It has been a roller coaster type of winter for me. The biggest thing is that for the month of March I battled a severe head cold that actually knocked me out for a few days. For the first time in years (maybe even decades) I missed multiple days of training. This was a nasty bug that affected a lot of people and we all went through the same symptoms.
By the end of March I wasn't feeling terribly symptomatic but I was so exhausted from being sick. I battled the exhaustion also during the month of April and I'm starting to come out of this month with some more energy! This is part of the reason for why no blog entries, I haven't had the energy to do so.
BUT, the most important thing is the horses have been going well. I have been able to put energy/focus into the riding and we are coming out of the off-season in great shape.
At the beginning of March, I rode with Henrik Johansen with Neo and Falcon. I did not ride Claudius as we had his hocks injected a couple of days earlier.
My lessons with Henrik, especially on the second day, were the best training sessions I have ever had! Both Neo and Falcon rode beautifully. After my ride on Neo, Henrik said, "If I were you, I would be opening a bottle of champagne tonight!"
I have been able to take the things I learned from the lessons and really have accelerated the training in all three show horses.
In two and a half weeks time I'll be taking Neo and Claudius down to the Heart of the Valley show at Devonwood. Neo will be showing at I1. This will be our first time out at the I1 and I'll be needing to get good scores so that we can become qualified to show the I1 freestyle, which I would like to do at the Beaujolais Show in June. Claudius will be showing at the PSG.
The week after that, I'll be taking Falcon to the L'Apertif Show and will be campaigning him at Training and First Level this season.
Thanks for reading and I'll keep the updated a little more frequent!
Matt
