First show of the year is in the books for us, and it was somewhat strange to be back out again after a
hiatus from essentially last June. Normally our kickoff is SpyCoast in May, but with it arriving early this year, we decided to start out with something a bit sooner on the calendar.
Local schooling shows for me, are approached with a somewhat split feeling of happy anticipation and dread.
Anticipation for getting out and seeing new people, showing the kids what life can be, seeing them on their maiden voyages in a situation that in all respects, doesn't make or break a career, meeting new people and catching up with the old groups.
Then there's the dread.
The dread of people in your space, navigating a warm up that is, at best uncontrolled chaos, arenas that aren't set up as professionally as they should, making sure that no one dies/cries/embarrasses themselves too badly and above all making sure that said kids have a good time.
I knew walking in what the comments would be, and what approximate scores he would get- and we got them from the judge and the rail birds.
Al's first show was successful in many ways, and shows room for improvement in others.
What I, and Mike weren't prepared for was the amount of people who came by and followed us to and from the arenas. Part of it was I think the idea of a stallion of that quality at a show, but the other part I think people were genuinely curious. Either way, it was something new for us, and felt a bit odd. Al just accepted the accolades graciously via carrots, admiring glances and the occasional insistence on a butt scratch.
We came home and addressed what few issues he showed us, and already I feel he's ready to go back out. I was for the most part, pleased about how he behaved in the wake of a Spring outdoor show and how he went to work despite the looney environment that he woke up to.
It was quiet on Friday, with the arenas basically with four or five people total in them. He schooled in and around the arenas fine, we rolled through the test and called it a day. Our class was put in the early afternoon, so we were literally sitting around doing nothing for the morning and afternoon (one horse at a show is boring nowadays).
Next day, everyone arrived. It was pure madness in the barns, and the arenas exploded with people and activity. Ponies, kids, riders who got a little too close while walking near us with their horses, traffic, trailers coming in and out fast, people who lingered at his stall trying to pet him (which he was confused about as to why they weren't scratching his bum).
I wanted him exposed to all of this because it's only going to get busier from here on out. We went on a few long hand walks which helped. Hindsight I should have lunged him, but the available lunging area was a pitched surface and not dragged. So, I put him under his Back on Track sheet to keep him limber and made miles under our feet.
To his credit, Al held himself together.
We were concerned about the warmup, where it wasn't as regulated and my concerns were realized when he was t-boned by a junior rider on her horse (everyone was fine). Even though he was sore he still put in a good, focused test. It wasn't a winning test, but that's what you get with young horses going against horses that have done more than a few seasons at training level.
Overall, we have a better idea going forward what to do with him, and how to prep out. He's back at the farm working towards SpyCoast and the May series.
Being stuck in the great indoors this winter isn't exactly thrilling. Same four walls and a ceiling every day, the great outdoors too inconsistent to risk a tendon or a thrown shoe. Our past month has been as wild as the weather.
It's seriously swung enough keep an entire wardrobe in my truck because in Kentucky, just wait ten minutes.
What's even better is the long monotonous drag of getting the kids from essentially green broke to their careers.
It's a daily grind full of important tedious details that get addressed day in and day out. Bend that
way, go to and from legs, go on the bit, go to the contact, go over this pole or that pole, stand at the block, don't spook at the flappy thing.
Between that it's the stacked appointments of nutritionists, sponsors (we have new ones!), photoshoots, video creation, suppliers, farriers and vets.
It's this creation of boundaries and the never ending point to point to do list that gives us a nice competitive start within the 20 x 60 meter box.
Some are taking it well, Irish Warrior (2013 Warrior's Reward) is coming along stellar in his development, going from downtime to jumping around a small course here and there.
Of all the horses in the group he's the steadiest of the bunch, and is really is just happy to go along to get along. Talent wise, while he's not a Fahrenheit, or a Haiku, he makes it up for sheer wanting and trying.
Sine Metu (2014 Sezuan) is following in Fahrenheit's footsteps and been one of the easiest horses to
back and start.
