Video and DVD Reviews
Nelson Pessoa - Schooling the Showjumper
This is a 75 minute video packed full of exciting information for the showjumping enthusiast - from the beginner to the rider interested in international competition. Nelso Pessoa has competed for over 30 years at the highest level of international competition and has many unbeaten records to his name, not the least of which is the record puissance jump of 7' 9".
He starts out with techniques for schooling the novice horse and gives some great tips = repeating every exercise on both sides and the use of rails at the base of the jump to increase the novice horse's confidence. He then moves on to the intermediate horse and tells us that the exercises he uses are the same for every horse; some horses may be more athletic or flexible but the exercises are the same. With the international competitor he deals with a horse who is fine in the practise arena, but goes a little "off the rails" at competitions. He advises techniques to use in these situations.
This is a great tape, the only problem is that you have to watch it when no-one is around to distract you. Nelson has a thick Brazilian accent and you can't afford to be distracted as he is very hard to understand!
Thanks to Kim and Marnie Flick for this review
DVD Review – Badminton 2005
This DVD is well worth watching. There is quite a lot of dressage - featuring pretty much the entire tests of the leading riders and quite a lot of analysis of the brand new dressage test which involves a lot more collected work than the previous one. It is amazing to see how calm these horses are in the dressage arena when the following day they were tearing across country and not always listening to their riders!
I always think its a bit of a shame they show very little of the roads and tracks or steeplchase and now they are no more. 2005 was the last year that Badmnton was a long format three day event. Most riders and course designers seem to have accepted this as inevitable and we may see a different type of horse competing in future. The roads and tracks has a calming effect on some of the keener horses like Primores Pride who are harder to control over the short format.
Before seeing the cross country the viewer is taken round a computerised model of the course, showing the long and short routes and then Pippa Funnel and Matt Ryan discussed how they would ride some of the trickier fences. In the case of the water jump it was interesting to see how some combinations got into trouble when they didn't do it the way Pippa recommended. It was also interesting to see some of the safer routes Andrew Hoy took to go clear.
The oldest horse was 17 and the oldest rider 52 - so there is hope for some of us yet! After seeing just about every entrant in the cross country we went into the showjumping. Disappointingly only the top 6 or so rounds were shown.
I cannot say what happened after Pippa Funnell was about to be handed the trophy because my laptop ran out of battery but I expect it was a fine finale...
Presenting to Win
A recent addition to our video library is "Presenting To Win" with Vicky Lawrie. It has been watched half a dozen times in the Diacono household. Vicky is a several times winner of the Garryowen, the most prestigious hacking class for women in Victoria. Something I learned is that the Garryowen was founded in memory of a lady who died in a stable fire.
But this video is not just for hackies. It gives really practical tips on how to stop your horse getting cold or uncomfortable when you wash it. She shows how to sew in plaits, which is actually not that hard and they look ten times as good as rubber banded ones, to apply makeup (on the horse silly!), to cover scars, what to put on hooves and even how to change your horse's colour temporarily. She also gives tips on how to keep yourself clean while you are doing it. There is quite a long section on how to put false tails in which might go over most member's heads but it is interesting to see how effective they are. New false tails are not cheap but we had a very nice one at the recent car boot sale.
Several horses and ponies of different colours are presented and the before and after shots are remarkable. Given that the video is sponsored by Champion Tails there is a fair bit of product placement but it doesn't get in the way. If you love it so much you want to buy your own copy, or need to stock up on the presentation products, they are available with free expert advice from Terrey Hills Saddlery
DVD Review – Athens Eventing
Apart from seeing the clip of Andrew Hoy falling off about six times, I didn’t manage to see much of the Eventing during the Athens Games, so I was very much looking forward to watching it at my leisure on DVD. The riders interviewed were full of praise for the venue. I didn’t watch all the dressage because I tried to pause the DVD and actually exited that section – I am technically challenged when it comes to DVDs – however, I did see Pippa Funnell and Primores Pride do the most amazing extended trot for which she got all 10s. It was nice to see several combinations who had competed in Sydney – Michaelmas (now 17) ridden by Heidi Antikizides and Sleep Late ridden by Ingrid Klimke; Debat D’Estruval and Didier Courreges. Jeepster of course, and Ready Teddy, ridden by New Zealander Andrew Nicholson. This combination had won the individual bronze in Atlanta 8 years previously and it was Ready Teddy’s last event at the age of 16.
The cross country course was full of twists and turns and reflected Greek culture and tradition. I loved the windmill jump and the olive grove. Most jumps were just single fences and there weren’t many “technical questions” as they say in eventing-speak. That is when you have several obstacles close together so if you get one wrong you don’t have time to recover to jump the next and risk a run out. The ground was lush and green but hard underneath and there were fears that horses would slip, but not many seemed to do so. There were 38 cameras on the cross country course so we could expect good coverage. However, the cameramen didn’t seem to have got the hang of zooming out, so when we saw them jumping the fateful Greek Urn, you couldn’t really see what went wrong.
Mary King was amazing, going through the water on a long rein, straight as an arrow. She has been in the sport for 25 years. (Apologies to the Aussies, I am showing my Pommy roots). Primores Pride pulled the whole way round and Pippa Funnell looked exhausted at the end.
Does your mother comment on how young all the doctors and policeman look these days? Some of the riders are starting to look like that to me. Nicholas Touzaint looks about 16.
Of course it was all drama in the showjumping with the appeals and counter appeals – but an exciting competition right to the end. I’d certainly recommend getting yourself on Soo’s waitlist for this DVD.