*TBA*: Trail Competition

Showing posts with label Trail Competition. Show all posts

Friday, October 18, 2013

Mostly Complete Update

Lots of little things all happening right now. School has been kicking my butt this week but I'm handling it. Unfortunately the ponies have gotten the short end of the stick through all of this. I rode Jetta on Monday. That was it.

But we had a really good ride. I think we're finally making progress!

So, the news (fair warning - no pictures and very wordy post!):

I finally found out how Misty and I did at the trail competition. At the last competition we got third in the Open division! Wow, I was surprised that we made it all the way up to Open! At the show before that one we were 4th I think in Amateur? Like I predicted though, there was no belt buckle :( Basically I had to get First in Amateur or Novice, but since I got First in Novice at the first show, that knocked me into the Amateur division so I wasn't eligible to win Novice. Bummer... I ended up with an overall score of third in Amateur. So close! The lady that won the Amateur division definitely deserved it though. She's a good friend that I've known through JF for years. An older lady with two horses who does natural horsemanship/classical dressage (albeit western) and takes her time with her horses. She did a very good job with her horse Champ, even doing some obstacles that no one else was able to complete! And she's been competing in the trail competitions for as long as they've been going on and has never won a buckle.... So I guess I can gracefully concede the victory to her, seeing as I have 5 horse belt buckles ;)

In other news, I finally got my new dressage show breeches! I've been hemming and hawing over what to get and then ultimately decided my budget ($150) wasn't large enough to allow a purchase of what I really wanted and I didn't want to spend money on something I didn't completely love. Along comes ebay... I've been searching forever for the "right pair" to come up cheap enough. I found a pair of Tropical Rider breeches with the deerskin full seat, that I really liked. Higher waisted than I would have preferred... but for $40 I was sold! And then they came and the zipper was missing... Uh, yeah. Not in the description. But a quick trip to get it altered to have a new zipper put in, voila! New-ish. The seat is slightly stained from the saddle making it look gray, which is totally fine for me since I like white breeches with gray seats.

Then, the even cooler purchase... While perusing ebay I found a pair of Dove gray FITS for sale. Oooh, gorgeous! I liked them so much better than the white. Instant love. But they were the wrong size so I decided that I'd save up and buy them for myself when I had the money. But still casually perusing ebay I found a pair. Dove gray. In my size. Brand new! And in my price range :) And I won! I got myself some brand new FITS for $90.

Can you tell I'm in love with ebay? Two pairs of awesome breeches for under my original budget for one pair of breeches. Score!

In other pony news, I've talked to both Jazz and Tux's new owners and they're both doing well! I love so much to hear about them. I miss them both so much.

Tux's owner (older lady) was retiring in the spring and with all of that preparation didn't have time to ride so he got the whole spring off and just hung out in the pasture. Which I'm totally sure was completely fine with him. I can only imagine how rotund he became ;) Then she fell and broke her wrist at the beginning of the summer. So obviously no riding. But once she was almost healed she sent him off to "school" with her sister, a dressage trainer, and he's now getting ridden 5 times a week, 3 of those being trainer rides and he's doing really well it sounds like! She was telling me all about how he's now going in a KK Sprenger snaffle (vs the Myler) and seems to like it better and it really starting to reach down and out for the bit. What a good pony. I really hope she gets him going well and maybe shows him. Or she offered to let me come stay with her in Washington for a long weekend and visit with him/take some lessons with her sister. Um, yes please!

Then with Jazz I talked to the mom of her little girl and it sounds like things are going perfectly and that they love her. I was stalking pictures and someone commented on a pic of Jazz that they wanted to come learn to ride and Jazz's owner was telling the person how amazing their daughter's horse is and that she's "trained to the nine's" and would be perfect for them to ride. Cue proud mom moment! Then the lady that won the trail competition that I commented about above? She went riding at Elijah Bristow park where Jazz lives close to and was talking to this random lady riding a black mare... And the lady was saying how her horse has done everything - trail competitions, etc. And my friend looked at the horse and said "Hm, is your horse's name Jazz??" And it was! So I have from a second source that Jazz is looking good :)

So happy. I always worry when I sell a horse.

And the most exciting of all exciting updates? ENDURANCE RIDE THIS SATURDAY. Gosh, I'm so excited! Everything just fell together absolutely perfectly. I wasn't going to do this ride even though at the beginning of the year I was definitely planning on it just because they're were other events this weekend so I decided to do those instead. But as it got closer, I decided screw it, I haven't gotten in my goal of doing an endurance ride this year and this is the second to last ride and it's PERFECT so let's do it! Of course I decided this about a week and a half ago... Queen of procrastination I tell you.

