This blog will be updated weekly (at least) and provide the things I've done and learned and observed while working at the Ocala Winter Horse Show. The introduction here was written for my internship, and may provide some more information!
Winter at the HITS Ocala Winter Show Grounds
This winter I will be traveling to Ocala, Florida to work at the Horse Shows in the Sun (HITS) Winter Festival for trainer Elizabeth Solter. I got this internship through my trainer Annette Traband, who is a friend and student of Elizabeth. Elizabeth is an internationally known World Champion hunter rider, and formerly a USET and World Cup team member. She owns Amberly Farm in Berlin, MD, where she trains and shows hunter-jumpers (Equinity Performance, 2009). She is most well-known as the rider of Roxdene, the USEF horse of the year from 1991-1995, and was named Chronicle of the Horse’s “Hunter of the Century” (Sainthouse, 2009).
I will be traveling to Florida Monday to Tuesday, Jan. 25th-26th, with Elizabeth to look for a horse for a client of hers. The horses will arrive on Jan. 30th and we will work them for half a week before 6 weeks of showing begin on Feb. 10th. The shows run Wednesday to Sunday, with professionals showing the horses on the weekdays and clients coming on the weekends to show in the amateur divisions. I will be working as groom and possibly exercise rider every day of the week, feeding and cleaning stalls. Monday the horses are rested, while Tuesday they are lightly worked.
I hope to do three things while at the show grounds. First, I wish to learn training techniques and better riding skills from Elizabeth. Being able to observe and listen to top trainers can teach a person much about a skill, and since I have a fair background in the hunter-jumper world, I at least know what to look for and can see whether or not it’s being done correctly. I can also watch classes and observe the horses, so I can better judge a horse’s movement and form. I feel that I still am lacking in this skill, and watching top performers will be hard. Horses at this level are all good, compared to local schooling shows that I’m used to watching, where there is a wide spread of talent and it is usually easy to pick out a good mover or three. Also, while I am there, I may have an opportunity to ride and exercise horses on the Tuesdays. I would be ecstatic if I am qualified to do this, because these are expensive, well-trained horses and I would need to be a good rider to not create problems with the horses when there are none (i.e. riding too much with hand and giving them a hard mouth, etc.). If I do get to exercise the horses, it could almost be like a lesson, since I’m sure Elizabeth will be watching and correcting, or telling me what to do to exercise the horse in an efficient and correct manner.
The second thing I hope to do is learn show grooming skills. I know a fair bit already, including little bits such as how to use baby oil to make a nose shine, use rubbing alcohol to take up dirt without making a horse look wet, and other bits. But since the level of show-cleanliness here is above what I’ve prepared before, I’m looking forward to learning a new standard from the other grooms and successfully turning out gorgeous show-ring ready horses. Upon return to University Park, I will also host a show-grooming clinic/demo for all interested participants to demonstrate and share what I have learned.
Lastly, I think it will be interesting to observe and study the culture of high-end showing. For the hunter-jumpers, showing in Florida for the winter is a very upper-class thing to do, and the people who come have a lot of money. Studying how they interact with their horses, trainers, grooms, and fellow riders will be interesting, since it is a very different attitude than I am used to. I wish to learn more about the people who show at the southern winter circuits and the culture and atmosphere of this sub-culture.
Works Cited
Equinity Performance. (2009). Sponsored Riders. Retrieved Jan 2010, from http://equinityperformance.com/aboutus.html
Sainthouse, P. (2009, Sept). Great Grey Horses of Dressage and Show Jumping. Retrieved Jan 2010, from Suite101.com: http://horses.suite101.com/article.cfm/great_grey_horses_part_1
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