One of my duties in the frozen wastes is to put together the ongoing videos of our horses and to format them and put them up on YouTube. I really enjoy watching the videos, and this year I have encouraged Selena to try to take video of as much as she can, it’s almost like being there! So far, I have seen video of the dressage and show jumping at Rocking Horse and Florida Horse Park of most of our horses which is SO much fun. I also get to critique from a distance….back seat driving from 2000 kms away….you can guess how popular that is LOL! With the advent of YouTube and SendSpace, getting the files from one to the other is relatively simple and, although we complain bitterly about the time it takes to download and upload, it’s virtually instant. The work half an hour from being filmed, then sent to Canada, being processed and up on Youtube…amazing. I know you can put it straight up on YouTube from your camera etc, but that would leave me without a job and I love my film producer hat almost as much as I love my photographer hat. I wear lots of hats in a day as do all the other horse people I know. Horsemen are chameleons when they need to get stuff done!
This video is from Colombo’s training camp in Ocala and as such is a little dated, but hey….. we have horses to ride, technology or no technology.
In Ocala it’s all go for Redhills. Colombo CCI***W and Solo CCI* Eek!! Colombo’s groom, Pamela Nunn, leaves tomorrow to make sure all is smooth sailing for Selena and Mr. C.
Here in Canada I will be missing Pamela and missing being at Redhills. I will be running in and out the house to check the live scoring of course. It was bad enough last year when the excitement was getting updates by text from Selena at the end of the day, now we can run indoors a short while after Selena’s every ride and get the live updated scores online. Very exciting indeed! They are very fast, I sent a text to Selena and our student Samara Warren to congratulate them on their successes last weekend and they got it before the scores were actually posted at the show!
My own charges are coming along. I am particularly pleased with Cebastian, who, after being such a pill when a client came to try him, seems to be trying his very best to make up for his untimely behavior. He has just been better and better every day since. Yesterday, he cantered to the left like an angel, it felt really powerful but as light as a feather. “A bit more like it,” I thought. Bruin, Mr Sweetness himself, is still struggling to work out what exactly he is meant to do with those corners. He sooooo wants to turn his head out, and part of me sooooo wants to HOLD IT IN… but I am restraining myself, trying not to look at his head all twisted to the outside and I am working away diligently with my legs waiting for him to work it out. He has got all the rest of it, hock to poll balance, legs mean go forward, don’t play with the bit… he has it all aced…. except those 90 degree turns…. oh well, the winter would be very boring if they all just strode out there and ‘went’.
After Redhills Selena is giving a clinic at Can Am, the equestrian trade fair and emporium. She does one hour both Saturday and Sunday. It sounds like a wonderful shopping opportunity for the other ten hours or so of the day! It will be nice to see Selena, she is flying home here then she and Heron Hill’s Wilhelmina will be off to do their thing at Can Am. Everybody here at O’Hanlon Eventing is really proud that Selena is the first person to showcase the sport of Eventing at Can Am. Can Am is the 19th to the 21st and from there it is going to feel like hours before I will be traveling down to Ocala to bring back the first box load of horses. It’s hard to believe that the time to bring them home is only a month away.
BTW….Selena says Solo is going “really well” – fingers crossed he pulls it off at Redhills.
