Eventing Derby Fun without the Eventing Derby

Because I ended up going to the Mountains with Mike Saturday 

Yay! We had fun... but because of that, I didn't get to do the Ashland Show. But luckily for us, they left the course up. After I rode Fleck, I hopped on Dan and we went out to play. I warmed him up and took a few fences. And man.. it's been soooooo dry here that the grass was slick. We haven't had rain since I got home from my last acupuncture session, which was... at least a month ago. And we really haven't had much rain prior to that. So it's sooooo dusty and hard and the grass is shrivelling. So Dan slid into two fences more or less warming up. He's such a good kid though. One of them, he basically slid into, jumped, took the rail with him, but landed and carried on like it was no big deal. Such a good brain! 

So we decided to just be careful and do our course. And the rest of the field wasn't too bad. It was mostly in that one area. So Liz made us a course and away we went. He spooked a little at the hay bales and I had already walked him up to it earlier. But... we had fun! I definitely need to pull him back to a trot for the up banks. I wasn't helping him at all and while he's brave, he's not quite educated enough to make that decision at a canter yet. Not without my help, and clearly I'm not capable of helping him either. Doh! But overall it was pretty good. There were a few spots I got left behind on, but he doesn't seem to mind.

 Playing in the field
 Wheeeee!
However, not on video... we did another course, and he got a bit heavier. After the hay bale fence he landed and got really heavy and then sort of bolted. I half halted and had nothing, so I tried again. He sort of slowed but then bolted again. So... I let him. I pushed him and made him do a whole lap at the gallop. It was another 35 mph gallop it felt like. In retrospect it was not a good training decision. Liz and Kelli said that maybe it was, as he wanted to go, and I made him go. BUT... I didn't MAKE him go. He wanted to go. I just allowed it. So... bad idea. But... I did make him settle down after and we jumped a bit more politely. And then we sat and watched Liz go and I made him go out and jump another 4 fences and he was polite, so... meh. Maybe he just needed to get his gallop on. :) 

It was a fun day though!