A sampling of the Rolex Kentucky CCI4* Trade Fair

I took a stroll around the Trade Fair today at the 2014 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event Presented by Land Rover. There are so many great things for sale, from functional to frivolous, luxurious to downright silly. There's something for everyone, and I thought I'd share a sampling of the wares in the main trade fair area. I still haven't had a chance to check out the official event merchandise, but from the emails I've received, they have some really great high-end logo gear this year from brands like Joules, Barbour and Eddie Bauer. It might be time to hide the credit card....

Fun and stylish Antares helmets

Ariat boots in every size, color and style

Horsey Garden Accessories

Kid Stuff. Adorable, expensive kid stuff. Just walk away...

Fun little pony puppets

Gorgeous saddles

How I love shiny things...

Plantation Field update from Eric Bull

Mike Etherington-Smith and Eric Bull at Plantation Field. Photo by Katie Walker

It’s been a busy start to the spring, with lots of planning going on. About a month ago we walked around Plantation Field with Mike Etherington-Smith, who’s taking over as course designer after Denis Glaccum. Mike planned a new 3* track and it starts and ends in a different spot and uses the terrain in a different way. It feels like a good track; it’s not an easy piece of property, because it can be steep in places, but I think he did a good job of winding the track up and down and back up. Bringing in a new designer always brings new energy and new ideas.

I think the big emphasis this year is to reseed and roll the footing and get a really good galloping track without the bumps and issues people have complained about in the past. Phillip Dutton commented the other day that this needs to be as good as any European track and I think that’s the standard we’re aiming for. Honestly, Plantation and Fair Hill are as close as anything in the US to British standards – both have good topsoil and a fair bit of rainfall. It’s not easy to turn something like the Sandhills of NC into “European” type footing, but up here we’re pretty close.

Jamie Hicks is committed to doing all the tractor work; he rolled the track all day after it rained, which takes all the bumps and rolls out of it. It’s a 170 horsepower tractor and the roller weighs ten to fourteen thousand pounds – this isn’t gardening, it’s big stuff!

As far as jumps go, there’s going to be quite a bit to build for the one, two and three-stars. Right now we have the track, a new water jump and a ditch figured out. Mike E-S is coming over again in May or June, once the dirt work is done, to talk about what specific fences look like, what we have and what we need. It’s a good way to do it because it’s a little hard for all of us to get our heads wrapped around everything at once. It’s a nice luxury to take it in steps.

I’ve been there all week setting up the basic horse trials stuff, putting out portables, repairing anything that’s broken and making sure everything is up to height and up to standard, and I’ll be there again this weekend while they event takes place.

-Eric

Farrier Jam Sessions

A farrier "Jam Session" at Dr. Bibi Freer's Farm in Tryon, NC

All too often there is a disconnect between veterinarians and farriers, while the soundness of the horse really relies on open communication and a partnership between these two important people in the horse’s life. Dr. Bibi Freer, DVM of Tryon, NC has started an ongoing program at her farm with vets and farriers coming together to discuss specific horses and their soundness issues, and to work together to solve them. 

A group of farriers

 Dr. Freer first got the idea from Dr. Jim Meeker, of Mocksville, NC, a vet that she has known for a while and sometimes trades clients with. Dr.  Meeker has held meetings for about five years, and one day while Dr. Freer was working on some donkeys with a farrier who had been to one of Dr. Meeker’s meetings, he  started telling her about it. She thought it sounded like fun, so she tagged along to the next session.

“It was 2010 I think, March or April, and I jumped in the truck with a group of farriers and went to Dr. Meeker’s meeting; on the way home we decided we wanted to do that too,” she says. “In my humble opinion I think we’ve improved on the idea. He charges the horse owner $50 and they buy fried chicken or something. I talked to the guys here and they didn’t really care about dinner; we charge the owner $200, which is still a great deal. For a consultation like this they’d usually spend more like $500.”

So the horse owner pays $200 and brings their horse to Dr. Freer’s barn, where a group of vets and farriers assesses the horse’s legs and feet, they do a series of radiographs, and discuss different ways to shoe the horse to improve soundness.

My dad Hank Heintzberger, who is a local farrier and has worked with Dr. Freer on occasion, has sponsored, or recommended, a couple of horses with soundness issues for the sessions and has been attending the meetings regularly for a few years now. 

Hank Heintzberger looks on as Luke Proulx discusses a horse

“For $200 the horse owner gets the horse shod, as many x-rays as they want, and the opinions of a large group of experts. You can’t get a better deal than that. Also, Bibi follows up with the horse’s owner later, and it’s always nice to know the long-term outcome for each horse,” he says.

Dr. Freer says, “I’ll reimburse the farrier for the supplies he used that night. Sometimes they use a special pad or a pour and it’s more like $20 or $30 out of their pocket. But nobody makes and money on the night – it’s all about exchanging ideas and seeing what the feet look radiographically.”.

They have also been able to afford clinics with several world-class farriers: Grant Moon and Luke Proulx have already conducted clinics and Craig Trnka is coming May 9-11. He’ll do a day of Powerpoint presentations, then two days of hands-on work with a limited group of farriers and vets. 

