Rider Fitness & Final Dinner

Yes, camp has finished. Katchi is back at home - actually the crazy horse went for quite a gallop when I turned him out in his field tonight! So much for exhaustion! He got his two field buddies all riled up - they were galloping and bucking and rolling! And I felt sorry for Katchi today thinking it had been such a long week.

I know you all are anxiously awaiting to know how it all ended... but you have to wait until tomorrow! My mom is driving my car at the moment, on the way back to my house, so I could do some typing. Wanted to finish off yesterday's events, and tomorrow I will tell you all about today's competition.

Yesterday afternoon, we had a rider fitness session in the grass under the trees. We lost one groom to sleep - yep, in the middle of the rider fitness session, there was a groom, laying down leaning up against a tree - sunglass on - and totally asleep! It was fantastic! Just to give this groom a bit more credit, he is the brother-in-law of one of the riders (and, ladies, he's single!), so really no-one can fault the guy for taking a little snooze!

The rider fitness session focused on core strength. We had a bit of reluctancy to try the exercises ourselves - probably because none of us were so silly to think any of them would be as easy as our trainer had made them look - and probably a bit because half of us were afraid volunteering for the demo would make us too sore to ride on Friday! Evie bravely took on the first challenge - with a broken toe (there was a little incident with a bag of ice earlier in the day!). We were all very impressed with her one-legged 1/2 squat skills despite the broken toe!

Eventually, we all started talking about our various injuries, aches and pains - and suddenly the session got pretty exciting! From backs to knees to hips - we all got some tips on various exercises that could improve our flexibility and strengthen the areas. Several campers had a hip range of rotation assessment done, which looked pretty frightening! I actually didn't know that hips could move like that. Nate Chambers won the contest though - he apparently has almost freakishly flexible hips! There are a few things I could probably say about that, but I think I should just walk away!

Later that evening, we had our final guest lecture and dinner together. We had an excellent talk by Kevin Keane (I sure hope I got his name right as my sheet is in the trunk of the car at the moment), who is a veterinarian. Kevin spoke to us about qualities that make a good event horse - everything from conformation to strong backs - and lung capacity and injuries. And then we had a chance for questions. Well, actually my mom had time for questions! My mom is a nurse, and she has been an outstanding groom all week - she was chief horse holder which was an enormous help as anyone with a horse knows! Anyhow, being a nurse, we have had a few "discussions" over the week regarding differences in treatments between humans and horses. So, my mom quite liberally took the opportunity to put our "discussions" to the authority of a vet. jeeze. She had excellent questions and I think everyone appreciated the answers (the questions were:

1. Why doesn't ice directly on a horse's leg burn their skin?

2. What causes ulcers in horses?

3. Should you put hydrogen peroxide on a wound - during the answer of this one, we had to modify the question a bit to add whether flesh wounds and hoof wounds should be treated differently (the answer was Yes! it is good to use hydrogen peroxide to help get dirt and possible infection agents out of the hoof, but is too strong to put on a flesh wound).

I think one other person was able to ask a question, but I've forgotten what it was - I think I was too happy to know I had won all three of our "discussions" this week!!!

Anyhow, I tried to get my mom to stop asking questions after the first two, but Phillip said she could ask her third question - and if Phillip said it was okay, I definitely was not going to be able to stop her!!! Of course, I did LOVE it when Phillip harassed my mom for the extra 30 minutes her questions added to our evening! My mom is very easy to harass and he did it good!

Next, Phillip called each of the 11 riders up - oh wait, that reminds me, an update on the rider who fell into the ditch on Wednesday. She is okay - with a chip in her knee. Will likely require surgery, but we're all hoping that she'll be up and riding again in no time! Right, so Phillip called up 10 riders to the front of the room - and he came to the rider in the leg brace! Each rider came up and Phillip made a few comments about their development over the week. And where he thinks they should head in the immediate future. It was really nice to hear Phillip's over all impressions - sometimes in riding, we get so stuck in the details that we forget to think about whether we're even on the right road, even if the right road has a lot of pot holes! We also each got a picture of us and our horse with Phillip taken at the start of our one-on-one lesson earlier in the week (before Katchi got Duttonized!). Phillip had autographed each one - that's something for a frame on my tack room wall, someday, when I have my own barn. We also each had a typed up 'formal' evaluation of how we're doing and things to work on. I wonder what Jimmy would think if I just hand him a copy of that letter at my next lesson! :)

The evening wrapped up with a bit of video watching from the previous two XC schoolings. Although I had seen quite a bit of the other groups, it was really nice to sit with each other and watch some of the successes and not-quite successes of the past 2 days!

