The new farrier
The new farrier came this afternoon, so far he seems to be a welcome change from the previous "call me on Monday, call me back in two hours, call me back in a few more hours, I'll be there in half an hour, if he needs shoes, he needs shoes ... " guy. He was nice enough, but, no more pleasure horse farriers. This new guy hangs his shingle out as a farrier who specializes in shoeing dressage and eventing horses, so we'll see how it goes. He did point out how each horse's way of going wore its foot pretty accurately, and he did encourage questions right off the bat. Plus he scheduled an appointment for 6 weeks and actually wrote it down and generally seemed to display other professional characteristics most people hope to find when contracting someone for business in the horse industry. It's such a crap shoot at times.
Christine and I went to see Pam Goodrich give a lecture, actually, a demonstration, at the UNH arena called The Dressage Horse: Form to Function, as part of the Weds. night fall lecture series. We went as a prelude to the clinic at MRF this weekend, to get an idea of what kind of teacher Pam is like. She's a USET, er, USEF rider, trains and shows at the FEI level with her husband Pierre St. Jacques right here in NH. My instructor Michele trains with them, so I get the benefit of their experience. Kind of makes you think. Riding with an active trainer who is also maintaining her own education and training makes sense.
The lecture was held at the indoor as there were several demonstrations in hand and under saddle, so Pam could show what was desireable conformationally for FEI dressage and also what type of horse makes sense for amateurs and low level riders. Seriously, I can ride a horse, but I couldn't just get on a grand prix horse and do a well executed extended trot. She and Pierre had brought several of their own horses for examples, and to our surprise, brought Lucky Tiger, whom Pierre rode for us.
There were two other horses, training and first level, riding around at the same time, and Pam was discussing their qualities and how their conformation worked for them and how they were appropriate horses for certain people, and at the same time Pierre was floating around on Tiger, doing the "3 Ps" (piaffe, passage and pirouettes), and of course we all sat there just gaping, in awe and delight. But I still managed to absorb some practical information from the lecture, and again felt ok that it's ok for me to ride the horses I can ride, and accept that. I guess that sounds like I'm shooting for mediocrity, but in reality I am striving for a sort of kaizen, continuous improvement, and while I may not get to advanced level eventing or grand prix dressage, I may yet get beyond training level dressage and beginner novice/novice eventing.
Christine and I went to see Pam Goodrich give a lecture, actually, a demonstration, at the UNH arena called The Dressage Horse: Form to Function, as part of the Weds. night fall lecture series. We went as a prelude to the clinic at MRF this weekend, to get an idea of what kind of teacher Pam is like. She's a USET, er, USEF rider, trains and shows at the FEI level with her husband Pierre St. Jacques right here in NH. My instructor Michele trains with them, so I get the benefit of their experience. Kind of makes you think. Riding with an active trainer who is also maintaining her own education and training makes sense.
The lecture was held at the indoor as there were several demonstrations in hand and under saddle, so Pam could show what was desireable conformationally for FEI dressage and also what type of horse makes sense for amateurs and low level riders. Seriously, I can ride a horse, but I couldn't just get on a grand prix horse and do a well executed extended trot. She and Pierre had brought several of their own horses for examples, and to our surprise, brought Lucky Tiger, whom Pierre rode for us.
There were two other horses, training and first level, riding around at the same time, and Pam was discussing their qualities and how their conformation worked for them and how they were appropriate horses for certain people, and at the same time Pierre was floating around on Tiger, doing the "3 Ps" (piaffe, passage and pirouettes), and of course we all sat there just gaping, in awe and delight. But I still managed to absorb some practical information from the lecture, and again felt ok that it's ok for me to ride the horses I can ride, and accept that. I guess that sounds like I'm shooting for mediocrity, but in reality I am striving for a sort of kaizen, continuous improvement, and while I may not get to advanced level eventing or grand prix dressage, I may yet get beyond training level dressage and beginner novice/novice eventing.
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