Hank says, “Grant Moon is probably the number one farrier in the world, and the clinic with him was insane, it was so good. You can’t just call these guys up; you have to book them in advance, so having this group has given us some really exciting opportunities.”

A finished shoeing job

 Dr. Freer set up an online group to communicate with everyone and says they have about 15 veterinarians on the list. “Usually there are 3-5 veterinarians – the most we ever had was 8 – and farriers range from 8-20. There are probably 50 on the list, but they can’t all come every time.”

While Dr. Meeker invites the horse-owning public to his meetings, Dr. Freer decided to limit their sessions to vets and farriers, partly due to limited space in Dr. Freer’s barn, and partly so the conversations between the vets and farriers will be more frank.

It is interesting to note that the local Isothermal Community College is starting an equestrian program in the fall.  “This coming Saturday myself and five of the core guys who come to the meetings the most often are going to recreate a farrier jam session,” says Dr. Freer, who also has a passion for Bluegrass music. “We’re just going to do one horse and we’re going to have about 15 people come. That’s a pretty good sign there’s a more interest in what we’re doing.”

 Photos courtesy Bibi Freer

Client Eric Bull Discusses Building a Schooling XC Course at Home

Building a Schooling Course at Home

If you have the space for it, a schooling course at home can be a great asset to your training program. After deciding that you have enough room, the challenge is that you need multiple fences to really get the job done. Usually the best solution is to install a few permanent features and then add some portables so that you can mix things up to ask different questions in your training.

A simple ditch, a simple water crossing, and a few small portables of different sizes – BN through Training or Prelim, are a good start.You need fences of different shape, too(see photos): a table, a rolltop, an oxer, something with a cutout underneath it (which often catch young horses out on course). 

Keep in mind that while portable jumps are just that – portables - dragging them around every time you want to ask a new question, in reality, is inconvenient. Well-built fences that are lightweight enough that you don’t need superhuman strength (or a tractor) to move them every time you want to change something is important when you consider what types of portables you want.

We’ve found that a lot of people who are trying to get young horses going confidently are starting to see corners, skinnies, wedges and brush at Prelim and even at Training level. All of those types of questions can be introduced in a small, easy fashion.

While it can seem somewhat daunting to buy all the jumps it might take to get a horse through the levels, when you break it down to its simplest form it doesn’t take as much as you might think. The whole thing is actually quite simple when you do it properly: the progression of the levels really makes sense, and there are simple ways to look at how to prepare your horse to move up through the levels, one question at a time. 

Another way to break it apart is to break the course into its simpler components. A cross-country course consists of galloping fences and combinations; as the levels go up, the number of combinations increases and the complexity of the questions increases. In your schooling you can build all these combinations simply, building your horse’s confidence in the process.  

For instance you can build a ditch, then create a ditch and rails, a “coffin”, and whatever else you can thing of that involves a ditch, using a combination of portable cross-country jumps and standards and rails. With a little imagination, you can school multiple questions effectively. And of course when there are no constraints on space AND budget, the only limit is your imagination.

ETB Equine Construction Update: Developments to Cross-Country Course at Stableview

Eric and his crew have been working on a new competition course at the state of the art Stableview in Aiken, SC. Back home in Virginia after a trip south, he reflects on the latest improvements and the work that is yet to take place before the farm’s debut competition at the end of September.

Terrain and Trees

Stableview is in great shape given the fact that the event is still four months away. The grass is growing and all the footing is done. It’s a really pretty site; it has enough big trees to make it pretty but enough sunlight that the grass grows well. We did all the site work last February and they seeded last spring with Bermuda grass. By September the turf will have been established over a year and a half.

Established Turf on Right

They have an irrigation system, so not only has the grass been planted for a year and a half, it’s been irrigated all that time and will be irrigated all summer. Grass is easier to grow with sun, water and fertilizer. You can’t control the sun, but you’re pretty much guaranteed sun in South Carolina in the summer. Aiken is historically a dry place. It’s not a big agriculture area because it’s so dry. When you add water though, you’ve got the complete picture for creating good turf. The people at Stableview have installed a K-line irrigation systemhttp://www.k-linena.com/ which they also use at Kentucky and Richland Park.

Portables

 The course includes beginner novice through preliminary levels. We delivered 80 % of the portables last year and they were painted leisurely over the summer. We did our last walk around with Mark Phillips 3 or 4 weeks ago, where we planned out the course and determined which portables will go where on the course. I think I have about a dozen portables left to build for them. Most of the existing portables are still stacked up – we’re going back down in a few weeks and will store them all in a barn; they have good storage space, and South Carolina summers are actually harder on jumps than the winters.

Trakehner

Last week we built all the post and rail and log type jumps: we hung the logs on the Trakehners, put logs on the walls into the water, and that kind of work.

