Winter training.

It is winter here as you can see from our pictures of horses in the snow. During the winter we scale back on training but still keep going to be ready for the spring. We vary activities depending on the weather. When it is -20 C it is not plesant to ride,even indoors, and there is always problems getting sweaty horses cooled out with them getting a chill. The young stock and brood mares enjoy the cold weather. They roll in the snow and stand in the sun on clear days.

This week we free jumped Zanientha , "ZOE" is her stable name. She had been free jumped last summer in the outdoor arena. Now is the time to introduce her to the fun of jumping indoors. Young horses are always puzzeled by new things in the arena but the "jumping blood" soon comes through and they realize they can jump indoors. This takes several rounds with an introduction and then some smaller fences to give them the feel of the jumps. At this stage they learn that the jumps can be changed and they must watch and change their jumping pattern. Again the horses that are bred to jump quickly pick up the details. We have done a second round with Zoe and the viseo of it is posted at http://www.mydeo.com/videorequest.asp?XID=1344&CID=159485 The jumps are small yet but her technique looks like a pro. Next week we will have another round and raise the jumps to give more of a challange. It is very important to never over face young horses and discourage them.

In the winter we miss being able to hack out the young horses. This is an important part of their training an development. It is critical for both their young mind and bodies to learn to travel out on the trails.

Wiseman is in full training with Cindy Matheson. He is coming five and will be ready to compete in the five year old tests next summer. He is getting more developed and is looking like a real dressage horse.

Soon it will be spring and training will be back in full swing.

Fence Talk

These two geldings looked like they were having an argument over the fence. Could it be"My Dad, Quattro, jumped in more Grand Prix than your dad , Concorde."

Snow Days!