There’s nothing I love more than seeing a happy animal. From the cattle grazing in the fields around my house and my cats purring on my lap, to event horses galloping round the cross country with ears pricked and clear smiles on their faces, animals bring such joy to our lives.
Happy baby animals are a whole pile of double whammy to my heart strings! This little delight is Mirabelle, a 48 hour old foal enjoying her first taste of turn out. Of course she’s like, the cutest thing, but what I love most about this video is that it shows just how much of the training we do with our horses is born from what comes naturally to them. From half-passes and pirouettes, to great long gallop strides, Mirabelle’s got them nailed at two-days-old!
(FYI She took on the logs a few days later, adding potential Badminton winner to her list of future careers!)
U.S. Weekend Preview
Tryon International Three Day Event (Mill Spring, NC) [Website] [Entries] [Ride Times] [Volunteer] [Scoring]
Galway Downs Spring H.T. (Temecula, CA) [Website] [Entries] [Ride Times] [Volunteer] [Scoring]
Hitching Post Farm H.T. (South Royalton, VT) [Website] [Entries / Ride Times / Scoring] [Volunteer]
Majestic Oaks Ocala H.T. (Reddick, FL) [Website] [Entries] [Ride Times] [Volunteer] [Scoring]
Plantation Field H.T. (Coatesville, PA) [Website] [Entries] [Ride Times] [Volunteer] [Scoring]
Spokane Sport Horse Spring H.T. (Spokane, WA) [Website] [Entries / Ride Times / Scoring] [Volunteer]
Winona Horse Trials (Hanoverton, OH) [Website] [Entries / Ride Times / Scoring] [Volunteer]
Wednesday News and Reading
Just calling attention to my EN Team Pick of Kristina Hall-Jackson and CMS Google as the best debutant (horse or rider) at Badminton. Whilst my prediction wasn’t totally accurate (Gemma Stevens’ Jalapeno was the highest placed debutant horse in 6th, and French rider Luc Chateau and Viens Du Mont were top Badminton rookie pair in 11th), Kristina and Google were the highest-placed British first-timers at Badminton, in 29th. I’m taking that as a win – as I’m sure Kristina is. Watching them go cross country was inspiring and educational. They had a couple of green mistakes – which they can go home and work on – but they worked together and completed, and what a feeling that must have been. I totally agree with retiring if you and your horse have problems on course, but sometimes, if your horse is happy, carrying on gives you the chance to have a learning experience that you can only get in competition. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this exciting partnership. [Google Maps Out An Exciting Future]
Ros Canter and Walter (Lordships Graffalo) are our Badminton champions of 2023 and she credits her horse’s love of all three phases for his success. British Eventing High Performance Coach, Chris Bartle, knows the relationship between the different phases of eventing is intrinsic to the modern day sport. Whilst a great cross country horse will leap up the leaderboard on cross country day, the training that goes into the dressage to deliver a ‘clear round’ test (that perhaps won’t be up at the top after first phase) is what helps the horse to react at speed as they tackle the cross country. When his event horse, Wily Trout tweaked a tendon, Chris worked on dressage as part of the horse’s recuperation. They went on to compete in pure dressage at the 1984 LA Olympics and came 6th! In this archive article, Chris Bartle explains his thoughts on the links between the eventing phases. [Dressage Is Your Friend]
There were five 17-year-olds in the Badminton field this year – Lillian Heard Wood’s LCC Barnaby was one of them. In his twelfth 5* start, Barnaby completed his first Badminton with a top-20 finish. Watching long-term partnerships such as this is such a joy – the trust they have in one another, the total team effort they display, the confidence that a rider must have when they’re taking on the top level with their great friend. Lillian said it all in her interview after they’d finished their show jumping round: “Even if you don’t know, he knows it’s OK. I probably won’t ever have this feeling again in my entire career”. But keeping an older horse is no walk in the park – it takes teamwork, effective training routines, and an adaptable approach. [Supporting The Old Guys]
It’s Buy A Horse Book Day today. I can’t possibly begin to list ALL the horse books I’ve read over the years, although I do still have ‘The Ultimate Horse Book’ on my shelf that I won at school. I spent hours poring over the different breeds and soaking up the world of horses. Discipline doesn’t matter to me – I devoured my signed copy of the story of Desert Orchid alongside ‘How to Train Your Pony for Polo’ and all the Jilly Cooper novels. From kids’ books to adult fiction, training guides to autobiographies, there’s a whole horse world out there just waiting to be read. [Horse Books For Everyone]
Wondering what you – and your horse – should wear for your next show? This is the app for you! The FEI TackApp lets you search for all the info you need about equipment, tack and dress guidelines at FEI events. [Eliminate Show Wear Faux Pas]
Sponsor Corner:
🌾 18 acres of pasture
💧 Your very own pond
🌳 Riding distance to the Goethe State Forest
What more could you ask for? Check out this week’s Dream Horse Farm from Ocala Horse Properties.
Video Break
Here’s a video of Lillian Heard Wood’s LCC Barnaby as a 7-year-old in the Prelim cross country at Pine Top H.T. in 2013.
I love this horse, in part, because I had a heart pony as a teenager with the same name. Basically, if you want to sell me a horse, tell me it’s called Barnaby.
