Buronga Practise Group Competitive Trail Ride

Last weekend, I packed up Diago and made the 3 hr trip to Mildura to join the Buronga Practise Group with their Competitive Trail Ride.  Having just brought Diago in after a spell, I was a bit dubious as to how he would go with this as he is a bit of a nervous nelly and going out to new areas does tend to push his buttons a bit.  I arrived on Sunday and in the afternoon we had the vet check (thankfully Diago was fit to compete!) and then the opportunity to check out the trail, followed by a delicious meal that Dr Deb had prepared for us.

Monday morning, everyone arrived to prepare for their ride, although there was a bit of nervous anticipation, there were also lots of smiles and laughter as we all saddled up.  The trail consisted of a 2.5 km loop with a number of check points with tasks to be performed such as opening a gate, backing through obstacles, jumps and crossing a creek!  All things that you would expect to encounter when going out for a ride and give us a chance to practise our horsemanship skills.  The loop was to be completed 3 times and on our first trip out, I took Diago into the lead knowing that he would be feeling very alone - just what he needed to help build his confidence with me.  We took this first loop fairly steady and Diago did a fantastic job with each of the tasks that we encountered.  Diago's confidence grew on each consecutive loop and we trotted the whole way on the last lap.  We were the first to complete the course and I enjoyed a welcomed glass of cool water whilst we watch the others come in.

I found this to be a fantastic training exercise for our horses and we had lots of people of all different levels take part in the day.  People of each level had penalty points to even out the board which made it a fun, competitive day for everyone.

Diago and I came third in the event, Liz McLean and her horse Eadie got second and Amanda Bernaldo and her horse Demaris got first - Well done Amanda!  Judy Lamb also scored the encouragement award .

A huge well done to everyone who took part, and from the ear to ear grins on everybody's faces when they finished, I think everyone won in their own way.

Thank you Dr Deb, Amanda and the Buronga Practise Group for your lateral thinking and organising such a fabulous event - and I believe that there are more of these being planned!  Of course we wouldn't have been able to do this without the stewards who manned each checkpoint - thank you Glenda & Ashlin, Laura and Dianne, a great effort from you all!

Album: Buronga PG - Competitive Trail Ride

RFT Clinic Warrnambool in Feb 2013

I was very kindly invited by Vicki Marr (QS Agent for West Vic) and the Warrnambool Whisperers Practise Group to visit Warrnambool for a Release Focused Training Clinic in February 2013.  We began the weekend with Abbey and myself doing a demonstration on the Friday Evening where we had many people gathering at the Warrnambool Showgrounds to watch the event. 

As luck would have it, as I was making preparations for the demonstration, the clouds started to move in and a light drizzle of rain started to fall.  Not to be deterred, I started my warmup with some liberty with Abbey in the lovely sand arena.  The rain had cleared a little by the time I started my talk and introduced myself and Abbey to the crowd however it wasn't long before some deep rumblings started in the distance, just as I was ready to hop on Abby....bareback and bridle less!!  Of course I had much faith in Abbey, knowing that the thunder wouldn't worry her and made mention to the crowd about our relationship and how I knew Abbey would look after me in any situation.   Little did I know that that situation was about to be tested! 

I had been riding around bareback and bridle less showing some transitions and rebounds etc when the thunder started to get louder, so I thought I would wrap up the demo as it looked like we were about to get drenched.  I decided to finish off by hopping over some jumps, I had just popped over at walk and trot and then started to canter.  Just as I landed after the jump there was an almighty CRACK!!!  I couldn't have timed it any better and I even jumped at the loudness of the thunder and what did Abbey do?   Well of course she stopped because I stopped!  The crowd were just amazed at how calm she was and I was so proud of Abbey.

Despite the thundery start, we had beautiful weather for the rest of the weekend which put everyone in great learning mode as we discovered release and began to look for ways of offering a good deal to our horses in everything that we asked of them.  We saw lots of open hands, loose reins and everyone having a lot of fun when taking their horses out on a trail walk.  We even looked at doing fast flying lead changes with the focus of having our horses take the offer of our direct rein.

Thank you to Vicki Marr and the Warrnambool Whisperers Practise Group for organising this fantastic event and I look forward to visiting the area again.

Here are some of the tah dahs from the weekend:

• The better the send, the better everything else (transitions) become
• The difference between going to comfort and away from discomfort sometimes is not much, but it makes a HUGE difference
• Give my pony the chance to do a circle on a casual rein and she learnt to just stay on the circle
• Open hands on a short range circle and only close when you need to re-adjust your pony
• Learning to open up with shoulder, hip and hand means I get lovely soft forequarter yields to comfort
• On-line - don't accept a sluggish walk and trot (same for ridden).  Remember to stay behind the driveline
• If I lose focus, my horse loses focus too.  Reward the slightest try.  Believe in myself and Stormy.  Mean what we saty and expect what we say.  Fantastic clinic . . . . showed that anything is possible with trust, belief and feel.
• Best lesson with Mel . . . . so, so so happy (Makayla)