Turns out, we did the last working equitation clinic exactly 5 years ago! How weird!
Anyways... it was still a hair chilly this morning but Dan was disgusting so he got a hot bath! The amount of dirt and hair that came off!! Jeepers! He was shivering a bit, so I put his cooler on, then his back on track with the neck, and closed all the windows that I could. Hopefully he didn't freeze. But he wasn't shaking when I unloaded him. He was still damp but dry in spots. And so much hair still blowing off of him!
He was chill at the trailer while I groomed him and got him "tacked up". Ha ha! Still in the bareback pad. We met up with Judy and Teller and went to hang out and wait our turn. We were about 10-15 minutes early, so we just hung out and chatted. We also ran into some friends and Dan got to meet Amos Moses, Mary Stuarts' awesome mule. He was actually pretty sweet to him until the very end when he made a grump face. And then he and Teller went to being silly boys and then Teller got mad at him! Goofies!
Then we got to walk around and play with them on our own and she was helping us when we needed it. She gave us some good pointers. She gave us hints, like ways to earn points and how to avoid losing points. Pointers on the things to focus on for a better score. Pointers on how to make our tracks between obstacles. I did not know that you coudn't cross through an obstacle that you hadn't already done. Which, isn't that big of a deal in the ease of handling round, but in the speed round, it could! And pointers like that they judge a smooth even approach with smooth turns better than abrupt quick approaches. And, as I found out, if you aren't careful putting the garocha pole back in the barrel, it'll bounce out and you'll lose points. You don't lose as many points if you don't spear the ring as you do for having an awful line through or bouncing your pole out of the barrel.
After we had all played a bit and gone through them all, she let us do three in a row to work on the approach and the whole "put it all together" thing. She made me go first so... I decided to do the things that didn't involve backing up. Dan was a very good boy doing all the obstacles but he was not a super happy camper about backing up, especially backing the L (which technically is not for the intro level). He was sticking his tongue out an awful lot today. Like... sea serpent tongue. I don't know if it was from anxiety in general, pain, anxiety he was going to hurt, or just the energy from the mare? Or maybe a combination of all the things. But it made me sad. And unforunately because he got a bit rude and anxious about things, I had to be a little handsier than I would have liked because I didn't trust that he wasn't going to actually go after the mare. And Chris was already struggling to stay on! A few times the mare popped up a little rear or let out a little buck, so I definitely didn't want to add to the drama. So, sadly, I didn't get to relieve any of his anxiety. Anyways, I chose the slalom poles (the paperclips) since those were hard for us, then the gate, and then the bull. The rope gate was down at that point and she didn't bother putting it up.But he had already done it earlier. So we did our paperclips and once I realized to make my turns tighter and my lines straighter, it wasn't too bad. Even at the trot. Then we did the gate and it wasn't horrible. I did have to sidepass a step or two at each halt, which she said would lose points. It was better to reach than to make him sidepass, but better to not have to reach in the first place. She also suggested to "trick train" them for it. Teller had gotten a little freaked out at the rope, so Judy had to drop it. So she suggested that we train them to do the first part of the move without touching the gate. Just teach them to walk up square, turn sideways, walk up to the gate and halt. Then reward them (clicker training, treat, rest, etc). Then add in the next sequence... Rein back two, turn two, reinback two, halt. And then reward that! Then put it together, still without touching the gate. And then once they are comfortable and "know" that pattern and can almost do it on their own. (Think of clicker training pillar 3... he does it without me having to ask), then you can add the gate. And then in competition, when you eventually have to do everything one handed, but at every point, the gate is one handed, they almost know the pattern and can do it on their own. Smart! So Dan was pretty good with the pattern minus not backing straight so I had to sidepass a little. Then we headed to the bull and I had forgotten to ask for it to be placed how I wanted it. She did tell us earlier that it's usually set at 11'o'clock but that some judges were sneaky and would put it elsewhere. You can ask the judge to reset it or ask to position it yourself (which is kind of cheating in my mind cause your horse gets to walk up and have you bang it around). But anyways, it was off a bit so I stumbled with it and hair but I got it. I didn't do a nice smooth flip with it but I did snare the ring! (again though.. that's the least amount of points). But when we trotted past the barrel and I dropped it in, it bounced out! Oooh, lots of points lost. She let me try it again later and we slowed the trot down so I could be more careful, but I slowed him down too much and he walked. She did say that was still a better score than it bouncing out, but it would have been a better score had I been able to slow him but not break gait.
We watched the other two go and they did great! Teller and Judy were rockstars! Then she had Judy lead and the rest of us played follow the leader and we did all the obstacles non-stop. It was fun! That was when Dan and I redeemed ourselves with the garoccha pole (mostly).
Afterwards he was very good and stood at the trailer munching hay while I watched a few others and chatted with friends. We headed home shortly after though because the sun had finally come out and I wanted to go hack Funny at Ashland! I'm so proud of him. He really did good, especially considering how stressed he was. I just hate that he was so stressed. I don't know if the bosal will make it better.. or if it will just make me not realize how stressed he is? Or if he will be just as bad with his tongue?? Guess we'll see. Hopefully it'll come before the clinic in March, but.. that's only two weeks away so I doubt it.
