Spruce Meadows

Great pictures, as always! ~

What day were you there? We watched the Derby on Sunday.
I can't believe the person who won (from Venezuela, Pablo Barrios) - last in the ring and he put in an amazing round on that little horse! I thought for sure it was either going to be Ashlee Bond (who had a wonderful round) or Leslie Moore (she had two horses, both amazing rounds - no video).
Eric didn't have such a great bout, but he was riding one of his greenies for his round. But am I right that he won the CN on the previous day?

Looking good JDI! Definitely improving

Forgive me, but what is it with the little hats on the dressage horses?

Little hats? Dressage horses? I'm confused, I don't see what you're talking about! XD

Nearly every horse is wearing what looks to be a tea cozy on their head. Little hats, on the English horses. You don't see horses wearing hats??

I am trying to be polite here- I don't know the name of the tea cozy hat, nor its purpose. =) I'm not trying to be disrespectful to any discipline.

Maybe they are hunter horses. I dunno. The horses in English tack, wearing tea cozy hats.

Lol! Horses in hats, I love it!

Here we call them earwigs, don't know about the US. They are used for two reasons I know of - One, if the horse is afraid of or distracted by noise (I.e. Appluase, announcer) then they stuff the ears with cotton wool and put an earwig on to keep it in place.

Other reason is to keep bugs out of clipped ears.

There are no dressage or hunter horses pictured. They all appear to be jumpers. (With the exception of the frontier exhibition.) They are called fly bonnets, fly nets or ear nets. Hadn't thought of the use of keeping the cotton secure in the horse's ears; most folks use them to keep flies and gnats out from aggravating the horses while being ridden.

The first one of this type was made (crocheted) by a groom for the showjumper Gem Twist back in the 80s; Gem had a bad habit of vigorously shaking his head while on course if he was being bothered by gnats. A lot of photos wre published of Greg Best and Gem wearing the ear net that they become quite popular.

I hope the groom was able to retire on the proceeds, but I doubt it.

Maura, I said I wasn't trying to be disrespectful to any discipline, I am ignorant of English riding (and yes, anything that's being ridden in an English saddle is English to me) as I ride Western, have ridden western for 31 years, and have never ridden English, studied English, or had any inclination to do so. I know nobody that rides English, has ever thought about English etc. =)

How you tell the difference between all the English events, I have no idea.

I just wanted to know why the horses were wearing hats. =)

No worries, draft rider! I didn't think you were being disrespectful.

Just an fyi, all those horses were wearing tack that would never be seen in either hunters or dressage. I understand that doesn't mean much to some folks, I can't tell the difference between different styles of Western tack, though, either.

Honestly, those ear nets are wonderful. This time of year in the South, the flies are so horrible no spray really holds up on a long trail ride or workout. They're particularly good at thwarting deer flies and may flies. I put them on everytime I ride this time of year.