Lima Lowdown | July 29, 2019
Welcome to the Lima Lowdown! To introduce myself, I’m Jessie Christie, the Media Attaché for the Canadian Equestrian Team in Lima. I’m proud and honoured to be part of the ‘team behind the team’ – and each day of the Games, I’ll be bringing you exclusive stories and photos from our Canadian athletes, grooms, owners, and team personnel here in Lima.
I had the great pleasure of touring the Canadian stables at the Lima 2019 Pan Am Games, and while I was there I caught up with Canadian Dressage Team member, Tina Irwin, to get to know more about her superstar partner Laurencio.
A 12-year-old Oldenburg gelding (Laurentio x Donnerhall), Laurencio is co-owned by Tina and her husband and fellow elite dressage athlete, Jaimey Irwin. The Irwins bought the handsome dark bay as a four-year-old at a jumping facility in Germany. Since then, Tina has enjoyed the gratifying experience of bringing him along up through the levels over the past eight years. And there has definitely been no lack of success.
When I arrived, Laurencio had just finished his training session and was enjoying a bath with that heavy-lidded, sleepy/happy expression horses get on their faces. It’s evident he is a laid back character with pristine manners and is a joy to work with. He stood with perfect patience under the Canadian Equestrian Team banner for a photo, despite that fact that it was lunch time.
His lovability is also impossible to miss. I think half the photos taken of Laurencio in Lima so far involve him snuggling up to someone:
Exhibit A:
Horse inspections at major competitions can sometimes bring out the wild side in many participants. Not Laurencio. Instead, he just wants all the love:
Exhibit B:
It took a whole lot of this:
Before getting this:
Read on to hear more about the lovable Laurencio directly from Tina Irwin.
JC: How would you describe his personality?
TI: I’ve had him since he was four years old. He’s 12 now, so eight years. And he is such a puppy dog. This horse has the most amazing personality. He’s very, very relaxed, kind, sweet and generous. He’s always ready to work. He never says no, and is so loving. We have a five-year-old daughter and she will lead him around and put him on the trailer, but yet he’s sensitive and sharp to ride. So he’s really a very unique combination. He’s got the really quiet temperament, but the rideability is fantastic.
JC: How would you describe your partnership with him?
TI: It’s a really good relationship because we’ve known each other for so long. I think that’s one of the best ways to connect, because you get to develop them and know them through the levels, from the first time in a competition all the way through. It’s like having any relationship with anyone that you’ve known for a long time, you can anticipate each other. And I think that’s really key when you’re in an international competition, because you can sort of feel how the other one is going to react and hopefully correct before it goes the wrong way and vice versa.
JC: Does he have any quirks?
TI: Yeah, he really communicates. So, he will tell you exactly when it’s time to feed him. He can tell time, I always say, because he knows exactly to the minute when it is breakfast, lunch, turnout time, riding time, dinner time. And, if you don’t keep him on the schedule, at home he can stick his head out his stall door, and he will start winging his head around and nickering to people and pushing his head up and down to say to them, ‘Hey, you’re late!’ He’s kind of demanding. We call him the prince because he’s kind of a diva.
JC: What are his favourite treats?
TI: Bananas for sure. He loves them.
JC: He obviously loves people, but what is he like with other horses?
TI: I don’t think I’ve met another horse that actually has no enemies. This horse is very social, he loves everybody. In the trailer, he will be buddies with everybody when you go to a horse show. And he actually will try to undo their cross-ties. Quite often we’ve arrived somewhere and he will have chewed his chest bar and undone the cross-tie of his neighbour or taken the pin out, so their chest bar is down. So yeah, he’s a little bit of a clown and he really likes everybody.
JC: What does his day-to-day schedule look like at home?
TI: He eats at 6:30 in the morning. He is always the first one I ride when I arrive at the barn, usually around 8:45 a.m. I ride him Monday through Friday, then he gets put away, and he’ll have lunch at 12 p.m. He gets turned out from 1-4 p.m., or if he doesn’t go out for some reason – if the weather is bad, or the footing is bad – then he’ll get hand-walked. He comes in and has dinner, and some days he has treatments like chiro or acupuncture. Night check is around 9:30 p.m. and he eats again. On Saturday and Sunday he has the day off and just goes outside for turnout.
JC: And what about here at the Games? What does his schedule look like?
TI: Well, on a non-competition day, we take him out and make sure he’s always walked a lot. So Penny, our groom, will come and feed him breakfast, then he’ll go for a hand walk, and then get his stall cleaned. And she’ll usually walk him a little bit before I ride him to loosen him up. I get on and I walk for at least another 10 minutes. So lots of warm-up, little break, working phase, little cool down, and then about a 10 minute walk. He gets showered off and put away, has his lunch, and then the afternoons are generally a little quieter. He will have a little bit of a rest, and some alone time. Then he’ll get some treatments from Penny and he’ll get another hand walk and hand graze. After that he has dinner and gets tucked in for the night.
Competition days are pretty similar. We like to keep a bit of a routine. So same thing, he’ll come out and hand walk early to get him moving. It’s good for him, and any horse, to move as much as possible, especially when we’re at a competition like this and there’s no turnout. We like to make sure he’s getting a lot of hand walking. We’ll do that first thing in the morning after breakfast, and then depending on when I compete – if it’s earlier, then I’ll ride and then he’ll get hand walked again. Otherwise, he might get a couple of hand walks before I ride him.