Knight's Cameron

[Melanie]

*****I will be training Cameron here by myself.

Training Session # 1

I walk my 18hh Trakehner into the jumping ring and mount him. His black coat is shimmering.I ask for a walk and he moves into it gracefully. I walk him for a few minutes and then ask for a sitting trot. His transition is wonderful and his trot is floating! I start posting after a couple of minutes and then do some circles and figure eights. Once he was warmed up I asked for a canter. His canter is fabulous! I took him across the middle and he did a perfect flying lead change! I ask him to walk and then look at the jumps. They are about 4' and then there was a little line of warmup crossrails. He can jump these without a problem. I trot him over the line of crossrails and he looks and seems bored. "Okay boy, don't worry. We'll jump the bigger ones in a little while." I trot him over them a couple more times and then change directions and do it that way. I walk him for a couple of minutes and then ask for a canter. The course has 12 jumps, 7 are 4', 3 are 4'6' and the other two are 5'. He can do those heights no problem. I canter my beginning circle and then head towards the first jump. He pricks his ears and speeds up a little and I let him go. He does the first jump perfectly and after he lands I slow him down a little and we head towards the second. It was an oxer and he took off at exactly the right moment and cleared it with room to spare. We do the rest of the course and he does each jump perfecxtly. He liked the higher jumps the best but he did a great job. I pat him and give him lots of praise and he prances. He knows how good he is! I give him a couple minutes to cool down and he's not even sweating or breathing hard and I do the course one more time. He does it even better than the first! "Good boy!" I cool him out and then start dressage.

We head to the middle of the ring at a nice trot. He stops on a dime and is standing perfectly. He waits until I give him all the signals and then moves out at a trot. I ask for an extended trot, which he does perfectly and then ask for a collected. He has a little trouble collecting, but that can be worked on. I slow him to a walk and then ask for a collected canter. He rounds his body nicely and his haunches are balanced perfectly under him. I ask for a regular canter and he knows what's coming next. I ask for the extended canter and he goes into it happily. I slow him to a trot and then a walk and take him into the middle and ask him to stand. He does and I give him lots of praise and pats. I cool him out and bring him back to the barn. "We can do cross country later boy. You deserve a long break."

I dismount and lead him to the crossties. I untack him and put it all away. I brush him out until he shines and then pick out his hooves. I put hoof oil on the inside and the outside too. I comb out his mane and tail and then decide to use showsheen on him. I spray it onto his body and then brush it in. It makes him shinier than ever. I put his shoulder guard on and then his fleece. I place his medium monogrammed stable blanket on over it and then go to his stall. I clean it out and put two bags of shavings in it and then give him two scoops of grain. I give him two flakes of hay and fill his water buckets with warm water. I walk back to him and give him an apple and then take him to his stall. I make sure he's settled, give him a kiss and then close the door. I hang up his halter and then walk out of the barn. "Bye Cameron, I love you."

[Breezy Stables and Training]

um........can you do that? do you have a job or does it just work out that way coz you're an admin?

[Melanie]

Yeah you can...no one has done it before..but people can do it if they want to. It's not just because I'm an admin so don't worry. I'm not training any other horses, he's just mine and I want to train him. Anyone can train their own horse if they want to. I will only train my own horses here!

[Melanie]

Training Session # 1 (Continued)

I lead Cameron into the field where the cross country course starts and mount him. I warm him up for 10 minutes and then pick up a canter. I take him over the hedge jump and he clears it easily. I continue on to finish the course and he does all perfectly. He goes through the water without any problems and jumps out of it perfectly. We finish the course in record time! "Good boy!" He has just enough energy to give a couple of big bucks at the end of it! He's breathing a little hard but not too badly for just jumping a course in that time. He's not sweating so I walk him out until his breathing is back to normal and he's all cool. He has plenty of energy left so I decide to gallop him in the field. He can sure fly! He wasn't even winded after I pulled him up. He still had a spring in his step. "Good boy! You sure have a lot of energy!" I cool him out and walk him back to the barn and stop outside the door.

