Christmas wishes

 

I SWEAR I have been a Good boy Santa!!!! 

Lets Have Fun in Texas

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine, my man and I made a trip over towards Austin. Back to the place we went for the driving clinic in December. A lot of the same people were there and since her ponies weren't ready to compete,  we decided to volunteer. Driving clubs can always use extra hands for everything and of course they were happy to have us. 

The TD for the event was Keith Yutzy that has done them not only in Texas but also in Az when I competed there. His wife Linda was also doing the scoring I believe, as she has also done a Lot of those as well. Eileen Leek was in charge, Trisha Clements was in charge of volunteers and there was plenty of good company to go around. 

The judge for the event was a really nice lady out of Indiana named Kristin Wittington. She had a Lot of helpful comments for everyone and strongly suggested for everyone to scribe at least once. That's one thing I haven't done yet, but at some point maybe I will get to. 

I also got to ride on one of the carriages as a navigator or 'Gator as we kindly call them. What a Blast! I think the woman I rode with probably got sick of me saying how much fun it was back there and I'm pretty sure I ate more than a few bugs because I was smiling the whole time. There was only 19 competitors it all seemed to go so fast, but that's pretty normal when you're on course. If course once you finish, you want to go again! She won the cones portion for Training Level, Single Horse and placed 3rd in the marathon. Not sure how she did in dressage, but she said several times- it's not their strong suit. Where have I heard that before? Lol 

I learned a few things while I was there but I will list that all in another post. It was nice to be back on course at a competition and around such a great group of people. Looking forward to getting back into competition....

Grass Ridge cones

Lots of pics, so get your drinks and snacks. This was the next ADT after Coolidge where he Lit Up on me and showed me he could really RUN! 

Getting to the In gate to start 

Hit the gas....

Yes we did the whole course at a Full. on. Gallop!
 

Red on the right!

Stretching out in full stride. Wheeeee!

After we went through 8, I lost track of where 9 was. We circled around while I tried to find it. Locked in and continued on our way....

You can see we both drop our shoulder as we lean into the turn. 

Charge!

A few more cones to navigate as we make what turned out to be a double clear round- no balls down and no time penalties which come from being too slow. In fact we had the fastest time on course out of all the competitors that day. 

Loose reins and giving him his head

Thru #19 and on to the last cones #20...

Last one straight ahead! 

Go Little Man! Go!

Even in driving its ear, shoulder, hip, heel just a little differently. Look where you're going!

Victory Lap!

Little Man loved cones and running like what seemed almost out of control.

I was joking and hanging into the rein rail like I was scared. Dave said it was tough to see us on course from the vapor trails and dust we kicked up ripping around.  My feet always stayed at the edge of the cart so I could move around and try to keep the wheels on the ground. Such a Blast! 

Grass Ridge 2014

I recently found a disc with photos from Grass Ridge 2014. This was the only time that I was able to take Kat there to compete. This was also the last of the driving competitions hosted by Grass Ridge since one of the owners had passed away. The wife had lost her battle with cancer and it wasn't long after she passed and they hosted this event in her honor, that her husband also passed away as well. I've wondered what happened to the facility and by now it's likely houses or something. Sad to see horse facilities pushed out for the sake of development. 😢

Here are a few of the photos from our dressage test. I haven't located the actual test sheet with our scores so I don't remember what all we got for each movement. My friend Sheri's husband Dave took these pictures and also pictures of us in cones.

Here Kat is stretching out in the extended trot part of our test. The ADT's actually allow for boots in all parts of the competition. We go from dressage straight over to the cones portion so there's not much time to stop and add, remove or change equipment. I've changed bits before but it's not fun being crunched for time.

Here we are back to the working trot. This was our 3rd time out at Prelim. The first time was at the Apache Junction ADT. The second time was at the Coolidge ADT. I know that the dressage test had circles, serpentines and a lengthened trot, but otherwise is not much different than training level.

Yes my little man and I were all matchy-matchy. The fleece saddle pad for under the harness and the cover for the breast collar keeps everything cleaner. Besides I can toss it all in the washer and dryer.  Cones pics to follow when I get a chance to post them.