Trakehners (L-R: BN to Prelim height)

This will be their first event, to be held the last weekend of September. The strategy in scheduling it then is that it will probably be a small horse trials – it will still be high quality and run properly, but with smaller entries than during the big competition season, so they can have a chance to make sure everything works. Often the logistics like parking and where to put the food vendors and things like that can take a while to figure out. If you have 80 horses in the queue it’s easier to work out a problem than if you have 400 horses in the queue! Shelly Spielman, who’s been around for a long time is running both the facility and the horse trials, so everyone will be in good hands.

Water

We built the water, bank, ditch and Trakehner and sunken road complexes last February.  They’re simple, eloquent complexes; look at an event Red Hills, which took place this weekend, and there’s a lot of carving and paint and so on – Stableview is not terribly flashy but it’s very high quality and horse friendly. I think in time we might add some “fancier” things, but you’re always better starting off with jumps that horses like jumping and making it fancier in the future. There’s a Half Keyhole on Prelim and some good, big brushes, to keep it interesting. It looks good but it’s not flashy and busy – it looks very classy as a whole. It’s built for horses to learn how to jump and move on to the next level.

Approach to Water

Pretty soon they’re going to build a schooling course, which will be separate from the competition course, also from beginner novice up to prelim. It will be on a small piece of property separate from the competition course, and will have a water, bank and ditch and will be open for trucking in for schooling, and for their boarders. The biggest advantage is that it’ll take traffic off their competition course. We’re going to get to work on that this spring.

-Eric

Product Spotlight: Field Jumps LLC

Field Jumps in the Warm-up at Fitch's Corner

As an Adult Amateur event rider Cindy Horrocks wanted to be able to school her horses over cross-country jumps of different heights without investing in a whole schooling course at multiple levels. So she set out on a mission to develop an inexpensive, adjustable-height cross-country jump. Her criteria were simple: the jumps had to be easy to adjust, inexpensive to construct, and able to be built without the use of heavy equipment. 

Cindy at Work

Cindy got to work, and the end result is her company, Field Jumps LLC, which manufactures two products: the Timber Cup (patented) and Timber Tie (patent pending). Using these products, one jump can be adjusted to many levels. The products have been sold to Olympic level riders as well as the most basic small farm and Pony Clubs. The products are ideal for schooling courses, clinics, and even foxhunting. The Timber Tie can be affixed to almost any size tree by the use of a strap and holds a log or other heavy cross piece. The Timber Cup, more similar in concept to a standard show jumping cup, slips over a 6”x6” in. upright post and rests on metal supports. You can easily adjust the height of a jump by tilting and raising or lowering the cup, which holds a 10" diameter log or more.

A challenging situation was made easy with use of a Timber Tie

 “I am a low level eventer but passionate that the sport of eventing continues to grow and be enjoyed by low level riders as well as the professionals,” says Cindy. “An inexpensive, adjustable-height jump was the answer. My mission statement is, "The use of the Timber Cup and Timber Tie will encourage more riders to participate in cross country jumping thus promoting the growth of Eventing, Hunter Derby and Fox Hunting. Cross Country jumping should be enjoyed by more people at safe and appropriate levels."

 Cindy recalls, “The first prototypes were made in a welder’s shop and were bulky and ugly. I packed them up and went to the USEA annual meeting in New Orleans, where they were very well received and I was encouraged to continue. Next came the long, expensive process of engineers and patents. I was firm about having them made in the US, and finally found an excellent production company. The journey had been rewarding, with much encouragement from riders and friends along the way. There will always be some difficulties, but the wonderful people I have met along this path have been a highlight. I have owned my own businesses since I was 23 years old; now, at 64, this has been the most interesting and fulfilling undertaking.” 

One of the people Cindy met along the way was Eric Bull of ETB Equine Construction. Eric uses Cindy’s products in his courses, and Cindy often helps run Eric’s booth at event trade fairs while he’s out on course. “Eric saw the value of having adjustable jumps available for small farms and training facilities as well as events,” says Cindy. “He made a wonderful Trakehner /Ditches adjustable jumps for Boyd Martin at his extensive training facility in Pennsylvania and at his training facility in Aiken, which is in a small space. The fact that the cross piece can be lowered, raised or removed makes it a valuable and versatile jump. Eric has also made a beautiful, adjustable portable cross-country jump, which has been very popular.”

Trakehner at Boyd Martin's Windurra in PA

 Discussing adjustable jumps, Eric says, “Cindy’s worked with a lot of people who have made good, useful, creative and SAFE courses with her products. Whenever you have constraints with your budget or space, it’s nice to be able to do more with less. We had one event with adequate funding but limited space, and the water complex was in a small space – they were running beginner novice through advanced levels and it was really helpful to be able to have an adjustable jump so that we could maximize the existing complex. From the financial aspect an adjustable portable fence makes sense for someone who is not going to spend more than about $1000 on schooling fences – you can make beginner novice – prelim height with one jump that costs $700, instead of buying four separate fences. Add a few more simple fences and you have a basic course.”

 For more information contact Cindy Horrocks, Pres. Field Jumps LLC www.fieldjumps.com 518.524.0368