I dismount and lead him to the crossties. I untack him and put it all away. I brush him out until he shines and then pick out his hooves. I put hoof oil on the inside and the outside too. I comb out his mane and tail and then decide to use showsheen on him. I spray it onto his body and then brush it in. It makes him shinier than ever. I put his shoulder guard on and then his fleece. I place his medium monogrammed stable blanket on over it and then go to his stall. I clean it out and put two bags of shavings in it and then give him two scoops of grain. I give him two flakes of hay and fill his water buckets with warm water. I walk back to him and give him an apple and then take him to his stall. I make sure he's settled, give him a kiss and then close the door. I hang up his halter and then walk out of the barn. "Bye Cameron, I love you."

[Melanie]

Training Session #2
I lead my black stallion out of the barn into the inddor ring. I attach the lunge line to one side of the bridle and send him out. He follows my commands perfectly. After a few turns at the walk I ask for a trot. He picks it up and starts to prance. He looks so beautiful! I ask for a canter and he starts bucking and galloping. "Easy boy. Calm down! I don't know why you have so much energy today. It's not like we didn't do anything yesterday!" He eventually calms down and settles into a nice canter. I ask him to extend and he does. I ask him to slow to a trot and then to a walk. I ask him to stand and I walk over to him. I switch the lunge line to the other side and send him out again. He walks for about three minutes to cool down a little and then I ask him to trot again. He picks it up and prances as always. We do a couple of circles like that and then I ask for a canter. He does it perfectly this time! "Good boy!" He canters around for another minute and then I ask him to walk. I then ask him to stand. I take off the lunge line and roll it up. I place it on the mounting block and walk back to him. He stands if no one holds him so I knew he would be okay. I put down the stirrups and mount him. "That's enough flat work for one day boy! Now lets jump!"

I take him over the warm up crossrail that's like 2' a couple of times at the trot. Then I change directions and do it a few more times that way. Then I ask him to canter and go over it a couple more times that way and then change directions and do it a couple more times the other way. I ask him to walk and we walk for about five minutes so he can cool down a bit and then I pick up the canter again. The course has twelve jumps all about 5' this time. I take him over the first one and he strains a little but that's because it's our first time over a 5' jump today. He warms up more as we go along. We finish the course without anymore problems and he's not even breathing hard at the end. We dot he course one more time and he does it perfectly. "Maybe tomorrow we'll raise the jumps!" I cool him out for ten minutes and then head back to the barn.

I dismount and lead him to the crossties. I untack him and put it all away. I brush him out until he shines and then pick out his hooves. I put hoof oil on the inside and the outside too. I comb out his mane and tail and then decide to use showsheen on him. I spray it onto his body and then brush it in. It makes him shinier than ever. I put his shoulder guard on and then his fleece. I place his medium monogrammed stable blanket on over it and then go to his stall. I clean it out and put two bags of shavings in it and then give him two scoops of grain. I give him two flakes of hay and fill his water buckets with warm water. I walk back to him and give him an apple and then take him to his stall. I make sure he's settled, give him a kiss and then close the door. I hang up his halter and then walk out of the barn. "Bye Cameron, I love you."

[Melanie]

Training Session #2 (Continued)

I lead him out into the indoor and mount him. He prances a little because he's excited. He sees the course with very large jumps ranging 5'3 - 5'6. I start out with a walk and warmhim up for ten minutes. Then I ask him to trot and we do circles and figure eights. I warmhim up at the trot going both directions for another ten minutes. That gave him a twenty minute warmup so his muscles are nice and loose for the big jumps. I ask him to canter and we do more circles and more figure eights. After five minutes of that I ask for a walk. He's bored and I am too but I wanted to make sure he's nice and warmed up for the jumps. I take him over the 2'3 vertical and he takes it easily. I do it a couple more times this way and then a couple more times the other way. I give him a ten minute break to get his energy back and then I pick up the canter. He's very excited as we head towards the first jump of the 14 jump course. I slow him down a bit and he takes the first jump perfectly. He just needs a good warm up. We hed towards the 5'6 jump and he pricks his ears. I handle him perfectly and he soars through the air over the oxer. We do the double just as well and then we head towards the water jump. Ir's our first time jumping one and I can feel he's a little nervous but he's very willing. He trusts me and I trust him. We take off over the jump very well and we land with a splash into the water. He snorts in surprise but he's calm so we move to the triple. He does the first perfectly, the second just as well, but is a little hesitant over the third. I didn't see the pole on the other side but he somehow leaps over that too. So that's why he was hesitant! If it were any other horse I bet we would have hit that pole and tripped! "Good boy!" Five more jumps to go. We take the next three perfectly and then finish the next without hesitation. We start for the final jump and I realize it's a 6' oxer! "Oh man! I didn't realize!" It's too late to back out now so he laaunches himself into the air with ease, and clears the jump gracefully! "What a good boy! What a jumper you are!" He's not strained at all at the end so I figured it was a great round! I cool him down and he's not even sweating. He's breathing a little hard but after a course like that I don't blame him! "What a good boy!" I give him more pats and after a twenty minute cool down trot him down to the cross country field.

