Saturday, February 20, 2016

Riding through the storm - with a little bit of help from Neoprene

Last night while watching Cesar on NatGeo (a JP favorite) we heard a crash and then found ourselves enveloped in complete darkness: Power Outage. This was caused by heavy storms, gusting to 50 mph. Thank you, Stephanie: Your emergency Osram lights were once again put to good use!


It was a noisy night, and we were just hoping to find the barn and fences in one piece the next morning. Aside from that - I figured riding would be let's just say 'interesting'. Power came back on at 6 a.m., yay: Coffee, heat, shower (in that order)!


Remy seemed quiet enough when I tacked him up, but Judy poked her head out of the arena to suggest I better stick him on the longe line first. Chambord was giving his best impression of piaffe and passage, he is not an 'indoor' horse, and the noise in the arena caused by the storm had him flying high. Luckily, Jean-Paul has such a good 'Draht' (connection) with Chambord, he calmed him down and on they went.


I thought an additional ounce or two of prevention couldn't hurt, dove into my chest of tools - and emerged carrying a fly veil with Neoprene lined ears. It muffles sounds, and is used by many top riders during awards ceremonies (it's not allowed for competition).  Remy was absolutely focused, we had another wonderful ride that left my smiling from ear to ear.


I'm not sure if it's the Neoprene 'muffler' or me just thinking Remy would stay calm because he doesn't hear all the noise - whatever it is: It worked!

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