Liz Halliday-Sharp, Miks Master C & Cooley Quicksilver (4* Show Jumping) - EDITED
7:37PM Mar 17, +0000
Speakers:
Speaker 1
Liz
Keywords:
horses
jumped
ride
work
organized
fences
brakes
careful
peter
gelled
place
warmups
wiggly
gimme
important
feel
mickey
little bit
primed
instilled
Okay, so he was great huh?
Yeah, he was good. He was a lot of horse today. Yeah, they're all a bit feral today. Like all my my three Star horses were wild as well, but he was really good. He's gotten a lot better. I definitely have my hands more full than I usually do with him now. I feel like we're pretty gelled now in the jumping, and today, he was sort of extra horse.
Do you structure your warmups in a certain way to kind of peak at a certain time to go in? Or like, I'm just curious?
Yeah, definitely. I try and do my last verticals sort of when, not the one before me, but the one before that, is halfway through their round. That's what I tried to do with most of them, so that, you know, they're primed and ready to go in and they're not waiting too long.
Yeah. Okay, so then just talk about mark's course a little bit. Obviously, it was a tough one, as it always is. So it was there anything that when you walked it, you felt like you were going to have to really pay attention in particular or anything that what road differently than you thought it might ride.
I mean, for me, certainly with Mickey, it's always tricky, because you have to, like Peter Wylde says, make the time without telling him you are, because if I get him wound up, he's got such a gigantic stride. I mean, all the distances are short for him. And so I have to be careful, I don't just let him loose, especially when he's feeling a bit wild anyway. I knew the time was tight enough, so I had to make sure I made the time but was organized at the same time. That's always the challenge with him. He tried really hard, he jumped really well and kind of in his own style. But he's very careful. And he was making a big effort to go higher now, he used to be a bit slithery. And he is a wiggly horse, so that's kind of difficult, too. But he tried really hard. He's a good boy.
Yeah. And can you tell me a little bit about working? I know you have you work with Peter regularly? You do. Okay. And so can you just regularly as we as you can't ensure? So can you just tell me a little bit about kind of what type of philosophy he's instilled in you and why you'd like to work with him. And I just think that's so interesting to work with some of the pure showjumpers.
I've worked with Peter now for two years, maybe even two and a half. I just absolutely love working with him. He's just very quiet in his way, and he is totally beautiful rider. If you have ever watched him ride, he's so smooth, and so calm and just organizes everything the right way. There's none of this heavy adrenaline. It's all about just getting the horses to think for themselves, which I think is really important. And I think for me, it keeps me chill in my head. It keeps me in a good place that way. I think for us at this level, we don't need someone bugging us all the time about everything. We just need to fine tune details and figure out ways to help the horses be their best selves. And that's what he's really good at. I mean, the course walking with him is invaluable. I would say that is a big reason why Boyd and I jumped such good rounds in Boekelo was because we had him there, because it was tough there to make the time.
I would imagine that his expertise just coming from that his specialization, obviously. So, but the showjumping is somewhat different in our sports still. So there's some adjustments that have to be made, but he seems like he's really crossed those two.
I think now he's been working with us for long enough that he really gets the eventing horses and he knows all of our horses now too, which is a big bonus, because he works with them enough. He's ridden pretty much all of my horses somewhere, not necessarily all at a show, but nearly all of mine he has ridden, because when I got hurt last year, he jumped every single horse I had for me. And he just jumped a narrow for me last weekend.
I talked to him, he's like to I'm just about to jump liz's horse. I was like, oh, wow.
That was amazing. I knew I couldn't. I was like he needs to go and jump at a show. Because he needed a bigger track, you know? So to have that available to us is unbelievable. For him to just get on everything. There's not many people I would put on my horses, if I'm honest. I'm pretty funny about that. I don't really let anyone jump my horses, but I'd be happy with Peter riding anything.
for sure. Okay, and then moving to the course a little bit. Can you just tell me a little bit about your impressions of it. you know, any questions? Do you feel like in particular, you're going to kind of really be thinking about?
I mean, for me, the last combination by the water is by far the biggest question on the course and it's at the end of the track as well, so they'll be a little bit more tired. I think that's as strong as I've ever seen it here. I also think the first water is strong enough for those two corners. I think you need to be organized. You get the coffin early. I think it's a good course, but I do think it's gonna make you sit up and pay attention. It's not a gimme.
Sure. Yeah, well, and obviously the time is always hard to get here. And obviously, we'll see how the ground is in the morning and all that, but you said you were going to try to go for it with Mickey, and has your plan changed at all?
I'll still run him quick enough. This is my run to figure him out a little and know where my brakes are, and that is super important. I don't want to go into Kentucky and have a horse that runs off with me. So for sure, and this is a good place to do that, with bulky enough fences, as well. And obviously, if I end up with no brakes at all, I'll reassess that situation. I don't think I'm going to, I just would like to really treat it as a run that way to just really know where he is and be able to organize him and move him on.
do you find that the bigger fences are good for him to help him sit up and back off a little bit? Yeah, sure.
Yeah, he's better in a bigger track. Definitely. But he is careful, you know, and when I first had him, he would have a look at the ditches and he'd have a look at them. He wouldn't stop. But he was very aware of them. So from that standpoint, he is a beast, but he's very aware of things and very careful.
Yeah. And then my last question is, I know William was just at your place. Did you ride yours with him? No. Okay. I didn't know if you were participating in that or not.
No, I'm really happy training with Erik Duvander cross country. And I don't train with anybody else.