Selena and Woody having a little chat while he rests.
I feel like the days are rushing by this winter, out of control. Selena arrived this morning and immediately started teaching. Eventers really are incredibly fit and hardworking, they have to be. She slept in New York somewhere on the way up and got here around 10:00 a.m. By 10.30, she was in the barn and it seems like all of Southern Ontario wants a lesson while she is here. She leaves again on Wednesday and today and tomorrow are crammed.
Fortunately, Selena loves teaching and always has, so she is having a great time. She teaches on and off the property from Pony Club beginners to Advanced venters plus all her clinics. It’s quite a spectrum to cover, but she loves every minute. Selena gave her first clinic when she was 14. I was unable to travel and they asked if she could take my place. She started young.
Here at Balsam Hall we are enjoying the unaccustomed luxury of having enough paddocks to turn all the horses out at once in the morning. Usually we are a ‘two shift barn,’ either half a day each in the winter, of night/day when the weather allows. In the winter, I am not sure they always want six hours turnout, but with the mild temperatures in Southern Ontario this year, they are happy to enjoy the fresh air.
Waving the flag at Welly.
Selena has been impressed with the improvements made by her students since she left a month ago. They have been doing their homework and the results are very obvious. As a barn we work on a particular concept or idea together – everyone at their own level. Each month tends to have its own theme and goals in the winter. In the summer the theme is competing and the goals are there, but in the winter we try to stay industrious, set our own goals and then we work out a program to achieve them. Our goal this winter is to improve the pace control and rhythm in all three phases, and to have our horses more ‘through’ going into the Canadian competition season. We are very lucky and we have a great team here at Balsam Hall, everyone is keen and enthusiastic and really hard working.
