How it's going

Today is my day off and I had the pleasure of going to Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington to watch some riders in the CDI 3* Dressage competition. It is a large show grounds with many many tent stalls and permanent barns. The Rolex/USEF National Show Jumping Championship was also going on as well so there were many horses there. The dressage show was pretty small with only 53 horses entered because it is early in the show season and it was a CDI. CDI is an abbreviation for Concourse (competition) Dressage International. It was pretty cool to watch Lars ride Susie Dutta's (one of his clients) mare in the PSG and to watch Susie ride one of her horses in the PSG. They are doing the small tour. Tomorrow the Grand Prix start and on Saturday they will have the Grand Prix Freestyle (where they ride the horses to music). We (the girls) get to go watch after work. The Freestyles start at 7:00pm. There will be a VIP area set up with tables and a wet bar where we will be able to watch the rides. I am so excited!

Over Thanksgiving weekend Rudolf Zeilinger was here teaching a four day clinic from Germany. On my day off I watched him teach and ride the horses all day long. It was so amazing. That man can get anything to piaffe and passage. It was very interesting how the clinic was conducted. He rode every horse at least once during the four days and to see the transformation when he got one them. It was incredible to see how much he could get the horses to lower their croups and activate their hind legs and carry the collection in the piaffe, passage and pirouettes. He also got one of the mares to "get her legs more out in front of her". Watching him do extensions throughout the arena and then go back to a passage extension like trot was very cool. He definitely could get everything out of the horse and all that it could possibly give. One of the horses was having a hard time sitting in the piaffe, it was almost like he was trying to hard. His rhythm was ok but his butt was up and he wasn't able to life his shoulder or his knees to match the hind end. When he got on the horse he really worked on this. A couple of time the horse reared and he just sat there as quiet as could be and smoothly turned the horse while it was standing in the air until it lowered and came down. Another mare was having difficulty sitting and carrying the collection in the canter pirouettes thus wasn't really able to stay more on the spot. So when he got on her he went from a piaffe directly into a canter pirouette. He used the piaffe to get the mare to get her hind legs underneath her and then to have her keep that in the pirouette. It was very interesting and I am so glad that I was able to see something like this. Rudolf is from Germany and is the coach for the Danish dressage team. I was able to sit next to Tim Dutta (Susie's husband and the owner of the Dutta Corporation which is an international horse transport company, "they give horses wings!") and pick his brain. He said that he strongly believed in education and wanted to have a clinician of Rudolf's caliber come every 3-4 months. Tim, Susie and Lars are business partners and are very close. Susie has her personal 2 horses in full training with Lars which means that she comes over and takes lessons. She is guaranteed at least four lessons per week with Lars. He is also riding another two of her horses that are in full training. Susie has her own barn across the road so her groom leads them over when it is their time to be worked. Anyhow I was asking Tim what he knew about Lars' future plans for international competition. Tim said that Lars was going to stay a Danish citizen because it is easier to get on the Danish team than it is the US team. In Denmark Rudolf Zeilinger basically has to like and approve of you and your horse and you are on the Danish team whereas in the US there are a lot more hoops and qualifying shows that you have to go to before you can even be considered. It sounds like Lars' next goal is the WEG in '10. As of what horse he takes we'll have to see. Rudolf really liked one of Susie's horses that Lars rides. This horse can piaffe and passage like it's breathing. He has a lot of knee action and kind of reminds me of Olympic Bonfire but when Rudolf got on him he did some fabulous trot extensions with him. He said, "for every extension I do you owe me a beer!" So he has a sense of humor and enjoys a cool frothy beer.

So far for me things are going well. I am adjusting to the schedule and am not so tired at the end of the day. It took me about a month. It is interesting to see White Fences (which is basically a gated horse community filled with barns and arenas and is like Pleasant ville for dressage) fill up for the season. There are more horses in the arenas and you see more trucks and trailers in the driveways whereas when I first came it seemed a bit more like a ghost town. This area really is a horsey area. There are barns everywhere! Anyhow, I ride some days more than others. Two weekends ago Neve (the assistant trainer) was in Europe renewing her visa and I rode eight horses one day. Some I get on and warm-up for Lars or Melissa and others I ride. I haven't gotten lesson from Lars yet but he has given me lots of little tid bits of advice when I am riding different horses. I have had several lessons with Melissa on Vioen. We were just commenting a couple weeks ago about what a good girl she was and what a good little worker she was. Although she has not been herself the past week and I have been having trouble with her the past week. I think that it is pain related and I am trying to find a saddle that fits better than mine. Jen- and suggestions???

The past couple of days we have had more wintery weather. Last Sunday is was very very windy. There were huge gusts of wind that would come through and almost take you off your feet. I tried taking the quietest horse out first to hand walk. There were branches and debris flying all over the place and even the quiet one was trying to canter circles around me so we decided to wait until the arena was empty and walk them in there. These horses are not turned out, they are fit and hopped up on grain so needless to say it was a long and stressful day trying to not let a six figure horse get away from you or hurt themselves! Tuesday night we had a cold front come through and of course it was my night for night check so in addition to throwing everyone a flake of hay I had to switch 19 horses from sheets to blankets and put on a total of 22 blankets. It took some time. Today, however, it is sunny and warm. Definitely t-shirt and shorts weather. I hope everyone had a joyous Thanksgiving dinner. We all went to a dinner party at one of Susie's students house in Wellington. It was all of us at Legacy and other horse people that run in the same horse circle's plus Rudolf. There was A LOT of wine and good food. It was definitely a party. I have to say that the only thing that really resembled Thanksgiving was the turkey! :)

Right now I am using Kim's computer who has so graciously let me borrow. She is the fifth employee (not counting Reynaldo). Another working student from Georgia. She is a lot of fun and very fun loving. I think that I am going to have a really good time during season. We will see what happens in the off season b/c a lot of people will go home but in the meantime I am making a lot of new friends and we all have one thing in common, horses! I am in the process of getting my own computer so that I can stay in better contact with the rest of the world. The computer that we were all sharing basically went dead so it's really time that I get my own. I think it's time for me to go work Vioen, I also have errands to run so until next time, I miss all of you and can't wait to come home to visit and see all of your familiar faces!