Bromont CCI Recap Podcast is Up!

Tribute finished 2nd in his first CCI* out of 56! Jess has a very good weekend, and Kelsey wins the XC style award in the CCI*. The DPE Podcast is online click the following link to listen or copy and subscribe in your favorite podcast player.

http://www.dpequestrian.com/podcast/podcast.xml

Bromont XC Day....

As always XC was exciting, but the 'Prodigy' continued to live up to his name. This was his first CCI* and a challenging one at that! Tribute handled it with class. He continues to impress me with the length of his stride and his athleticism which will prove invaluable in the future.

We had a few moments which were tricky, especially the last water where there were 3 ducks in a row. The first was on solid ground, then 4 strides to the second in the water and the third on solid ground on the other side. Tribute jumped clear into the water, unfortunately putting us at a less than desirable distance to the duck. Fortunately, he was quick to figure it out, and jumped out like a champ! We finished up the day just 2 seconds under the time adding nothing to our dressage score moving to hold 2nd place alone.

He looked great tonight, so fingers crossed for the 8 am jog tomorrow morning. With some luck we'll leave the rails up and see what happens. Regardless, I'm convinced that I very well may be the luckiest person here to have such a special horse coming up the ranks. Thanks again to Kristen Burgers who owns Tribute with me. Without her I wouldn't be here!

I can't forget Jess and Kelsey. Jess and Trevor jumped very well around the CIC*** course as did Kelsey in the CCI* both finishing clear with a little time. Today was a great day for us...hopefully this trend continues tomorrow!!

Bromont - Dressage Day

Tribute aka 'The Prodigy' as he's often called around the barn lived up to his namesake today at the Bromont CCI*. We arrived here late Tuesday after an uneventful drive from NJ. Yesterday was a quiet day, we were able to ride around the park and concentrate on a little flat work prior to the first Jog. Horse Junkies United got a quick photo from the jog found below:

photo by HorseJunkiesUnited.com

Today was dressage day for the 56 CCI* horses. Tribute was very good, this place is enormous, with loads of atmosphere. While he generally doesn't show outward signs of being nervous, he is an internalizer. I've been working on a few different plans/schemes to relax him when the apprehension reaches it's peak. They worked well today...he finished up with a 45 and change tied for 2nd place! I was even more frustrated with myself in that I committed my first error of the year today. Tribute deserved to be in 2nd place all to himself, but luckily for us, this weekend is far from over.

Tribute just entering the dressage ring at the Bromont CCI*

I haven't yet walked out to see the XC course, but from what I hear it is simelar to last years version.  For those who missed it, below is Kristin Michaloski's Camerlingo XC from 2011.



Kelsey Hoiness also went today, Ben was very good under her guidance. She finished up in 17th not far off the lead. 

Jess also goes late tomorrow morning, so fingers crossed! Following her ride, we'll be out walking the course, making sure to have a solid plan before Saturday.

-D

Rolex, MCTA, Jersey, Va HT, Fitness advice and more...

The DPE podcast just finished a hiatus and is back on the air! We're just about to head to Bromont Canada for Tribute's first CCI*.

Click here or search iTunes for the latest episode.