Selena is in Vermont giving a clinic this weekend. We have great group of friends there and Selena gives regular clinics throughout the year. It’s a lovely place to go and not too far from here. It’s difficult to find weekends that do not already have horse shows assigned to them and even if there is no show there are always other responsibilities such as gallop days to try and work around.
This weekend was a gallop day. Normally Selena would always be the one galloping Woody and Zephyr but with Selena in Vermont Woody was galloped by Anne Marie. Gallop days are fun but a HUGE amount of work and time. The horses are walked for twenty minutes, then they do at least two twenty minute trots with a short break in between followed by three sets of canter/gallop, a ten minute walk, a two minute stretching trot and another five minutes at walk. The gallop units can vary in time and speed depending on present level of fitness and what the horse is being prepared for. At the very start we normally do three x three minutes gallops with three minute walk breaks in between, the three minutes between gallops stays standard, but the gallops themselves gradually get longer and faster as the horse builds up it’s endurance to achieve the next level of challenge or competition.
Yesterday we had four horses that we HAD to gallop. If you add up the times above (and everyone except Riley did longer than three minute gallops) and then add on time for – Magnetic blanket therapy before or/and after (approx 30 minutes each time), icing legs at least three times – 20 minutes in ice, 20 minutes out of ice followed by poulticing, wrapping legs and packing feet with Omega Alpha’s Tetda mixed with Epsom Salts. You are looking at about three and a half hours a horse with some multi tasking, and then you have the normal grooming, tacking and untacking, washing down and doing tack. Each horse that gallops is a 4+hour project for one person. Anne Marie galloped Riley for the first time yesterday, he has not been galloping since his return from Florida as he is going Training with Anne Marie this Summer. However, the ‘Spring grass has been rather tasty, and we decided he might need a little extra belly tightening fast work! Tori galloped her own Bentley and Kelly Damp’s lovely Zephyr so as you can imagine both Tori and Anne Marie had very busy days. It really does take huge amounts of dedicated time and effort to prepare for any level of eventing, it’s not a sport for the less than enthusiastic.
Zephyr is nearest and Woodsy is peeking round the corner of his stall
To cut down on the hours spent one on one with each horse, Anne Marie moved Zephyr over to a stall next door to Woody and she kept an eye on both of them at once. Aren’t they good boys 🙂 Woody used to be awful and spilled many a bucket of ice and water into his bed. Note that he is standing in a full sized garbage bin in order to be deep enough for his big long legs.
