Thumbs up at Ocala

Congratulations go out to Jen McGuire for completing her first event on Zing since the birth of her daughter Kate.  Way to go Jen!!  This is a big feat, as this mare has a very bull headed personality and requires a patient and strong rider.  More congrats go to Molly and Hank who completed their first prelim together in great form finishing 9^th!  Both answering the questions of the next level very well.  Missy completed her first training, finishing on her dressage score in 9^th place.  She was a bit fresh for dressage, feeling the early, cold morning!  She is demonstrating a lot of Manny’s qualities; she’s being very brave and sure of herself.  Indy finished 7^th in the training on his dressage score.  Ray was well placed after the dressage and we added one rail in the show jumping to move us down.   Rocco finished 3^rd in the prelim but his dressage was not as good as it should have been.  But, this is a horse I am very excited about for the future!  He is a fantastic mover and an even better jumper.  He still likes to nap every time I get on him, whether we are at home or at a show, but we seem to be managing that.  I was a little nervous on him being the last of the day to go x-c!  But he was good and very brave being out in the warm up all by himself, I just had to keep him trotting and/or cantering.  Manny, Mater, and Shags all had their first outing of the year.  They all warmed up nicely for the dressage…and then we circled the ring!  The dressage ring was beside the x-c and once they got a glimpse of that they got excited, tense, and un-focused.  Can’t blame them too much, it was their first time out but they only get one freebie!  Shaggy had an-characteristic rail, but aside from that jumped great.  Manny came with his game-face on and jumped CLEAN!!  On Sunday morning after talking with David, we decided to only run Manny and Shags to the 8^th fence on x-c because we had training camp the next day.  David thought it would be a good ‘exercise’ for Manny to jump a few and walk home!  He was so lovely to ride, I didn’t really want to pull up and man was he confused!  When it came time to ride Mater he felt great so I decided to go all the way around!  He was superb!  He made it feel like jumping a training level course!  Another big thank you goes out to Sandra, another great weekend with a great groom!  Despite all the great help this weekend felt very long…I think we had the first and last time of everyday!  But as they say, no rest for the wicked!

We started training camp at 8am Monday morning.  Manny, Shags and I had dressage lessons with David.  He was pleased to see that the things we had been working on 2 weeks prior had improved, so we were able to move on to more.  With Manny we ALWAYS work on getting a half halt that he will accept and listen to.  After we got that done we started working on some of the movements of the test we will be doing at Kentucky this year.  It’s important to start this now, so that we know the test inside and out and where we can get extra half halts, exactly where to place our changes, etc.  With Shags, David was pleased that we were able to keep the contact up and out more consistently and we moved on to creating a half halt that went through his whole body without him squirming away from it!  Tuesday was jump day and it was great!!  We started with the raised pole to a vertical, then moved on to a single oxer, where David was making us focus on getting deep to make the horses work (especially Manny).  We followed this by putting a course together.  The most difficult line was a large square oxer, 5 forward strides to a triple (oxer 2 strides to oxer one stride to vertical).  We did this line both directions.  This is the type of line that Manny likes to take over in and then jump flat, so we usually end up adding strides.  Not on this day!!

Manny

Wednesday was dressage with David for Shags and with Gunnar for Manny.  With Shags we built upon what we had worked on during our Monday schooling.  Gunnar was pleased to see that Manny was calmer then the previous session.  The first thing he said was, ‘Shoulders back and elbows at your side’, that line never goes away!  He helped with the movements of the Kentucky test and creating more in each of our gaits.  We did some work on the placement and precision of our changes.  Most of the time Manny’s changes are clean, so we focused a lot on having Manny on the aids, to change exactly when I asked him.  I’m looking forward to the next session with Gunnar, as he said he would ride him!

The next outing for Manny, Mater, and Shags is the Advanced at Pine Top in 2 weeks, but we still have a busy weekend ahead!  We are off to Rocking Horse again!  Missy, Indy, and Ray in the training, Molly and Hank in their second prelim and Rocco in his first intermediate.  Looking forward to another great weekend!

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