internet, “free lessons” abound.
On the topic of lessons, we are taking small groups of four riders at a time to do ‘Adult Camps’ this summer, either two or three days duration. We don’t have much left in the way of weekends but we are hoping to do one or two through the week. If you are one of the people who have asked us about this in the past, please get back in touch.
Benny and Rummy are blooming. Their summer coats have blossomed and they are beginning to look the part. Rummy finds jumping very exciting and does a lot of walking and trotting him over single poles, waiting for the excitement level to disperse. Benny takes it all in his stride. He is a VERY laid back thoroughbred and could ‘nap’ for Canada if he doesn’t event for Canada LOL He can manage a quick nap between being brought in at 7am and getting his breakfast at 7.20am Nice soft bed, big tummy full of grass and down he goes. He SNORES to beat the band. We took this little video clip so that you can hear the racket.