And, so I just have one more day of camp to report on. I have to admit, I am pretty sad that it's all over. We are almost home, and my cat probably thinks I ran away to join the circus! So, I will post this now, and hope you all come back tomorrow to hear about the final day!

A few thank yous - more to come

I am having serious computer aggravations tonight and am once again well past curfew. But, before the camp is over, I just want to let everyone who is reading this blog know how wonderful everyone involved in this camp has been! This morning, I was a bit sad knowing that we only had 2 days left. Sort of silly considering how much we learned in the first two days that I would be sad to still have 2 more great days ahead - but we check out of the hotel tomorrow morning and will drive home tomorrow evening. Back to reality, I guess.

Anyhow, beyond Phillip and Evie (Sylva, Ryan and Jennie), every single person we have come across in the past 4 days has been outstanding. Amy and Abby have been our leaders and caretakers and our horses love them (as do we!). And today, I took Emma up on her offer from yesterday to help us with anything we could - Katchi got a bit of an overreach this morning which looked like nothing this morning, but was pretty oozy this afternoon. I immediately drug him down the hill and begged Emma (who was just leaving for I'm sure a wonderful evening out of the barn), to please help! She was wonderful and Katchi made took the walk of shame in his bandaged foot back to his own stall.

We still have one day left, but I just wanted to take a moment to say beyond the amazing learning opportunities - it has been an absolute joy to spend a week with such amazing people - instructors, working students, other campers, fabulous grooms and all our helpers! Thank you for everything you have done to make this a wonderful week away from the office!

Come Again Charlie

I think if you took a vote among the campers for the Sportsmanship award of the week, Charlie would win without a doubt. He has earned two nicknames over the past few days... "Come Again Charlie" and "One More Time Charlie". So, I thought I would share the picture of Charlie leading his horse in the green swamp water jump yesterday. Check out those half chaps wading in green moss! I hope this doesn't embarass him too much as he and his mom have been great fun all week!

Wall of Shame (and Fame!)

Okay COTH folks... here are pictures of the Wall of Shame (and Fame) -

1. Wall of Fame

2. Wall of Shame

3. Close-up of Wall of Shame

XC Day II - I Made Phillip Laugh!

First, a caveat - will add pictures to this tonight and I hve 20 minutes until it's "rider fitness" time. I just had to take a quick 20 minute nap in my truck as I totally missed curfew last night trying to get caught up on this blog. So, lets see how much I can get done in 20 minutes... also, just saw the COTH requests for pictures of the wall of shame - think I can manage that for you all!

Also, realized something I missed in posting last night to add to the Charlie leading his horse into the water story - meanwhile, his poor mother was about to have a heart attack watching her brand new very expensive half chaps wade into the green water! Apparently someone has a picture of Charlie, his horse and the million dollar half chaps in the green muck, so will see if I can track it down! Not really what one expects when they sign up for a Phillip Dutton clinic, is it?!?! Aren't we supposed to ride through the water??

Right, so today was round two on the XC course. Phillip set out to build upon the confidence we were developing in the horses yesterday. We started by revisting the galloping position work that we did with Jennie earlier in the week, then moving onto small figure 8's over a small log in the field. Phillip really wanted to get the horses soft in the jaw on the landing of the jump, so they would land and flow in the direction we wanted rather than charging off on a straight line headed to wherever the horses thought it would be good to head. It was a really great exercise and not one that I think many people would think of doing as a XC warm-up. We did quite a few of the same combinations again today, but this time we didn't "school" them so much first. He had higher expectations that we would do them more competently and faster this time around as well as longer courses of various combination questions. It's not often that we take the opportunity to tackle the exact same XC questions 2 days in a row to get it "more right". He also threw in several new jumps and lines which included a very big log (to my eyes at least - Katchi just chuckled and said, let me at it mom!).

One of the new lines we did was to repeat a small log on varied terrain then gallop along the track and into the woods where there was a narrow upright rail road tie jump. Katchi has spooked at this stupid jump every time we've walked past it all week - it's in the shade, between two trees with the track running almost next to it. And here is where I made Phillip laugh - he told us to jump the first log then head down (do not underestimate the horses's questions coming into this new jump!) and jump the RR ties. He says "if all goes well, come back and do it the other direction." I replied, "don't you mean, WHEN it goes well, come back and do it the other direction." He laughed quite hard. So, it may not have been through the blog that I made Phillip Dutton laugh - but I did make him laugh at least once this week!

Katchi and I had a really great day with one bobble at the sunken road. I sorta had an idea it might be an issue for Katchi, so I asked Phillip early on today if we could be sure to do it. Once again, I would have been far better off if I'd thrown the reins away and kicked, but I didn't. Seriously, I don't think I have a learning disability (I am pretty well educated in the academic sense!), but don't you just wonder about yourself sometimes?!?! Katchi had a bit of a fit and we went round and round jumping all the bits and pieces of the sunken road. This will sound funny, but despite all the drama, I was really pleased that he didn't rear. That used to be his thing, because he figured out after one time that it worked on me - it worked really good, in fact. But, no rearing and we eventually got through it and all was well.

