Elvis has left the building

It was fun in Nashville..

The organizers for next year's annual meeting seem like a fun crown.
They were are dressed up yesterday and did a skit during the banquet. They went around tossing beeds and played wonderful New Orleans music. Lots of colorful umbrellas too.

See y'all next year for Annual Meeting 2012 in New Orleans.

Banquet and Dance

We are getting ready to go for the Annual meeting banquet. It is a very formal dinner. After the dinner Melanie Smith Taylor will make a speech.

There will be a race on one of these fun horses.

The race will be for fund raising.


Then we get to dance till midnight.  Lots of fun!!!

Hit Air... Not Ground

Have you seen the air vests booth at the Trade Fair.
They demonstrated how the vests blow-up. The vests are from a company called Hit-Air. The vests protect everything from your collar bone to tail bone. These vests have a cord that you attach to your saddle, so that when you fall the cord will break and puncture the CO2 canister. This inflates the vest.

The Hit-Air vest:

• Can be re-used after it inflates, you just have use a new canister. 
• Allows you to still wear your penni. You just have to tie the penni loose to make sure you have room for the vest to inflate. 
• Is worn by top riders
• is worn over a normal cross country vest for cross country riding
• Can be worn by itself if you are riding on the flat. 

The nice lady at the booth, Kimberly von Schweinitz said riders must be wearing this for every ride just like they wear their helmet.

Pony Paddock

The pony paddock is place for kids to stay while there parents are in meetings all day. There is always a pony paddock during annual meeting. I think this years pony paddock was a lot more fun than last year. They have a vaulting barrel and were teaching the kids vaulting - scissor kick, around the world, flag and other techniques.
There are more fun activities that are planed for the rest of days are:
- Pictionary
- games and relays
- movie
- make horse treats
- fox hunting presentation
- wrap your partner
- pizza party
- guitar hero

Have a ball improving your riding

Wendy Murdock was at the trade fair with a lot of big exercise balls. She uses these balls to help rider improve their position.

Come visit her.
She will ask you what you would like to improve on in your riding. Then she will put you on a ball and show you where you are wrong in your position and how to fix it.

She will put you through some exercises to help you stay balanced in your seat. She told me that when trainers say "Heels down" , they don't mean put your toe up and your heels down, they mean keep your weight in your heels. You actually stay balanced more if you have weight in your heels than just having your toes up.

She has a lot of fun activity to do to help you understand your mistakes in position. She has Ned and Nevel (who are model skeletons) to help you understand how your joints move. She also has a WII game improve your balance and make your movements more subtle.  Check out http://www.murdochmethod.com

Revitavet Infra Red Therapy

Tom Neuman manufactures infra red therapy pads to use on horses.
These pads kind of look like lights on a soft pad. There are two kinds of lights: Red - visible, Infra red - invisible. You can see infra red light if you look at them through a digital camera. The therapy works as the light gets absorbed into the body and releases nitric oxide which is a molecule that sends a message to the brain to heal the site. The light do a cellular level reaction to tell the body to heal.

Reasons to use Infra red therapy:
 - It speeds up healing by more than 50%
 -  It increases blood flow over a cellular level
 - It reduces pain and inflammation
 - Heals slow or non-healing wounds
 - Kills bacteria
 There are no side effects. This therapy is used by vets and Olympic riders.

I probably did not explain this well. So, come talk to Tom & he will do a better job. He is also going to be presenting a workshop about this therapy. You can check their website at www.revitavet.com

Analyze your riding - Pinnacle Horse will help

Will Montgomery is from a brand called Pinnacle Horse. He provides a software called Pro Motion. Pro Motion is a slow motion video analysis software. Riders can see themselves in slow motion and frame by frame with coaching from the clinician or trainer. This allows you to see what you are doing and what you need to improve. You can draw lines, angles, and write comments then the student can read their evaluation from there trainer who might live far away.

Come find him at the Trade Fair.