Judged Trail Ride Report

Judged Trail Ride Report

Post by e.. » Tue, 11 Sep 2012 06:46:42

Today Carl and I packed up Moonlight and Belles to head to the HP of NJ for a Judged Trail Ride. When I first mentioned this it seems that it flew past Carl, as he had to have it explained yesterday and then insisted he wanted to go. He last rode in . . . May? And before that, he last rode at Easter in Mexico. Alrighty then. I suggested Belles for him but he wanted Lite since he had been riding her more the last couple years.

So we get there, meet up with my pal ML, who's Reno was a very good boy all day. The first obstacle was to pick up a bucket full of noisy stuff from the top of a driving hazard and carry it over to another bucket on another part of the hazard (think about a maze with posts fixed in triangle shapes) and then bring the bucket there back. Belles was fine, once she got the hang of the noisy buckets. Carl and Lite did a lot of dancing around, then I went in with him so Lite had Belles to count on and then he was able to do one of the buckets. After that we swapped and he took Belles and I took Lite.

Second was a low tarp we had to ride under, which everyone marched right through. Lite was doing the prancing canter dance because she was last and thought Belles might leave her, but it was not about the tarp which she completely ignored. Then we had a mallet which we hit a ball from one set of cones to the other with; Carl and Belles did fine, Lite and I got it too but she was dancing around because of her girlfriend issues. Next up was a serpentine through cones with balloons on them; you got more points for cantering, middle points for trotting, and the least points for doing them at the walk. I cantered Lite through, who was pretty e***d but minding me; Reno and ML trotted through politely and Carl walked Belles through, who was very nonchalant.

Then we had a sack of cans to drag; Reno and Belles were pretty good, although Belles gave it the stink eye and acted up a bit which was maybe helped along by Carl's nerves. I got Lite to stand by it and move it a foot, but she does not do dragging monsters. Ever. So I didn't really expect it or make a big fuss about her demonstrating just how fast she can run backwards and sideways. We went from there to a spot where we went up a steep hill, around a tree and back down, then opened, went through, and closed a rope gate. Lite had a melt down over being away from Belles, and we had some interesting 'you don't run backwards from this rope conversation, but we did get the obstacle done just fine. Carl did well until it came to*** the gate back up, which he decided to do by dragging the rope over Belles' head; he ended up dropping the rope when she picked up her head and made the distance too far.

The seventh obstacle was to dismount, take a sticky, walk over and stick it on the proper part of a large plastic horse, then bring the sticky back to the judge and remount. I demonstrated knowledge of the carpus, Carl muffed the location of the stifle (who knew that was on the barrel?) and ML nailed hers, although since Lite was running around sideways and backwards and terrorizing the spectators I didn't see her part very clearly. I had to reassure people that Moonlight was actually legal to drink, this was nothing on the scale of bad behavior, and I was relaxed and in no distress. Off to the car wash: through*** plastic strips, then through pool noodles sticking out on each side of a chute, then over pool noodles end up in a row on the ground so they were like 3'something tall, but wide enough spread to be easy to push through. Reno was worried about the plastic and then came on through the rest. Lite danced around the*** plastic, bunched up and squirted through, did the same with the sideways noodles in the chute, then minced up to the upright noodles and did a slow motion high jump over them. Then she melted down all around the place while Belles took some advantage of Carl--he got through the first two with a little assist from the judges (holding things back to give Belles a clear view) and he skipped the third part.

Ninth was really easy--take a plastic bat and tap a pi?ata with it. Tenth we took a lance, went down a chute made of upright posts (old driving obstacle) and tapped a target with the lance. Lite had girlfriend behavior, bunching up and dancing her way through, but we did it just fine. Belles was a good girl for Carl and ML and Reno were stars again. Eleventh was tossing balls into a muck bucket while standing back a good bit from it; Reno stood but ML missed. Carl got full points for a quiet horse and getting the ball in. I demonstrated that I can sink a basket while on a horse in motion, LOL, so I got part points.

Then we had to get a flag out of a holder, carry it in a circle over a little XC bank with ramps up and down, and replace the flag. Lite was fine with the flag once I turned her to pick it up facing the others instead of them out of her direct sight. Carl needed a little assist, me bringing Lite alongside Belles to help him get up by the flag, then he was fine from there on his own. Reno was a little spooky about it at first, but then good.

The second to last was carrying a ball around a maze on a tennis racket, but it was super easy because apparently the rackets were too flat and it was totally impossible until they put the balls down into the weave, and then they would only come out if you popped them against something.

Last was to go into a water jump and drag around an inflatable alligator toy. Since Lite does not drag things I opted to give her a positive experience and just ride around in the water hazard without making any effort to chase her with an inflatable gator. Carl and Belles and ML and Reno did great.

So that was our Judged Trail Ride! I got to show everyone I have great stick and a sense of humor, Carl and Belles had a nice day out, and Reno and ML won the Black Beauty Award for best of the three of us. (Of course, if I were on Belles we might have to revise that standing, LOL).

Eileen Morgan
The Mare's Nest