BTB: Riley at Devon 2010: Return to the Dixon Oval

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Riley at Devon 2010: Return to the Dixon Oval Posted: 29 Sep 2010 02:21 PM PDT It's September and Riley returned to Devon for  second tour of the Dixon Oval. The weather held out, despite predictions of 90% rain. It was hard to video from ringside (horses in class obscured the view), and a gentleman standing next to me was amiably chatting and asking questions while I tried to watch. I gave up on the video and just watched -- what I have is below. Prepwork My big focus was keeping up Riley's energy level. As Felicitas VN said, you get a certain amount of time and then you run out of quarters. My trainer had back-to-back classes, which we knew early on. With no warmup, I hoped Riley would have an extra spark, but as I walked him around the schooling ring he was an old soul, relaxed and taking it all in. My trainer came out of the ring, we swapped horses, and back in she went.  Riley looked like a horse starting work -- it took him a few minutes to start to shine. And the class went so fast! Anyway, my trainer showed off his strengths, he performed well, and I was very proud. Get'er done at Devon I have to say a word about my trainer -- and the word is ENERGY. She made it all happen. No bragging, no complaining, no mention of how much work this all was -- but I saw her take two horses to Devon and it was pretty much non-stop-foot-on-the-gas, yet she was tireless. My thought on witnessing this first hand?  Whew. Come to think of it, I guess that sums up the past few days, generally. Whew!

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