Selena and Solo at the Stuart Horse Trials.
On their second outing the boys really pulled their socks up. Rocky and Woody were moved up to Advanced at Pine Top this past weekend. Solo had to stay at the OI level after having taken issue with the corners at Rocking Horse. They all finished top placed Canadians in their respective divisions.
After having the corner elimination last weekend, Selena brainstormed the problem with Bruce Davidson and returned to Rocking Horse on the Wednesday to school Solo over all the corners she could find. They must have sorted something out since Solo went clear at Pine Top OI and is now heading for the three-star CIC at Redhills.
Selena is looking forward to a very busy time at Redhills. She has her three boys running in the CIC*** and has the ride on Angie Huber’s lovely mare in the one-star. Angie is busy at school and will not be able to pilot ‘Wisher’ in a one star until The Fork. Lucky Wisher gets to spend the whole winter in Florida with Selena. Sometimes I think our horses live better than we do.
Everyone did great at Pine Top. Rocky did his first advanced with Selena. She was in fourth place after XC, but misjudged his sensitivity meter and gave him to strong an aid when he peeked a little coming into a double. As a result he had two rails which actually cost him first place. Just a case of not knowing each other well enough yet. Selena says “next time I’ll give a tiny little cluck…” He finished in sixth.
Woody finished in eighth place in his Advanced division. His dressage is getting better and better. He had done another training session with Clayton Fredericks, in addition to lessons with Gerd Zuther and Bruce Davidson. No wonder he is improving, there is nothing like a busy winter in Ocala to bring them along. Woody picked up three time penalties from an outside turn in the stadium. The rain had been brutal throughout the event and the going was unpleasant to say the least. With Redhills coming up, Selena’s plan was to have ‘good’ rides and she felt the outside turn was the right one for Woody on the day.
Solo was super. He held it together in the dressage and did a lovely XC and a clear SJ. His time on XC was all that was between him and first place. We were very pleased with him and especially pleased that he is maintaining his improved attitude in the dressage phase. We have had three for three steady dressage tests with him since Omega Alpha brought out Chill Ultra. We had tried Chill on him with moderate success but the Chill Ultra seems to hit the spot and lets him get through the stress of the dressage ring without boiling over. Between his new Chill Ultra and Gerd and Bruce both overseeing his daily workouts, maybe this is finally the year he is going to grow up! In the end he finished third and I was a very happy owner.
