The Events Have Started

Today was the first day of all the events in Champs. It was the dressage portion in Eventing today in the Rolex arena. Quiz was going on in the tent by the Rolex arena. I didn't personally get a chance to watch Polocross and Dressage but they were going on too. I hope you got a chance to see them.

They had games in the indoor arena by the trade fair. Speaking of the trade fair there was a cutout of Gina Miles jumping Mckinley. Her face is cut out so you can put your face in and take a picture. The Show Jumping was really fun to watch also.

Opening Ceremony

Yesterday at 6:30 we had the opening ceremony for Championships.First came a golf cart pulling a platform with New Orleans flags, umbrellas and people throwing beads at the people in the stands. They were advertising the 2012 Annual Meeting that would be held in New Orleans. After them came 2 Mounted police officers carrying the America flag and the Kentucky flag. After them came a girl who's dad is fighting in Afghanistan. While he was there he flew they pony club flag. The girl had the flag he flew.

The USPC president Tom Adams, the board of Governers, walked in the parade with a banner that listed all the sponsors of Pony Club.

All the teams paraded into the Rolex Arena one by one. They went in alphabetical order and the announcer called out what divisions the regions were competeting in. They all grouped in the center of the ring forming the letters USPC:

Then we had two other guests come in to the ring. A reiner and a polo player. The reined just did a small demonstration of reining and the polo player represented that polo was to become a sport in pony club. Yay!

There was one pony club member who sang the national anthem and the sound system decided to act up. Every time the sound died all the pony club members joined in to make it louder. It was really cool to watch.

Tom Adams declared the games begin!

Mid Cal Hangout

If you need a place to rest, get a drink, or just to hang out, come to the Mid Cal tent! It's in the line of tents just outside the Champs Show office. You can go along the line of tents and trade pins. We were having lots of fun there today morning.

 It is also right by a people transport. Lots of people had lunch there too.
Come visit the Mid Cal tent!

Canadian Pony Club Quiz Team

Canadian Pony Club has been invited to participate in the USPC Championships and Festival. I caught up with their Quiz teams before the briefing. There were totally 7 competitors from Canada in Quiz. They were picked because their experience in regional, national and international Quiz competitions. Some of them have been on Internationale Quiz Exchange teams. They had lots of fun Canadian spirit things with them.

All but one of them were from British Columbia. "This is the farthest that I've been from the ocean. (wiping forehead of sweat.)". They were excited to know we were from Middle California. One of them has visited Mid Cal before. All of were exited to compete here in Quiz.

We got to talk about their ratings. They mentioned that their rating system goes D, D1, D2, C, C1, C2...unlike us that go D1, D2, D3, C1, C2, C3..etc. Later in the day we ran into them again and notice one of them had a felt backing of a rating higher that her actual rating.. Just for fun. They were hilarious.

Good luck!

Keeneland

Sunday morning, we went to Keeneland. We were late and missed the horses breeze (that is what they call horses exercising. We walked around the grand stand and then the barns. We came across a person named Dwayne. He talked non-stop about his horses. Then we met his twin brother Wayne. They two were quite interesting. Dwayne said we should take our pictures with one of his horse that he thought was going to be a future Derby winner. (No Pressure. No Pressure..) He let me help him grain his horses.

We went back on Monday to see the horses exercise. We saw a few horses really galloping like in races. Some of them were being trained to run really close to other horses. There was one rider who stopped to talk to us. He seemed enjoy all the attention that the visitors were giving. We ran into folks from Woodside Pony Club and Skye Valley.

KESMARC

KESMARC (Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center ) is an equine therapy hospital. I went there for a tour of their facilities. Two of the interns there gave the tour they said that what Kesmarc does is help horses heal and get back to full health. It is not exactly a vet hospital. Some horses come in with injurys or just come in to build muscle. Most of the horses are off the track horses that the owners want to sell.

