Horse Insurance

It's that time of year when we need to renew Stormy's Life/Major Medical Insurance.  If you are a horse owner the best piece of advice given to me and shared with you,  is that,  if you cannot afford to replace your horse tommorrow - buy insurance.

Rachel's previous coach gave us that advice when we purchased Stormy.  Her comment was, if he broke his leg tommorrow and you had to replace him would you have the funds to do so??  NOT!! that purchase tapped out our resources!  Not much different than a human policy,  it renews each year and you have the option of increasing the value (or decreasing) based on the level of training your horse has attained.  In 5yrs we've increased the value of the policy twice. 

It's expensive, but, in the world of horses what isn't ? I'll gladly pay the price for some piece of mind.

Ride Em Cowgirl!

After 8 weeks of stall rest, Stormy is finally getting regular rides but just at the walk & trot.  He still hasn't been turned out and won't be,  until Rachel can ride him at the trot without all the drama he's been displaying.  He'll be turned out in the indoor arena first, where someone can keep an eye on him. Tendon boots and a small dose of tranquilizer will make it a safer adjustment to all that freedom.

His knee is totally sound but he's a wee bit stiff  from spending all that time in his stall.  Coach and rider are working him back into his regular routine slowly.  Currently he spends most of his time at the trot, crow hopping, shaking his head, bucking and generally being very sassy.  Rachel spends most of her time laughing at his antics and hanging on!

I caught him misbehaving in a couple of shots but since we were indoors the quality is not the best.  Rachel wouldn't allow me to use the flash....hmmm, I wonder why?

Equestrian All Star Grand Prix

Saturday the 3rd, we spent the entire day at ScotiaBank Place.  Rachel and I received excellent tickets/day pass for the Equestrian All Star Weekend from my better half.  The arena where we normally see our Ottawa Senators play was converted to an indoor jumping arena for 24 competitors. I would love to know how they're going to get all the footing cleaned up and off the ice surface! One of the parking lots in back of the arena was converted to temporary stabling and a loading dock was converted to a temporary warm-up ring.

It started with the 11:00am qualifier, followed at 2:00pm by the SuperDogs which was an absolute riot and then the final show jumping at 7:00pm. Unfortunately, my camera was not allowed into the arena since the lenses are removable and considered "professional". The pictures I did manage were taken with my mobile phone. My apologies for the quality.

The course was very tight with 11 jumping efforts at 1.5M and higher. Among the world-class champions who competed were Olympians Jay Hayes, Beth Underhill, John Anderson, and 2008 Silver Medal winning Olympic Team members Mac Cone, Ian Miller and Jonathan Asselin.   Hyde Moffat was "miked" and gave his opinion on what the difficulties in the course might be.

There was a new generation of riders including Ian Millar's own family, Amy and Jonathan Millar, David Arcand and Paul Halpern from Quebec, Tamie Phillips of Alberta, Gary Brewster from British Columbia and Keean White and Yann Candele from Ontario. Other local favourites that competed included Kanata's Karen Sparkes (daughter of local hi-tech mogul Terry Mathews) and Lauren Hunkin of Kemptville.

Both show jumping phases were won by Yann Candele, a magnificent rider and friendly, quiet man. (Rachel had the benefit of sharing an aisle at the Ottawa show with Yann, his horses and grooms). Amy Miller took 2nd and Karen Cudmore 3rd.

                                                               

At the end of the competition, all the riders came back into the arena and went around the rails signing autographs and posing for pictures. What great PR for the sport of show jumping!

Angela Covert Lawrence & a fan

Back in the Saddle

September 29th seen Rachel climb aboard Stormy for the first time in 5 1/2 weeks.  It was an adventure as he couldn't believe his good fortune and tried to take advantage of it whenever possible. He still hasn't been turned out, that will probably happen early next week but in the meantime he's enjoying his walk, trot around the indoor arena.

Today we're off to Scotiabank place for the Equestrian All Star Grand Prix at 11:00am & 7:00pm with a performance by the Superdogs at 2:00pm.  Should be a fun day and hopefully I might get a picture or two!