You might be casually enjoying the summer and may not be thinking about October just yet, BUT if you are planning on competing in The Classic (and we hope you are!), here are some helpful tips to be thinking about RIGHT NOW as you prepare.
Now is a great time to talk to your vet about a routine wellness check to make sure you enter the fall season with confidence. Whether you have a young horse you are bringing up the levels or a seasoned campaigner who might require some maintenance, it is much easier to manage issues when they are caught early so keeping your vet involved can only improve your odds of success.
Another thing to consider is if you are traveling from out of state, it is important to make a plan with your vet to get a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) or more commonly known as a "health certificate" done for your horse within 30 days of travel to the competition. Additionally all competitors need a negative EIA test (coggins) within a year of the competition, and proof of Equine Influenza Virus and Equine Herpes Virus (Rhinopneumonitis) vaccinations within 6 months of arrival to stabling (Rule Refresher can be found here)
Lastly, no one wants to have all their hard work spoiled by a close nail or a lost shoe right before or during the competition. Talk to your farrier now to organize your shoeing schedule so that ideally your horse is shod 2 weeks before The Classic. This may involve slightly shortening or lengthening your horse's normal shoeing cycle once or twice so the sooner you talk to your farrier to plan this out, the easier it will be.
We hope you found this post helpful as you prepare. Look for more posts in the coming weeks covering such topics as competition schedules, conditioning schedules, icing/aftercare, stud selection, etc. If you have any specific questions or topics you'd like covered, please let us know in the comments.
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