The International Omaha, Days 1 and 2: More Than We’d Hoped
<img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-754" src="http://spriesersporthorse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/omaha-300×226.jpg" alt="omaha" width="300" height="226" srcset="http://spriesersporthorse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/omaha-300×226.jpg 300w, http://spriesersporthorse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/omaha-150×113 cialis livraison rapide canada.jpg 150w, http://spriesersporthorse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/omaha.jpg 640w” sizes=”(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px” />First, I have to apologize to the people of Nebraska.
I was born in Chicago and lived in Northern Illinois, so I am abundantly aware of everything that’s said about the Midwest. It’s flat. It’s empty. It’s the Flyover States. Yeah, yeah. I got it.
But when the FEI announced that they’d be hosting the World Cup Final in Omaha in 2017, I said, “…for real? Omaha?! Why?!?” And in my defense, I wasn’t alone.
Now that I’m here, I get it. And I’m a believer.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!
url: “http://spriesersporthorse.com/international-omaha-days-1-2-wed-hoped/”,
title: “The International Omaha, Days 1 and 2: More Than We’d Hoped”
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Meet him at late 3 or early 4 years old. He’s keen-eyed and clever-looking, and he walks, trots and canters under saddle. He goes when you drive and whoas when you gather and mostly steers. He stands on the crossties and gets on the trailer and stands at the mounting block. He’s balanced and shiny and remarkably organized, with nice conformation and clean legs. You love him immediately, which is good, because two weeks later he’ll have kicked the stall and sliced his leg open, and grown an inch behind, and lost the capacity to turn right. Love him anyway.
I’d just taken Ella back to the stabling after our last freestyle of Florida 2016 and my phone beeped. It was a message from Thomas Bauer, who is a Big Deal Guy—he’s part of show management not only for the Adequan Global Dressage Festival shows, but also organizer for some major European shows, and a member of the FEI Dressage Committee. He says he needs to speak to me.
Being a dressage trainer in Northern Virginia means working with lots of riders with a jumping background, whether they’re still actively participating in the hunters, jumpers, eventing or foxhunting, or transitioning from any of those disciplines into being a straight-up dressage rider.
We’re seeking a dedicated, ambitious and fun-loving new working student to join our team. Working students are responsible for the feed and care of 20 exceptional equine athletes and their humans, and their daily responsibilities include, but are not limited to, riding, feeding, grooming, tacking, turning in/out, stall cleaning, mowing, tack cleaning and other farm chores. We are a fun, warm and close-knit family here at Sprieser Sporthorse; you want to work with a team like ours!
Now that the winter season is nearing its end, I feel like I’m finally ready for it to start.
Baby Hurricane will be the eighth horse to enter my life as a youngster and, barring calamity, stay with me until he’s developed into whatever he’ll finish up as—an FEI horse, we certainly hope. Of those eight, H and four more are still too young to know how good they’ll be (Johnny, age 7 and third level-ish; Danny and Dorian, both age 8 and Prix St. Georges-ish; and Beverley Thomas’s Fiero, age 9 and solid PSG, schooling I1), one made a fantastic amateur’s small tour professor (Fender, now 10), and two became Grand Prix horses (Midge, now 14 and, had he not gotten hurt, could have been a very cool CDI horse; and Ella, 15, and all kinds of fabulous in the big ring, except when she’s hindered by yours truly).
Hey everyone. Long time, no see. I’ve been radio-silent for a few weeks because nothing all that compelling has happened in the last few weeks. I ride, I teach, I work out in some capacity, I go home, I go to the shows, I make teensy increments of improvement, I repeat.