At nearly 17 hands, we're taking our time, but so far he's excelling, willing and is very steady. At 10 rides he's already hacking around and we're thinking of which shows to point him towards. He's very much Mike's ride, long legged, sporty and modern with multiple gears.
We also now have a group of rising five year olds.
Five year old year is typically one marred with a lot of drama, hissy fits and various shades of nopes. So far, we've had a few mild cases, but after laying down the rules they're pretty undramatic.
The two five year olds this year, Alberich (2012 Armani) and Equibest Delphic (2012 Don Index) are interesting to develop.
Alberich has developed steadily. Becoming more consistent in his work to the point where I'm now starting to ride him. He's really a fun ride so far with 90 or so rides total with him and unlike a few prior horses I got on with, he's wonderfully uncomplicated and genuine. We're still sorting the relationship out, not because of personality but because physically he's a very different ride than most horses. Al is incredibly short coupled, and combined with a thick neck, a low whither it's like driving a sports car around the arena that occasionally does the Toyko drift.
His ultimate aim is the stallion approvals this year. I'm considering him for the Five Year old classes later this Fall (not Young Horse Championships), but we'll see how this all goes.
Consistently across the board, he's come a long way in a very short amount of time and he's not done yet.
Delphic is progressing as well, he's enjoying the work, and the harder it is the more clever he
becomes. He's smart, almost too smart. Not unlike Al, he's taken awhile to physically mature as well. He's put on about two inches of topline in 90 days thanks to Progressive, Nutrena and our system, and lost the pudge.
He, like several others before him, have the jumping bug. He's brave and quiet to the fences and shows very classic form over them. He's thrilled to do it over 20 meters of circle any day of the week.
Like Al, we've started to incorporate poles within his daily routine to help him mentally focus and a gallop day to help him become fitter.
I have a feeling the majority of his show time will be in the hunters and not the white box or the event field. Which is a shame because I think he would be an easy AEC and Regional-qualified horse.
Our first shows are later this month at the horse park. I think this year because of the hodge-podge of the type and goals involved that we might skip the big outings. Which is fine, considering there's a larger agenda in place for next year already.
Summers are a balance between financials and goals.
On one hand you have the pursuit of goals, hours are spent at home riding, plotting, planning from early in the year.
On the other hand your wallet screams in pain at every rip of the check book when the vet, farrier, coach, voodoo priestess, nomination, registration, show/clinic entry comes along.
It's a nice relationship. They play, I pay.
My team and I have started a little later for our qualifiers, and this year the big goal is the USEF Four Year Old Finals in August.
The calendar year for qualifying is short, and not every show counts for scores. There is only one qualifying class in the entire show and you need two scores, preferably three.
On top of this you have to count for growth spurts, horses doing stupid things to themselves, weather, crazy judge panels and a few other things.
I'm also notoriously choosy about shows. Having been to the majority of grounds in the U.S., I know what I like and what I don't like. I also know since it's my money that I'm bleeding I get to make that decision.
Our first qualifier is later than expected, Kentucky was a nice stepping stone but with young horses and KHP you never know what you're going to bring out. We were lucky that it went well on a basic level for materiale.
Two weeks later there was another semi local qualifier that we passed on due to footing, panel and prep time.
Instead, we traveled to Tryon over Majestic (six hour drive versus an hour) for better footing and a better panel. It's also the last score Fahrenheit needs for HOY materiale.
The facility, which is new, is beautiful. You cannot really want for anything out there. The stalls are
great, matted, with fans. They lead out directly to the arenas. There is a dedicated horse path that takes you around the property and there are shaded wash racks. Live scoring, shopping, restaurants and accommodation on site. If you live locally, you can haul in and out and work off the trailer for the day. It makes showing much more easy.
They're still expanding. A new covered arena is developing, the cross country course for AECs is finalizing. You can see direction and joyfully, logic, for competitors and spectators.
The show itself for us was a mixed bag. The first day was brilliant, Fahrenheit scored beyond expectations, a 79,9 with a giddy judge panel that confirmed what we've always known- he's a horse with a stellar future. They gave us things to work on.
