Tag Archives: horse

General

The Rising Popularity of Greys

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Horse Scout are seeing more grey horses getting bought than ever- why is this?

 

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If we go back a few years and look at stallions that have been particularly in vogue for the last decade, names like Cevin Z, Cicero Z, Lucky Sky and Corland come up. Go back even further and we all remember the illustrious Milton, ridden by Horse Scout Ambassador John Whitaker. These striking grey stallions have produced progeny that rival their own good looks and are proving to be world beaters in their own right.

There is an increasing trend of competition riders who are opting to buy a well bred and beautiful grey horse to compete. Even Charlotte Dujardin is part of the movement, riding her lovely dapple grey six year old Florentina, by Vivaldi. Perhaps in equestrian sports where there is a level of subjectivity like showing, pure dressage, and the dressage element of eventing, a head-turning grey will earn us a few extra marks? Or maybe we just want an attractive horse to look at?

Horse Scout are showcasing a number of extremely well bred grey horses that are bred for dressage, eventing, showjumping and showing.

 

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Super Event Prospect by Myspires Revolution (Stanhope’s Diddicoy)

Sport Horse Grey Filly 3 years 16.2 hands. Prim is out of Twinkle Toes, graded with SHB GB, who is by Crown Graphite (Selle Francais). Awarded Higher First Premium at 2016 BEF Futurity in 3yo Eventing section. Qualified for the Futurity Equine Bridge selection day under saddle as four year old. Special opportunity for someone to own a stunning and kind horse with amazing potential.

 

 

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Vodka Luge 6yo Grey Mare By Shutterfly

Out of a proven advanced event mare by Accondy. Now jumping around 1.10/1.15 BS. Placed, finishing on her dressage score at her first 90. Now competing 100’s unaffiliated finishing on her dressage score. She will be the whole package for someone, flashy type that’s easy enough for a amateur but plenty of talent for a professional to take on. Only broken last winter hence not at Novice level now.

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Freestyle R Grey Gelding by Corland

Fantastic 16.2hh 6 yr old Dutch Bred by Corland out of an Inductro dam. A lovely horse who is fantastic on the flat and is already a winner in pure Dressage competitions at Novice level with scores up to 80% !!! He also really jumps, with scope to burn and all the credentials to be produced into a top class event horse. At present being competed on our behalf by Willa Newton.

 

 

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Perfect Junior / YR Team Horse By Jumbo

Grey gelding 16.1hh 10yo with a near immaculate record at Novice, Intermediate and 1*, with the ability to continue this form at 2*. He has 67 BE points. He is incredibly reliable, consistently jumping double clears and always rises to the occasion. He has 3 correct paces, is very careful show jumping and bold cross country. Results include 1st Hambleden CIC1*, 3rd Rockingham Intermediate 2016, 6th Nunney Intermediate 2016, 7th Aston Intermediate 2016

Horses For Sale

Ranavalona for Sale

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This fantastic mare is a beautiful mover and definitely has the WOW factor.

Competing at novice and working towards elementary at home, nice straight uphill mover, exceptional confirmation, she is a real quality horse. Very loving and kind, but can be cheeky and a busy forward ride so needs a quite capable/confident rider to continue her work to the next level.

She is a competition horse and thrives from her work, has so much more potential so not a novice ride. Always placed when out, catches the judges eye every time, excels at county level showing and have no doubt she will qualify for RIHS/HOYs, would also make someone a nice BYRDs horse.

Has a nice jump, originally bought her to event but have concentrated on what we excelled in together, so a little rusty in this area. Great to clip, box, shoe, etc. Only for sale due to starting a family, and would be very wasted talent if turned away.

5* knowledgeable home only –  £6,250 ONO

For more photos or videos please get in touch 07837868780

Click here to view Ranavalona’s profile on Horse Scout

Looking to buy or sell your own horse? HORSE SCOUT is the number one equestrian networking site that allows you to follow and connect with leading industry professionals as well as buy, sell and promote your horse or business – sign up free today!

Eventing

Badmintons’ Battle of the Brothers. Nereo and Armada in the top three of leaderboard at the Badminton Mitsubishi Horse Trials.

