Getting out of town is a must. I must do it more often. This year I have been to the Horse Conference in Alberta (new name, new location). I have been attending since 1977 or about then. Wonderful lectures by very qualified horse people. Frequently the person is someone whose book I have read or video I have watched. The topics are usually a vet related (lameness), feeding, feet, horse welfare.
This year I went to the AVA Education Vaulting Conference in Las Vegas. My first trip to Las Vegas. got to experience 80ยบ heat without dying. An amazing experience.
I also attended lecture/demonstrations by vaulters that seemed to more comfortable doing amazing things like handstands.
I have just returned from Equitana, Essen Germany. I learned to read a train schedule (I have to relearn every trip out of town because I mainly cannot believe that there is a train leaving every 30 minutes). I managed to learn how to get to Equitana by the third trip.
What is new? bright, bright colours for saddle pads, rich colours for saddle pads.
I saw the Hop Top Show which is an evening performance that the people cannot tell me how long it would last because it is like being with the performer at home. Hard to describe because it is a performance but if something happens then the action stops, the performer goes to the horses that has not done what supposed to do. It is interesting to see it. The horses are individuals. One horse stopped and went to sniff a photographers camera, then ran and rejoined the group (the horse was loose).
One performance was a lady on a beautiful Baroque type horse doing dressage. Beside her was a mini with a doll tied on doing (theorectically) the same moves. It took a while sometimes for the mini to do some of the moves. Its extended trot was not spectacular but neat to see. It took a while for it to piaffe.
Lorenzo was there again. He has a huge fan base in the crowd. He is amazing. You have to see him to believe it. His horses are all individuals and freethinkers (at times). I didn't count the number of horses he was working with. (Too many to say off hand).
I loved the driven pony quadrille. I think that would be fun to do with Lola.
There were 12 of them. 6 chestnuts, 6 leopard spotted. They walk, trotted and cantered.
Next trip is to Vancouver for the EC Coaching Conference. Dr. Andrew McLean will be there so I can tell him about the interesting people I met at Equitana with a device that records horse movements. I thought that would be perfect for the Equitation Science people. Imagine all the data they will aquire inexpensively. (the first protype was an Iphone)
