Last Darby of the season

I should have known something was up... When I was hauling down to the host facility, I had two copies of the Darby course maps in the truck.  I was trying to get the route in mind of how I would navigate, while I was driving to get there. Does that EVER work?  I was looking down towards the back of the facility for the other trailers and didn't see them, so I kept on going.... past the driveway. The first time.

I came to a 4 way stop, turned  the truck & trailer around, came back and went past it again. This time I managed to see the club logo in giant size on the side of a cargo type trailer as I went on past the driveway. The second time.  Once I was turned back around, I went in this driveway and headed back to where I seen people already walking the course. The driveway I was on, had a small space to park which turned out to be sort of in the middle of the course.  Yep I was really doing well so far.

Walking the course and keeping in mind the RED cones go on the RIGHT, a few of us found #9 to have the cones backwards. Number 4 also had the red/white, left/right mixed up too.  We were told to go by the printed route map and someone would come around and make sure things were right before any horses were on course.  I walked the course a few times, going through the gates and cones as mapped out, plotting my route, thinking it through and where I could change it if need be.

I lunged Kat before doing anything with him. He. was. wound. even though he had been turned out overnight. I haven't done anything with him since the show, partly to give him a rest, partly because I have been sick as a dog! The weekend following the show I was supposed to attend a clinic and take a lesson from one of the trainers in the club.  I was hesitant about signing up, since I had originally planned to give Kat a break. After the show, I emailed and cancelled. I just couldn't afford it.

Then during the week, it was a good thing I had cancelled because I got really sick. I had been sick off and on since October. I brought it home, then I was sorta over it and hubby got it. Then he would get over it and I got it again.  The weekend of the clinic in Paulden- he had it. Then it seemed to finally clear up and go away. The week after the show- I got it again only this time it hit with something different and hard! Fever, headache, congestion, sore throat, all over achy everything.  I even lost my voice for about a week and would cough so hard at times I would throw up...  This was not what I had in mind for Thanksgiving!

After lunging Kat he had seemed to settle down and was ready to work. Hubby had arrived after dropping the girls off and walked the course with me so now we needed to get Kat ready and put to the cart.  There were 8 people in the VSE divisions to go before us, which worked well since I needed to work Kat and get a feel for where his mind was that day.

He started out pretty quiet, but as we got closer and he seen the course, the other horses, minis and ponies, Kat started getting a bit amped up again.  We made our way towards the obstacles and found a few not included in the Darby. We put them to use and started warming him up and wearing him down some. Kat was warming up all right, wearing down?  Well he he doesn't always seem to see it that way...