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Two fabulous rides on two full brothers by Eventings top riders Andrew Nicholson and Oliver Townend Armada and Nereo are by the Thoroughbred stallion Fines on to Berganza, a daughter of the Hanoverian stallion Golfi. Oliver Townends ride Armada, owned by Paul and Diana Ridgeon, was ridden superbly round what has proved a course with many questions despite the perfect going. An immaculate, measured and controlled ride from Horse Scout supporter Oliver Townend. With the top six horses at this years Badminton Mitsubishi Horse Trials all within one fence of each other tomorrow is set to be an exciting….and nail biting, show jumping day.

Eventing

The Sky’s the Limit. Emily Lewellyn and Greenlawn Sky High set for a great ride through Badminton tomorrow

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Emily Llewellyn has featured on the Horse Scout Blog and our face book page a bit recently and here she is again as we watch her holding her own on her lovely horse Greenlawn Sky High who is owned by her mother Mrs Cindy Lewelly and Mrs Nicolette Gidley Wright.  He is a 12year old Irish Sports Horse by International Show Jumper Aldatus Z.  Previously a show jumper Emily has had the ride on Greenlawn Sky High for the last six years and it didn’t take long to realize that he was the horse for her. She loved him so much that she decided to buy him! Before selling a half share to Mrs Gidley Wright. (Kingsland Equestrain)!  Emily and Green Lawn Sky High have a penalty score of  just 49.6 to take with them to the starting gate tomorrow. We all wish her the very best at the Horse Scout Blog and I hope that the sun does indeed come out for you (as you asked on your tweet the other day!).

You can find Emily’s professional profile here: Emily Lewellyn on Horse Scout 

Eventing

Good Luck Giovanni : Horse Scout sponsors Giovanni Ugolotti at Badminton Mitsubishi Horse Trials

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Horse Scouts sponsored rider at Badminton Mitsubishi Horse Trials is Italian Rider Giovanni Ugolotti who make his debut at Badminton riding the lovely Stilo Kontika.  And the pair of them have ridden a good test today with a score of 65.11%, giving them a fighting chance tomorrow.  Giovanni represented Italy at the World Equestrian Games finishing in 22nd place having only made his senior debut the year before at the European Championships in Malmo where he and Silo Kontika had a double clear.

If you want to follow Stilo Kontikas profile on horse Scout here is his link Stilo Kontika

Good luck Giovanni.

Showjumping

A Warm Reception for Freezing Rain: the only British Stallion to have approved status by the KWPN Studbook

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Freezing Rain is a young stallion on the way up.  Born in 2010 this 16.2hh handsome bay AES Stallion was bred at Paddock Woods Stud with Select Stallions, where international event rider Emily Llewellyn and Polo player and show jumper Max Routledge are based. This stud with second to none facilities is a family run stud near Godalming in Surrey where the Grand Prix show jumper Typhoon’s son Freezing Rain was bred in 2010.

Freezing Rains listing on Horse Scout’s Stallion pages has some fabulous pictures of Freezing Rain and his sire Typhoon S. Freezing rain was assessed in the UK by the KWPN inspectors and was allowed to attend the two KWPN stallion grading shows in Holland in 2012 and early 2013. From the 500 3 year old stallions assessed by the KWPN  only a few, whose confirmation and jumping ability and veterinary assessment were of sufficient quality were invited to attend the  50 day performance testing in the autumn of 2013 where Freezing Rain he was made ‘Approved’ by the Studbook!

This has made Freezing the first British bred stallion ever to reach this level. We are justifiably proud of this achievement. Ricky is only a 5 year old Stallion but he is already making a name for himself. His first foal born on the stud has been named Mr Rainmaker he and paddocks Woods say “ He is a beautiful stamp of foal and is really bright and bold in his temperament”.

Freezing Rain is out of Tiandra (a Heartbreaker mare) and by Typhoon S Paddock Woods top breeding and competition stallion.

You can find out more about him on his Horse Scout listing page by clicking this link

Stallions At Stud

Record Breaking Progeny for Stallions on Horse Scout.  Stallion review Woodland Wavavoom

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Son of Wavavoom, Woodlander Wild Child, followed his mother (Woodlander Farouche) into the record breaking books by being the highest scoring horse ever in the BEF Futurity when he took the Foal title.

