Another show season is underway, and we are again down enjoying the California sunshine. I will not be showing my Grand Prix horses until later in the season, but I thought I’d give a quick update on one of the Thomas’s up-and-coming youngsters that I am showing for them: “Argentina”.

Argentinia is starting to really grow up and beginning to enjoy the show ring. Parry bought her from the Verden Hanoverian auction as a green 5 year old, and she was quite a high-strung youngster. We took the first few years of riding her slowly, to just establish a relationship and build up her trust. But the patience is starting to pay off, and I have been quite happy with her performance at our first two shows so far this year. At the “LA Winter Dressage Show” at the end of January I showed her Third level and she handled herself well in the ring, despite not having been in the show ring for nearly a year, earning a 74.6%, and a 72.1%. Then we had a week off before we headed out to the desert for the “Dressage Getaway” show at Thermal. This show is always one of my favorite shows of the year because it is run alongside the huge “HITS” 6-week long hunter/jumper show, with hundreds of horses and people everywhere. There is so much activity at the show grounds, with horses, dogs, golf carts, bikes, vendors, and people everywhere. In my opinion, it is the best possible experience for our horses, especially the young ones, to get exposed to. I was curious to see what Argentinia would think about the whole scene. When she first walked out of the stabling area and saw the endless miles of jumper she was quite overwhelmed and very wide-eyed! For our first ride there I decided to not try to do any schooling, but just let her walk around the show grounds and absorb everything that was going on. I spent an hour hand-walking her around in the morning , then got on her in the afternoon and just walked around the show grounds for another hour. I could feel her slowly relax and start to trust me, and by the end she finally took a few deep breaths and was ready to go to work, and she tried so hard for me for the rest of the weekend. I showed her 4th level for the first time, and she got a 68.8% and a 74%.

Now we are all heading off tomorrow morning, down to San Diego area for the “Dressage Affaire”. This show is always one of my favorites!

I am so excited about the newest addition to our barn! “Accolade” is a 17 hand, coming 6-year-old, chestnut mare. She is a half-sister to Brentina, and shares so many of her qualities. Accolade is by Brentano II, out of mare by Jazz. The Thomas family acquired her as an unbroke 3 year old, in Holland. She had not been under saddle very long when we brought her home this past summer, as a 5 year old. I am not showing her this year, but she is coming along with us to all the shows to school and get experience. She is one of the most exciting and fun horses I have ever ridden, and I think she has a tremendous amount of potential. It is so fun to ride a horse that enjoys working and I feel like we are “playing” together when we train.

Getting to compete in Germany is a fantastic experience in itself, but also getting the chance to train with one of the great dressage masters while here has made the trip all the more worth while. I have ridden with Klaus in various clinics before, but I have never had the chance to train with him consistently for any period of time. We headed to the Balkenhol’s after the CDI Hagen, and spent two weeks training with Klaus. The calm and sympathetic way he works with horses is always so great to watch. Never does a horse of his looks nervous or stressed. There is never any teeth grinding, tail swishing, or nervous sweat. He has such an innate understanding of horses that he is able to get his point across clearly and without harsh aids. He likes to take time in the warm up to allow the horse’s muscles to become loose before picking them up and putting them to work. And during the work Klaus is very careful to take lots of walk breaks, allowing the horse to stretch forward and down and go into a big swinging walk. This is very important to give the muscles time to recover between schooling exercises. This makes a huge difference with Wizard, because he is such a big powerful horse, but you can tell when his muscles get too fatigued then he feels like he cannot do what is asked of him. Keeping his schooling times light and playful and fun is very important. Sometimes Klaus has me do two shorter schooling rides a day, rather than one long one. This allows me to accomplish more without making Wizard fatigued or stressed.

Well, one week down and now it’s really starting to feel like show time. Debbie arrived on Wednesday, after only getting lost for about 6 hours somewhere in Germany…. her GPS navigator gave her directions to a DIFFERENT Hagen. But oh well, she is here safe and sound now. Debbie’s husband, Bob, was supposed to fly over yesterday and meet us but was not able to due to the volcano in Iceland. That was something we definitely didn’t plan on factoring into our travel plans! I’m just so glad Debbie was able to get here before all the airspace was shut down!

I want to try to explain the set-up and production that they are putting into this show, but I don’t even know where to start. It is unlike anything I have ever seen. I swear they must have hired a professional stage designer to make all the decorations for the arenas. Every year the Hagen horse show has a theme based on a different country. This year the theme is Mexico, so the entire show grounds, vendor areas, warmup and show arenas are all decked out to look like a Mexican jungle, with huge plants, cactuses, giant rocks, flowers, etc. Also, they have built a big stadium around the show arena to completely enclose it- complete with 4 semi-truck box cars stacked at the end of the arena behind the judges box and then covered to create a solid wall. The vendors tents are endless and everywhere you turn are more amazing decorations, from a Mayan pyramid to larger-than-life statues of a complete mariachi band. Today they are setting up what looks to be like a giant stage for a concert, with a huge steel structure, a stage area, lighting, and the whole bit. Every year they have someone perform a concert during the show. I don’t remember the name of the girl who is performing this year, but I think she is a big Mexican pop star. (When they had the USA as the theme country they had the original Beach Boys perform!)

I have to say that I am so happy with how Wizard is handling everything. It has been great for him to be around all the commotion and activity as this amazing show takes life. The stabling tents look to be about completed, so I plan on moving him over to the show stabling in the next day or two. He has been schooling very well. It always amazes me how much horses grow up when put in a situation like this. Regardless of how the actual show goes, both he and I are getting invaluable experience and exposure, with the help and guidance of the most amazing trainer in the world!

(I will post pictures of the show grounds once everything is done being set up- hopefully they will be up by tomorrow night.)