"Then it hit me. All you can do is the best that you can do at this very moment. If you wait for everything to be perfect, you can wind up waiting so long you never get back on the horse. Sometimes good enough has to be good enough." - By Rhonda Massingham Hart
I finally got the videos from this weekend uploaded. I could go through minute by minute, second by second and tell you what went wrong - but I'm not going to. ;)
I'm only posting my videos as I don't think it's fair to post Janet's w/o her permission.
First go -
Second go -
3 comments:
Thanks for posting the videos! I know it's a bit more challenging, but I would have loved to hear your commentary.
The one thing I'm committed to at an obstacle is going through it the first way I decide. At the Barrel Pivot on the first run, you started on one side, went to the other, then back to the first.
Other than that it looked like a Blue Ribbon run! Good job.
You asked for it John!
Round 1 -
:24 – she steps on the bridge and then sucks back. My only thought is she expected it to give (like a mattress) and was surprised when it didn’t. Once she realized it is solid she walks on across.
:49 – Cat notices the hat on the ground and isn’t sure about it. When I go to pick it up she lets me know by snorting (I expected this reaction from her so I wasn’t shocked).
1:41 – Cat notices the tree in the corner and slows her trot almost breaking gait but then continues. Once we get to the end I turn her into the tree in hope it won’t be a problem for round 2.
I thought she did a nice job in the labyrinth. I would like to get to where I can use less hand for this.
2:38 – Cat notices the polar bear in the corner and lets me know. 3:02 – she’s now worried about the polar bear and what’s on the other side of the fence. I realize I’m not going to get her to sidepass over to get the rope so I go at it from a different angle. She’s nervous and her focus is not on me as I would like it to be.
4:04 – Her approach to the pinwheel let me know it wasn’t going to go as planned. She is mentally not at this obstacle. She is facing Sis and wants to get the hell out of the arena. Trying to get her positioned where I want her is frustrating her so I decide to go to the other side to see if she won’t stand better when she is facing away from Sis. At 4:38 you can see her looking back to the outside of the area. Since she isn’t paying attention when I pick up the board she is caught off guard when she looks back to see it.
5:19 – She thinks the little tree is going to eat her but does well and goes around it. She stops well at the mailbox but at 5:29 you can see her flinch when it “pops” when I open it. As soon as I shut it she decides we are done and it’s time to go.
If you look in the back the warm up area isn’t very big. Since I didn’t get a warm up before go 1 I went in about 15 min. ahead of go 2 and did a little bit of a warm up. I rested her next to a barrel in there and the rail in hopes that she’d view those areas as resting places in our run.
Round 2 –
Cat’s worry cup isn’t nearly as full this go and it is evident by her head carriage at the beginning.
This time Cat is a little more confident with the bridge but decides she’d going to look around at the hay and trees.
I stop further back from the hat on purpose so she can see it as we approach. I knew this time wouldn’t be as bad as round #1, but I never expected I wouldn’t be able to pick up the darn hat!
I am happy with how the trot weave and the labyrinth went on this go.
2:48 – I tried to stop further back from the pulley and closer to the rail to “rest” before doing the next obstacle as I didn’t want her to get worried.
I really liked her approach on this one (thank you resting next to the rail during warm up!). I would have liked to have seen less resistance during backing but I haven’t been working on backing lately so I’ll take it.
3:38 – I’m not sure why I stretch my arm out vs. just pulling the bag up further. I should have continued to approach the nail (where we were supposed to return the rope) one foot at a time. Had I, I think I could have prevented her getting nervous and moving away from the rail. Then of course I miss getting the rope on the nail (in my defense it wasn’t a large target).
I could have tried to put it back, but figured it would just get Cat worked up and end up looking worse in the long run, so I moved on. She is getting tight (as evidence by her stiffening up and throwing her head at 4:07) so when we leave this obstacle I do a circle to try to get her softened up and her focus back.
The barrel – the plan for this one was to ride around it and grab the board on the far side (with Cat’s butt facing away from the warm up pen/Sis). When I approached the barrel I felt Cat wanting to go to it, so I changed the plan and picked it up from this side. This was a HEAVY board. When we first left the barrel I wasn’t out far enough so I had to move Cat over. At 4:52 she gets turned a bit too far and I have to push her shoulders back over. It wasn’t pretty but we made it!
No flinch this time on the mailbox, but she does decide to check out the hay and does wait for me to tell her she can leave.
*I* don’t see this as a blue ribbon run, but then *I* have a visual in my mind of how I see a blue ribbon run. With that being said – I was very happy with the second run. Actually, I’m not even going to complain too much about the first run considering we had little to no warm up and I had only ridden 8 times this year.
As for completing the obstacle in the direction I start – that’s not something I do. I want her to complete the obstacle (extremely if we are in a competition) and time is limited (60 seconds). To me it is important for her to gain confidence with each ride, so sometimes I have to change things up. At home when I have all of the time in the world, it is a different story.
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