Kesmarc has many treatments that help the horses. We got to see all of these on the tour.
First they have the swimming pool. It looks like a big circular pool with an concrete island in the center. It is 16 feet deep so the horse has to swim.When horses just get started in the pool there are two people handling the horse, one on the island and one running on the outside. The horse takes breaks every now and then. When it does, the handlers lead the horse on a ramp where the horse can stand. The pool strengthens muscles all over without putting stress on the bones. It also makes them look good.

Then we got to see the Aqua Tred. This is just an treadmill for horses that is under water. The horses usually use this before the pool to get used to the water. Here the horses can stand. There is a ramp going down to the actual treadmill part and the water is chest high for the horses. This also strengthens the muscles. It also gives the advantage of a higher view of the horse so they can see lameness more easily.

http://www.kesmarc.com

They’re Here!!

The horses arrived at the horse park at about 7:30 this evening. All the competitors were eager to see their horses and were hanging around waiting for them. We had some ice cream as we waited. We had carrots for the horses. Maya was holding her horse's stud chain for so long she just wore it around her neck.

After a while the truck came around the corner. All of the girls were really really excited.

Logan’s dad warned everyone that the horses might try to rush out of the trailer.

All the horses were very eager to get out of the trailer. You would be too if you had been standing for 2 1/2 days. But, they all behaved and waited for their turn to taken out of the trailer.

We got them out and they walked around and ate some grass. All of them seemed to love the green fields. Everyone looked fine except Logan's horse got bitten on the nose (he is fine). After the horses stretched their legs and went into their stalls, everyone packed up the trailer and took their things up to the stalls where they started setting up their tack rooms.

Oh, I forgot to mention. The trailer blew out one of its tires a couple of hours before it reached Lexington. The drivers just drove straight through. I heard they don’t try to stop and change the tires when something like this happens.  

Mostest Hoss!!

“He’s got everything a hoss ought to have, and got it where a hoss ought to have it. He is the mostest hoss that ever drew breath.” This was said about Man O’War by his groom. We saw man O’ War’s statue in the visitor center of Kentucky Horse Park. It was such a beautiful statue. Before we got to the statue, there was marking on the side of the path of how long his stride length was – 28 ft. That was supposed to be his strong point. I think it took 4 stride to cover that distance even when I tried the hardest.

We saw the statue of Secretariat. This is one looked more fun than the very serious looking Man O’War.

Ronda showed us around the Horse Park. The Rolex arena, barns, paddocks. They all looked beautiful. We saw a group of riders. We thought they were a hunt group. We stoped the car and crossed the street to look at them. We later figured out that they were the trail group that is organized by the horse park. Later we found the workers hosing off these trail horses. We even saw that large group of horses run between rails of two turn-outs to get to their pasture.

We drove by the barns to see where our team will be stabled. We came across Sierra Pacific teams. Their horses had just arrived. They were putting away their horses.

Off to Kentucky!

Today was the big day! Today was the day we loaded our horses to go to Kentucky. The riders, their parents, some siblings, and some spectators were there to help out. We were meeting in Woodside Horse Park to load the horses in the trailer. The 12 horse trailer from Emerald Transportation looked HUGE compared to some of the trailers that were there. Almost all the horses had halter fleeces on to get ready. Logan and Jessica said they had oiled their horses.

First we put all of the tack trunks in one of the compartments for the horses( we only had to load 9 horses). Then we loaded the horses. some of the horses were facing forward, others were facing backwards. They were all pretty calm about the whole thing.

 We had the horses that would be eating alfalfa be next to each other and the the horses eating grass hay next to each other so they wouldn't steal each other's hay. After the horses were loaded almost all the girls climbed into the trailer to say bye to their horses for what seemed like hours. Finally they got out and the the truck drove away. (The older girls seemed to really miss their horses. They were inside the trailer the longest time. They even ran behind the trailer when it pulled away.)

