Alberta Equest

When I purchased Sierra, they told me she had bad hocks and was sound but couldn't jump to the level they wanted so they sold her.  I was always a little worried of her hocks giving out and she did sell with 1 measly view of each hock to which my Vet couldn't provide a legit diagnostic opinion due to the limited information but it was evident the Hock had a long way to go before it was 'shot'.  Given that it was always lingering in the back of my mind, I had a plan to take full views of both hocks to have a baseline for the future, and on October 21st we made it happen. Original Rad of Right Hind Original Rad of Left Hind We started with the left hock, and took several views.  My Vet noted a small bone spur on the lower joint but the joint spacing was clear and showed minimal signs of fusing.  There is perhaps a little evidence of such occuring on the inside bottom joint, but very minor for a horse with her 'miles'. We then moved o...

I was surfing through old video's after uploading a new one recently, and was really quite surprised by the changes I see in Sierra. Not only does she look like a totally different horse, taking the time to fill in all the holes of her training.  It's becoming more and more evident that our hard work in the Trot is coming to fruition, however it's time to start spending more time focusing on the Canter and unlocking all those boxes to establish a softer topline from an engaged, soft body.   Looking back at this 'old' video I can't help but cringe a little as I ran the legs off her incredibly hollow body to try and make up for the lack of suppleness.  Although the new video doesn't show much, i'm really proud of the suppleness and suspension we've found in the past year!

I would like to preface this [short] post by apologizing to my future-self and all the readers, as my beloved Cathryn had headed home earlier that morning and I didn't get much in the way of media to share from Day 2 and as I sit here typing this while supervising a College Final, surrounded by anxious students I can't help but feel the same - but also different - as I reflect on the clinic this past weekend. Sunday started off on the wrong foot. The night prior we had our Year End Awards Banquet and admittedly, I have zero recollection of turning off my alarm at 7:00 AM and awoke shortly after 8.  I live 20 minutes from town, and my lesson was scheduled to begin at 9:00. I sent a jumbled message in our clubs group chat stating I would have to scratch from it because I didn't have time to catch, tack, etc but I was enroute.  Much to my surprise, I arrived to seeing Sierra tied sleepily to the rail, being brushed and all my tack awaiting our lesson.  I quickly adminis...

On October 19/20 our club hosted our annual clinic with Jessica Kerschbaumer, also known as "The Alberta Eventer". She has a large online following due to her Helmet Cam video's and is also a hometown girl, and cousin (through marriage).  She lives in Central AB where she trains for a large breeding program, is a member of the Alberta High Performance Eventing Team, and coaches as well. We have been bringing her up each fall for several years now, but this was my first time riding with her.  Many loyal readers may recall last fall when I lent Sierra out to a woman for a clinic and Sierra dumped her twice - same clinician ;P Originally, I wanted to just do a Flat lesson but no one else wanted to Flat, so I put myself in the 'baby' group which was sort of a Flat - Cross Rails group.  Excited at the prospect of schooling some baby jumps, I was anxiously awaiting the clinic but in the back of my mind, worried that Sierra would react as she does at shows.  Goi...

I eluded in the past to having several tidbits of new and exciting information coming to light in the near future, and one is all my saddle trial woes finally coming to fruition.  It has been a long process but last week my new saddle finally arrived and it absolutely did not disappoint.  I will ride in it a bit before I do an actual review, but in the mean time, meet my new child.  A fully custom calfskin padded Frank Baines Adagio. Just for fun, this is the demo I tried on the left and my saddle on the right.  You can really spot the differences!

On September 27th, our final horse show of the season began.  Not only is it the biggest All-English show of the season in our area, I am also the founder and president of the club that puts it on, and the show manager.  I had set the goal early on to ride in this show, and I had really hoped to do a few Dressage tests to gain a baseline of our training fundamentals.  Unfortunately, for the first time ever, I also had to work at my day-job on show day, and as such, my goals of riding in the Dressage ring died.  I considered scratching at that point, but instead, I pushed onward and altered my plans to ride in the show.  Luckily for me, the Flat classes were scheduled later in the day, which opened up a possibility for me to still attend. Schooling at home prior to the show Currently, I was in the running (and the lead) for the Walk/Trot Division of the Jumper Jackpot Series, and the fourth and final part of this series was tied into the Fall Finale s...

What began as waiting to see if any photos surfaced from a show I attended several weeks ago, I got busy and discouraged and subsequently fell off the face of blog-land, but Hi, Hello, Welcome.  I didn't really mention it in my last post , but after our local show in August didn't go so well, I decided to drive 2.5 hrs to attend another show the next day in a neighboring province.  It was a teeny-tiny 4H type show somewhere I had never even been before, but it seemed like a good schooling opportunity and the likelihood of knowing anyone there was slim at best.   I loaded up and hit the road the following morning around 7:45 Alberta Time and finally located the Show shortly after 10:30 AM Local Time.  The grounds were described to me as "a short distance out of town, about 10-15 minutes" but it was actually more like 30-45.  They were not taking pre-registration and riders were supposed to register by 10:00 AM but I had previously spoke to the organ...