Thomas Training And Competition Video Towards The Pan Ams 2019

Before we get started, I'd like to thank Steuben Saddles. I've been riding in Steuben Saddles first when I was 13 years old. They're incredible saddles, bridles, girths, you name it. I really think our horses benefit from this wonderful company. They do a fantastic job fitting their saddles to the horses. They're a brilliant company. That being said, I just thought I'd put together a bit of a video. I got a heap of footage from our training session for the Pan American Games. That was in Virginia. What you're seeing here is the day before Virginia, before Maryland Horse Trials. This is a training session which I rode this horse here, Thomas Sesterlegg, as he's known. Well, he's not my horse, he's Christine Turner's Cesterly. He's a Tricana bred horse. And what you're seeing is a bit of a dressage training session. We went down there early in the morning, did the test actually for in front of a guy called James Burkwell, sorry, James if I got your surname wrong. And Eric basically went through the test, go to Whoa. And then worked on a few of the. Few of the James Burtwell. I just looked it up on my phone. Anyway, I've never worked with James before but I've seen him a lot at the shows. He helps these holiday sharp and he was awesome. He's a judge and a trainer and basically watched me go through my test and worked a lot with Eric here, just trying to get the horse a little bit softer to the inside and sometimes it's not ideal doing this stuff the day before a competition. But I'm in hindsight. I was really, really glad because Eric and James picked up on a few things that we worked on and then the next day he did a cracking test at Maryland Horse Trial. So sometimes it can backfire when you practice too much of the test stuff the day before and makes the horse a little bit long. But this is really good. Obviously my normal trainer is my wife, Silva, but I've also been working closely there with Eric the last couple years since he's been the chef to keep. And we got this little horse going great. He's in fantastic form on the flat and yeah, feels good. So that was in the morning and all the riders you see in the background, Doug Payne's warming up his horse and then we all went over to Beverly Equestrian Centre, which was next door, and built a jumping course. Chris Bernard gave us the design and we all jumped the course on a horse. So we just pretended we're at a competition by saying that I sort of rode Thomas in a manner a little bit different to a competition. Like, he's not very easy in the show jumping. I wouldn't be honest to say. He doesn't sort of crack his back and swish his tail. He sometimes dives at them like a leer a little bit. So, anyway, riding today, at the training session, at that day, in the training session, I sort of softened my hand and I didn't protect him too much. He still jumped really good. This is good for Thomas. And you see here, he just gets a bit keen and flat and fast and knock that one out. Like, I'm sort of not trying to hit the rails, but I'm also not protecting him. Trying to let Thomas know that if he wants to run at him, I'm not going to hold him off. I'll hold him off a bit at the show, but in training he'll get a bit close. He's been really, really tricky in the combination. So we've been working hard. My normal jumping coach is Richard Pickin, and we've been working really, really hard combinations. And he did that pretty well. I know he had the pole down, but he didn't race through it too much, so it's pretty cool. It's the first time the team and the reserves have all been together. So Lyn Szymanski, Doug Payne and Tammy Smith are on the team. First time I had a good look at their horses, and they were all very good horses and obviously four very good riders. And then all the reserves were there, too. So, anyway, we had a walk after this. Eric said, okay, let's try and slow him down a bit. Let's repeat the two lines that we had a rail down said, instead of doing seven strides from the oxy to the plank, I want you to slow him down and do eight strides and see if coming to it a little bit slower helps him jump it. As you can see there, it actually worked. It sort of just backed him off enough that he jumped that well. So that was a success. And then the dreaded treble. Eric asked me to go through this treble again and again. Just sit really, really still with position and see if old Thomas would back up. And he did it. Awesome. And I hope that he jumps every treble like that from this day forward. So. So anyway, the next day was a mandatory outing. It was at Maryland Horse Trials. And anyone that hasn't been to Maryland Horse Trials, you should go. Because it started out as an event in a field and has turned into just one of the best horse trials on the east coast. The event organizer. I mean, look at this ring. It's world class. Great course. Ian Stark cross country course. The footing was great, great contest and you know, it's bloody hot, especially in this fancy coat, but it felt like 100 degrees. I think it was 80 degrees, but it was really, really hot. So obviously the work we did the day before paid off