Von Holten Ranch ACTHA Series Ride 1 & 2

Due to a family emergency I wasn't home all last week which meant no ride time.  Thanks to some great family members, I was still able to go to the ACTHA ride at Von Holten Ranch in Mora, Missouri.  MIL and I loaded up and left around 2 on Friday.  Missouri has some interesting roads but we managed to arrive at our destination around 7:00.

Missouri Bridge

The ranch was lovely and the people were great!  David even cleaned the manure out of our horse trailer while we got the horses bedded in for the night.

Cat tucked in for the night

Saturday the obstacles were "easier" per the ride host Brandi.  She wanted to ease people into them.  It was snowing (if you want to call it that) and the locals were not thrilled but we rode out anyways.

Saturday - Series Ride #1

The first obstacle was a rain slicker.  Pretty simple obstacle if I do say so myself - however Cat had a different idea of how she was going to complete it.  She was in a hurry to get to Sis and tried knocking the traffic cone down.  We managed to complete the obstacle - but it wasn't pretty!

Rain Slicker

Along the way, some of the buddy riders had difficulties getting their horses over some water crossings which slowed things down a bit.  While most of the riders were complaining - I was happy to have the extra time to make "adjustments" to my ponies attitude.  By the time we got to the next obstacle we were a bit more in sync.

"Don't feed the bears" was the next obstacle.  It was done differently than any I've seen before and unfortunately I don't think I can explain it well enough in writing and didn't get a picture.

To get to obstacle #3, we had to ride through a canal.

Obstacle #3 was "Up Hill".  It was a pretty decent incline and by the time it was our turn the hill was a bit slick.  Cat had to dig in but did well.

Up Hill

Obstacle #4 was a "log drag" in the woods.  The log blended in with the leaves on the ground but Cat still did really well and so did Sis.

Obstacle #5 was "Canter - Stop - Canter".  Cat did this well enough to score high but I would have preferred a better stop.  I think I was the only one that sat for a second or two after my stop was completed which gave me a + on my score.

Obstacle #6 was a "Water Box".  Luckily I have one of these at home so Cat rocked it!

Water Box

Sis - well Sis needs more work. lol

Saturday Cat and I placed 3rd.

Sunday - Series Ride #2

Sunday was brisk in the morning.  It felt as if it wanted to rain and a lot of the horses were worked up.  Cat had a severe cob up her @$$ and Iwas pretty close to putting her back in her stall and calling it a day.  She started to relax so I decided to go ahead and go out.

Obstacle #1 was "dirty campsite".  We had to ride around a burn barrel that had a fire going in it and three chairs.  Cat hesitated when the smoke hit her face but continued on nicely.  After obstacle #1 I think she realized what we were doing and relaxed almost immediately.

Cat "ear-ing" the fire pit.

Obstacle #2 was "milk jugs" (vine simulator).  The ride host was hoping this would be the "scary" obstacle for the day but it didn't phase too many horses - including Cat and Sis.

Obstacle #3 was "hat pick up".  We had to pick up the hat from the traffic cone and touch both sides of the neck and both sides of the hindquarters before returning it.

Hat Pick Up

Obstacle #4 was a "jump".  OMG I hate jumping - even if it is a small jump.  This is something I need to work on this year but didn't expect to have one at the first competition!  You could either trot or canter to the jump.  MIL opted to canter.  She had so much fun but this picture just kills me!

Ahhhhhh!!!!!

Obstacle #5 was a "rope gate".  MIL has struggled with this one but ended up getting it completed with 1 second to spare!  It was ugly - I mean really ugly - but she got it.  Cat rocked it!

The final obstacle was "barrel run".  We had to trot/canter the barrel pattern.  You wouldn't think this sounds like a difficult obstacle but I was surprised at how many horses wanted to come back to their buddies.

Looking to the next barrel

Cat did great.  We even went the opposite way I had planned to so I could show another gal what the pattern looked like.  We were "judges pick" on this obstacle (shocked the shit out of me).

Sunday we ended up placing 3rd again and MIL placed 5th.

After the end of the ride on Sunday we decided to play on a few of the obstacles.

Raccoons?

This little guy was added to the "dirty campsite" with his buddy for the advanced riders.  He didn't seem to bother Cat one bit.

16" Bridge

I thought my 2' bridge was narrow!  This bridge was only 16" wide!

All in all we had a great weekend.  The drive home was exhausting.  VHR is having a series with 8 rides - I'm hoping to make it to all of them.  I met some great people and rode some fantastic trails.