Only other issue he gave me today was at the larger of the 2 ditches. We hadn't jumped that yesterday - we came round and jumped the smaller ditch and then were to head straight to the larger ditch (about 5 strides away)... got all the way up to the edge and had a quick stop. grrr. Phillip made me come back around to the first ditch and totally throw away the rein between the two - then just sit back and kick - ha ha, he jumped it! I finished up jumping around several fences in the other field (we're getting really good at that mound jump!), and when I came back around, I thought I saw Phillip in the ditch. He's not as tall as Boyd by any means, but when I say he's a "mean little Australian man" he's not really that small either. All I could see was the top of his hat - if that gives you any idea of how big that ditch was. I didn't see it, but we had a rider timble off into the ditch when her horse did a dirty stop at the last moment. She's a bit scraped up and has a fat knee (she went to the urgent care this afternoon to get it checked out, so hopefully we'll have a good diagnosis by the end of the day), but was in good spirits. And, oh her horse is SO SO sorry now. He really does know what it means to have a "mean little Australian man" on your back!

For those wondering, Charlie had a much better day today. However, at the end of the ride, Phillip told him that he plans to continue to build the mare's confidence over the courses tomorrow. Charlie says "sounds like a bunch of tiny logs to me." We've all been there, Charlie!

Okay - off to "rider fitness" - we have awards and evaluations, which I'm sure will be amusing if nothing else!

XC - Oh My!

Yep - today, Phillip got us! Tonight, back at the barn after all the day's events were over - several of us sat around laughing so much we were probably scaring the horses! We had so much fun sharing our day's adventures and comparing who made Phillip the most mad (horses and riders!) and which was his funniest comment of the day. My personal favorite... A very gracious 15 year old boy, Charlie, was having a heck of a day with his mare who just would not go in the water jump. Charlie suggested to Phillip that perhaps he could just get off and lead her in (let me just tell you that the water jump today was more green slime than water!). Phillip replies in a quirky Australian way while waving his hand "GO AHEAD!" and Charlie does it! Tonight, Phillip suggested that perhaps the mare will sleep on today's events and have a better day tomorrow, but I'll tell you one thing - I'll be there to watch tomorrow!

As for me, all was good for most of the day, although I did manage to get Phillip to say F#@*!! It wasn't actually directed at me, but he was mad at me at the time, so...

This was our first day on the XC course. He has so much stuff to play with! We stared in the arena going back to the work we had done the previous day - bringing the horses down to the base of the jump and really bending their hocks, then coming around on a faster longer stride and jumping more out of a gallop, then back to adding. Then we moved onto jumping in/out of the arena over various log jumps. I managed to muck up the very first of these combinations by being stupid about my line and forgetting to ride the jump in front of me - after Phillip made me start again and we did it well the second time, I felt the need to speak. Why do I do that?! I said, "the first time was partially my fault..." and Phillip replies loudly "It was more than partially!" - my fellow campers thought that was just hillarious! Gee, glad to bring a little humor along on my ride!

We did skinnies and bending lines and all kinds of funky terrain! Phillip kept stressing that we should not get so worried and just let the jumps hold the horses. Katchi and I had so much fun, and I am so loving my new horse! I just keep thinking - ride the horse you have today, but, wow is it hard to keep up! We also did ditches and banks and THE MOUND jump - it was good fun, but I fell victim to my excitement. Tried to tell Katchi to balance up and wait, when I really didn't need to do anything - that big hill up wanted to do all the work for me, if I'd just let it. It's a control thing, I guess. Our final exercise was on the water - this is when I angered Phillip. We'd gone through a few times, trot and canter, bank jump out, bank jump in, yada yada. Then it was time to jump height into the water. Katchi has never jumped height directly into water, so I wasn't real sure what he'd think about all of it. He did the first one (just a log into water) quite well and I was on cloud nine! We did that one again and survived again! Then we were to come around and jump a small skinny log on top of a bank directly into the water. I really wasn't sure what he would think about this, so, you know, I figured I'd just make sure he stopped, you know, in case he was going to stop anyhow. AGH!!!! How many times have I been yelled at for that by Lucinda and Jimmy. Man, did Phillip summon me to him fast. He says "you're coming up to the hardest thing he's ever jumped and you're telling him not to go! WHY would you do that? Everything about you should be absolutely postive to go go go!". I hate it when I do that! So, he made me canter around again and totally throw away the reins and ride, ride, ride - go, go go! And you know what... he went!

