I have continued my learning since getting home. I ended up doing a combined test at Morven because Storm had an old cut that had grown down in his foot and and it really bothered him. He was quite lame when I got home from Florida so my farrier, Zeb Foltz, put a cross bar on Storm’s foot for more support. I decided not to do the cross-country because he was so lame earlier in the week, and even though by the event he was sound, I worried about him compensating on that foot. My goal is to do the 3-star long at Bromont, so I didn’t want to take a chance. He was good in both the phases I did do, and I thought the dressage was better than his score, but I wasn’t the judge. He was also good in show jumping with just one down.
I was lucky that my friend, Chris Talley, asked me a month ago if I wanted to ride with Julia Krajewski and her partner, Pietro Roman, at his and Hannah Heritage’s Zaragoza Acres. The timing was perfect because I was able to do a day of flat after Morven and learned some great, simple exercises (even though Storm was very fresh!). Everything was easy to execute and the exercises were good for getting the horses more engaged. For instance, we did square serpentines with ten-meter circles added over the centerline, then walked six or eight steps, went back to trot and then back to the square serpentine with ten-meter circles. This really helped to get Storm better connected.
Julia and Pietro both helped me with my show jumping with a great exercise of verticals with placement rails in three and four strides, working on ridability and the jump itself. After that we did a course, and I found the prior work set my horse up super for that.
I was able to do the cross-country as well, and it was great to put pressure on myself and Storm. He was a bit fresh, making it hard to keep a rhythm, but the exercises were definitely helpful. We started with the bank, making sure we could trot up and down, so that the horses had to think about putting their feet down rather than jumping out. Then we jumped off the bank and turned to another jump, and it was clear that Storm figured out that he only needed to do as much as he had to off the bank, making it easy to jump the next jump. The clinic came at the perfect time—thank you Chris and Hannah!
Here are some great videos from the clinic that I reposted on my page from Chris' Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/jan.byyny
Next up for Surefire Eventing will be the 3-star at Fair Hill for Storm, and some clients will be there with their horses, too, which should be fun. After that, I can’t wait to head to Kentucky as a selector and to spectate.
I was lucky that my friend, Chris Talley, asked me a month ago if I wanted to ride with Julia Krajewski and her partner, Pietro Roman, at his and Hannah Heritage’s Zaragoza Acres. The timing was perfect because I was able to do a day of flat after Morven and learned some great, simple exercises (even though Storm was very fresh!). Everything was easy to execute and the exercises were good for getting the horses more engaged. For instance, we did square serpentines with ten-meter circles added over the centerline, then walked six or eight steps, went back to trot and then back to the square serpentine with ten-meter circles. This really helped to get Storm better connected.
Julia and Pietro both helped me with my show jumping with a great exercise of verticals with placement rails in three and four strides, working on ridability and the jump itself. After that we did a course, and I found the prior work set my horse up super for that.
I was able to do the cross-country as well, and it was great to put pressure on myself and Storm. He was a bit fresh, making it hard to keep a rhythm, but the exercises were definitely helpful. We started with the bank, making sure we could trot up and down, so that the horses had to think about putting their feet down rather than jumping out. Then we jumped off the bank and turned to another jump, and it was clear that Storm figured out that he only needed to do as much as he had to off the bank, making it easy to jump the next jump. The clinic came at the perfect time—thank you Chris and Hannah!
Here are some great videos from the clinic that I reposted on my page from Chris' Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/jan.byyny
Next up for Surefire Eventing will be the 3-star at Fair Hill for Storm, and some clients will be there with their horses, too, which should be fun. After that, I can’t wait to head to Kentucky as a selector and to spectate.
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