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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Pine Top and more!

I've always been a fan of the thoroughbreds, particularly the Off The Track variety, and they seem to like me as well! I love how they're game for everything and are athletic enough to get you out of just about anything. That's not to say I intentionally find trouble, however I do miss on the odd occasion... Of course with 'up for anything' attitude comes a little less rideability and they require a little more training particularly on the flat. This winter all of my horses (bar one imported Irish jumper) are OTTB's. On the farm I'm staying at I'm lucky enough to have a gallop track. The dressage arenas are in the middle of the track. This makes flatwork VERY interesting if anyone happens to be galloping while I'm flatting!

Collection Pass
At Pine Top I rode Sunset Hill's McCuan Civil Liberty and R Dvorsky/J Leone's Collection Pass in the intermediate. I also had Beth Sokohl's Buckharo and Checkout The Charmer in the Prelim. Cole jumped his customary clear showjumping round after a 36 in the dressage. He then cantered around the cross country very well with a few time faults.

Checkout The Charmer. Photo: Cynthia Lawler
Charmer also jumped a lovely clear showjumping round followed by a super cross country to end up 5th. We were held on course right in front of the second water and had to walk for about 10 mins. It can sometimes be difficult to get them back on the job after such a long break, but she was right back into it!
Buckharo. Photo: Cynthia Lawler.

Bucky's is going from strength to strength in his dressage, again scoring a great score of 33. He had an unlucky rail but made light work of the cross country to finish 7th in a very strong group of horses.
Liberty.
After performing a VERY nice dressage test, Liberty was wild in the showjumping and had two down! He then skipped around the cross country like it was nothing at all! This is one special horse, one I'm very excited about for the future. Stayed tuned for how you could become involved with his career with me. I really want to make special note of the saddle pad Liberty is wearing in his photo, isn't it beautiful!! We have been very fortunate to receive some support from OTTB Designs, more on the later tho..

2 comments:

marg said...

Looking good!
Wintry, though! Is the ground hard?

Kate Chadderton said...

Thanks Marg! It's a little chilly, like a Sydney winter, but not too bad. The advantage of being in SC and that part of GA is that the ground is sandy therefore doesn't freeze! We had 4 inches of rain the day before and the footing was still perfect!