Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife, it’s Valentine’s Day at the USET training sessions in Ocala, Florida. Our official Florida training session round two correspondents, Julie and Nora, have sent in their report from today including video. As an aside, get ready Aiken, the sessions return next week with Lauren Hough Feb 20-21. The USEF High Performance Eventing Facebook page reports that “Katie Prudent’s schedule was too tight for a March session, so in order to provide some consistency, we have enlisted Lauren who will do a February and March dates in Aiken.” Have a great rest of your Valentine’s Day. I’ll be your valentine if you like Horse Nation on Facebook (and even if you don’t), and go eventing.
From Julie & Nora:
The groups mostly worked on a few jumping exercises that got progressively higher in height. The riders at the training session today did a single vertical to warm up, alternating turning left/right, then they did a square oxer roll top alone. Next they jumped the roll top on a broken line to a big square oxer with white coops underneath. A few riders had trouble with this line because they tried to turn too early, so there was much repetition! They also worked through a one stride vertical to square oxer that seemed to be set on a short distance.
CMP stressed keeping the horses even and bent so they didn’t hang on the bit. I was very impressed by Karen and Mr. Medicott, they seem to have clicked and it was lovely to watch them work. He is extremely careful with his front end and seemed happy to be jumping. Hannah worked William on the flat first and he was supple and a nice picture to watch. They worked on flying changes a bit, emphasizing the balance and rhythm before the change. Then they switched tack and jumped a little, he was quite exuberant but jumped well. There weren’t many people there watching but it was still a great experience!