because Thomas is soft and supple, doing really, really well. So obviously I work with Silver and then often I get dressage judge Peter Gray, he's Canadian guy judge and he lives in Ocala to help me a bit through my test work. But he's up in Canada at the moment, so obviously Silver and Eric and James the other day helped out. So it's a bit unusual. This horse is a five star horse and we're preparing him for a three star competition which is sort of two levels less than what he's capable of doing. So it's a tricky one because you don't want to take it for granted, but it is quite easy for him. So I'm going in with the mindset that it's not easy and training really, really hard and trying to get him very fit. We've gone to a couple of jumping shows. Next week we're off to Princeton show jumping show and a little bit of pressure on the American team. Have to do well here to get a spot at the Tokyo Olympics. We should do well, especially with the lineup of the horses and riders we have. But sports, a funny thing. Anyone on their day can do it and pull it off or blow it. See here, Thomas has got an outstanding walk. This is probably his best gate. He's really, really easy to ride in the ring. He just struts along. He's quiet, he's even in the contact and he's fancy. And the judges seem to love sort of the relaxed look he gives and he's extravagant. So he's pulled out some really, really good dressage tests. It's only been in the last sort of 12, 18 months that he's turned into a real winner in the dressage. Before that he's, he was a little bit unschooled and untrained, but he's clicked into gear now and, you know, I think he could do very well in the dressage anywhere in the world. He'd be right up there. So again, this would be a good test, but not the same quality as we would pull off at a big championship. Remember Thomas just arrived at the show that morning. I hopped on him and rode him around a little bit for 20 minutes to get him loose first thing and then did the test. And usually at a big competition like a three day event, he'd have four or five rides at the venue. But he's still pretty good. You know, we got to make that medium trot a bit bigger and just tidy up a few of these little details. But on the whole he's been very, very good. And again, this preparation event, even though this horse won, it was sort of not that important to win it. It was more that he, for me anyway, that he produced good show jumping rounds in a great cross country round and he did that. And I'm sort of pretty confident in his dressage. Like I said before, very quiet, relaxed horse and pretty safe, if you know what I mean. The cross country is usually very reliable. Obviously we had that horrible blip last year at the weg, but it was also a good wake up call. It was. It sort of sharpened me up and made me think about my trading and the way I ride him at those big competitions and hopefully it will never happen again. It's a bit of a weird one for me going to the Pan Ams. It's the first time since 2010 Philip hasn't been on the team. Philip Dutton's got his best horse going to Arken instead by saying that it's a very, very good team with four good riders in a very good reserve that could easily be as good as anyone on the team. So I'm pretty bloody happy with that test. Thomas, he got a good score, 22, 23 or something like that. So trying to think of the work that we did with Eric and yet the day before at the training session, I tried to really work hard at not riding him at the fences, trying to keep him a little bit slow and balanced. And again, it's not that big, still a three star short height and that. But it's. Thomas could go up three or four holes from this. So best thing about it is he was paying attention, he was relaxed, he wasn't sort of hollow in his jump. Then obviously about half an hour after this round we did the cross country and again, you know, could have gone faster, but really just wanted to practice jumping the fences out of stride, jumping them well and most importantly that they trot up good and sound after it. Which since I'm doing this video a couple days later, I can say, everyone, that he's in great nick and great health after the competition. It's a tough one running, you know, trying to protect your horse and have them ready. There's the treble and he jumped that really well. He drifted right, as you can see, but he didn't get too flat to it. So this is really good round for this little guy. Obviously he's a little bit awkward in his jump, but he's trying hard. Then lastly, we had the cross country. Again, not a real hard course for this horse considering what he's done. Obviously this year he's very good around Kentucky. I just wanted to practice catching a few of these ones forward. And Starkey had a few complicated fences like this sunken road, which Thomas did well. All the Pan Am horses got around the course well and like I said, we're in good shape. So a couple weeks we're going down to Aiken. I might put another video together there and having our training session and then on to Miami and fly to Peru. So at the moment we're in great shape and looking forward to a. A good testing championship in Peru.