We get there and after a ten minute warm up I ask him to canter. He picks it up willingly and we set off for the first jump. It was a hedge, about 5'6. He cleared it easily. The rest of the jumps were a breeze for him. He stumbled after the 6' tire jump but recovered nicely. The jumps were all at 5'6 or higher. None were higher than 6' though. We finish the course in record time and he's sweating a little at the end of it but he did so well. I cool him down for twenty minutes and then walk him back to the barn.

I dismount and lead him into the barn. I take off his bridle and exchange it for a halter. I hook him into the crossties and finish untacking him. I take off all four wraps and rub linament on them to make them feel better and not cause stiffness. I put his wraps and tack back where they belong in the tackroom. I brush out the sweatmarks and then spray show sheen on him. I brush it into his coat and it makes him really shiney. I pick out his hooves and apply hoof oil, inside and out. I comb out his mane and tail until there are no more knots and they are streaming. I put his shoulder guard on and then his fleece. I put his navy monogrammed medium stable blanket on him over the fleece. I walk back to his stall and start cleaning it out. Once it was clean I put five bags of shavings in it to make him nice and comfy. I give him his two scoops of grain and three flakes of hay to last him the night. I take his water buckets and then scrub them out and rinse them. I fill them with warmish water and hang them back in his stall. I put a carrot on top of his grain and walk back to him. I make sure everything is put away and then lead him back to his stall. He seems glad to be able to relax in his stall. "Don't worry boy, tomorrow, we'll take it easy. Just a light exercise in the morning and you can have the rest of the day off. I promise!" I give him a stud muffin and he nuzzles me for more. "I don't have any more boy, but eat your food, there's a carrot on top of it." He lets me give him a kiss and a pat befor he turns and starts eating his feed. I close the door and hang his halter and leadlin on it. "Night boy, I love you!"

[Melanie]

Training Session #3

I get the close contact saddle and the rest of Cameron's tack out of the tack room. I bring it over and put it next to the crossties. I walk to his stall and grab his halter and leadline. I put it on him and lead him out to the crossties and hook him in. He's tired still from our workout yesterday and I promised him we would take it easy. I take off his blankets and hang them on his door. I brush his coat until he's soft and shiney. I pick out his hooves and comb out his mane and tail. Then I tack him up and lead him to the indoor.

I bring him in the middle and mount him. We start out at a slow walk to get him to loosen his muscles. After five minutes, I ask him to trot. We head around the ring at a nice pace and do circles and figure eights. After about five minutes of that I bring him down to a walk. I let him relax for a few minutes and then pick up the trot again. I point him at the little 2' crossrail. We jump over it smoothly and then we trot around the ring. We take it one more time and then canter away. I have him canter over it twice this way and then we change directions and canter over it the other way. I slow him to a walk and give him a ten minute break. I decide that today would be a good day to take him on the trails.

As we head up to the short trail, he hears something and pricks his ears towards it. I look in that direction and see a mother deer and her baby. We walk quietly past them but they smell us and run into the woods. We continue along the trail and I ask him for a trot. We trot along and jump over the fallen log. He's enjoying himself and I am too. We continue on our way and trot through the stream. After that I ask him for an extended canter and we head to the field. I ask him for a gallop when it came into sight. He opened up and we galloped for a moment and then I slew him down to a collected canter. We jumped the brick wall going to the other side of the trail and I slowed him to a walk. He wasn't sweating or breathing heavily. It was a good workout for him but it didn't push him too hard. We finish the trail at a walk and head to the barn.