This meant that I needed to find some way to contain Jetta overnight at the ride since I don't have anything. I talked to JF whose hubby sells portable corrals to see if I could borrow a set. Score! I went and picked them up last night. Her hubby was helping me load them and asked what the event was. I told him I was going to try out endurance. He used to do endurance a long time ago. His comment "Well if I had known that these panels were for such a worthy cause!" He does just cow stuff now and I honestly can't imagine him doing endurance but it sounds like he really loved it. He still has one of his endurance Arabs, an old grumpy guy named Lone Star. He gave me a few tips and wished me luck!

Then about a week ago I was perusing the local endurance FB page and found a thread about trail conditions at the ride. The general consensus was that it was so rocky that you needed to either boot all around or shoe with pads all around. Geez. And guess what? I only have front boots. Crap. Frantic search for boots led to the discovery that no where local stocks easyboots in my size and my farrier only had boots that were too big or too small. Last minute I finally found a place that could order boots in and have them in by Friday for me to pick up. Win! I went and picked them up this afternoon. Let us pray that they fit well...

Now just to go to my last class of the day then gather up all the last minute randomness needed for this weekend! I CANNOT WAIT. I am just too excited right now!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Third and Final

Went to the last trail competition on Friday. It was SUPPOSED to be nice this weekend, which was good since this was going to be a three day competition. But, the weather changed and it decided to storm. The whole entire weekend. The competition was supposed to go from 9-4pm but with the rain, everyone ended up packing up and leaving at 1pm. Everything was just getting too slick with the rain.

But, Misty and I completed the course, despite the rain with no issues. Of course no one got pics of us this time, but that's okay. I barely took pictures anyways because of the rain. I wish I could do a complete write up with pics like last time, but I'll at least do an overview of the obstacles.

She's definitely improving. She was super good this time, despite two obstacles that she decided to be a bit of a pain on.

The first section was mostly on the ground:

Ground drive your horse through the pylons, weaving out and back
Ground drive between two poles on the ground, then back all the way through
Ground tie your horse and pick up all four feet
Get on them from a mounting block, horse must remain stationary

I was curious to see how Misty would do with ground driving, since I haven't done it with her yet. I was very thankful that I'd taken the time to desensitize her to ropes around her body since she was afraid of them when I first got her and there were several horses that I was sure were going to turn into a train wreck they were so afraid of the driving lines... But she was awesome! I stuck close to her and clucked to get her to go forward, I definitely could have used a little dressage whip, but it turned out ok. Steering wasn't super on point, but I didn't really have any problem getting her to do the obstacles!

Section A:

Pick up the big bouncy ball that's in a hay net and walk it in a figure 8 around the two trees

This obstacle last time was a hula hoop and I picked it up too close to Misty's face and she spooked at it so we didn't complete it. I didn't make that mistake again!

"Car wash": walk over the bristle brush thingy and through the curtain
Walk down a trail on the side of the hill and back up. It was slick!
Walk over some rail road ties
Walk into a ditch, then turn around and back out. The part you backed out was steep and slick and Misty just would not put her head down to back out, so obviously she didn't have enough power to get up that little hill. She threw a little bit of a fit.
Walk over a big mound of dirt
Walk over the large, raised bridge
Walk through a zig-zag made of fencing, tarps and cow hides, including a nice and fresh smelly one. Lots of horses were afraid of this one

Section B:

Weave through pylons, sidepass left over a ground pole, weave more pylons, sidepass right over a ground pole. Yay! We actually were able to sidepass something like it was no big deal!
Pick up a tall pole with an owl on top, walk around a teepee and put the pole back. Didn't get a time, because somehow the timer failed to mention that we were required to stay within the white line painted on the ground. Half way through she told me "try to stay inside the line". Fail, on her part really.
There were like 5 little trails you had to do in this section. Kinda boring. There was one with a bridge, Misty went right over it despite how narrow it was though!

Section C:

Toss a "noose" up into a tree and get it to land in between two hankerchiefs tied to a branch. I thought this was going to be really hard because of how high up it was, but I got it on the first try!
Pick up the (absolutely terrifying) stuffed money and walk over a set of poles arranged in a "wagon wheel" formation. Actually completed this obstacle this time around, but just barely!
Do yet another trail, pick up a bag of gold coins along the way. The theme for this whole course was "bank robbers", lol.
Drag a really heavy tire from one cone to the next. Had to dally it, which I was nervous about but Misty could care less.
Pull a stuffed "bank robber" that was on a pulley all the way into the air then lower him.
Open and close a rope gate that had hankerchiefs dangling from it. This was pretty cute. I tried to get Misty to get really close to it, and she thought I wanted her to go through it like it was a curtain, so she shoved her head under it (it was pretty high) and I had to rein her in before she decapitated me, lol. Then she spooked at it when I unhooked it, but luckily I was able to bring her back and get it rehooked again.
Walk under some empty feed bags dangling from a branch, they were just low enough that the horses had to duck their heads under it.
Walk over two different sets of logs
Back through a zig zag of poles on the ground. My fault really, since we barely practiced this at all. It's so weird what a fit she throws about backing through these poles... I don't know why it freaks her out so much, mini rears and everything, so we'll need to work on this lots more.

