Tough Trail Trial

Like I mentioned before, the trail course at JF's was tough. Which I knew it was going to be, her courses are always technical and Misty and I are not at that "technical" level quite yet. That said, I was pleased with how she did, though I had hoped we would do better. We got 34 out of 43 obstacles, meaning that we missed 9 which was kind of a bummer.

1. First up - ride through the curtain. Check!
2. Feed the sheep with some grain using a scoop out of a bucket - kind of scary but we did it. 
3. Ride through the big huge ditch, step over the  poles and back up the steep hill - like a champ!
4. Ride down the hill, around the scary fake deer - check!
5. Walk through the raised poles without knocking off the top poles - piece of cake
6. Walk over the bridge over the ditch - well, we got the front feet on, we ran out of time. If I had another minute I probably could have gotten her across it
7. Walk through the deadfall - easy
8. Ride down the log into the water - such a good girl
9. Walk between a tree and a gross hanging goat skin - easy
10. Ride up to a stump, dismount on stump and send horse in a circle around you, then remount - Misty wouldn't come close and I had to leap from the stump onto her, lol. 
11. Pick up the scary plastic bag of cans and walk around the "wagon wheel" - almost didn't get to do it in time, but we got it barely
12. Back through the zig zag logs - fail :( still can't get her to do this one
13. Ride through the narrow squeeze logs - hard to do because Misty kept stepping out and then we had to start over, but we did it. 
14. Ride through the double dip, back between a log and stump, then ride forward again - easy!
15. Grab the singing rattle and walk the plastic streamers on the pulley forward and then backwards - like a champ
16. Ride through the L ditch - done
17. Ride up and down the log jumps - like a good pony
18. Open the mailbox and open the singing card, name the tune - done!
19. Open and relatch the rope gate - success!
20. Shoot the BB gun and hit a tin plate hanging in the trees - Misty stood like a champ while I cocked and shot but I couldn't hit anything so we got an incomplete :(
21. Ride over the fixed poles - easy
22. Ride through the covered bridge and over the tarp covered mattress - this was one of the scariest obstacles! Misty used it like a trampoline. She set one foot on it and then backed off, then pounced with all four feet on it and then off. We still did it though!
23. Drag a big scary pipe around a tree stump - Misty was fine, but half way through she decided it was too scary and stopped participating, lol. 
24. Tractor tires, walk into the first one, do a 360, step to the next one and do a 360 in the other direction without stepping down - success! We were one of 3 people who were able to complete this one so I was thrilled!
25. Back through the L ditch - surprisingly, we did it!
26. Ride over the easy bridge - success
27. Ride over the tall, narrow plank - fail. This was a really hard one and we couldn't do it :(
28. Ride over the 3 raised logs - piece of cake
29. Sidepass to the right over a log, back around a tree, then sidepass to the left over the log - well, we did it to the right and the back, but she refused to do it to the left. Well, at least we're making progress. 
30. Back through the raised poles without knocking a top pole off - fail. I think only one or two people were able to do this one. 
31. Ride up over the log through the water - like a boss!
32. Dip a canteen in the water trough then hang it back up - done
33. Open and close a gate - Misty is a gate champion!
34. Walk over a white tarp with a sprinkler on it - we timed out, but eventually she did it. 
35. Walk over the teeter-totter - amazingly, we did it!
36. Put front feet in the tractor tire and do a forehand turn around it - amazingly, we did this one too!
37. Pick up a stuffed cow, weave around the poles and set it back down - we timed out, I didn't realize I had to do all of the poles and just did 3, then had to go back and do the other ones but didn't have time
38. Walk through the water - done
39. Back up the hill between the railroad ties - success!
40. Walk through the squeeze - done
41. Ground tie and open the mailbox - well, she started eating, but at least she stayed in the box so we did it!
42. The gross goat skin again, pull the pulley all the way to the top then lower it all the way to the ground then re-hook the rope to the tree
43. I forget what the 43rd obstacle was, lol. 

And for once, someone offered to take pics of me riding! So I have pictures!! A ton of them, sorry for the dark ones, I haven't had time or energy to do any editing yet. 

Big ditch

Jumping up the log out of the water

Attempting to cross the scary ditch bridge

Dismount

Carrying the plastic bag around the wagon wheel

through the double dip

Backing the pulley

Through the L ditch

Up the logs

Back down the logs

Shooting the BB gun

Over the poles

When the drag suddenly got scary

Backing really fast out of the L ditch past the finish flag!

Over the easy bridge

Sidepassing to the right

Through the water

Stepping carefully down the log into the water

The canteen