The materiale was better but, the score wasn't reflected, we still out scored the other horse by a solid 10 percentage points, but it brought our average down. Sitting second in the nation isn't such a bad thing especially given who is leading.
The next day we were all exhausted. Between running around getting the truck fixed on the road, showing, socializing, strange beds all week (I shifted houses since my air conditioning broke and it was 100 degree heat index) and scheduling things, we made a calculated error in over warming him up. He lost the electric sparkle but still put in an obedient, quality test for a middle of the pack placing with a fair yet tough international panel. Impressively he still scored a 7,9 on the canter work.
We are a bit bummed by not achieving that one goal this year, but really at the end of the day it's about producing an FEI horse. He will easily be that.
Also in perspective we achieved something in 90 days of work (you're average horse has had about a year of under saddle time doing this program and has at least three shows already this year) that stood up to a good standard, it was a positive experience for him and for us and we're into our second year of producing from gate to arena.
We're thrilled about the initial successes and what's coming down the pike, we got home safe, and the horse had a positive experience. You can't ask for much more.
Perhaps then it's a bit ironic and bittersweet that because we do so well in developing, that they sell well.
It was exactly three days after the show, that a professional came in looking for her next Grand Prix horse and scooped him up. It's an excellent match, and she clearly adores him and will do a fabulous job and we're excited and pleased.
But it means, as usual that we begin again. It's the nature of sales and young horses that we always start over and there is a lack of permanence in the barn. But we're not for wanting, there are two new horses coming in, one sales, one long term horse, and my breeders are breeding or buying more with their now consistent income from the work from my team.
Flair is still being aimed for Fall shows and the IBOP, so I'm not without a ride. However, the barn will feel a little emptier and a bit more quiet that the goofy German chestnut is gone.
It's been a few months since an update happened here.
It's not because there isn't anything going on, it's actually the opposite. Myself and my team have been busy, and to the point where I just didn't have time to update.
Spring is here, and that means a lot of things in this region. It mostly means that we've stepped up to a full week of training, that foals are being born, dams are being rebred, horses are being sold, and the rigs remained fully hitched to go places.
It's been a lovely blur.
May we started back out showing.
First up was the Spy Coast Young Horse Series, a show that I've come to love and really appreciate as a relaxed starter for my guys. We brought everyone out except Flair (who aged out of contention this year), and came away with qualified horses, ribbons, highpoint and cash.
We then turned to Kentucky Dressage Association's Annual.
This has been a staple in the community for 30 years, and I occasionally come to play there. It's my way of catching up with people, saying hello, and getting to sleep in my own bed at the end of the day, which if you travel the circuit, you come to really appreciate.
It's not my favorite to bring untested young horses out since the atmosphere can be too intimidating, but we took Fahrenheit out for just a materiale class.
The problem is that both Mike and I couldn't ride. Mike had to have some unexpected time off (he's fine), and my allergies had become so bad I had to carry an epipen incase I went into some weird attack or had a reaction to whatever happened to be in the air.
So, I asked a favor and got a nice junior rider to pilot him instead. With four rides, he confidently put
out a great result (78,9 and 81,5), and handled everything that the Kentucky Horse Park threw at him. We're now focused on USEF Four Year Old Qualifiers at Tryon, Dressage at Lexington and a sale.
Then there's Flair, who has become savant-like with work. On great days, she gives you changes (right to left is fab, left to right is... interpretive), piaffe/passage work, working pirouettes, walk pirouettes, super lateral work; and on the bad days well... the walls take a beating.
She went in front of JJ in April and we've been taking semi regularly lessons off the farm. It's been a tremendous amount of help in developing her since it's been a bit of time since my last young horse and my expectations have undoubtably changed.
But putting it in perspective is that she's only been under tack for a grand total of a year. She's vastly
changed from the Alberta Brown Cow to a lovely, modern sport horse.
This year she has IBOP on the menu and I would really like to get her out at third if we can get our acts together.
