Never too late for a good meme.
We’d like to give a big Eventing community group hug to Melissa Miller-Slusser, who is competing at Jersey Fresh this weekend in the CCI2* on Emilion to One. Melissa unfortunately lost her best bud, High Finance (Finn) yesterday. Finn was an incredible chestnut Thoroughbred gelding who took Melissa to the top of the sport, and we all know how it feels to go through such a loss, so if you see her at Jersey, give her a hug and let her know that we’re all here supporting her!
(If you’re confused about my meme: refer yourself here).
National Holiday: National Eat What You Want Day
Major Events:
Jersey Fresh Links: Website, Dressage Times, Schedule, Live Scores, EN’s Coverage, EN’s Instagram, EN’s Twitter
Event Rider Masters @ Chatsworth: Website, Start Times, Results, Live Stream
U.S. Weekend Preview:
WindRidge Farm H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]
Plantation Field May H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Live Scores]
Mill Creek Pony Club at Longview H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]
Texas Rose Horse Park Summer H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]
Galway Downs Spring H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]
Spokane Sport Horse Farm H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]
Winona H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]
News From Around the Globe:
Tattersalls International Event is promising to be the best that ever was later this month. Olympic medallists, World and European Champions novelty dog shows, food fairs and family fun will all be on display and to the fore in one of Ireland’s favourite and friendliest outdoor events in the Tattersalls estate in County Meath. Last year saw 35,000 spectators and over €2m to the local economy. [Tatts Ireland]
The British Horse Society (BHS) has stated that they don’t believe the sanctions against Oliver Townend at Badminton were high enough. Townend was warned by the FEI for overuse of his whip on both mounts, Cooley SRS and Ballaghmor Class, but given no yellow card or fines for his actions. He has issued two sincere apologies since then, but the BHS is taking the matter up with the FEI and believes he deserves higher punishment. [Townend Not Sanctioned Enough]
Groton House Farm is one of the oldest events in the Northeast, and hosts their annual event every June in Massachusetts. Held for over 40 years, riders from Novice to Intermediate/Preliminary will gallop over lanes that hold stories of riders like Mike Plumb, Karen O’Connor, Torrence Watkins, David O’Connor and more. The first events on the farm ran in the late 1950’s, before the USCTA, and before regulations and rules about heights and lengths for levels. [USEA Events A-Z: Groton House]
Hot on Horse Nation: Lucky Talismans and Pet Superstitions
Schramm Sesh of the Week
Jimmie and Dom Schramm have teamed up with Kentucky Equine Research to provide an inside look into their conditioning program using KER ClockIt Sport. Each week we’ll share an example ride and some notes of what the Schramms look for as their horses progress.
This week, Dom is prepping a seven-year-old Irish gelding, Whitford, for the CCI1* class at Bromont coming up this June.
“Whitford had an easy winter,” explained Dom. “We are trying to improve his fitness so that he will be ready to compete at the 1* level.”
Dom works him on a track, doing a 20-minute trot followed by three five-minute canter sets with increasing speed, and finishing with a sprint. You can see the end of the last set is the fastest sprint, where the horse’s speed reaches 522 m/min and his heart rate reaches 187 bpm.
For Whitford’s current training program, they plan to alternate this routine with hill work every fourth day. Hill work is great component in training programs because it is an easy way to increase heart rate without having to increase speed.
Check back next week for another Schramm Sesh! Want to gain insight into your horse’s fitness? Try KER ClockIt Sport. The free app helps take the guesswork out of equine fitness by monitoring heart rate, speed, distance and altitude during rides.
