The Melbourne Cup Spectacular...well, nearly anyway

Well, The women came first and won a big silver cup at the Grafton dragon boat regatta...our mixed team came third. Some work still to go there but at least I didn't fall off the back of the boat this time. Lovely city with the Jacaranda trees in full bloom.
They're coming to install solar electricity panels tomorrow...'er indoors would love to see a negative power bill. I told her she must be dreaming. Shouldn't have done that since she's just arranged to have them start at 7am and guess who'll have to be there to greet them. Lesson learned until the next time no doubt.

How did the Melbourne Cup go for you? Of course if you're reading this from overseas then it won't mean much to you but for Aussies, it's the horse race that literally stops the nation for the afternoon of the first Tuesday in November. I lost my shirt again and I'm supposed to know something about horses. Um.

Here's some comment on the Melbourne Cup parade which took place a couple of days before the race. The horse parade that didn't quite, well, stop a nation. Worth a read and a laugh too.

Pressure is mounting on the FEI to look again at the practice of riding horses in a very deep and round neck frame known as hyperflexion or rollkur. This is in response to a video circulating the internet showing Swedish team dressage rider Patrik Kittel schooling his horse in hyperflexion at Odense, Denmark, 18 October. Have a look at the video - I'm surprised the poor horse can even see where it's going. Pointless exercise from my point of view but what do you think?

Raul de Leon Teaches a Student on the Longe. Watch Master Instructor Raul de Leon explain how he uses the longe line to give the rider a supple seat. Nice video and the sound gets better so persevere a bit. It's worth it. Courtesy of Equisearch.

Quote from Heather Sanson "When I do a clinic, participants over 40 often apologize for their age and confess that they wanted to come to a rider fitness clinic because their bodies don’t work like they used to. What’s ironic about the confession is that the majority of my clients and clinic participants are over 40. Yep, copy that. So what do you do? Read on....and let me tell you, these exercises are not just specifically for riders.

When next you next go to the dentist, and don't we all dread that, spare a thought for this poor horse getting his 'treatment' with what looks like a power drill. Sounds familiar though....that high pitched whine as it approaches your poor defenceless mouth......urgh.

Want a horse trail ride in South Africa? This trailer makes it all look really good...and by the way I have no commercial connection whatsoever with any of this. It looked very nice though...what do you think?

Now I know...this isn't strictly to do with horses although the show does have horses in the title. I guarantee you'll laugh your socks off and that's good therapy for us all.

For those of you into Arabians, then this is a nice video of an exceptional example of the breed. Beautiful horse and worth a good look.

Have a great week