Sunday, October 17, 2010

Practice and Performing..

Our second day of camp went a little better. We drove down to the arena where we have been practicing. We had all three horses and barrels to practice on, so we could actually finalize everything for our performances that were starting the next day. After deciding on all the moves we would be doing we did a full run through of everything for each of the different days routines, this included practicing in a 14 year old unitard.

After we finished running through everything, we worked on how we would be running in and out of the arena. I think it looked pretty cool..When we ran in we split into two lines, bowed to the audience, then looped around the arena, and had the two lines cross each other. On the way out we started out the same but instead of crossing we merged to form one long line.

Our first day of performing went well but was kind of uncomfortable..It was 50 degrees and raining while we were out performing, being from southern california, that was something I really was not used to. I was smart enough to wear two unitards though, so I was slightly warmer than everyone else...But the majority of the other vaulters were from Washington, so they were used to it. Of the four days we were perfoming, my group did a team routine on days one and three and on days two and four we did fireworks, which are showing off your best freestyle moves, while the other group did their team routine. Once our 30 minute performance was over we stayed to visit with the audience and answer any questions they had or take pictures with some of the audience members. We then had some free time to wander around the Kentucky Horse Park.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Day 1..

My first full day at camp started with getting up at 7:30, 4:30 California time. We got ready for our first practice day had breakfast and headed over to the practice grounds about an hour from where we were staying. We started out by getting on each of the horses we had for our demo just to see what they felt like and how they moved. There was a big Belgian from Washington, named Jake; a black warmblood, named Leo; and a beautiful bay roan from Texas, named Gus. After trying each of the horses we split into two teams and tried to come up with routines to put on the horses..Without using a barrel because they apparently had not arrived yet. So we made up things on the ground and tried some of those moves on the horse but couldnt really finalize anything because our coach was practicing with the South African team.

After dinner we went outside where it was about 40 or 50 degrees to practice on the barrels that finally arrived. Our coach had us show her what we came up with, she approved most of it but did take out a section to have as a seperate routine.