Heading for competition!

So now we really are heading for the first combine driving competition with Shetland pair! Pretty amazing! Leaving tomorrow and competing Saturday and Sunday. Both dressage and cones are driven on Saturday and marathon at Sunday. I really shouldn't be blogging but packing right now! The Finnish spring is really not helping either as it has snowed a few cm snow during the night :P 

I have packed some stuff already, unbeliveable how much blankets and stuff you have to have with you with two ponies! Today I will drive the ponies in pair so cleaning up the tack must be done late this evening. Then there is packing of the carcaravan also, very handy to live in during competitions!

I just printed and collected all the documents you need, ponies passports, healthy cards for the driver and groom for marathon etc. Really a lot to remember!

Yesterday I tested if I could plait the ponies manes, looks nice here but as I drove it got loose, so I'll let the original pony breed compete with mane loose waving in the wind :) This is Paulette.

We had the vetenarian come to our stable at Tuesday. All 2 yr olds teeth were checked and wolfteeth removed, also Paulette's, Ivanhoe's and Verano's teeth checked and three young ponies vaccinated. Paulette and Ivanhoe had also to be measured officially due to the competition regulations and the document has to be with them in the competition, Paulette was 99 cm and Ivanhoe surprisingly 104,4 cm. We have got a measurement document of him taken in Sweden when he was a trotting pony and then they had measured him to be 102,9 cm, maybe it is the muscle he now have in his neck that makes him 2 cm higher ;) 

Then we even had a friend massageing Ivanhoe and Paulette, she studies to become a equine masseur. If you have ponies working hard you can't expect them to keep fit if you don't take care of them. Both enjoyed their massage and was pampered with Back on Track backwarmerer blankets afterwards. Next week they'll get their second massage after the competition. They were in quite good muscle condition now which I was pleased to hear as they still had a long stand in the trailer in the weekend to the camp and back home and hard training passes both days, so not any very sore points found, just some harder parts in muscles where one can expect with Shetlands, in the shoulders and lumbar region (hope that is the right term). So they had recovered from the training very good!

Hope I have time to put some photos from the competition on our facebook page during the weekend!

Shetland size equipment wanted

It is quite difficult and expensive to try to find suitable equipment for Shetland ponies. It seems manufactures has not yet realized there is a market for Shetland size sheets, wraps etc. Still there is an increasing number of especially adults who drive and train their ponies goal-directed. If you are lucky enough to find for example a suitable sheet, it is probably pink. Well a bit exaggrated by generalising. But you don't always find what you are looking for. One major problem is that often the product is just a smaller version of horse size without no adaptions for Shetland propotions, this leads to for example bits with horse sized rings or sheets that are suitable in lenght but hangs to knees. As I am quite pedantic of colors (visual as I am...) I sew two green cooler sheets and two tartan driving sheets for special occations as you don't find such in shops. I've always used green as team color but with Shetlands I also use both brown (because of our gig) as deep red as it looks great on black ponies. As Paulette and Ivanhoe are in training for next summers combine driving competitions one have to take extra care of them when driving and afterwards to keep their muscles relaxed when we can have temperatures as low as -15C when driving. Of course they have a good coat as I haven't clipped them, but therefore it is even more important to have good fleece rugs to help them dry. I put a fleece sheet on neck and a fleece rug on them after driving - and change into a dry new rug after 30-60 min, if necessary I change the rug once more and might ad a Back On Track back-warmer (horse size but covers a Shetland nicely). You can read of Back On Track products here, they are much used in Finland by trotters.

I'm definitely not a good sewer but these will do :) Swinghill's Paulette presents the cooler sheet and driving sheets I sew :)

 

Cooler is handy when you walk a horse after driving

 

Driving sheet likewise but these ones I might use on a colder day in spring or autumn before and after performance