He's all cool as I lead him to the crossties and exchange his bridle for a halter. I hook him in and then go and get his blankets. I walk back to him and put the blankets down. I undo the girth and put the saddle and the girth away in the tack room. I undo his splint boots and put them away too. I brush out the sweatmarks and he shines. I pick out his feet and apply hoof oil on them. I comb out his mane and tail and then put his shoulder guard on. I put his fleece and then his heavy stable blanket on. It was supposed to be colder tonight. I walk to his stall and clean it out. I put three bags of shavings in it for extra insulation and then fill his water buckets with warm water so they wouldn't freeze. I give him his three scoops of grain and three flakes of hay. I put a carrot on top of his food and then walk back to him. I unclip the crossties and lead him to his stall. He walks right in and then I give him a kiss. I close the door and hang up his halter and leadline. "Bye boy, I love you, see you tomorrow!"

[Melanie]

Training Session #4

I lead my black stallion out to the indoor and mount him. We start off at a brisk walk and after five minutes I ask for a trot. We do circles and figure eights and then I pop him over the little crossrail. He jumps it with ease. We do it a couple more times and then I take him over the vertical. He does that easily also. I ask him to walk and give him a break. I then ask him to canter and we do the crossrail and then the vertical. After that I canter him on the rail and do circles and figure eights. I slow him to a walk and study the course. The jumps are 5' - 6' and I knew he could jump those easily so I raised one jump to the height of 6'2. That would give him a little challenge. I get back on him and then start off at a canter. We head to the first jump smoothly. It was just a 5' vertical with fancy flowers. He jumped it like it was nothing. We head to the second jump, a brick wall and he hits it perfectly. We're sailing through the air and already thinking about the next jump. It's a brightly colored oxer, about 6'. We get the strides down and he takes off for it perfectly. We finish the course in the same way and then I walk him out. I trotted him down to the cross country course. It was a beautiful day.

The cross country course that I wanted to do had fifteen jumps. They all were about 6'. We head towards the first jump and he takes it a little long and strains a little. He makes it and I help him towards the next jump. He takes it better and then were off towards the third. It's a hedge jump. He jumps it willingly. We take the next jump, a picnic table, and then he jumps the jump into the water. Ten jumps to go. He runs through the water easily and propels himself into the air over the rail. We land into the water again and then have to jump another rail to get out of it. He jumps it easily and then were off again. He's not sweating so I let him extend into a full gallop. We fly along the path and then see the next jump come into view. I slow him down to a collected canter and we get the right strides to take the jump. He does, and then we finish the course in an awesome time. He's sweating a little at the end and his breathing is a little hard but he did a great job. I cool him out for twenty minutes on the trail and then walk him back to the barn. I dismount and lead him in.

I take him to the crossties and exchange his bridle for a halter. I take off the rest of his tack and put it away in the tack room. I brush my stallion until he gleams and then pick out his feet. I put hoof oil on them and then I comb out his mane and tail til there are no more knots. Then I put his shoulder guard on and then his fleece and then his medium turnout. I feed him his grain first and then lead him out to his pasture. He'll have fun outside today. I open the gate and lead him through. I unclip his halter and he bucks and gallops away. I make sure he has plenty of water and hay and then walkback to the barn. I just have to put shavings in his new stall. I put five bags into it and then I fill his water buckets up with warm water. I organize everything on his door and side of the stall and then head out. I'll bring him in later.

