After doing dressage in a snaffle and having the feeling a few times of
being out of control, I switched bits before going into the cones course. I had
used some snaps to attach the butterfly to my cart because I anticipated
changing hardware before going in. Jim had once again outdone himself in
creatively designing a challenging course. You know you are in for it, when you
get lost just looking at it on paper. I could not find #12. Crap, crap, crap.
Our time allowed was 3 minutes and Kat and I laid down a time of 3:00.2 We
would have come in well under that had I not gotten lost. Twice. Once at #8 and
once again somewhere else. Because I was that lost… Yeah
Then there are the balls to deal with. We knocked three of them down
it seems. I know there was one out there when Kat was lined up to wipe
that puppy out and somehow at the last minute, threw down some fancy footwork
and got himself moved over and we missed it probably by a hair. It looked
really fancy from the cart and I know I was watching his feet on that one.
Probably not the best idea, but I did it.
Prelim allows him to run. For whatever reason- he didn't really want to. I
pushed him, encouraged him, kissed to him, told him now is your chance, just
GO! I also told him to “Rock N' Roll little man, Rock N’ Roll” which almost
always results in him running.... He did run a few times here and there
and then came back to a trot. We ran about half of the course.
Jim told me afterwards “When he ran, he was straight as an arrow”. He was,
we were dead on and I could feel it. It felt awesome. When he ran we shot thru
the cones without a glance and cleared each one with ease. When he slowed down is
when we had problems. Go figure. And
somewhere along the course he threw a boot… then towards the end he lost the
other one.
As we lined up for each cone, I would take a second and find the next one.
Then look back at the one before us and aim for the middle, looking where I
wanted Kat to go. I tried to remember to
‘finish my cone’ before asking Kat to turn to line up for the next one. Coming out of 7 though, I completely lost
track of 8. We looped around, came back for it and I think we took it down. As
in jumping- it’s all in the approach… If you aren’t lined up or ready when you
get there- it’s not going to happen right.
We finished our round and I drove Kat back over to where the first boot fell
off. Using the end of my whip to scoop
it up we headed back to where Jim had picked up the other one. No clean round
for us, but it was still a lot of fun.
He handed me the boot and said not to be littering up the course that
way. LOL! I gotta get the new ones in working order. These used to belong to my
big mare Tess. Between her and Kat- they are plain worn out. Kat seemed to be a bit worn out too, so I let
him walk back to the trailer to unhitch and let him rest during lunch.
3 comments:
I'm sure once he realizes it is okay to run, he'll run for you more. I didn't want you to think that I am weirder than you probably already think I am, but when you were tacking Kat up by the trailer, my attention was drawn to his bell boots and I heard the words, "They are going to fall off."
There wasn't anything about them that should have made me logically think that, so I didn't say anything to you. Then when they fell off during cones, I was like, "Ah ha. My weird predictions are always right. I should have said something."
He sure looks gorgeous on the cart!! fancy pony, and the driver aint no slouch either !
Nuzz- those are his old bell boots and they do come off. He lost one when I was lunging him earlier and they have been long overdue for replacements. I have new ones for him, I just have to get the Velcro sewn onto them. These were actually the boots from my red mare Tess so they have seen a lot of use over the years. At this point they are finally done.
Fern- Awww thanks! This is one of my favorite shots of him too. There's another with his lovely movement and his tongue sticking out.... lol
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