Horses & Other Interests
“Behind The Scenes: Irene Hoeflich-Wiederhold, HorseSales LLC”
USDF Connection
April 2015
United States Dressage Federation
A short interview with a breeder and seller.
© 2015 United States Dressage Federation. Used by permission. Reproduction prohibited without prior written permission of the publisher.
Previous Behind The Scenes
Pro-Am Benefit Classic Horse Show of Georgia
Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter
Perry, GA, USA
Saturday, April 4, 2015
120D. Academy WTC Championship
Show Photographer Doug Shiflet
My Show Report
“Even if you get knocked down, pick yourself and keep trying to be the best you can be despite the odds.”
Joe Fargis
“Follow your dreams even if they seem impossible.”
Mary King
Saturday’s repost [BTE: Planning], reminded me how much I want to ride in the Nutrena USEA Eventing Championships someday. (Reliving the post could have been depressing, but I quickly shook off the dark cloud.) (Ha!) To inspire the troops, I have created a blog feature that counts down to the start date of the 2015 competition: AEC.
I’m not strong enough to put the countdown on the sidebar where I will see the numbers every day. Instead, I have tucked the link up at the top right corner of the screen – or the dropdown menu on a phone – where I will visit it from time to time. A gentle reminder rather than a regular smack in the face.
We don’t make it this year? I’ll restart the counter for 2016. Never say never.
~~~
For Your Amusement
Check out the photo series by Shannon Brinkman of a save when a rider loses her bridle midcourse.
Update. Feature removed in one of my periodic site overhauls.
How different are hunt seat and saddle seat? Last week, I blamed my poor performance at the show on the vast gap between the two styles [Show Report]. Now, I’m wondering.
The photo I mentioned, Doug Shiflet’s 112-008-PA15, isn’t as bad as I thought (not pictured, need to click over). A little forwardness with the torso is acceptable for saddle seat. The rot sets in at the level of my bra strap.
Let’s go to the visuals:
Here I am attempting to line up for the ribbon presentation in the Showmanship class. I am slumping and looking down at Trump.
A moment later, all three of us have snapped to attention and are smiling at the photographer. The only difference in my position is my shoulders.
Outside of the equitation ring, round shoulders would not matter by themselves. Anyone in the horse world has seen brilliant trainers who sit like a sack of potatoes. In my case, the position fault is a symptom of a larger problem. When I drop my shoulders, I set off a cascade of errors. My shoulders go. My head follows. My hands loosen. My reins get flabby. This horse drops his shoulder. I am not in position to request a fix. Thinking that work is over for the day, the horse flops along on his forehand. I flop about in the saddle. While entertaining, this frame is not effective for any activity other than galloping along the trail.
I still blame the leg lessons, but not for reasons previously stated. It’s not hunt seat per se. Rounded shoulders aren’t ideal there either. However, in concentrating on my leg position, I forget all about the top half. At this point, the upper body position is my rate-limiting factor.
In post-show lessons, I have obsessively focused on holding my upper arms/shoulders back and centered over my seat. I visualized a position that would make it easier for the horse to mobilize his shoulder. Both Alvin and Bingo responded beautifully. I could see how elevating the front of the horse could power an extended trot or smooth out a sharp turn in a jump-off. It also didn’t look too bad as saddle seat.
In riding two disciples, I go back and forth. Clearly the two riding styles form a Venn diagram. The question is how much overlap? Last week it was Never The Twain Shall Meet. This week, Riding is Riding.
If you ride in two disciplines, how do they compliment/contrast?
At the beginning of the year, we raised Milton’s rations significantly [Miseries: Feed Me!]. He improved. For a while. Then stalled. His attitude was more pleasant, but still grumpy, “He’s never going to be a ray of sunshine, but he’s less vile-tempered.” He disliked being groomed. I was annoyed with him. Our blacksmith thought he looked skinny. There was nothing major or specific, just a collection of minor irritants. In short, he wasn’t thriving. We needed a change. My in-house nutrition advisor decided to try switching feed.
Milton had been on the same highly-digestible senior feed that Rodney has been on for years. We were given to understand that Milton was relatively uncomplicated, feed-wise. We figured as long as he was getting adequate nutrition, he would be okay. Milton certainly isn’t the festival of digestive issues that Rodney has been [Zeno’s Horse Training]. Still, a new feed is an easy change for us. One of the benefits of having horses at home. We went back to a name-brand, 10% sweet feed that Mathilda always ate and that Previous Horse ate for years before he went senior.
(Mathilda did not do senior feed, thank you very much. She was even picky about where her sweet feed came from. Seriously, in the winter, her national brand food had to come from store X rather than store Y or she wouldn’t eat it. No one at either store could tell us why there was a difference. But I digress.)
Voila, happy horse!
Milton no longer greets the world with default, ill-tempered unpleasantness. His ears are up more often than not. He is less pissy about being groomed. Blacksmith thinks he looks good. Even Rodney has noticed. The horses are more likely to be found grazing closer together. Rodney still moves away from Milton, but no longer leaps like a startled bunny when Milton looks in his direction. (A 17-hand horse leaping like a s.b. is quite a sight. But I digress again.)
More food having a positive effect I can understand. Calories is calories. Digestibility, I can also get behind. Different food having such a big mental effect? Not so much.
As for the rest, yes, yes. Believe me, there is nothing you can say on the subject of Milton about which I am not already berating myself.
Feed changes, your experience?
~~~
Gratuitous Cat Photo
A friend from my three-dimensional life, Michelle Duplichien, makes an annual pilgrimage to Mississippi &/or Louisiana for Mardi Gras. This year, she was kind enough to take pictures of the horses she saw there. Welcome, Michelle.
It was February 17th and very, very, very, cold.
There were two riding groups in this particular series of parades. I only caught the back of the New Orleans Cowboys (just the one pic of the group with burgundy jackets).
Most of the horse photos were of the Urban Cowboys.
The location was Metairie, Louisiana on Veterans Blvd. Here’s a map of the route for visual simplicity.
Parades have names and most of the time it is based on the krewe that organizes the parade. On this particular day three parades rolled on the same route consecutively. The parades were Argus, Elks Krewe of Jeffersonians, and then Jefferson Trucks (a parade of floats pulled by semi-trailer trucks). I’m fairly certain the Urban Cowboys were part of Argus.
Most groups try to do multiple parades. That goes for both walking groups and floats independent of a parade krewe. Usually walkers in a traditional float parade represent some organization whether it be amateur or professional. Besides traditional floats a parade can have marching bands (a good parade has multiple), dance studio groups, bands, and baton twirling groups. I can’t forget these guys, The Mobile Mystics [scroll down for photo]. They pass out paper flowers to ladies for the price of a kiss on the cheek. The previous list is not exhaustive of all that can be seen in a parade as each parade is unique. There are also parades like this one listed under the January 6th banner on Mardi Gras Parade Schedule.com.
The minions were on a float in the same parade.
Horse groups are not called floats. Think of floats as a mobile object meant to pull a group of people.
The parade style varies from location to location. The parades I experienced in Mississippi were very simple compared to those I saw in Metairie. The New Orleans parades are the most epic of all. To put it in to perspective, Mississippi parades had simple decorated, rolling “boxes” as floats compared to the elaborately decorated, seemingly sculpted New Orleans floats.
The following pictures are from the beginning of a parade in Gulfport, Mississippi. All parades begin with law enforcement vehicles with loud sirens usually followed by the organizing krewe’s banner and then military members carrying flags.
Virtual Brush Box 
