Luke 140 - training in Ocala - Feb ‘21 - with audio

This is a video intended for the Luke 140 syndicate. We've been down all this week in Ocala, Florida, training with the USEF High Performance Team, I suppose you call it. We took Luke down there. He's obviously been named on one of their fancy lists, which was good. So we had a couple of days jumping there with Peter Wild. And I actually did a little bit of dressage before this with David o', Connor, which we've got right at the end of the video. This is the first day of jumping. Let's see, this would have been Tuesday. And what you're seeing here is one of Peter's exercises is sort of jumping a big jump and then really slowing down for this little cross rail and then slowing down again for this big oxer with the idea that sort of Luke gets a bit fast and keen, coming to the jumps and, you know, more working a lot on his control and slowing down. This exercise here, here's three oxes. We started them off quite small and then built them up. And you'll see those little pipes there, PVC pipes, They're what they call V rails. And these sort of really keep the horse in the middle of the fence and sort of almost encourage the horse to jump around shape. So working on Luke's technique, and this was the first day, and he jumped pretty well, he was a bit excited. So this is a course that we did, and sort of as an interesting course, it had these little gymnastic exercises in the middle of the course and then lots of turning. And the idea being that obviously Luke's a fantastic jumper, but he gets strong and a little bit aggressive and having all these little gymnastics and small fences in the middle of the course, just to sort of slow him down a bit and steady him up, because I think the only reason he'd knock a rail down is if he was sort of running a bit fast and a bit quick and was a bit aggressive at it. So Peter's a master trainer and we're just, you know, the two days of jumping here was really working on Luke's turning, his rideability, not too much about actually making him jump any better. He's already a good jumper. See in the background, sort of coach there, Eric devander, he's come back from New Zealand and keeping an eye on everyone. He's really into these jump sessions and it's pretty cool, actually. We were sort of jumped in pairs. Philip was there, Will Fordrey, Liz Halliday, Sharp. A bunch of the top riders sort of went together and worked away and Each. Each evening we had a bit of a meeting. Eric gave us a talk for an hour or so each night and talked about the logistical nightmares of competition competitions this year with COVID Sadly, we got told that Kentucky Five Star was going to be cancelled this year. That being said, probably thinking that Luke will. I'm still trying to figure it all out, but I'm going to do the Bruce. Bruce's Field Showcase. Well, no, actually I'm going to do an intermediate next weekend in Georgia at Pinetop. And I'm just going to creep around that really, really slow. And I'm sure Luke's going to be a lunatic at that event. So I'm. I'm just going to be on surv mode and just hold on for dear life and running pretty slow. And then the next event is going to be a great event. It's going to be the Bruce's Field Grand Prix eventing. And there's a live feed. So this is the second day of training. This was today, Wednesday. And I got to say Luke came out and jumped better. He sort of got a little bit of that nervous energy out the first day. So this is an oxid or vertical. It's meant to be eight strides but Peter had going there in nine strides just to try and sort of slow him down, you know, adding a stride, making him steady up. And same idea here. These bounces, these cross rails and these V poles all trying to just steady, steady the little fellow up. So going back to our game plan, we're going to do Pinetop Intermediate next weekend. Just nice and slow. Then the Bruce's Field Showcase which should be a great event. Then I think I'll take him down to Tryon and do the four star short there. And then I've got to figure out either that or Fair Hill's got an event. He over jumped that a bit. He's a bit strong here. And then I think our big focus is going to be the Jersey Fresh four Star long, which I think like a selection event for the Olympics if that happens. Personally, I think Lute's going to be primed for the Fair Hill five star at the end of the year. It's going to be a great contest. So that's an interesting line. I think we'll do it again in a second where again we're jumping this course. I had to repeat this line because I rode it a bit fast. But you can see after these lines he wants us to really slow down. So this is the course at full size now. Still adding an extra stride. In nine strides, he's jumping for joy. It's a beautiful farm. The Decino brothers, who are good supporters of a venting, let us ride at their farm and keep our horses there. It's a beautiful facility. And I got to say that the more Luke jumped, the higher he went, which is. He usually goes the other way once the horses get a bit tired. He's just a phenomenal athlete. Great jumper. We actually put just a slightly sharper bit. It's a rubber Pelham in his mouth, which really worked well at the end of the course. These two little verticals are really, really short for, and Luke was a good boy there. So this is the first day we went down there. We sent the horses down Sunday, and then Monday I actually went over to David o' Connor's farm, which is just around the corner. Obviously. I worked with David for many years when he was the coach, and, I mean, I was always in love with his dressage training. He's a masterful coach on the flat, a real wizard when it comes to training horses. Luke was pretty excited and nervous when we got there. And the first step here, David is just really sort of slowing his canter down and actually sort of pushing his hind end to the inside. This is sort of like rep work. If you went to a gym and trying to get the horse to stretch his neck down there. So it's not really dressage. We're in a dressage saddle and a dressage ring, but we're more working on the horse's balance, his reach and his stretch, and trying to get him to use all the muscles across his back. Luke's got a fantastic canter, so we're actually training him in a little bit of a shorter, more collected canter than what we'd compete at. The idea that sort of really works his top line and his muscling. Yeah. So it's been pretty cool working with David. He's been coming up with Touwakin a bit. Sadly, Silver's stuck in Pennsylvania for the three months, the three win months, and because of our kids are in school, she can't really travel down to help me because our kids get booted out of school if one of the parents goes out of Pennsylvania. So that'd be a disaster if our kids weren't in school, because education is much needed in the Martin household. So sort of hooked up with Doc again and like I said before, he's a. He's a great guy, great trainer, and I haven't worked with him for couple of years. Funny enough, the last time I was at this farm was in preparation for the Rio Olympics. We did our training camp here. So it's kind of nice being there. It brought back a few memories. Galloping up that hill you see in the background, Blackfoot mystery. So, obviously, I'm very, very high on Luke. He. He underwent a lot of vet examination at the training camp. He got X rayed all over, ultrasounded all over, and jogged and flexed. And the vets were really, really happy with his health. He's a young horse, which. They're great young horses because they don't have too much mileage on their legs, so their body's in good nick. And I think the vet recommended us to put him on a vitamin E supplement. She said sometimes she felt like he had sore muscles in his hind end. But anyway, it was a really good trip. We're on the way home now, back to Aiken tonight, and I really feel like we improved Luke while we were down there at the training camp. So I'll check in with everyone again later.