[Melanie]

Training Session #5

I lead my fully saddled, fully energetic Trakehner to the jumping ring. He prances and snorts all the way down. "Easy boy, calm down." I open the gate and lead him through and then turn around and close it. I lead him to the center of the ring and hop on. He starts miving before I hit the saddle. I gather the reins and make him listen to me. He does, but he's not happy about it. I ask him to walk and he takes off at a brisk one. I let him stretch his muscles out and make circles and figure eights. After five minutes I change directions and make more circles and figure eights. Then I ask him to trot and he complies, picking it up gracefully. We trot around for a couple of minutes going both ways and then I point him at the 2' vertical. He jumps it easily and then I have him do it a couple more times. He's bored and I can tell but I want him to be plenty warmed up before trying the 6' - 7' course I laid out. He's excited by the sight of them and I have to struggle to get his attention back on me. Finally I do and then make him go over the vertical a few more times in both directions. Then I let him walk for ten minutes and then dismount. He looks at me, confused. "Easy boy. Stay there for a minute." He listens and then I walk over tho the vertical and raise it another foot. I call him over to me and he walks over calmly. I have to jump to get on him because he is too tall! 18 hh is a big boy! I finally get on him and then pick up the trot again. After a couple minutes of that and popping twice over the vertical, I ask him to canter. He moves into it perfectly. I circle him and do figure eights and lead changes until I point him at the vertical. I could feel him getting excited so I applied the slightest amount of pressure on the bit. He focused back on me and took the jump at exactly the right point. We cleared it with room to spare and then did it a few more times. Then I changed directions and had him do it the other way. He was perfect! I asked him to walk and he wasn't even breathing hard. No swet either. I walked him out for ten minutes and then got back off. I walked over to the vertical and raise it to 4'6. I went back to him and jumped up. I got on more easily this time. I hate being short! Anyway, I asked him to canter and then pointed him to the jump. He pricked his ears but kept the steady pace and we took off for it perfectly. "Good boy!" We did it a few more times each way and then I asked him to walk. I walked him for another ten minutes and then got off again. "Jeez, I really need a helper!" I raise the jump to 6' and then get back on him with some trouble. We took off at the canter and I let him judge to see where the take off point should be. He hit it perfectly, without any assitance from me. He cleared the jump with 2 feet to spare and then bucked after it. "Very professional boy. You ruined a good moment!" He neighs and I laugh and then we do the 6' jump again. He does it the same way and then after a few more times this way, we do it the other way. Perfect, perfect, perfect! At least I thought so. I slow him down to a walk and after fifteen minutes, dismount. I raise the jump to 7', the highest jump in the course and get back on him. I ask him to trot, and then to canter. He does and sees the big jump and gets excited. "Easy boy, not yet." We head to it and hit it pretty well and he soars over it. "Good boy!" He nods his head and I can see the excitement in his eyes. We do the huge jump twice more and then the other way, with only one mishap. He tripped right before the jump and I had to really help him to get over it. He strained a lot. He was okay though and I gave him a little break and then did the jump one last time. O walked him for twenty minutes and then picked up the canter. We flew over the first jump, it was only 6' and the next jump was just as easy. We came to the 6'6 oxer and he picked up the pace a little and soared over it. Oxers are my favorite kind of jump!! We finished the rest of the course easily and I pulled him up at the end. He had a fantastic time and wasn't sweating too badly. He was breathing a little heavily but other than that was fine. He still had enrgy left! I walked him for a half and hour and then dismounted. I opened the gate and led him through.I closed it and then led him to the barn.

I took off his bridle and put his halter on. I put him in the crossties and took off his saddle and wraps. I put them away in the tack room and grabbed the grooming kit. I brushed out all the sweat marks and then put show and sheen on him. I brushed it into his coat and made him shiney and soft. I put detangler in his mane and tail and combed them out. After that, I picked out his feet and put hoof oil on them. He looked handsome. I put his navy shoulder guard on and then his navy fleece and then his navy heavy stable blanket. Then I went to his stall and cleaned it out. I put five new bags of shavings in it and then refilled his water buckets. I gave him three scoops of grain in his feed bucket and then three flakes of hay. I went back to him and gave him a carrot. He munched on it happliy and then I clipped his leadline to his halter and unclipped the crossties. I turned him around and led him into his stall. He rolled happily and then allowed me to kiss him and then started eating his grain. I took off his halter and then walked out. I closed the door, making sure it was locked, and then I hung his halter on it. "Night boy, love you, see you tomorrow!"