Saturday at Canadian Event Team Training Camp by Stephanie-Rhodes Bosch

We are very lucky that one of our Canadian team selectors also happens to be show organizer extraordinaire at the Florida Horse Park. (and that’s just one of the many full time jobs Jen Holling seems to have!)

Today all 8 of us took a 30 minute road trip down to the park for a dressage schooling show, where we were sort of last minute entries. Thank you very much to everybody involved there for letting us be a part of it! There were about 75 horses in attendance for the warm and humid day of riding, so it wasn’t exactly the kind of electric atmosphere we’re going to be dealing with in 12 or 13 days (!!!!) but it was a change of pace from our quiet little life at Meredyth South. If you read yesterday’s entry, you will know that our horses all galloped yesterday, and if you are an event rider, you know how much fun it is to try to do dressage on the post gallop day….

That being said, I think everyone behaved fairly well. Gin & Juice was a little bit jacked up from yesterdays change of pace, and the grass warm up area probably made it feel a little bit like a cross country day, but I think she kept a lid on it for the most part. The others, though, were feeling maybe just a little tired? I got on Ollie for 15 minutes at about 9:15, and then got on him again at 10:15 for a 10:35 ride time, and then after I did my first test, Jessie did her first test, and I got to go in the ring again. So it was kind of a big morning of dressage, and I don’t really blame him for feeling a little tired in the canter work of his second test.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how today went. Every time I ride through this test, I make some sort of stupid mistake. Like, at the AEC’s I blew my extended trot (my horse’s best movement) and my first test today I did a step of canter in my first trot half pass, and the second test today he did his halt/immobility with his hind legs trailing quite far behind because I didn’t ride the walk enough… So I’m kind of frustrated, because I can do each movement pretty well, it just seems like I can’t really get my act together for the entire test… but I still have some time left to practice and work on my level of focus. I feel very in tune and focused when I ride, but I probably need to spend more time throughout the day going through it all in my head.

So, if you ever wonder what I do during the day when I’m not riding, you can bet for the next 12 days, I’m off wandering around with my IPod on, visualizing my dressage test…. Fun times.. !


~Stephanie

Friday At Canadian Event Team Training Camp By Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

Today was gallop day at the Canadian Team training camp, and I can say with absolute conviction that I am glad we are in Florida!! The sandy ground has obviously had an easier summer than anywhere else I’ve been the last few months, and the well established grass on the farm here made for some pretty good ground in the back of the property.

We went in shifts of two or three, so that we could all be going at the same time, just the right distance between each of us that David and Dr. Ober could really pay attention to each horse’s workout. The way we did it was to do a bit of a figure eight where we went diagonally up a long hill, and then turned around the “peak”, if you will, and then sprinted up the backside on a much shorter and steeper incline.

I think the Thoroughbreds each did this loop three times, at varying speeds. My horse, who is half Selle Francais and definitely a bit of a bigger guy, did four loops (with a minute walk in between) the last three loops were used to really work the hills and go a little quicker. It was a super workout, and he felt great. He really power walked all the way back to the barn, which is a good judge for this horse for how he is feeling. If he is tired after his gallops, he really slugs it back to the barn, but this morning it was like he was waiting for another set!! Good boy J.

After the galloping and icing and the usual post-gallop routine, Ollie got to go out for a few hours. We are lucky enough to have two Niagara Equissage systems to use throughout our Training Camp and the WEGs, so Ollie enjoyed having the back pad on for twenty minutes later on in the afternoon.

Everyone was pretty happy with the day, and we are very much looking forward to going to a schooling show at the Florida Horse Park in the morning to practice our dressage tests (yet again!!)

Thanks for reading!! And look for tomorrow’s updates (and possibly some video) from the schooling show!!

Canadian Team Training Sessions by Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch

Hey everybody, and welcome to your front row seat to the Canadian Training sessions! We are down in sunny Ocala, Florida for 10 days of fine-tuning and final preparations with the help of our Team Advisor David O’Connor and Chef D'Equipe Graeme Thom. After our weekend at the AEC’s in Georgia, the selectors didn’t waste any time letting us know about their decisions. I think it was about 3:30 when they came marching through the barns passing out our envelopes with the Canadian crests in them. I can hardly wait to put mine on my coat!! The horses all had their final treatments from Dr. Ober done by the end of the day on Sunday in plenty of time for a celebratory dinner!!

On Monday afternoon, Ollie and I arrived at Mrs. Mars’ beautiful farm here in Ocala, which is a bit of a home grounds for us, as we have spent the last two winters just across the street. We are both very comfortable here, which probably has as much to do with the amazing facilities as it does with the familiar surroundings. Ollie has a large paddock filled with something he hasn’t seen in a while… green grass!!! Florida is one of the only places that remember what rain is after this hot dry summer, so the ground is nice, and Ollie goes out for a few hours each morning and munches away happily. I’m so grateful that our horses really have a chance to chill out here before the WEG’s and after traveling so much over the last few weeks.

This morning, we had a lighter dressage school with David and I’m about to go out and bring Ollie in so that massage therapist Jo-Ann Wilson can have another look at him before she goes back home to Maine. Jo-Ann will be joining us at the Worlds, which is super, because I really think that she is going to be a big part of our team that will help the horses to go as best as they can.

After that, I think us girls are headed down to the Paddock Park Mall here in Ocala to figure out how best to also score major points for fashion on the jog strip!! Hawley took the reins on that one after the idea of khaki’s and blouses was suggested to us for our jog outfits… I’m sure we won’t be sporting anything over the top, but maybe just a different direction than Khakis. Maybe all of you following the PRO blog will get a preview??

Thanks a lot for reading, I’m excited to be with you guys for the next 17 days!!!

~Stephanie