Brandon was able to get a day swapped with another coworker so he could go with me. We weren't able to leave until late Friday so we didn't make it down to VHR until almost 10:30. We quickly got the horses settled in and then went to bed.
Saturday - Series Ride #3
Obstacle #1 - "Get your motor running"
Score - Horse 6 Rider 5
Judges Comments: Nice rhythm
For this obstacle we were supposed to trot, pick up an extended trot at the cone and then return to a slow trot at the next cone. This is what Cat and I need to work on this year. She doesn't have a slow anything so ours was fast trot, faster trot, fast trot.
Obstacle #2 - "Help us out"
Score - Horse 8+ Rider 8
Judges Comments: Reins a little long. Horse stood well.
There was a pile of bottles on the ground. We had to get a pair of grippers and we had to pick up a bottle and place it in the bag on the tree.
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| Vonda and Jazz |
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| Grippers |
Score - Horse 8 Rider 8
Judges Comments: Hesitation (Cat hesitated at the bottom of the embankment before going across)
For this one we had to go down an embankment, over a creek and then back up an embankment. Right after I went past the start cone Cat's attention shifted. I thought maybe she had hit a limb on the ground and looked down to see what the fuss was about only to see this big guy slithering away from us.
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| Yikes! |
Score - Horse 9 Rider 9
Judges Comments: Nice straight
David made this pretty wide so Cat rocked this one!
Obstacle #5 - Why are you out here?
Score - Horse 8+ Rider 9
This was a close encounters obstacle. David was on a bike w/a pink garbage sack. Even though the kids ride all around us Cat was not super excited about seeing a biker on the trail.
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| Yielding the HQ while going past the biker |
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| David and Brandy Von Holten |
Score - Horse 8 Rider 9
Judges Comments: Nice approach. Horse moved a little before asked. Could have had a looser rein.
I'm guessing you can figure out what this one was. Cat did fine but did leave before she was asked.
I was so happy Brandon was able to go. Belle did great (extremely for this being her 4th ride this year). Based off of his smile, I think he had a good time.
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| He found a shroom! |
I was extremely happy with how Cat did on Saturday. We ended up placing 5th.
Sunday - Series Ride #4
Obstacle #1 - Dance Fever
Score - Horse 7 Rider 8
Judges Comments - Good approach. Horse lost focus.
This was the Spanish pole. Here is a video of Brandy demonstrating how to do it. Cat didn't do it very pretty but she got the job done (she got frustrated and tried to knock the pole over for me).
Obstacle #2 - Elevated Maze
Score - Horse 10 Rider 10+
I didn't get any pictures of the elevated maze. It was a labyrinth made out of barrels and landscaping timbers (on top of the barrels) with tarps, snow fence and other objects on the timbers.
Obstacle #3 - 360 Spins
Score - Horse 7 Rider 7
We had to walk into a circle and do two 360* turns on the forehand. I've been working really hard with Cat to untrack that front foot vs. having it planted so this wasn't as pretty as it could have been.
Obstacle #4 - Aren't They Adorable
Score - Horse 9 Rider 9
Judges Comments: Nice yield.
We had to walk past two minis in tutus and yield our hindquarter as we passed them.
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| WTH are those? |
Obstacle #5 - Pulling a Double!
Score - Horse 10 Rider 10
For this one we had to drag a tarp with pop cans tied to the back of it.
Obstacle #6 - "You Better NOT"....said the judge
Score - Horse 10 Rider 10
We were "Judges Pick" for this obstacle
We had to ride into a circle, pick up a squirt gun that was on top of a barrel but inside of a painted motorcycle tire, squirt it toward the ground and then "blow" out the gun.
On Sunday we managed to place 3rd. I got some compliments on how well she did from some of the top riders which was nice. She seems to excel at the "scary" stuff. Now to work on the precision stuff.
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| Crossing one of the many water crossings at VHR |
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| Brandon and Belle |
2 comments:
Well done. How many total people competed? Sound like some tough competition.
And then the new ACTHA season begins anew in June?
There were only 8 riders in the pleasure division.
I asked the one lady that is sitting first in the Nation how often she rode and she replied "oh hun, every weekend!".
Yeah, I guess the new season starts in June. Kind of an odd year if you ask me. I'm obviously not going for year end awards so I haven't paid much attention to it.
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