One of my goals for this year is refinement and transitioning Cat into a more finished horse. I want to get lead changes (simple and flying), more speed control, better pivots, etc. With my limited riding time I know this is a big goal to set. With that being said, I'll be happy with any changes we make to get us closer to this "final product".
About a month ago I tried to transition Cat into a shanked bit. I used one Janet had and it didn't go over so well. After doing some research, I ordered Cat a Randy Paul Colt Bit. After riding most of the night in my snaffle I switched her over to the shank to try it out. I could tell immediately she liked this bit 100x better than Janet's bit.
Randy Paul Colt Bit
I have two more competitions in Missourit and then I will be done traveling for a while. ITREC starts up in June so a few of the gals are going to come over for "play days" on Thursday nights to practice the obstacles. I'm really looking forward to a fun filled summer with the horses.
What an awesome weekend! I knew this was going to be an exciting weekend. When I looked at the ride rooster I saw there were two gals coming from Texas. One was featured in an ACTHA article. What I was soon to find out was there were 4 gals there battling it out for a National Title (ACTHA's year ends at the end of May).
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.
Vonda and Jazz
Grippers
Obstacle #3 - "Mini Downhill" Sounds easy.....right? 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.
Yikes!
Obstacle #4 - L Back
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.
Yielding the HQ while going past the biker
David and Brandy Von Holten
Obstacle #6 - Checking the mail just got a lot more interesting!
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.
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).
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.
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.
Last weekend Cat made her debut at the Iowa Horse Fair in one of the Iowa Trail Riding Equestrian Challenges demos. I wasn't able to get her down to the fairgrounds until late Friday night. When we arrived there was a firetruck and ambulance blocking the road. I was told they were locking the barn so I unloaded her and walked her past the firetruck and ambulance to the barn. I later realized they were locking the vendor area and not the horse area. She quickly settled in so I went home for the night.
Happily munching away
I headed in fairly early on Saturday morning and met Brandon at the barn. I could tell Cat wanted out of her stall so I took her for a walk looking for a place to exercise her a bit. The pavilion was open, but there were so many riders in there I opted not to go in.
When I returned her to her stall she got nervous. By then the hustle and bustle of the horse fair had started and people and ponies were both going by. She started her stall popping which didn't go over well with me (this is something she learned to do at Janet's house that I have yet been able to fix). I decided to saddle her up and look for a place to ride.
Horse Thief!
After walking around for a while I finally found the warm up arena and was able to go for a ride. Jesse Munk was there (he put the first ride on Duke) riding a young horse with a huge smile on his face. I swear he has to be the nicest man I have ever met. I rode Cat around for a little bit and then hopped off to chat with a friend. She was there with her daughter to help out with the mounted shooting. Cat was a little jumpy when they started shooting but quickly calmed down. I hopped back on and rode around a bit more before heading back to the barn.
For the demo I rode intermediate. With her back leg still being a bit sore and this being her first time in a venue like this I didn't want to canter. When I entered the arena with the obstacles Cat's head immediately lowered, she let out a huge sigh and immediately relaxed. I don't know what it is about obstacles but they almost flip a switch in her little brain that says "relax!".
She was awesome for the demo! Not perfect by any means but she rocked! It was so nice having people come up to me afterwards to tell me what a good job we did.
She seemed to relax and settle in after the demo so the we left to look for some "great buys".
On Sunday Chase went in with me and decided he wanted to lead Cat around to stretch her legs. I can't even begin to tell you how happy it made me to see him wanting to do something with the horses again.
Love these two!
We weren't in any demos on Sunday, but we weren't allowed to leave until 5. I decided to take the opportunity to ride her in the warm up arena next to the mounted shooters again. On Sunday they had some of the top riders riding so the "pops" came a little more frequently. She did very well. Some of the queen contestants tried to bring their horses up to warm up and quickly left as their horses got riled up by the shooting.
On the way back to the barn she was mauled by some small kids. Watching her extend her head down into their hands just melted my heart. She was so eager to let those little ones do whatever they wanted to her.
While I'm not sure I'd want to do the Horse Fair every year, it was sure nice to see how Cat would react in a venue like it.
