Congratulations to client, Emily Sanders, one of the officiating veterinarians at this year's event. Her Rascalino mare, Irish Blend, won the Young Event Horse five year old division with an 83.4! Not only that, Emily was approached by a USEA representative who suggested her mare was a likely candidate for the $20,000 grant to send the talented mare to the world championships for young event horses in France in 2015. How exciting is that? Click link below for photo of Irish Blend at Rebecca Farm:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=7dd48d2fc6&view=att&th=14022783af453de5&attid=0.1&disp=inline&safe=1&zw
Emily described the Irish dam of "Peanut" as having a topline like a cow. So, improving the topline was her main concern. "I went through every photo on your website and looked at every stallion's topline," Emily said. "I called you when I had narrowed it down to two stallions. When you said everyone who'd used the Rascalino semen so far had gotten a conception, I chose him." A fortuitous choice, for sure, as the inherent jumping ability of the Rubinstein line through Rotspon seems to come through quite strongly.
Emily and I talked about the fact that US eventers are actually breeding event horses now, rather than simply searching for them in the general horse population. This is a trend I have definitely noticed accelerating over the past three or four seasons. Thus, I am actively looking for event type stallions to add to my roster. In fact, I did an importation of Chilli Morning semen from the UK for Emily and a group breeders this year. Since they had good results with the semen, I will hopefully repeat an importation of his semen in 2014. http://www.sporthorsegb.co.uk/horse.aspx?id=132997 A look at his progeny is quite impressive.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
The Event at Rebecca Farm
The beautiful Flathead Valley of Montana is a perfect backdrop for the Event at Rebecca Farm. It is evident that first class planning went into this facility. I seem to remember, but can't say for sure, that owner Becky Broussard had the advice of Capt. Mark Phillips when she planned the course. I love that spectators were amply planned for, with the entire course mostly visible from a spectator's knoll in the middle of it. There are also strategically placed shade tents with lots of room. Now that Becky is passed away, her family continues operating the world class event. Admission is free, but the parking costs $5 per day, which is all donated to the family's Halt Cancer at X charity. It's the best I've ever felt about paying a parking fee!
Being a former racehorse trainer, I especially enjoy seeing all the blood and blood-influenced horses. Lately, it seems like there is a trend back toward more blood in event horses, after the pendulum had swung quite a bit toward warmbloods the past few years. The equine athletes I have seen here are beautifully conditioned and, in spite of temperatures in the 90s, I haven't seen any heat related collapses or horses in distress. This is a testament to the skillful training and management of the event riders. It must be difficult to train horses for the strenuous cross country portion of the event, where they've got to be rarin' to go, and still keep them calm and quiet enough for a good dressage test.
When I wandered over to the event's commercial tent, I was pleased to see the Cindy Burge Memorial trophy, dedicated to my friend Cindy Burge. She died a few years ago at the event when her horse tangled feet as she circled him approaching a jump. I met Cindy when I was training horses at Playfair Racecourse in Spokane years before. She came through my barn looking for event prospects. She met her eventual husband Jerry Ackerman there, when he showed up looking for polo prospects. I took a few riding lessons from Cindy each summer. I did okay jumping, because I was used to riding two point from conditioning racehorses. But dressage was something else. She laughed like crazy when my rear end automatically came up out of the saddle when she asked me to canter. It was nice to remember her under the spacious Montana summer sky.
Being a former racehorse trainer, I especially enjoy seeing all the blood and blood-influenced horses. Lately, it seems like there is a trend back toward more blood in event horses, after the pendulum had swung quite a bit toward warmbloods the past few years. The equine athletes I have seen here are beautifully conditioned and, in spite of temperatures in the 90s, I haven't seen any heat related collapses or horses in distress. This is a testament to the skillful training and management of the event riders. It must be difficult to train horses for the strenuous cross country portion of the event, where they've got to be rarin' to go, and still keep them calm and quiet enough for a good dressage test.
When I wandered over to the event's commercial tent, I was pleased to see the Cindy Burge Memorial trophy, dedicated to my friend Cindy Burge. She died a few years ago at the event when her horse tangled feet as she circled him approaching a jump. I met Cindy when I was training horses at Playfair Racecourse in Spokane years before. She came through my barn looking for event prospects. She met her eventual husband Jerry Ackerman there, when he showed up looking for polo prospects. I took a few riding lessons from Cindy each summer. I did okay jumping, because I was used to riding two point from conditioning racehorses. But dressage was something else. She laughed like crazy when my rear end automatically came up out of the saddle when she asked me to canter. It was nice to remember her under the spacious Montana summer sky.
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