Hanovarian Stallion Woodlander Wavavoom has power  and expression.  Woodlander Studs beautiful chestnut stallion has a wonderful temperament, power & paces. Woodlander Wavavoom has provided a real flag to wave for British Breeding. In 2010 and 2011, he qualified for every young horse Championship with scores of 8 and above and as a 4 year old was runner up in the Badminton Yong Horse Championships to Woodlander Farouche. 2011 saw him again as a finalist at the National Dressage Championships and the Reserve Champion Shearwater 5 year old. In 2012 he returned to Germany to complete his life approval with qualification for the German Bundeschampionat. As a six year old, he scored 86% at Advanced Medium. In 2010 he had only one foal and this was the Hanoverian Champion but in 2011, he surpassed himself by heading the stallion rankings for the BEF Futurity having presented 10 foals and achieved 6 Elites. Not surprisingly, his cross with Woodlander Farouche was the highest scoring horse ever for Futurity with 9.79. In 2012, he remained the highest scoring UK based stallion with more Elite Offspring and, once again, the top pony foal. In 2013, Wavavoom qualified for the summer and winter regionals at Medium and Advanced Medium, and unforgettably was the sire of two licensed sons: Woodlander Wild Child and Woodlander Wales – both of whom were double stallion Champions for Hannoverian, WBS-UK and SPSS. 2014 saw the start of his new partnership with Bobby Hayler where he qualified for Winters and achieved his AM scores well above 70%.

Other supremely sucsessful offspring are:Woodlander Wales (2011)– Elite Sports Pony Futurity 2014; Small Competition Horse Champion SPSS; Supreme SPSS; Licensed Stallion (WBS-UK, SPSS, Oldenburg) – Champion Stallion
Woodlander Winwood – BHHS Foal Champion 2010
Woodlander Wirginia Plain – Elite Foal
Wikipedia – Elite Foal
Wonderful World – Elite Foal
Briarwood Wild Beauty – High First
Wasimah – Elite
Woodlander Wallis – Elite Foal
Woodlander Waterloo – Elite Foal
Waverley Wright Stuff (2013) – Elite
West End Diva (2013)– Higher First
Woodstock (2013) – Higher First

To find out more about Woodlander Wavavoom and the Woodlander Stud view his stallion listing on Horse Scout here

Horse Riding Tips

Stabilising Pilates for your stable

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Horse Scout Blogger is a great fan of Pilates as a way of increasing and maintaining good core strength. Using Yoga or pilates type exercises to improve fitness are as useful for your horse as for you.  Theses are exercises which have been adapted to take into account your horses structure.

  1. Core Strength

Core strengthening exercises strengthen and stabilise the spine and pelvic muscles as the horse responds to pressure over specific areas. If you have strong hands, you can apply pressure manually; if not, use a metal thimble over your thumb or finger. Perform three to five repetitions, allowing the muscles to relax for a few seconds after each exercise. Some horses, especially those that are girthy or cold-backed, may resent certain procedures. If resentment persists, omit the exercise until you’ve consulted with your veterinarian.

The following exercise stimulates lifting of the base of the neck, sternum, and withers through pressure on the ventral midline between the forelimbs. These movements are essential for self carriage.

Sternal, withers, and thoracic lifting exercise:

1. Stand facing the horse’s side, just behind the elbow.

2. Apply upward pressure to the sternum (breastbone) in the middle of your horse’s chest, between the pectoral muscles. Gradually slide your hand back between the forelimbs and behind the girth line while maintaining a steady upward pressure.

3. The horse responds by initially lifting through the sternum and withers. Then as the pressure moves further back, he responds by lifting in the thoracic area immediately behind the withers, and finally in the thoracic area under the saddle.

Note: the amount of pressure needed to stimulate a response will vary between horses, so start gently and increase pressure gradually, or use a slow stroking action until the horse responds.

  1. Balancing Exercises

Balancing exercises improve balance and stability by inducing the horse to use active muscular contractions to shift the centre of gravity toward his haunches and/or to resist displacement of his centre of gravity. A horse uses his muscles in some of the balancing exercises to shift his centre of gravity, while in others, he uses his muscles to resist a shift. Many of the balancing techniques used in horses are similar to those performed in Pilates and yoga training in people.

The next exercise stimulates activation of the pelvic stabiliser muscles to maintain the horse’s balance.

Tail pull:

1. Stand to one side of the hindquarters.

2. Take hold of the horse’s tail, pull it toward you by flexing your elbow. (The goal is not to pull the horse off balance, but to stimulate resistance in the pelvic stabilizer muscles.) You’ll see the muscles around the stifle contracting as the horse resists the pulling force.