Then there's the steady drippings of sales, and looking at prospects. Already this year two have sold sight unseen. Justus SSM (Diamond Stud/Flemmingh/Ferro) and Mirage CBF (Balta C'zar) sold pretty quickly to their respective homes.
My contacts in Germany are already looking at another young horse to come in, I have another client wanting to breed mares, and then there's another partnership in the works with another nice, young, horse, which will be sorted as soon as everything else gets sorted out.
As for the rest of the year, Tryon will play a pivotal role as to if we pursue the rest of the Young Horse classes, or if we go more for the HOY items. Then there's the year end things of Inspection and Keuring, with no less than two or three to attend to in the fall, and the fall clinic schedule to host.
Spring is here, and very fortunately for myself and my crew we were spared the majority of winter.
Instead, it arrived all at once in two, one week spouts and then promptly melted off to a consistent 50 degrees.
It didn't prevent me from going to Florida for a few days in February for business, but at the same time, it allowed me to continue on with training.
My winter barn was full of young, green horses. Some client owned, some of them are my partnered horses, all of them are warmbloods from the Dutch or German books.
The oldest of the bunch were currently five rising six and the youngest were three. My time was and
is still split between two properties at the moment. Winter was also a time that we really focused in on basics, and addressing some other things.
While there were several people aiming for an early start to the season, my season doesn't really kick off until May, at the Spy Coast Young Horse Show, so it's nice to take a breather from the constant push.
For me, winter is the "off time", despite still maintaining a six day a week schedule when the weather allows. The kids are still in school, just relaxed.
The relaxed time also means I get to catch up on my desk, and let's face it when I'm bored or trying to avoid reading the latest email, I read OpEd from the horse world.
Young horses have recently become very popular to write about within social media.
It's been great to hear about other people's experiences and opinions on their own programs and theory. It's been interesting to hear perspective, from multiple sources, of a number of subjects, including the state of America's/Europe's breeding programs, Euro versus American breeding, import versus local, the use of Thoroughbred blood in the modern sport horse, thoroughbreds in sport, developing stages of the young horse, how horses "should" be developed, everything under the sun- if it was there I read it in the hours before I conked out for the evening.
While a few blogs grabbed me this season, two entries really stood out. The blog, written by a local Adult Amateur who rehabs, shows and sells thoroughbreds for herself and others, they write effectively, and entertainingly. They have a good platform, and for OpEd pieces they're easy, quick reads.
Therein lies the problem, when you have a platform and it's popular, I think due diligence on what you write is very needed.
I don't know whether it's a lack of individual understanding, or a lack of general public knowledge, but where we are with young horses, isn't the same even from five years ago. Where we are as riders and a pool of specialist who do ride, and develop the young guys has evolved.
Over ten years ago, we did not have a single championship for Young Horses, in any discipline, then the powers that be in USEF decided to pilot a program for dressage.
It bridged the gap from three year olds to four through six, then it expanded to include the Developing FEI classes. It gave young horses and young horse riders a niche market. It actually helped drive value in the young horses, and now with a bunch of young guys, I find myself starting to participate in that program with great horses that are wonderfully marketable.
If you're curious, Eventing, Hunters and Show Jumping followed suit to various degrees of success, and now Combined Driving.
We have major national championships, field the teams to world championships, have a great, growing pool of people (younger and older) who specialize, and unparalleled access to resources (both equine and education). We have professionals looking for their next top horses as yearlings and two year olds now. We have people who are just as well known for producing babies as others are for FEI horses. Heck, we even have qualifiers within an hours drive in the majority of locations.
It's progress and it keeps progressing.
Which leads to this, because of the quality of horse, the specialist nature of babies, and the generally good quality of rider, horses can be produced a bit more efficiently. It doesn't mean we don't take time, it means that we don't waste it.
Like human kids, every horse has mile markers in it's age.
For dressage the hard and fast rule is: three year olds should be going training level, four year olds should be doing first level, five year olds should be developing for second, and by six you should have a change. The window to easily put fitness on a horse, to have it open to new things is short.
