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Karen's News |
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| August 23, 2006 Race
Day The Start: My start with Bree was that he was a total gentleman. He was the calmest I’ld ever seen him. There were so many people. I was scared for the spectators because they were all in the middle of the horses and I just remembered when we started in Spain that a horse reared up and struck someone and injured them. I started pretty much in the middle too with LindaR but behind Julius About 10 minutes when we got to the cow pasture he finally did a buck and all four feet in the air. As I was halfway through the ride, my head got very hot with the helmet cover on the ground so I ripped it off and threw it in the crowd saying “souvenir from Canada”., and a guy ran and picked it up. Vet Check 1: Bree was feeling really good. The Team got on him and James came up to discover that the pulse monitor was not working and Bree was already down. The vets didn’t like his trot. I had to present right away, and I thought too that his shoulder was a little bit off. But as I whispered in his ear, it’s OK if you don’t make it cause I feel kinda sick but if you do, I’ll ride ya. But we were pulled, So we loaded him in the trailer to take him home. He wouldn’t go in. It was too new, too clean. So I put my Canadian Bags down, and everybody was helping to get him in the trailer along with the Argentina horse. I rode with him in the back of the trailer with Saylor, and then halfway to the stable I realized that all my Canadian clothing got left behind. So put Bree in his stall, he was happy, drank 2 buckets of water and wanted his food. I fed him and then went back to the Vet Check to crew for the day. I felt really about leaving him all by himself. My Canadian Bags were taken to the Team tent so I didn’t lose them after all. |
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| August 8, 2006 Down to the stable in the a.m. for horsechores. And then Julius and I went off to the trail. We rode to Vet Check 1 at Drielandpunt. We rode part way yesterday and today went all the way. Fast trot uphill to the vetcheck and the horses pulses were down right away. There was a press conference happening just as we got there. We let them eat grass and discovered that the Netherland Team (2 of them) were unloading their horses to do a mock vet presentation. But people were more interested in these two Canadian riders and boy did we have camera crew!! A fellow there introduced himself to us and said that he knows all the trail and could answer all of our questions and lives not too far away from our Bungalows. He turned out to be the trail manager, he asked if we had any questions about the trail, we answered “where are the short cuts?” (hahaha)Gave us his phone number so we’ll be in contact with him right quick. So I proceeded to take my Royal Bank water bottles out of my back pack and poured it on my horse, making sure that the Royal Bank emblem was in sight of the cameras. The reason the Cameras were on us, or rather ME…. Is because of the “Team Canada Endurance” and Canadian flag on the back of my shirt, as well as the maple leaf on my butt. Julius was busy talking with the Trail Guy. We didn’t get to take part in their vet presentation but the horses sure enjoyed the grass. May 29, 2006 I rode 45 miles on May 20 in the pouring rain. I want to thank my faithful friend Cathy Hartley and her horse Chip for riding half way with me. I rode to the Town of Sexsmith and back home, which, as a child I thought that would take 1 whole week. I want to also take this time to thank Cavallo for the sponsor of my saddle pad. It is working amazing on my horse's back. I am going to purchase another one so I have 2 for Germany. This is the best saddle pad I have ever used. Also I want people to know that Ariat has a new endurance sneaker out there that I ride in and it is amazing. I use a heart rate monitor also and discovered that my horse runs with a lower pulse on pavement which I am happy to see as there is 20 miles of pavement in Germany. Training hard and looking forward to Germany. Don't forget our Endurance Ride in Grande Prairie , June 23,24. |
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| May 19, 2006 I have been doing my interval training and my horse is the best he has ever been . I finally had a chiropractor work on him as I new he had to be out as he is such a brat in the pasture and runs and falls down lots. To everyone out there, believe me, it is the best thing I have ever done. I didn't ever think I would use a chiropractor on my horse but he is totally different. Even though I would do all of my proper interval training he would still take a while for his pulse to come down. Now I know why. He now comes down to 64 beats within 2 minutes and his pulse is awesome on hill work. I have been ponying him on my bike on pavement as the terrain in Germany has about 20 miles of paved road. I decided to pony him first with out my weight and then ride him. He is so incredible to pony. I get a lot of people stopping to talk to me! |
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| Copyright: Alberta Equestrian Federation | |
| 5/13/2008 : 10:52:24 PM | |