Spruce Meadows update

[Shannon_c21]

Well I flew in Thursday from Calgary for a little vacation before the show season starts up again. Lots has happened since I last posted. The little 3 year old Elton who I was riding and loving so much was bought by Jonathan Asslin who I know will take him to the top. Christmas flew by with out too many gliches. On christmas day I had just finished feeding my barn in the morning when I was riding my bike back to the house when I notice that west barns tractor was pulling into the front so I asked Stacy what she was doing. We walked down to the south row and there was water everywhere. The middle horse Godfia had chewed through the line running to her automatic watering bowl and had flooded the whole barn so we spent 3 hours cleaning out water logged stalls that morning. I guess that was our way of working off the amount of food we were going to eat later! Albert our boss had given us a turkey so one of the trainers girlfriends cooked it up for dinner. The other day we started to jump with Albert. It has been so much fun and I have yet to fall off! Knock on Wood!!!!! We have just been doing cross rails and small verticals but I am learning a ton. Since I last wrote Kevin went home to Germany for 2 weeks so I had to ride 7 horses a day! The training of the 3 year old Fragaria has been so much fun and I have learned so much about the young horses. I never thought I would be learning from the best. I even did a little canter on him the other day and I have started to ride him out of the group and so far so good. With Kevin gone I was getting up to 6 hours of riding time a day and Albert was giving me little lessons throughout the day on different horses so I really had several little lessons throughout the day. Since Kevins been back 2 of the horses who he was riding have ben given to me to ride exclusively. Tapestry who is a 5 year old Dutch Warmblood mare has been teaching me how to sit cause if your not sitting right she just won’t do it!She is one of the sweetest mares I have ever been around. The other is an 8 year old Hanovarian mare Carina, who has been coming off a lameness issue. Albert went to Hawii the past week I was there so Kevin was giving me and Rachael private lessons in the morning and he was letting us jump Tapestry and Carina and Racheal rode Tequila and Savoy. In the morning after muck-out I would come back and get Fragaria ready, lunge him then I would ride for about 20 min. After that I would ride either Carina or Tapestry depending on who Kevin told me and Kevin would ride Sequia. Me and Rachael would warm up and after about 30 min Kevin would run and put Sequia away and he would come back out and give us a riding lesson for about 30 min to 40 min depending on which horses we were riding. Then I would take care of the rest of our horses and then lunch. After lunch we ride in a group lesson with all of the grooms. Kevin set up different things everyday. One day we did bounces with a back ground pole to get us sitting up and turning within the stride after the jump. One day we did a line through a diaganal to practice flying lead changes and he would make different spots ,stop spots in which we had to stop the horse from a canter through out the course so we were learning about speed control. By the end of the week we had to pull it all together to do a whole course. Kevin was the judge and we had a mini competition between all of us. Lets just say I didn’t win! I only missed one lead change thought so I was really proud of Eraconick.So it should be really fun to show off to Albert all that I have learned while he has been gone. I still can’t believe I am working out there as I love it soooo much and it doesn’t seem like work. It is such a wonderful opportunity to learn from these people and I hope to someday make a career out of this! Here is a few of the pictures

My house!!

Me and Fragaria the 3 year old

ME and Cruise On, a 4 year old gelding who has just been sold

The whole gang over for new years eve, from left to right

Crystal, Stacey,Rachael, Sophie, Kevin, me

bottom row

Wendy, Sergey, Jan

Me and Eraconick, who is an 8 year old Hanovarian Gelding

Thanks for looking

Shannon

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Oh Shannon it sounds like you are having so much fun and learning so much!!! Just shows what an open mind and a real desire to learn can do- did you draw straws for working Christmas??? If must have been good fun though? That house looks really nice- how about some interior shots- how many of you sharing it??

I really look forward to your posts, more please, and LOTS or pictures!!

:

 

[Horse Hugs]

Wow, what an opportunity for you. Sounds like you are getting to ride some wonderful horses and getting some great experience jumping. I love all the pictures. :aktion033:

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

what an amazing opportunity you have there - you will learn so much about everything from people to horses how exciting for you I love your updates.

 

[Lisa]

Those are great pics! I'm glad you are having such a great time there! It's nice to see Stacey surrounded by people LOL! She keeps telling me she doesn't do much! LOL! Awwww!!!!!!!! Cruise!!!!! He was one of my faves when I was there, it's sad that he was sold!!!! I just love that blaze!!!

 

[keeperofthehorses]

What an awesome experience you are having! Thank you so much for sharing your adventure!

 

[Shannon_c21]

Well I don't have any more pics with me of the inside of the house so I will make sure I get some when I go back! As of right now I am sharing the house only with Rachael. We had another roomate Julia who went back to Germany. We arn't even sure if we get to stay in the house as there are rumors flying around that they are moving us.

Shannon

 

[Jenn]

Sounds like you're having a blast. Say hi to Stacey for me!