Next shows on the docket were the May Tbird shows; the Canadian Premier and the BC Open. Always a season favorite with the opportunity to ride in the FEI classes against the best of the best.
Unfortunately this year’s show was preceded by an accident during the last jump school before the show. Cassie and I were working on rollback turns and she misjudged a rail off of a tight turn and got tangled up in the pole, landing in a heap on the ground on the backside of the jump. She went stage right, I went stage left (by the “grace of mare” I did not get stepped on) and the landing on my rib cage resulted in two broken ribs 4 days prior to haul-out day. Very relieved to report that Cassie was fine, but I was less so!
So just the two sales horses were hauled up for a friend, Tracey Epp of Signature Farms (signaturefarms.ca), to ride and show for me. I couldn’t have placed them in better hands and both horses had absolutely stellar weeks in their respective divisions. And while I was really disappointed to have to leave Billy and Cassie in their fields, I got the sense that they were AOK with the time off 😉
Clinton (FF Clintaro) confirmed his show veteran ways by loping around the Baby Green Hunters and Young Hunter Development classes with several top-three placings in large classes. He clearly never bothered to translate the German word for “spook” into English, as he has yet to be bothered by anything we’ve presented to him. I know I sound like a broken record, but this young horse has a level of composure that’s almost unheard of. I know a lot of people say it, but I really mean it when I say that this horse is going to be the no-prep horse that a kid can pull out of the stall 5 minutes before a class and be able to walk in confident that there will be no silliness, no spooking, and no misbehavior. Wow!
One of his rounds from the week:
On that note, I gave him 6 days off after his last day of showing and hopped back on for our first ride yesterday. Didn’t lunge him or prep him in any way and he went back to work (with me and my tender broken ribs) like the good packer baby he is!
FF Evita wasn’t interested in being upstaged by her younger counterpart. Tracey walked her into the 1.0m jumpers with some lovely rounds over the two weeks. She’s still incredibly sensitive and had several “moments of thought” in her classes (being able to look out over the little jumper ring way down below was tough every time the course path wandered that way – as you can see in the video below), but I don’t mind a horse that is so keen to figure things out at this stage in her training. The jumps were not an issue in the least, and it was fun to watch her figure out the nuances of full courses day after day. Again, I couldn’t have been happier with the riders sitting on her through the week. Clinton was kind of a “given,” but feeling comfortable with a rider on your sensitive, green, intelligent mare is a whole ‘nother issue. Tracey and Kevin showed grace, tact, and brilliance in bringing out the best in both of my horses. Talk about a program that I would not hesitate to send horses to or buy horses from!
So the wrap up for the show is a little bit short this time around from a horse perspective. But in the name of working on that, I started jumping my big horses again this week. I’m not quite “there” yet (hard landings still really hurt!), but hoping to have everyone (and by everyone I mean ME) ready to go for the next set of Thunderbird shows in 2 weeks.
So until then! 🙂