It's the same reason why we start human children reading as early as possible versus waiting until they're 10 years old.
I'm not saying that every horse needs to be an FEI horse by seven, and I'm not saying that this is a hard and fast thing- some horses need more time, some horses, like one of my own, are a year behind because of other things (Flair was a broodmare), but if we're doing our solid basics from day one- 30 days should be looking like this:
(that's 15 rides)
to this:
(that's actually 20 rides)
and this:
and maybe after 90 days this:
So, yes, while the horse dictates a lot of the job, we cannot waste the time and windows given to us. Training is hard, and I know all of mine would much rather be eating grass than having a job, it's always a fine line. But honestly, no one ever died from being worked six days a week in a fashion that was tailored to them.
Not every horse is bound for Rolex, or World Cup, but as young horse riders, we can give them a huge, solid foundation to be great for whoever inherits them next.
So if they want to spend the next ten years bopping around at Training level or Novice or going all the way, they have the luxury of doing so because we developed them, from the start to be relaxed, submissive, straight, forward and going into a good contact.
We cannot allow people behind keyboards to pass judgment us on moments in time (because babies have a lot of moments- good and bad), or to take it personally because it's window of time that will pass.
But because of the way the world is, we also can't shutter ourselves in. What we can do is educate them and use the platforms that we are given as trainers and let the results speak for themselves.
My Fall was already packed and going strong but around the end of October, things took a quick turn south and then proceeded to turn more south.
Between William's accident, scrambling unsuccessfully for Mary King to come over, coordinating Fahrenheit's delayed arrival and keeping Flair going I was overwhelmed and very much running on empty.
Then came the series of minor little incidents. The time switch and I lost hours of daylight alongside the reminder that I'm not heading South for winter, not being in control of my own schedule, odd bills showing up, some random theft, some untimely deaths and a few other situations that just knocked me off my flow. I felt like I lost ground and whatever momentum I gained from the summer.
All of it happened within a span of two weeks, whatever motivation I had pretty much went out the window. It wasn't anyone's fault.
Things are slowly returning to a proverbial normal thanks to going and teaching, gaining a few new sponsors, some new clients, and planning 2016. It's still a long way off of wherever I feel like I need to be, and somedays are still tough.
The horses are thankfully, going right along.
Flair continues to develop with me. She's solidly riding five days with me and going out and doing sets as long as the footing remains consistent.
Her personality has really come out, she, like Sinari, is the queen bee of the barn, you know exactly where you stand with her. She's more sensitive than the pony- both in personality and in physical nature.
There are days that her gut bothers her (rapid weather change isn't helping), or that she doesn't feel quite up to the task. Sometimes her personality is easily offended, which is to be expected, but for the most part she likes to work.
She has found more of her gaits, but the canter remains a tad overwhelmingly powerful. She's also starting to turn heads. She is also still playing catch up. The idea is to keep her developing throughout 2016 with minimal show obligations, going back to keuring and maybe going out to the shows as an HC.
Fahrenheit has begun work. He's everything I remembered when I first saw him, incredible rideable
personality and three good gaits.
He's gone from unbroke to lunging in a matter of a week without so much as a hitch.
I have a few thoughts for his schedule but until he's actively under tack I'm holding off anything. He's set up to be backed next weekend by my usual guy. It was supposed to be this weekend, but I was feeling not so prudent about starting a horse in 30mph winds and a 30 degree temperature drop.
His focus is on the next 90 or so days, and developing condition to do the work for 2016.
Joining the herd in the next few weeks are two more mares in for winter training (and one for sale). I'm really pleased to see the quality grow.
Europe has also been on my mind lately.
Not just for the attacks in Paris and abroad but the big question on everyone's mind is if I'll go back for an extended stay.
The short answer is no.
With horses actively developing under tack, coming in to ride, the most I can get away with is two weeks. So I'm trying to condense four countries, all the shopping, looking at horses, awards, and business meetings within those 14 days.
