Day 2- Laura Tomlinson

Today we had the incredible opportunity to visit Laura Tomlinson (Bechtolsheimer) at her family's farm. The farm was beautiful and Laura, her father, and the staff were very welcoming and greeted us with coffee and cookies when we arrived. Right from the beginning, Laura's father told us that even though we were watching today, they were not going to change their normal riding routine with their horses. Because Laura was away at a horse show the past week, some of the horses were being worked lightly today and were not ridden through test movements in order to "show off" to us. I appreciated that they stuck strict to their horse's normal work routines, and loved to see how a top rider trains her horses at home on a regular basis.

 Laura schooling Unique (Minnie), the horse she competed to top placings in the small tour at Hickstead

We watched several horses being trained by Laura. The first horse we watched was one of Laura's former international Grand Prix horses that one of her students is now riding and competing. Her student just got back from the international show in Hickstead and finished third in the Grand Prix Special, and it was only her third time showing the Grand Prix.

Next, we watched Laura ride a few horses her family owned. Some of the horses were horses Laura's family bred and were by the stallion Laura rode as a young rider. One horse that was incredible to watch was Polar Bear (Teddy). He was a large gelding with spectacular movement, and will hopefully be Laura's next top Grand Prix horse! Laura's father, Dr. Bechtolsheimer, was an eye on the ground while Laura was riding and he talked about how the gelding could get nervous in the work, so it was important to introduce things in small amounts, and to always pay attention to the quality of the gaits when schooling a new movement. If the quality of the gait diminished while schooling a movement, one must leave the movement and fix the quality before returning to the movement. For example, we watched Laura school the one time tempis, and she only did three ones at a time. Her dad explained that they planned to add one more change each week so that the horse kept his confidence and balance in them. Then, after a few months the horse would be able to do an entire diagonal of ones that were large and expressive with ease and confidence. 

Laura riding Teddy

Lastly, Laura gave us a tour around her farm and it was interesting to see all that goes into managing top horses.  Her barn was equipped with magnetic sheets that hung from the ceiling and could work on the entire horse's body when the horse stood in between the two sheets. She also had an aqua treadmill, as well as a scale to weigh each horse so that they could stay at optimum weight and fitness. Her feed room was also spectacular with a hay steamer to remove the dust from the hay, and customized mineral mixes for each horse that were tailored to what the horses needed according to blood test results. Each horse also enjoyed turnout in paddocks just beyond the outdoor arena. Even her top Grand Prix horses are allowed to go out for turnout.

Inside the main barn

We also got to meet Mistral Hojris (Alf) while he was being hand grazed. We did not watch him go under saddle because he was scheduled to hack around the fields today, but it was fun just to meet him!