Carol made a care packet for the drivers. it had sandwiches, chips, juices and also a cooler with more juice. I heard that is Mid Cal's tradition to provide snacks for the road for the drivers.

Good luck at champs everyone! See you there!

Katy Barglow - Awesome dressage trainer

Katy is one of the National Examiners that will be teaching the clinics at the education portion of the Festival. I could not find her in the Clinician's Corner. So, here is an introduction about Katy.
 
Katy Barglow is an FEI rider and trainer, a USDF Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medalist, a Bronze and Gold Bar holder, a USDF "L" judging program graduate with distinction and an "r" judge candidate, and a level IV National Examiner for the Dressage Specialty Ratings. She has trained multiple horses from just-broke to Grand Prix and earned numerous state and national titles along the way, including wins at the CDS Futurity, Region 7 Championships at Intermediare 2,  and USDF Horse of the Year for A/A at Grand Prix. A graduate HA pony clubber, Katy has coached students to success at all the pony club ratings through the A-D level, and in the show ring from training level to Grand Prix, including USDF medals and the NAJRYC.

Katy was not on the clinician's corner so I asked her to give me the answers to the questions the corner had:

1. What equestrian event brings back the best memories to you and why was it so important? My favorite memory was riding down centerline for the Grand Prix Freestyle at the California Dressage Society Championships in 2005. It was at night, under the lights, with a large and boisterous audience, and there was a buzz in the air not often felt at dressage shows. This show was held near my hometown, and I had been gone for a number of years at college and graduate school. A whole group of people watching had not seen me ride since I was a teenager and my horse a 4 year old. Back some years later, we were both suddenly grown up! We had a super ride, with the audience clapping along to a perfect line of one-handed one-tempis down the final centerline.
2. What is the earliest memory of riding? I grew up in a non-horsey family, but I had an uncle who had a friend who had horses. In the summers when I was 7 and 8 years old he would take me out to her ranch. I learned to post, to canter, and to fall off there!
3. What are you most looking forward to in coming to the 2011 Pony Club Festival? In all my pony club years, I have attended many Western Championships as a competitor (Games 1996 and Dressage 1999), Horse Management Judge, and a Coach, and I have traveled the country as a National Examiner for tests and preps, but I have never been to Festival. I am very excited to meet and work with Pony Clubbers, horses, parents, and other clinicians from all around the country, all in one place!

I asked Katy to give some tips for the dressage riders and the eventing riders at champs:

1. Remember the focus is on the quality. Better to be a step late but have a good transition then be at the letter with a bad transition.
2. That said, it's silly to lose points on geometry. Diagram your test out so you know exactly where each circle and movement crosses/touches the rail, centerline, and quarterline. Plan ahead so you are ready for the movement to come.
3. Corners are your friends. Ride each corner as a quarter of a circle, as small as your horse can comfortably go in that gait. Using the corners makes the ring seem much larger-- movements come up slower, and you are more organized, having taken that time to rebalance your horse! tests with good corners look much more polished than those without.
4. Read the USEF rulebook for dressage (available online) so you know what the movements in the test really mean. What is a free walk, versus a medium walk? Should the stretch circle maintain contact? (hint- yes!). What are the directives of each movement? (ie, quality of the trot, quality of the bend, steadiness of tempo, geometry of circle). If you don't know what you are trying to show, it's difficult to show those things!
5. Practice your centerlines and halts -- they are the first and last impression you make on the judge, so make that impression good! Any horse, no matter how fancy or plain, is capable of getting a "10" on a halt.
6. Think about how to use your time outside the ring, before you enter. Which direction will you track? Which gait (walk, trot, canter, or transitions between) best benefits your horse for a good entrance. Does your horse need to canter down near the judges stand, then walk quietly in front of it a few times so he won't spoke? (If you go around the outside at a walk, you may never get down that far before the bell rings.)

If you want more info about Katy Barglow or want a couple lessons from her, go to her website: www.barglowdressage.com