3. You can gradually increase the amount of force applied to the tail or the number of repetitions as the muscles get stronger.

Remember to check with your veterinarian before including such exercises into your horse’s training regimen; this is especially important if the horse is recovering from an injury.

Core training exercises can be done without a warm-up–for example, in horses that are recovering from injury–because the horse controls the amount of motion, and loading of the joints is less than during locomotion.

Interesting Horse Facts

How interesting: Brace yourselves for the low down on the effectiveness of Topical Applications (hot and cold) for muscle strain relief

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Exactly what is going on when you apply heating or cooling gels to your horses legs?

Horse Scout Blogger was watching the BBC’s The Truth about your Medicine cabinet last night.  Some very interesting items indeed.  However what caught my attention was the report on the use of topical muscle liniments to reduce reaction to strenuous workouts (obviously this was with humans).  Livery Yards (and competitive stables too) have tack rooms which are full of row upon row of expensive topical applications of hot and cold rubs to help muscle strain relief.  Diligently applied and expensively bought.  I am not a scientist but I am commenting “intelligently” on the scientific research carried out on the programme.

There were three groups.  For fifteen minutes Group One sat in cold (icey) water, Group Two sat in warm water and the third group rested.  In terms of recovery groups one and two felt an immediate benefit (distraction therapy it was called) group three continued to feel sore.  However, over the next three days the two water groups recovered considerably better than the resting group with only a 2-3% difference between the two water groups with the cold group thus marginally better recovered than the warm water group.

The conclusion was that using either cold or hot water treatment for 15 minutes increased recovery time.

They then went on to test both hot and cold topical embrocations from leading brands.  Whilst the subject definitely could feel the effect of the cold and the hot applications and the heat camera was definitely showing the difference in the skin temperatures, the effect had absolutely no effect on the deep tissue temperatures which both read the same and where a normal reading for resting muscles.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions with reference to the effect these topical cooling gels and heat linaments may therefore actually have on your horse.  Me? Well I always did think water was cool…..and pretty much free; especially if you can orgainise a pond or river to stand in.

Professional Rider

How to compete using a “Class Ticket”. Tried and Tested, Job Done!

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Yesterday Horse Scout Blogger spotted that you could get a free class ticket on the British Dressage facebook page but “What are class tickets?”

By buying a class ticket, you can enter one British Dressage class without being a member or having a registered horse. You can use class tickets to compete and will be eligible to win rosettes and prize money, but will not receive BD points or qualification, except for Area Festivals and Combined Training Championships. If a rider using a class ticket wins a qualifier other than those specified above, qualification will pass to the next eligible competitor. You can buy a class ticket from the British Dressage Web site. These are also available in the competition section of this website. You will need to pay the usual class entry fee and abide by British Dressage Rules rules.

British Dressage say: Much more than just a ticket to compete!

If you are already competing in unaffiliated dressage competitions and want to get more involved in this fantastic sport then British Dressage is the place for you! Much more than just a ticket to compete, BD, the National Governing body for the sport in the UK, is a nationwide club for all things dressage, offering training, competitions, information and social opportunities for all. Your horse can earn nationally recognised BD points and you can qualify to take part in prestigious Championships or Festivals.

Most of all affiliated dressage is accessible. Complete competition schedules and lists of training days arrive on your doormat every two months as part of BD magazine. The BD website also carries this vital information (and much more!), and staff at the BD office are on hand during office hours to answer any queries you have. From where to go and what to wear, to competing internationally and representing your country – British Dressage is working to help you get the most out of your sport.

Getting Started

All affiliated shows are open to the public and the major championships are excellent opportunities to see the best at all levels and particularly the nation’s dressage celebrities competing for prestigious national titles. You may also want to go along to your local affiliated venue to check out the facilities and the competition!

You can get a taste for affiliated competition without becoming a full BD member by using class tickets available through the BD shop or by entering Prelim classes.

Class tickets cost £8 each and each ticket allows you to enter one affiliated dressage class without being a member or having your horse registered. You can win rosettes and prize money but you will not receive BD points or any qualifications. You can also use Class Tickets to gain the score sheets needed to qualify to enter an Area Festival.

More information about class tickets here