The weekend before Rolex

OK, only two days at once this time LOL I am doing a little better on this run up to Rolex. Yesterday was a zoo. Anne Marie had to get to Syracuse for a 6pm flight. She had assumed all week that she was going to be able to ask her ever accommodating mum to take her, but when she finally got around to asking (on Friday) her Mum found that her passport had expired. So then there was a big flap to find a way of getting her there. I have only been driving for about 20 minutes at a time since my last surgery on my knee and Syracuse one way is two hours. I was game to give it a go but fortunately one of our wonderful team of boarders, Fran Bonier, stepped up and offered to spend her Saturday afternoon delivering Anne Marie to Watertown NY where she was able to get a bus that took her right to Hancock Airport in Syracuse. Thank you Fran. We use Hancock Airport a lot,and we only just found out about this convenient bus service. I hope it will make our life easier from now on. Picking people up and dropping them off in Watertown is a lot easier than driving all the way to Syracuse.

Almost nothing got worked yesterday. Kelly Damp drove up from Toronto to ride her own Zephyr. She has not ridden for almost the entire winter but she and Zephyr are such a strong team that you would never know they had been apart. Zephyr is so happy to have his very own mummy back. Anne Marie had a last jump on Riley before she left. The babies and Solo had the day off. My poor OTTBs, I will be happy when Selena and Anne Marie are home to stay for a few weeks and they can get onto a more consistent program. They went out hacking today, Sunday. They are such good boys, I am able to put anybody on them to hack and work in the arena, it’s so unusual to have two young green OTTBs who are both so laid back about life in general. Both have new riders today but it won’t bother them at all.

I see Equine Canada is changing it’s name again. Re-branding they call it and they have employed a firm to ‘re brand’ and to upgrade the website. I don’t really know what rebranding is all about, I agree the website needs a bit of work but mostly it needs kept up to date. I think ‘up to date’ with news and issues is much more important than ‘rebranding’. I remember when we were the Canadian Equestrian Federation which seemed to do the trick for me in terms of the name corresponding with the group – after all, that is what they are, our national federation. Then it became Equine Canada…I never saw the reason for changing the name but obviously we needed rebranding then too. Now we are to be born anew like the phoenix from the ashes as Equestrian Canada….really? I would love to know what “rebranding” is costing us and whether or not it could have been spent helping our athletes prepare for Rio and future challenges because I don’t see rebranding helping us much in that direction.

Today Anne Marie is back in the USA with her beloved Foxwood High. I swear she doesn’t trust either Selena or me to look after him for a minute, she is SO relieved to have him back under her personal supervision. I am not sure if they are driving up Monday or Tuesday to Kentucky but probably Monday to give themselves a full day at the Park before the trot up on Wednesday. The horses that shipped over from Europe have already arrived, how very exciting. It is a very slightly longer drive from Unionville, Pennsylvania to the Kentucky Horse Park than it is from here in Canada. It’s about 11hours from here, and 12 hours from PA. The time flies when you are driving to something as exciting as Rolex. Selena did a last flat school today under Bruce’s eagle eye. The man really is a genius with horses. He seems to know exactly how far to push and when to back off.

Anne Marie is deciding what decoration will show off Woody’s muscles best

Here at Balsam Hall today it was our second Sunday Funday of schooling the jumping outside. There were three groups of riders and horses and it was a lot of fun. The first group, baby jumpers, did three trot poles to an X then18ft to an Upright followed by 21ft to an Oxen then a full 24ft distance to an airy upright. They are so cute, they go through a bit too slow then they try flying then finally they settle down and try keeping to a rhythm. It is fun to watch them figuring it all out. The second group did the same grid but with a bit more substance and size. The last group to school are quite experienced, three of the horses have done a one star and the other two are very well trained. They did a 10ft bounce, 33ft to an oxer, 24ft to an upright then they had to angle across the grid over the second part of the bounce, angle back across the grid over the upright at the end of the grid and finally come around the grid and angle across the oxer in the middle of the grid. They did a wonderful job. I can see that the training grids and gymnastics this year are going to have to get very technical to catch anyone out!

The photos are from Chesterland. The Chesterland Hunt Kennels are right across the road. Woody enjoys being at Chesterland as you can see.