Electrik (Elvis)
Volcan de Caverie (Volcan)
Dashwood (Nora) I’ve had quite an interesting last six weeks. Having young horses is always a challenge and people forget how long it takes to develop a horse to the level they’re capable. But, it’s always a great process and one that I enjoy.
So the babies—Elvis, Nora and Volcan—all moved up to Preliminary together and have had a couple runs at that level, some outings better than others. The highlight was last weekend at MCTA, not because any of them won the dressage, but because it was the most grown up all three of them have been.
To be honest, all three horses are able to jump the height of Preliminary, but are not completely ready to actually gallop and process everything at Preliminary speed. I have to educate them piece by piece and build on their knowledge. I think the most educational time for these horses and me is right now, because Preliminary teaches them the most and allows me to see if they’re going to be Intermediate or Advanced horses. They outgrew Training level but can’t quite apply all that they learned to Preliminary. I’m a huge believer in focusing on the horses’ fitness and jump education so that they really understand this level, and it can take two years. I think the new Training/Preliminary division is great idea for this reason, though I haven’t been to a lot of events that have offered it. At end of day, it takes so long to make up a good horse because you have to take the time for them to understand how to gallop, go forward and back, and balance the gallop, and that’s all hard to do. I can balance any one of them at 450 meters a minute, but not at 520.
And each horse is different. Nora is really changing in her body, and she’s a Thoroughbred, so it’s so much more natural for her to gallop cross-country and I’ve been faster on her by far. Show jumping, however, is harder, as it normally is for thoroughbreds. I call her my little Rocana (after Jung’s fischerRocanaFST) because she’s such a trier. And my beautiful Elvis is finally learning how to gallop, relax AND jump. Then there’s Volcan, who’s more mature than the other two in his body and his jump but still really has no idea how to gallop. He’s a year older than Nora and Elvis and has a little bit more of an idea how to process the sport, but is quite soft as far as his whole physique goes, which takes a while to develop. Nora and Elvis aren’t soft, but they need strength. Volcan is a soft athlete at this point; he’s physically quite strong but his muscles are soft.
A lot of times as a rider we get caught up in our success but my enjoyment is actually developing the young horse. You have to have a lot of patience so you can keep them confident and on your side, so that they learn to enjoy the sport. I think people sometimes forget how versatile event horses have to be, needing to learn how to go up and down and balance on terrain, and how to lengthen and shorten their stride. When you think about the training scale and rhythm and relaxation, and then we ask them to gallop at same time—that’s hard!
And on the flip side, I have my great friend Inmidair (JR) that I’m just enjoying day by day. My highlight for the month of April as a rider was running around events with him, and it just amazes me how lucky I am to have such a great horse. He made the Fair Hill cross-country seem easy. Right now, my plan is to do the CIC** at Virginia and the CIC*** at Great Meadows with him, but we’ll see.
So the babies—Elvis, Nora and Volcan—all moved up to Preliminary together and have had a couple runs at that level, some outings better than others. The highlight was last weekend at MCTA, not because any of them won the dressage, but because it was the most grown up all three of them have been.
To be honest, all three horses are able to jump the height of Preliminary, but are not completely ready to actually gallop and process everything at Preliminary speed. I have to educate them piece by piece and build on their knowledge. I think the most educational time for these horses and me is right now, because Preliminary teaches them the most and allows me to see if they’re going to be Intermediate or Advanced horses. They outgrew Training level but can’t quite apply all that they learned to Preliminary. I’m a huge believer in focusing on the horses’ fitness and jump education so that they really understand this level, and it can take two years. I think the new Training/Preliminary division is great idea for this reason, though I haven’t been to a lot of events that have offered it. At end of day, it takes so long to make up a good horse because you have to take the time for them to understand how to gallop, go forward and back, and balance the gallop, and that’s all hard to do. I can balance any one of them at 450 meters a minute, but not at 520.
And each horse is different. Nora is really changing in her body, and she’s a Thoroughbred, so it’s so much more natural for her to gallop cross-country and I’ve been faster on her by far. Show jumping, however, is harder, as it normally is for thoroughbreds. I call her my little Rocana (after Jung’s fischerRocanaFST) because she’s such a trier. And my beautiful Elvis is finally learning how to gallop, relax AND jump. Then there’s Volcan, who’s more mature than the other two in his body and his jump but still really has no idea how to gallop. He’s a year older than Nora and Elvis and has a little bit more of an idea how to process the sport, but is quite soft as far as his whole physique goes, which takes a while to develop. Nora and Elvis aren’t soft, but they need strength. Volcan is a soft athlete at this point; he’s physically quite strong but his muscles are soft.
A lot of times as a rider we get caught up in our success but my enjoyment is actually developing the young horse. You have to have a lot of patience so you can keep them confident and on your side, so that they learn to enjoy the sport. I think people sometimes forget how versatile event horses have to be, needing to learn how to go up and down and balance on terrain, and how to lengthen and shorten their stride. When you think about the training scale and rhythm and relaxation, and then we ask them to gallop at same time—that’s hard!
And on the flip side, I have my great friend Inmidair (JR) that I’m just enjoying day by day. My highlight for the month of April as a rider was running around events with him, and it just amazes me how lucky I am to have such a great horse. He made the Fair Hill cross-country seem easy. Right now, my plan is to do the CIC** at Virginia and the CIC*** at Great Meadows with him, but we’ll see.
JR at Fair Hill
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