Other than watching Ashley and Belinda do short, easy rides this morning to prepare for their tests tomorrow, I spent the rest of the day at Stillpoint Farm having a normal day. Of course, by normal that now means betwen 14 and 16 combinations coming at 30 minute intervals all day long.  It’s really like the old days when I had one warming up, one working, and one cooling down - kind of like a conveyor belt.
But here’s the thing. I promised the Canadian riders I would give 150% if they gave 100% to every day and so far they’ve done just that and more! Tomorrow, while the 3 riders are competing at the Masters, with Belinda and Diane in the Grand Prix Special and Ashley in the Freestyle, most of the rest of my Canadian riders will be doing a schooling show at the Jim Brandon arena with top O Judge, Linda Zang, officiating. This will be a tremendously educational experience for my up and coming Grand Prix combinations as well as the small tour riders and horses who are attending.  Between the schooling show and having my riders watch both the warm-ups and the competitions at the Masters, I feel that they will have made huge strides in understanding exactly what it takes to become truly world-class competitors.  We will keep on raising our personal bars on a day by day, week by week, and month by month basis until I see a squad of riders and horses which all have the ability to achieve 70% or over. That is our goal and we will not stop until we have realized it.
I will report the results of both shows tomorrow evening and know we will see fantastic rides in all classes tomorrow!

Cheers!

RD

Posted: Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized