Joan Hampf’s farm is right across from Team Dutton in Aiken, SC and she hung this sign to support Lee Lee. Love you Joan! Photo by Doug Payne.
Sometimes, going back to one of your golden oldie exercises with your horses is the way to success. At the beginning of the year, I’m just starting to jump my horses a bit again (as weather allows) and sometimes I feel like I’ve forgotten all my fancy jump exercises. Inspired by a bit of “Whats In Your Ring” and of course “Grid Pro Quo”, I’ll be reminded of excellent standbys, and I’m always rewarded when I spend an hour setting them up and then they work perfectly!
U.S. Weekend Preview:
Poplar Place Farm January H.T. [Website] [Entry Status]
News From Around the Globe:
Canada’s Graeme Thom has accepted the position as New Zealand’s High Performance Eventing Manager, effective February 1st. Thom was an integral part of Canada’s Eventing High Performance committee from 2005 to 2014, during which time the team earned four medals at various championships. While Thom is delighted to have taken a job with an excellent team, Canadian riders are less enthusiastic about losing yet another great influence in the warfare that is Equestrian Canada these days. [Graeme Thom Becomes NZ High Performance Manager]
The buzz is all about the Emerging Athletes Eventing 25 and 18 Training Sessions this past week, so the USEA put together a little podcast to let us onto the backstage. Featuring Lizzie Snow and Zach Brandt, who were both part of the 2017 Eventing 25 group, they chat about what they worked on with coach Leslie Law, and how it’s helped their programs and their horses. Then, we get the big coach himself on to talk about the goals of the program at large. [Review of Emerging Athletes]
Physiologically, what makes a horse so much more athletic than its size appropriate counterpart, the cow? In other words, why are horses able to do rather amazing athletic feats and a cow of the same size looks like it struggles to canter? Lots of reasons, in short. Horses have a similar heart rate as cattle, but a maximum cardiac output rate that is 2.5 times greater, and lungs that are twice as big, which means they can maximize blood oxygen transport. Look, there’s a lot of sciencey things here that I’m not great at explaining, but this is interesting to look at how and why horses bodies work so well. [Horses Physiological Response to Exercise]
Best of Blogs: Making it to the Thoroughbred Makeover
This horse won the YEH 5-yo class at Burghley last year, a new ride for Buck:
