Shannon Brinkman’s daughter, Roya, living every child’s dream with a unicorn from Redemptive Love Farm at Red Hills. Photo by Shannon.
Man. I gotta say, I hate daylight savings time. Now it’s dark again when I wake up and that’s gotta be the most depressing thing in the world. Add that to the fact that it’s now light until 7:30 (aka you can keep working outside until then) and my days just got exponentially longer. I miss being lazy in the winter and quitting at 5 or 6! Bring it back!
National Holiday: National Artichoke Hearts Day
U.S. Weekend Preview:
Pine Top Spring H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Results]
Ocala Winter II H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Results]
MeadowCreek Park H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Results]
Copper Meadows Winter H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]
News From Around the Globe:
Full Gallop Horse Trials is one of the Aiken fixtures throughout the year, but it’s been a long work in progress for owners Lara Anderson and Daniel Brown. They bought the property in 2000 with just one barn and a fenced paddock, but a lot of potential. By 2006 they had built enough stalls, arena areas, and cross country jumps to host their first recognized event. The event still runs “old school” style, with dressage and show jumping on the grass, thanks to the excellent natural footing of South Carolina. [Events A-Z: Full Gallop]
Team Ireland Equestrian and Eventing Ireland members will take to the racetrack to help raise funds towards their High-Performance Squads and the senior athletes journey to the World Equestrian Games, in Tryon later on this year. The World Equestrian Games is the first opportunity for the Irish Eventing team to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The Event Riders Challenge Race is the last race on the card in Dundalk Stadium on Wednesday, March 28. Team Ireland Equestrian sponsors and Dundalk-based company, Horseware Ireland, have kindly agreed to be the title sponsors for the race. [Event Riders Racing Towards WEG]
Volunteers are truly the backbone of our lovely sport of Eventing. While all the riders and grooms and owners work hard with the horses to get them to the competitions, the show literally cannot go on without extensive help from volunteers. We rely on them for scribing, starting box duties, fence judging, score running, commentating and hospitality to name a few. We can’t do it without volunteers! [Volunteers: The Unsung Heroes of Eventing]
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.
Hills are an important part of many eventers conditioning strategy. So what do you do when you’re wintering in flat Florida? Dom Schramm starts his horses with three 3-minute canters, working up to 5-minute intervals. He warms up with a 15-minute trot, and gives a minute-long break between each canter.
“Typically I only do interval training while we are in Florida as we don’t have any hills down here,” Dom said. “I also think it’s a good way to get them back to fitness after having a winter break. I normally start at 3x3s and slowly work them up to 3x5s by the time we are headed back north at the end of March. I find by the time they have gotten to this point and have done a few shows they are about ready to begin hill gallops when we get home to Pennsylvania.”
Dom recorded this session with Whitford, a young horse he’s preparing for a CCI1* in June.
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. EN’s guides to the app explain all the details: 7 Reasons to Download KER ClockIt Sport and How To Get the Most Out of KER ClockIt Sport.