Section D:

Walk up to a fence, haunch turn one way, then haunch turn the other way
Walk over a white tarp "runway", at the end of which, there's a tarp covered mattress. Took us a few tries, but we eventually got it.
Put two front feet on a tire filled with dirt and pause.
Pick up a tennis ball from a bucket and throw it into another one while standing a good distance away.
Walk up the three banks carved into the hill and back down. Slick! We almost slid all the way down...
Walk across a set of stall mats arranged in a line and spray painted with white stripes. Scary, but we did it.
Sidepass up the hill over a large black pipe and then sidepass back down. Super bummed on this one because she did it! It just took me too long to convince her to do it, so we timed out at only four seconds over a minute :(
Walk into an empty "pond" that's lined with tarps/carpeting and jump out over a log.
Same "pond" as above- step down off the log into the ditch part.
Drag some empty water bottles around a cone and back

Section E:

Walk over a short bridge, go around a barrel, then back over the bridge
Walk over another short bridge, stop on the bridge and lower a bucket to scoop up some water, walk around a barrel, get back on the bridge and dump out water.
Walk down and back over a long and narrow, downhill bridge. Be very thankful your horse is super careful with her feet.
Walk down and back over a "bridge" made of sand fenced in with railroad ties.
Open and close a gate
Walk through a ditch filled with rocks. Ha. I kept thinking Misty was going to do this one, she'd get her front feet in and then do a little bit of a panic/sideways skitter and wouldn't put her back feet in.
Pick up a loud cow bell on a rope and hoist it up
Walk between a pig that was penned up and a tree. Only one person couldn't do this, the guy on the mule named Bailiff that is a very competitive pair... they were one of the few people that Jazz and I had to watch out for ;) He has a weakness!
Walk up to a tire, dismount on it, turn horse around and remount

So that most of the obstacles I remember! Only missed five, so we'll have to see how we measure up. Since the rain came and they cancelled the rest of the competition they're going to do it again for people who missed out next weekend so we have to wait that long to see where we placed...

I finally got it explained to me how the scoring works because I was really confused. The first competition I got first in Novice... then we got 4th in Amateur at the second one. I guess you get placed in the category based on how many obstacles you do, with open being like the top 6 people, then Amateur being the next 6 people, then Novice, etc. At the end, you get points for your placing... for instance if you got first in open you'd get 50 points, then less points for each plaing, so first in Amateur would be 40 points, 3rd in Amateur would something like 38, and so on. Then at the end your points are added up and you place accordingly.

So it's supposedly like how barrel races are placed (except those are on time, but same idea). It makes it a little more even playing field I guess, though I wished it was based on whatever class you entered... that way I'd have a better chance at winning a belt buckle! Essentially, I'm trying to get 7th or 13th place in order to get a belt buckle for Amateur or Novice. Unfortunately, I just don't think that's going to happen. Bummer. But it's been fun and I'm super happy with Misty.

Monday, August 12, 2013

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.

First up - ride through the curtain. Check!
Feed the sheep with some grain using a scoop out of a bucket - kind of scary but we did it.
Ride through the big huge ditch, step over the poles and back up the steep hill - like a champ!
Ride down the hill, around the scary fake deer - check!
Walk through the raised poles without knocking off the top poles - piece of cake
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
Walk through the deadfall - easy
Ride down the log into the water - such a good girl
Walk between a tree and a gross hanging goat skin - easy
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.
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
Back through the zig zag logs - fail :( still can't get her to do this one
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.
Ride through the double dip, back between a log and stump, then ride forward again - easy!
Grab the singing rattle and walk the plastic streamers on the pulley forward and then backwards - like a champ
Ride through the L ditch - done
Ride up and down the log jumps - like a good pony
Open the mailbox and open the singing card, name the tune - done!
Open and relatch the rope gate - success!
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 :(
Ride over the fixed poles - easy
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!
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.
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!
Back through the L ditch - surprisingly, we did it!
Ride over the easy bridge - success
Ride over the tall, narrow plank - fail. This was a really hard one and we couldn't do it :(
Ride over the 3 raised logs - piece of cake
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.
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.
Ride up over the log through the water - like a boss!
Dip a canteen in the water trough then hang it back up - done
Open and close a gate - Misty is a gate champion!
Walk over a white tarp with a sprinkler on it - we timed out, but eventually she did it.
Walk over the teeter-totter - amazingly, we did it!
Put front feet in the tractor tire and do a forehand turn around it - amazingly, we did this one too!
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
Walk through the water - done
Back up the hill between the railroad ties - success!
Walk through the squeeze - done
Ground tie and open the mailbox - well, she started eating, but at least she stayed in the box so we did it!
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
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.