I think we definitely gave Phillip a bit of heartburn today. He was sort of laughing at us tonight, but we get our "evaluations" from him tomorrow night, so we'll see if he's still laughing at us then!! Tomorrow we do XC "courses".

The rest of the day was also fully packed - massages in the afternoon under the shade of a big beautiful tree. Only problem was that I kept hearing horses walking behind me, and I wanted so much to see who they were and what they looked like. Also had a great session with Emma about grooming tips - she talked to us about bandaging, icing, grooming, braiding, boots, cooling horses, jog outs, and so much else! Afterwards, several of us wandered through the barns to check out the digs - and we found the very best thing ever! Phillip's wall of shame - no kidding! How many top event riders do you know who have an entire wall in their barn dedicated to pictures of them falling off or having terrible jumps?!?! In all fairness, on the opposite side is a wall of fame - which is quite a bit larger!

The night ended with a great presentation by EcoGold on their saddle pads. It was very interesting to learn about the materials they use and the design functions they came up with - all from non-horse people who simply tried to apply current technology to what riders said they needed. And the very coolest part - apparently a few weeks ago, Phillip suggested they work on a new breathable shipping boot material. They came with the prototype to see what Phillip thought of what they've come up with - and we all got to see too! We were laughing that now Phillip has to test them out, so if we hear of any crazy shipping incidents involving a Dutton horse and shipping boots - we'll all know it will be a while still before the product hits the market! And, luckily, for this wine and cheese night, the dogs were well behaved and didn't get any of our cheese!

Oh - and I made a quick trip to Bit of Britain this afternoon to use a very nice coupon they provided all campers. I bought Katchi some new spurs. Ha ha, Katchi!

Okay folks, I am exhausted so will not even re-read this before posting. Please excuse any erros. I think that brings everything up to date so enjoy! Tomorrow I ride from 9:30-11:00, so I promise an afternoon update!

Picture below is of my mom and Connaught, Phillip's Rolex winner and Hong Kong Olympic horse - he has a special stall with an extra window that lets him oversee all the comings and goings. What a lovely horse!

Pool Party!

Phillip & Evie graciously invited all the campers (and working students) over to their home for a pool party and dinner on Tuesday night. The working students seem to really be embracing the perks of camp! Evie says working for them always includes lots of lounging in the pool and beer! Anyone want a job application?! It was quite cute to see that Evie and Phillip had 2 ponies in the back yard for their girls. And it turns out that Phillip is quite the cook too - everyone was raving about the burgers!!

Pretty much, I just can't do this party justice in a blog! Eventers are too funny! The stories we all have to share - you just can't make this stuff up!! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!! If anyone ever has the chance to buy Jennie Brannigan a beer - do it! The things she's learned through various misadventures... Don't tie horses with a chain over their nose; don't wear sneakers to ride because your leg actually can slip through a stirrup (I sort of always thought this was a Pony Club urban myth); Endurance rides are BORING (did you know that a 100 mile endurance ride doesn't cover 100 miles of new ground? It's just a loop over and over again!)... Other priceless comments of the night... it seems that the trip to Brazil for the Pan Am Games left a huge impression on the Dutton team - Emma (Phillip's groom) described her accomodations to us as (seriously!) UN refugee containers; Evie was very thirsty as the sporadic and miraculous arrival of water could never be foreseen; and Phillip described the crowd as acting like soccer fans who cheered wildly when the "rival" team dropped a rail in show jumping! It was a great opportunity to ask Phillip, Evie, Emma and all the working students anything we wanted - balance between family and work; training techniques; USEA Instructor Certification Program; the upcoming training sessions with Mark Phillips at True Prospect Farm; the average day.

We also received an informative talk from Nutramax - the makers of Cosequin - about joint health and digestive factors that effect sport horses. Several of the campers had very interesting questions about cartillage re-growth, pro- versus pre- biotics, and ulcers. It really is too bad that none of us seem to take care of ourselves nearly as well as we take care of our horses!

When riding in Area V, we all hit the same events (there wasn't much of a choice!) and we would spend the entire weekend together - stabled together, hotels together, and dinners out. Re-starting my eventing endeavors in Area II, it's been a little sad to me to not have the opportunity to get to know my fellow eventers as we all seem to be in and out of the one day events so quickly. After the pool party, I think I have a few new friends that I can't wait to see again at the local events!

And - because I'm sure you're all wondering - nope, I did not go swimming. So, I did not make it into the club of "I've been swimming at Phillip Dutton's house", but I did wear my swim suit, so I guess I have to start a new club called "I wore a swim suit at Phillip Dutton's house." Yea, admittedly, that scares me too. I think I'll just leave it at - I've been to Phillip Dutton's home! And a lovely home it is!