Thursday News & Notes from Nupafeed

Trying to take your horse’s photo when he has no concept of personal space. Photo by Madison Davies.

Look, I love young horses, maybe more than the average person. What I don’t necessarily love is when they discover fun new ways to become airborne during normal type activities. My OTTB, Turkey, is feeling really great lately, and has developed a love for acrobatics worked into everyday life. He can kick out one hind leg, throw one front leg out front, squirrel his head, and continue trotting on the bit all at one time. Sometimes, when he’s feeling really hilarious, he also throws in a black stallion style rear in the middle too. Like, dude, we get it, it’s nice to be flexible, but enough already.

National Holiday: National Baked Alaska Day

U.S. Weekend Preview:

Three Lakes H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times] [Live Results]

Sporting Days H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Live Results]

Galway Downs Winter H.T. [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Results]

News From Around the Globe:

Advanced is a go at Carolina International! The event issued this clarification: “Due to an error in our Omnibus listing, we would like to clarify that an Advanced division WILL be offered at this year’s Carolina International CIC & Horse Trial. The Advanced division will have dressage on Friday, March 23, cross country on Saturday, March 24, and show jumping on March 25.” [Carolina International]

Allison Springer was spreading her knowledge at a clinic recently about communicating with all ages of horses. “As trainers, we need to ask questions that they can answer. Deliberate, simple questions.” Allison worked with a group of riders on the turn on the forehand to increase their responsiveness to aids, and help the horses wait for their riders before jumping to conclusions with their bodies. [Video: Eventing Training Online]

Did you recently get a new horse? Yeah, we can tell. You’re in the honeymoon phase. You know, the one where you can’t stop taking “cute” photos of him/her and telling everyone about their funny quirks (please note the photo and paragraph above about MY cute new horse) and you lie awake at night fantasizing about what you’re going to do tomorrow with the aforementioned cute new horse. Who needs a real honeymoon when you have this? [6 Signs You’re In The Honeymoon Phase with a New Horse]

Stretching your horse before riding: yay or neigh? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist). Seriously though, when done correctly, stretches for your horse on a daily basis can really improve their performance under saddle. Like anything though, you kinda have to know what you’re doing, and just randomly stretching them doesn’t really help as much as having an equine physiotherapist tell you how to get the most out of your time. [How to Stretch to Improve Suppleness]

She got ELEVEN 10’s on this test. Eleven!!