With the overall KWPN - NA keuring tour over, and back from break/vacation. I feel more confident about recapping things.
Keuring was probably one of the most stressed out times I've been through.
This was our end of year hurrah and it was the first time I felt like the program was being seriously evaluated with what we training for and choosing horses out of the fields. I love choosing the raw horses, but sometimes it's hit or miss.
This was an important time in each mare's life and would add street credit to not only their future as broodmares, but to the overall concept of the program that we're doing.
Keep in mind, Haiku is only three years old with less than a year under saddle going against horses that are more mature, and Flair, while five, only had less than 90 rides at that point.
There was heavy amounts of Tums being passed around, possibly some mimosas.
Combine this with a spike from cooler (we were training with 70 degree weather) to hot (keuring day was 90 degrees). I was really worried about horses becoming flat, tired and dehydrated.
Needless to say, things worked out.
Flair made Ster and PROK; with complements on her topline and overall suppleness. The juries asked that she be represented next year for her Keur and Elite since she will be more developed then. Overall she ended up in the top 10 of the North American tour. I couldn't be more pleased with the development at that keuring and her continued development.
In the end it was Haiku's day- earning 80.5 percent for the under saddle work, 80.4 for the DG Bar Cup, 75 for conformation; making Keur. The compliments and comments were too many to really go over. A huge accomplishment considering she is only three. Her PROK status is still in the air due to KWPN head office but it should be resolved out within this month.
Overall she ended up taking home Mature Dressage Horse at the site. Then going on to win the DG Bar Cup for Three Year Olds, is the top three year old in the North American Keuring and was fourth overall for the IBOP against mature horses with very established farms.
I'm thrilled and excited for her to finish out her three year old year on top, and undefeated. I'm even more thrilled for the recognition for the program that I developed with horses taken from point zero. I'm really looking forward to going out in 2016 and doing something special again.
I blame getting my degrees and then learning to organize. I like punctual, I like routine and I like familiar. It's comforting and gives a sense of control, even when I don't have any. Minus my personal life which never runs on time, my professional life is more orderly.
A few months ago, I entered into a partnership with Germany for a horse. With two other partnerships (Haiku, Flair) on the table and going successfully- it was a giant step in a direction.
I'm thirty-something years old, two years into my training business and I've started developing a larger network in Europe for career horses this year. I successfully sell everywhere (this year alone was fun to see how many places the horses I've touched have gone to).
Where and who I source from is very important to me because the clients are often buying sight unseen often on my reputation and while there are many great breeders out there in the the world, very few I feel can match the quality and ethics of the people who I personally have relationships with.
When I left Germany, I left my partnered-horse-of-choice behind to spend the summer growing up; as for the rest of us, we've been working our butts off, actively campaigning and developing.
He needed the extra time to develop more and I needed space to focus in on the mares. So there he went out in to the fields like the rest of the chuckle heads in his age group.
The plan was always to export him into America in the Fall as a longer-term sales horse (focusing in on the four year olds for 2016).
Somewhere between April and now, I lost track of time.
It was easy to forget about him, he's just 2,000 miles away and the only real images I have of him are a photo on my mobile, and a video on my YouTube account. Like an arranged marriage, every once in awhile I'd pull out the cute photo or watch the video on a few loops to figure out what exactly I agreed to. Every time I understood, and every time I question my sanity.
But with the 90 degree heat, the current workload, the foliage still kicking it's Summer hue, Fall, until today was a distant thought.
So came the call from Germany a few weeks ago that basically was my alarm- it's time, the boxes are needed for other incoming horses and I need to begin focusing on developing another horse with Flair and Haiku safely cooking along. It was time for him to fly over.
Thus began the importation for October, one of the busiest seasons for any quarantine station let alone Kentucky. I'm excited in a lot of ways and holding my breath in many others. I was lucky to see him go for 60 days in Germany but for the last 180, I only have him in his winter coat still rough looking from the field.
But like pulling any young horse from the field, things change rapidly with work, maturation and nutrition- and like the girls I know he won't disappoint me.
