by certified farrier Yancey Russell. “Obviously we
tried to shoe him to remove pressure on his heels,” says Amber. “Bar shoes worked for a while, but we found that once we started
jumping him in sand, the sand would become wedged under the bar and it caused more prob- lems, so off came the bars.” Yancey instead used modified egg bar
shoes, with poured-on soles of what Amber calls a sneaker-like material. “He hated it—it put pressure into his heels. We shod him four days in a
row until it was exactly what the horse wanted it to be.” Looking back, Amber says his hoof problem could
have started before he was imported from Portugal many years ago. Her husband Tommy Harte had found him there, and Amber flew over to try the horse. After four months of delays in Europe, when Amber finally saw him in the U.S., she recalls, “I was stunned. He still had the same set of shoes on, one shoe was missing, and the rim pads had grown into his feet.” Amber brought the recovering horse with her string of jumpers to Florida at the end of 2014 and began to rehab him slowly and diligently back to fitness. She returned Emir to showing in March 2015 in 1.30 and 1.40 meter classes and he quickly started earning prize money and blue ribbons. “He’s been such a good guy. He’s clear almost every time,” she says proudly. Now that her horse is back in regular shoes, Amber is planning Emir’s 2016 season to avoid aggravating his feet. “I take it day by day. I’d like to keep doing Grands Prix to whatever level we can do. I pick and choose what classes to do, very selectively.”
“Bar shoes worked for a while, but we found that once we started jumping him in sand, the sand
would become wedged under the bar and it caused more problems, so off came the bars.”
She expects to start showing at The Ridge at Welling-
ton on grass footing to see how he performs. Later she’ll target classes at the Winter Equestrian Festival. Amber describes her gray stallion as very strong and
an over achiever. “He jumps well over the height of the jumps. If you take him out on day one, he over jumps. Then the next day he jumps the same jumps higher, and the third day he jumps them again even higher! Once he jumped so high that I had herniated discs in my neck and couldn’t ride for a while.” Her advice on preventing bruised heels? “The biggest thing is paying attention and having a good farrier. We are very selective about the footing. In my arena, I put in bouncy footing for him, silica and fiber.” She’s also aiming to improve her horse’s fitness while
watching his feet, noting that the 17.1-hand stallion tends to be overweight. “My plan is not to jump him till he’s the right weight. And I recommend working closely with your farrier when you ride, and communicating with him after riding.”
Capture the Heat Sanjay Bagai and his wife Phoebe Lang have a barn full of world-class jumpers at Zeitgeist Equestrian in Peta- luma, California. Besides showing the USEF A circuit, they take their horses to international tournaments in Canada and around Europe. Sanjay has represented India internationally. At the
2014 World Equestrian Games, he rode his 2002 Belgian Warmblood K 2 (Orlando x Clinton).
LEFT: Amber Harte and her BWP stallion Emir Van De Helle capture a comeback victory at Blue Rock Classic in Pennsylvania after a year off recuperating from his bruised heels. RIGHT: Sanjay Bagai and K 2 at HITS Thermal Desert Circuit 2015.
Warmbloods Today 17
Emily Riden / Phelps Media Group
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