Dressage
Warming up with Silva:
They looked fantastic and the judges loved Ying Yang Yo
Cross Country
Luhmuhlen 2012 **** Horse Trial Germany – Boyd Martin and
Ying Yang Yo
An Owner’s Perspective
We are partners with Boyd Martin in Ying Yang Yo so we went
to the Luhmuhlen 2012 **** event in Germany to cheer them on. The venue and surroundings are extremely nice
in the country side outside of Hamburg; it is beautiful with villages manicured
with thatched roofs and begonias hanging outside the windows. The people are
welcoming and helpful, the food is great (try the schnitzel with wild mushrooms;
I still dream about it) and, to be brief, we had a great time.
There we were watching Thomas, nickname for Ying Yang Yo,
with Boyd warming him up under the supervision of Silva and you know how the
dressage instructors are! Every movement
has to be perfect, and well, according to us it was perfect. It is
now time to enter the arena, the center line is always a stressful moment that
shows the rhythm of the test and the first impression for the judges; but the
judges love Thomas and Boyd and the score board is full of sevens eights and
nines; we are so excited!!! They are in the lead until Thomas decides that he
never learned how to counter canter; I cannot do that sir! Not today!
This is a disaster the board is now showing fours and ones! This is the
moment when you appreciate true horsemanship and a champion -- Boyd doesn’t
break a sweat and kept it cool to find the right balance and the correct lead
again, Good grief! How does he do that!?
He is a champion mate!
Cross country time Mate! Dressage is behind us! Because cross country is serious enough, you
forget about scores for a moment. The first riders are going through and everything
is going well enough; I say that because when we walked the course the day
before with Boyd, I was secretly thinking that it was crazy because the jumps are BIG or
more like enormous and the course is windy and relentless, there is no resting point. Mark Phillips designed
the course and must be crazy and nobody is doing a thing about it! Well! These guys know better, they make plans,
they measure between jumps, walk the course four or five times and then they go
for it!
So, here we are in between the start box, the water jump and
the finishing line with an eye on the large screen and an ear next to a fence
judge radio to follow the progression of our favorite team. Exciting and
stressful even more so when someone announces the retirement of Boyd and Ying
Yang Yo; What happened? Is someone hurt? A bit of panic and feelings of
devastation prevail. By the time we find the team, everybody is back and fine.
It is just that Thomas couldn’t breathe correctly and Boyd was concerned about
his good mate and this is why we invest in this friendship with Boyd. It is simple, he is a good guy, he does the
right thing, he is a true horseman and champion I am always very impressed with
him.
We are back at the stables with Sara taking good care of
Thomas. He is just a happy horse. He sure thinks that everything is fine and
that he did a great job and he sure did! It was amazing that he could run and
jump at that level having such a hard time breathing! Did you see what I jumped sir?! Well! Now I am
eating my hay! Isn’t the food great here? Tell me about it! Tonight I am going
to have schnitzel again and two more lbs. the weekend is going to be damaging!
The next day the German team vet scoped Thomas and he has
one of those weird things that happens to horses; half of his airway is paralyzed and
he cannot fully breathe while running 700 meters per minute. After talking with
Boyd we decided that Thomas is going to join team Stony Brook Farm for a while competing at the lower levels with the owners while we have him fully diagnosed and we will go from there.
This was a great week-end. We didn’t cheer victory but we
cheered horses, riders and friendship. We sure had enough emotions to keep
sharp memories in the upper storage unit. GO Eventing.
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