“Did you get a yellow card?”
That was the first question from my fearless leader after coming off cross country.
In his defense it’s a valid question after being followed around the course last time by officials.
See Back at the Big Kids Table – Sort Of for the full story.
The challenge is that my very level headed super pony only acts like a fire-breathing-runaway-speed-freak after he comes out of the start box on cross country.
This means any stronger hardware I use at home is too much and he objects strongly.
It also means the bit that works well at home is unlikely to have any effect at the competition.
So changing bits is an entire unknown until I’m on course. Oh….. Joy……
It’s also really interesting that a bit that worked well last year, doesn’t work this year.
What’s up with that?
Some of the purists in my audience, and some of my friends are thinking “If you can’t ride him in a halter you shouldn’t be leaving the barn.” And while I agree with that on a lot of levels…….
Such as here……
and here…….
and here……..
And while I do have a couple horses that run XC in the same bit they do dressage in.
The WonderPony is not one of them.
With our new contraption in place I headed out on course.
The good news…….. was that I had “total control” of my horse.
The bad news…….. was that I had “total control” of my horse.
He can typically be counted on to make a pretty good decision…. like here in this 5 stride line.
I, on the other hand, definitely cannot be trusted.
My incredibly dangerous boldly forward ride from last time where I put in all the right number of strides, was replaced by Bad-Eventer-Chicken-Shit-Riding.
For the record, that should have been a 5 stride line, and trotting…….is not ok……..
Thanks to having real brakes I demonstrated some not so fabulous examples of “backwards riding.”
I really am an all or nothing rider at times……..
Here’s hoping I can find the guts to ride my horse forward when it’s my choice and not his.
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It's all a balancing act, as soon as we unlock something with horse the wheels fall off something else *sigh*
Thems the joys eh? 😉
You guys are rock stars and I'm 100% certain you'll be clicking in all aspects again asap
I caught you coming through my fence (3) and both waters this weekend and you neither looked like a freight train, nor looked like you were terribly behind. Of course, I was reallllly far away from the water spying through my camera lens… Oh, and there are pictures.
We were 5 seconds under the Optimum Time without any circles or serpentines this time 😉
for as grateful as i am that my mare will always try to do *exactly* what i ask (for better or worse), sometimes i think we'd be a little better off if she took the initiative to get it done her way lol
My old gelding, nearly twenty, who spends most of his time anymore plodding around the yard bareback, in a halter and usually carrying me and a small child, has his special cow working bit. It's really big, and he needs every bit of it when there's a cow in front of him. He loves to work cattle and isn't half bad as long as he has enough bit to curb his enthusiasm. 😉