Powered By Blogger

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Sometimes trusting yourself is the hardest part!

Round 2, enter the arena: Eugene on Rocco aka Nistral. Better nerves this time around. Today's lesson was all about going forward ... sound crazy? Bet you a lot of people get this one wrong! I got into the arena, and the first thing I did was kick forward while playing with his mouth - mixed signal - like pushing break and accelerator at the same time! Make sense? You can NOT collect unless you are going forward!! This is why practise is so important, doesn't really help having all these lessons if you are not going to put them into practice right? Any way ...

First instruction, sit forward, let the reigns run through your fingers and put your knuckles on the horses neck ... OPEN THE DOOR and allow the horse to go forward! Even if he runs off with you! Right, off we go round and round in the arena at a trot ... hard effing work! Then took up a gallop and off we went ... and the hardest part: resting my knuckes on Rocco's neck!

What has worked to my disadvantage in my opionion was owning and only riding my own horses ... I have learnt so much in the past week by riding 3 completely different horses! It is amazing!

Back to the lesson, Barney sets a little cross rail and tells me to gallop toward it, still with my knuckles on Rocco's neck! Only steer! Make or break, I thought, either I am going to taste what a yellow pole tastes like or taste the familiar taste of dirt!

I don't have to tell you I guess that this excercise worked a charm!

This is going to sound ridiculous, but what did I learn? How to ride forward WITHOUT carrying 500kgs of horse over a jump and NOT putting 20kgs of me on my horses mouth ... this excercise shall be repeated for the next week or so!

Back to basics!

PS no involuntary dismount today

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Blue Chip Farms










Saturday, April 17 … just so that you don’t get confused by the pictures I am going to attach … see my camera needed charging and I didn’t set the date on my camera and now I don’t know how to change it on my photos … any suggestions would be greatly appreciated otherwise, please ignore the date on the pictures!
Blue Chip is the stud that owns some of the horses at Castle Hill like Sapphire and her half brother, Domino – an awesome stallion who has fathered another 2 foals hence my visit to Blue Chip … to meet little Doozy.
After work on Saturday, Carrie, Relda, Dillon and myself all packed ourselves up into the truck and travelled about an hour north (I think) …
Blue Chip is over 650 ha … you get there and there are just fields and fields with hundreds and hundreds of horses! Field and barn, field and barn!
When we arrived at the office we all packed into this lady’s car whose name escapes me and off we go to the maternity ward where Suzie and her 2 week old foal are standing with their field mates … in the pictures Doozy is the little chestnut! Suzie is a massive horse, who appears to be loving motherhood, the calm that these mares appear to have is amazing, they seem so proud of their offspring … and she was very ready to be showing anybody remotely interested her new baby!
The maternity barn is another interesting case, all the mares have either just dropped foals or are just about to … the mares that are about to drop have tail bandages tied to their stalls so at the first sign of foaling the person on duty will do some ‘labour prep’ – I assume that this only involves wrapping their tails and leaving them to the job!
At the end of the barn was a standardbred mare with a four hour foal, sadly the foal is not expected to make it because he is very small and weak.
Driving out was also amazing, driving past mares that are at different stages of pregnancy and fields of young horses … such an amazing place! And it is so big that it takes a week to mow the lawn around the perimter!
Such a cool day!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

World Cup horseplay?

Anyone reading this blog will in some way I am sure have some dealing with horses and the showjumping scene ... I, as you have noticed by now have taken this to a whole new level by actively becoming involved with the biggest celebrities, if you will, by working for Castle Hill Farm.

So, we all know that the World Cup has been taking place in Geneva, Switzerland. Mclain and Sapphire have been doing exceptionally well! Jumping a brilliant clear on friday putting them in the lead! The feeling of being part of this amazing feat within the New York barn is beyond explanation! We are all so excited and happy for them and have been anticipating the ultimate class on Sunday (tomorrow).

All of these high hopes were dashed this morning when we got to the barn this morning when we all got news from Switzerland that Sapphire was eliminated as she was allegedly hypersensitive. Devastating. Anyone who has ever sat on a horse can appreciate how much hard work goes into riding. How much dedication we put into jumping fences accurately. So each and everyone of us can appreciate how much dedication, sweat and tears goes into a career that takes you to the level where you partake in the World Cup with all of the great riders of the world.

