The ADT has come and gone and I have been kicking this post around in my head for a while now. Bottom line- little man wasn't firing like his normal self and we didn't exactly do so hot, all things considered.
He warmed up well enough, almost as to what is typical for him. Nothing exciting, soft on both sides, stops, turns, responsive, no fussing, no calling, nothing out of the ordinary. So when it came time to go into the ring and Kat to start his "I'm so done with this bullshit" behavior as expected, you can bet I was a bit surprised with what I got instead. He was flat and pretty much a deadbeat, throughout. the. entire. test. WTH? He just had no energy and no desire to be there, let alone, no fire under him to do anything.
Our lengthened walk? I don't recall any lengthening going on at all. None. The lengthened trot, same thing. He extended a little, but for what it was? he may as well have been doing a collected trot and only picked things up to his working trot. He just had nothing to give and wasn't putting out much effort at all. Our score was a 50. something and while it wasn't one of our best scores, it certainly wasn't the worst either. It definitely reflects that he just wasn't feelin' it.
Cones wasn't much different. Although I had him all decked out in new gear of leopard print everything- polo's, saddle pad, sleeves on the breastcollar & breeching strap and even included a helmet cover for me complete with ears (Oh yeah, it Rocked!) and wore a matching tan shirt & pants, our mantra for the day of "Channeling our Inner Cheetah" was a complete 180 of our effort. Little man wasn't channeling shit. The wind blew hard, pretty much all morning and they couldn't put balls on the cones, but the volunteers and Jim were able to tell when you hit one. We hit 4 of them! Kat just had no intentions of going fast and after whipping him once to wake him up and snap him out of his funk- he bucked and made it clear he wasn't going to be laying down any quick times on the course. All righty then.
Obstacles later on was the same thing. He had gotten plenty to drink, taken a leak, munched on his hay and hung out at the trailer, and was perky enough just being around him, but in harness he still wasn't up to it. He was flat all over again. No enthusiasm, no flash, no sizzle and definitely no pop. He wasn't giving it his all and I wasn't about to push him. He wasn't feeling it so there was no reason to ask for something that he wasn't willing or going to give.
