Ecogold rider Diana Burnett's news from the Canadian Eventing Team's Training Camp

From Diana:

We started training camp at 8am Monday morning.  Manny, Shags and I had dressage lessons with David.  He was pleased to see that the things we had been working on 2 weeks prior had improved, so we were able to move on to more.  With Manny, we ALWAYS work on getting a half halt that he will accept and listen to.

After we got that done, we started working on some of the movements of the test we will be doing at Kentucky this year.  It’s important to start this now, so that we know the test inside and out and where we can get extra half halts, exactly where to place our changes, etc.  With Shags, David was pleased that we were able to keep the contact up and out more consistently and we moved on to creating a half halt that went through his whole body without him squirming away from it! 

Diana Burnett and Manny

Tuesday was jump day and it was great!!  We started with the raised pole to a vertical, then moved on to a single oxer, where David was making us focus on getting deep to make the horses work (especially Manny).  We followed this by putting a course together.  The most difficult line was a large square oxer, 5 forward strides to a triple (oxer 2 strides to oxer one stride to vertical).  We did this line both directions.  This is the type of line that Manny likes to take over in and then jump flat, so we usually end up adding strides.  Not on this day!!

Wednesday was dressage with David for Shags and with Gunnar for Manny.  With Shags we built upon what we had worked on during our Monday schooling.  Gunnar was pleased to see that Manny was calmer then the previous session.  The first thing he said was, ‘Shoulders back and elbows at your side’, that line never goes away!  He helped with the movements of the Kentucky test and creating more in each of our gaits.  We did some work on the placement and precision of our changes.  Most of the time Manny’s changes are clean, so we focused a lot on having Manny on the aids, to change exactly when I asked him.  I’m looking forward to the next session with Gunnar, as he said he would ride him!

Diana and Shigatzi

The next outing for Manny, Mater, and Shags is the Advanced at Pine Top.

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