This news, like I said, was devastating. So as I understand it, this is what happened ... Mclain and Sapphire were due to enter the ring for their round when they were summoned to do a random vet check, she was cleared and allowed to enter the class. At midnight, after winning the class and being put to bed the officials again wanted to inspect her. Thermographic tests were conducted along with others which included prodding and poking her leg repeatedly! The leg showed hypersensitivity. After all of this foolishness, the horse was obviously fed up after her class and now being kept out of her stall to be poked, so, she flinched when her leg was poked. The verdict, unfit and therefore, disqualified. Who would stand still for that?! Human or equine. The horse was not allowed to jog to show soundness. Sound like horse play ...?

Has all of this technology replaced our ability to trust our instinct and intelligence? Or have we just manipulated it in a way to work to our advantage and the detriment of others? Why have the trusted methods of simply jogging a horse been completely discarded let alone combined with these fancy tests? Logic tells me that had every horse been thermographically tested after jumping a class of that height they would probably have all tested positive for the size of the heat spot that Sapphire was found unfit for.

I think that there are some very sour players in this game that are very bitter and twisted by the success of others. What happened if Sapphire had knocked a rail in the class? Would she still have been inspected 4 hours AFTER she competed? Had they found something wrong before the class, why not stop her before entering the ring? So many questions ... check out the link for a press release on the event and then tell my what your thoughts are!

Swan dives and blue oxers

Ok so finally starting this blog …
After 3 months of anticipation and freezing my tits off this New York winter, everyone has arrived back from Florida including the best instructor in the world … Barney Ward! So I may be a little biased here, but you can not argue considering that his son Mclain is one of the best riders in the world – and who do you think trained him!!
On a very warm Wednesday this week, I was stunned with a whole of half hours notice of my first jumping lesson with Mr. Ward … and the fun began!
A little warm-up trot and canter and Barney came down to the arena, ok so I was a little nervous but when he came down to the arena it felt as if my bowels were actually going to lose grip!! Everything I have ever learnt in my 20 years of riding gone … seriously … out the window … I no longer knew how to ride – AT ALL!
Never mind, I do my first little cross … and the adjustments begin …
Number one … we do not jump on a circle. The reason? This makes your horse anticipate the circle and becomes hot and strong! You jump on a straight line, three strides after the jump you stop, resume canter on the other rein and go back the way you came! I assume that stopping is not an absolute necessity I am guessing that flying changes would work too but none the less this is what we did in the lesson.
Number two … you DO NOT keep your hands on your pommel – why was I taught this in the beginning? Shorten your reins to about half, raise your hands to be be paralel to your horses mouth. This way you have more leverage to collect, stop and accellerate! Think about it, if you have these arms perfectly bent in a L-shape above your pommel where is the control to your horses mouth? Exactly, the only place you can go to is into your lap! Obviously, if your hands go into your lap, your body falls behind your vertical and then what? Your horse buggers off with you.
Number three … riding is not a secret science!!! Why does everyone pretend that riding is this secret society that only the elite can be part of? News flash … it should all be kept as simple as possible! And this comes straight from the horses mouth. Period.
Number four … if you worked for someone who was constantly screaming, swearing and shouting at everyone everyday at work, how much would you enjoy going to work. Enough said. So, where is the rationale by riding aggressively ALL THE TIME? When striking off into your canter, go into the 2-point or light position, give reign and let your horse go forward first (less is always better and work up to more) when approaching your jump, choose 4, 5 or 6 strides where you balance your horse into the jump. Works, a charm when everyone is relaxed … what did I do? Again, I forgot how to ride … followed all the steps, saw my stride, doubted myself and instead of believing in the stride I had, I tried to fling a 600kg showjumper of the jump with the top part of my body! The horse then decided, to hell with you mate, you mess it up, you jump it! So, I did … the perfect swan dive right through a blue oxer!

If I wasn’t beside myself before, I was no completely a nervous wreck … this was the one lesson I did not want to mess up! I of course, crash the whole goddam thing!
Nerves got me so bad, the lesson now had to end … I have to learn to stay calm but how in the name of the good Lord above us do you keep calm when you practically have a celebrity teaching you!? Do nerves ever get better?
Signing off with a very battered and bruised ego …