Even if you weren’t aware of Steph’s lengthy list of accomplishments upon meeting her, you’d still walk away from the conversation with the impression of a nice, hardworking, and positive horsewoman. Those qualities, along with her accomplishments in 2010 as a top finisher at both Rolex and later the World Equestrian Games, are what makes Steph such a valuable asset to the Canadian Eventing Team at the ripe age of 22. Steph’s horse, Port Authority, has carried her from the Young Rider ranks, to the World Equestrian Games, and now hopefully on to Badminton this spring. This is the second of her entries as a spring guest blogger, so be sure to check back and follow Steph on her next big adventure. Also, visit Steph’s website for more information.
Hi Eventing Nation and welcome to the end of February! All of us headed for a spring 3 day are at the halfway mark for our Winter/Spring training program, and the next 7 to 8 weeks will see some struggles and near mishaps mixed in with the day to day enjoyment of the sport that we love, but hopefully our spring will end in success for all!!
Ollie and I have been having a good spring, enjoying lots of good lessons both in and out of our Training Sessions with DO’C with the new addition of Gunnar Ostergaard to our program for dressage help! We haven’t actually run a cross country course yet, but we are doing lots of jump schools and feel confident about our plan for the spring. Poplar Place at the end of March will be a good Advanced run for us before our CIC at the Fork in April, which should be a great prep for the trip to England!!
We have started making travel arrangements for the trip across the pond, and its all so exciting. I am being very careful about my fitness, trying hard to walk that line that all of us have to walk with these horses that are expected to go gallop one day and then behave themselves in the dressage arena the next!! Ollie is a thicker, more warmbloody horse so I always want to make sure that he’s good and ready so that nothing is harder than it has to be!! But…. On the other hand, I like my pony to behave like a civilized grown up horse. We are working with the team from Polar Watches and fitness equipment, using their equine heart rate monitors to give us more information about our fitness training. I’m about to get more into the use of the heart rate monitor now that my gallops are getting longer and faster and a little more on the hill. So far, so good…
On a non-Ollie note, the young horse that I have with me in Ocala is doing very well at the novice level!! Baby Kojo is a 6 year old Connemara Thoroughbred owned by my good friends Elizabeth, Chris and Louise Johns and he was second last weekend finishing on his dressage score of 29.something! Cute little boy. Also, I have a 3 year old OTTB that I think is going to be verrrryy special. Hoping to have him to some schooling shows late summer!
Anyways, happy Eventing and bring it on, March!! Thanks for reading.
