Elizabeth Wood
photo by Phil West
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TRAINING NOTES from Elizabeth
Irish Morning Mist and Megan Brown schooling before his dressage test.
Thanks to Heather and Dana for the beautiful braids on our horses!
Aly's Charmer with Elizabeth.
Aly's Charmer and Elizabeth. November 20, 2005
Irish Morning Mist with Megan.
Irish Morning Mist with Megan.
Joe Bear and Paula Gunnels. November 20, 2005
Joe Bear and Paula Gunnels. November 20, 2005
Grayboo and Megan Brown at Oxer Farm. November 20, 2005
Thank you Sandra and Jean for putting on a well run show. They even remembered the cheese whiz!
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training notes from elizabeth |
Our horses > training notes from elizabeth > November 20, 2005
Sunday, November 20, 2005We like to test our training by attending schooling shows. This weekend we went to Oxer Farm to attend their combined test/dressage schooling show. It was the first show ever for three year-old Aly's Charmer and Grayboo. Irish Morning Mist and Joe Bear were also on our trailer. It was really a team effort this weekend with everyone pitching in to help four Bits & Bytes Farm horses get to the Oxer Farm Schooling show. Irish, Grayboo, Joe Bear and Aly's Charmer were brushed, washed and braided up by Heather (master braider), Dana, Megan, Paula, David and Elizabeth. The braids were OUTSTANDING!!! ( and tough to get out). Our newest "Friend" Dr. Melissa Bondurant showed up Saturday night as Elizabeth was loosing it. She jumped in and cleaned tack. Thank goodness. Barry cleaned and polished boots. We loaded up quickly at 6 AM Sunday morning and headed north to our friends' Jean and Sandra Carnett's beautiful home- Oxer Farm. Oxer Farm is where we did our last schooling. Aly's Charmer and Grayboo were not with us that day so it was their first visit to Oxer Farm. Lise stayed behind on Sunday morning along with Barry to take care of the horses at the farm while Paula, Megan, Elizabeth headed out to the competition. Thank goodness we brought our groom, navigator, caterer and photographer Marie along. We could not have done it without her help! We also had our own cheering squad with Megan's mom and "Friends" Allison and Niki coming along to support us and dragging their boyfriends into the fun as well. It was a good feeling to see so many people all there to support our horses. Thank you for making the effort!
It was Aly's Charmer's first ever show, and only his second time away from the farm. He performed like a pro in both of his classes. He was rewarded with two fourth place ribbons.
Joe Bear and Paula presented a lovely picture of how graceful dressage can be. Joe Bear was not on his game today but he still got valuable experience and so did Paula.
Grayboo surprised us all with his talent for jumping. But of course, Megan made it look easier than it is. This was Grayboo's first show and he was fantastic although not as good in the dressage arena as he can be. First show jitters were handled well by Megan's skilled riding. He took the blue.
Megan had her hands full riding two horses! Irish Morning Mist gave Megan a good ride -- although not during the jumping phase of the show. He schooled beautifully but got stage fright in the arena and refused two jumps.
His dressage was much better and he could have almost been mistaken for a warmblood. He was all business in the arena with only the normal young horse issues on not keeping the contact and getting above the bit at times.
Megan took the lunch break time as an opportunity to show Irish the fences one more time and get a few more jumping "miles" on him. Marie worked as jump crew (add that to her list of duties today) and raised the fences as Irish showed more and more confidence. You would have thought he was competing in a hunter show the way he quietly measured his strides to each fence and did flying changes with ease.
Aly's Charmer participated in two Intro dressage tests. He acted like he had always been in a dressage arena - not spooking at the white chain or the judges stand. He really seemed to enjoy him self and his scores showed it.
It was a fun day and an inexpensive way to test our training of the young horses. Thank you Sandra and Jean for putting on a well run show. They even remembered the cheese whiz!
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