Innehållsförteckning för June 2016 från Practical Horseman

As I read grand-prix rider Todd Minikus’ article about making the most of a round gone wrong (page 30), my mind flashed back to a particularly bad trip I had many years ago in an equitation class in Vermont. It started with a pretty spectacular chip to an in-and-out combination and only got worse. I think that happens to many riders—especially amateurs. We want to be perfect, and if we’re not, we immediately start to beat ourselves up and forget to ride. Todd explains that this is not the best choice because even when disaster strikes, you can use the round to improve your and your horse’s skills. How successful you are depends on your preparation, which, as always, begins at home. The four exercises that Todd gives in his…

Based at Fox Covert Farm, in Upperville, Virginia, Jim Wofford competed in three Olympics and two World Championships and won the U.S. National Championship five times. He is also a highly respected coach. For more on Jim, go to www.jimwofford.blogspot.com. I rode a nice 4-year-old the other day—Greenbean (“GB”), an off-the-track Thoroughbred who had been turned out for a few months to remember how to “just be a horse” and had recently been started back in work. I don’t ride many 4-year-olds any more—I am suspicious of anything that can move faster than I can think. But I was assured GB would be a safe conveyance for a geezer, so away we went. When he seemed to adjust to the extra weight on his back after a few minutes, I…

I believe in the power of positive thinking. Before you enter the show ring, tell yourself that this round is going to go well. When you visualize the course, don’t dwell on your horse spooking at the liverpool. Instead, imagine him soaring over it. Also beware of internalizing mistakes made by riders before you. Watching other riders can be informative, but there is also a danger of experiencing what I call the “paralysis of analysis.” When a few riders have trouble at one particular fence, everyone else starts to worry that there’s something wrong with it. That’s why you’ll see riders in the beginning of a class have trouble with one part of the course and then riders toward the end of the class have issues with an entirely different…

Early one morning at this year’s Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida, Maryland-based trainer Kim Stewart was waiting for her catch rider, Nick Haness, to show up. He was slated to ride a sale horse, Persuasion, in the first class of the day, the High Performance Working Hunter Stake, but he was cutting it close. Kim remembers, “Nick was off getting his Starbucks® and I was going to help somebody with another horse, so I couldn’t wait to see if he showed up on time.” If Kim didn’t know Nick so well, this might have been nerve-wracking. But, she says with a laugh, “It didn’t make me nervous at all. I know he doesn’t want to sit there and watch a lot and overthink because that makes him nervous. Sometimes…

George H. Morris is the former chef d’équipe of the U.S. Equestrian Federation Show Jumping Team. He serves on the USEF National Jumper Committee and Planning Committee, is an adviser to the USEF High-Performance Show Jumping Committee and is president of the Show Jumping Hall of Fame. 1 Our first rider appears to be using safety stirrups with a strong elastic band for the outside branch. Children up to age 12 usually use them, though some adults do, too. This should never be criticized because it’s a traditional piece of safety tack. Her leg position is excellent. The stirrup is on the ball of her foot. The outside branch is ahead of the inside branch and at a right angle to the girth. Her heel is down, her ankle is…

Todd Minikus has won countless grands prix in a career now spanning more than three decades. Originally from outside of Des Moines, Iowa, he received his first pony at the age of 1, then rode Western before taking his first jumping lesson at age 11. Hooked on show jumping ever since, he turned professional when he was 18 and went on to earn enough prize money on a Canadian ex-racehorse named Thriller to buy himself a truck and trailer. After Thriller was sadly killed in a trailer accident, Todd found another Canadian ex-racehorse and named him Thrilling. This turned out to be his first big-time grand prix horse. The pair won all of the open jumper classes, including the President’s Cup, at the 1990 Washington International Horse Show, earning Todd…

Unseasonable Florida heat and humidity were already causing trickling sweat between the shoulder blades of 12 competitive young riders as they tacked up for the final day of the 2016 George H. Morris Horsemastership Training Session. In George’s absence, Laura Kraut devised a Nations Cup-style format in which riders jumped two rounds each on the Conrad Homfeld-designed course. “One of my passions is riding in Nations Cups,” said Laura, an Olympic gold medalist. “For me, that’s just the pinnacle of the sport. We were lucky enough to find all of George Morris’ notes that he would read at every team meeting at every single Nations Cup. Last night, we had an hour-and-a-half session going over George’s thoughts and ideas—and demands. I thought it would be fun to make it a…

USET Foundation Honors Keenan For her success in show jumping and her potential to represent the United States in Nations Cups and international championships, 19-year-old Lillie Keenan received the Maxine Beard Award in April from the United States Equestrian Team Foundation. After turning professional in 2015 and training with Irish Olympian Cian O’Connor, Keenan has earned top results. They include third-place finishes in the $380,000 Douglas Elliman CSI***** Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival and the HITS Great American $1 Million Grand Prix with Super Sox, her 10-year-old Hanoverian. “I’ve taken a lot of time with that horse,” said Keenan. “The fact that it came together is just a testament to the program and also to how important it is to invest in the learning process and be patient…