Dr. Pam
Well-Known Member
Went through all our pictures from last weekend, and there is not ONE of Al or Susan. Since we all competed in VSE and didn't bring our cameras down I can sort of understand it, but still!! Al and Susan are the NICEST people and let us stay with them for the weekend. They have a wonderful place and a whole bunch of beautiful minis. I'm going to try to get them to adopt me--I promise I'll do the cooking :bgrin .
We left Friday in very warm (90 degrees) and humid weather to be greeted by clouds of mosquitos at the Good Hands Driving Center in Navasota, TX. Great. We had done minimal clipping on our two wooly bears. Happily, a storm front blew in that night with much cooler temps and a stiff breeze. Sat morning dawned cool (50 degrees) clear and crisp with 20 mph "breezes" that meant NO MOSQUITOS!!!!! VSE went last so Patty was able to get some photos at the cones course. The grounds were rustic but well laid out--my biggest complaint was the VSE 20X40 dressage arena was an afterthought so was VERY rough and difficult to drive in. The people were great and the whole event ran smoothly with 40 entries total.
Refresher--this event is in three phases: Dressage, Cones, and Marathon. Your dressage score sets the bar. You can't improve your score with cones or marathon, you can only lose ground with penalty points. Your goal is to get a good score in dressage and go clean in cones and marathon. If your dressage score isn't so hot you hope the leader knocks down some balls in cones, blows a hazzard, or scores time penalties in marathon.
Dressage:
the judges stand:
I *gasp* had the best score for dressage (50.25), with Al second. Patty scored higher than me under one judge and got CREAMED by the second judge--she felt Misty was too small and showed uneven gaits on the rough terrain. Duh. Sunny was the tallest/most horse like mini there and that was a huge advantage for her with our esteemed judge. Hey, I'll take breaks where I can get them and she did drive a really nice test.
Cones, very long course set on a hillside. Definitely made it more challanging:
Misty and Patty--look at the stride on that little girl!! They had the second fastest time; we beat them by less than 2 seconds. BTW, this was their first time to compete in their new custom Lignite cart (single seater, 46" shafts with metal wheels):
Sunny and I--she loves this event more than anything we have ever done. She turned in the fastest time for the entire training level:
So, by the end of the first day I was in first place and Al was in second. If I could make it through the marathon course with screwing it up, we could get our very first overall win. We headed back to Al and Susan's and turned in early.
Day 2. Marathon.
Again, VSE's were last to go so Patty went down and got some pictures of the higher level horses in the water hazard. The original estimate was for 8" of water in the pond but the heavy rains from Fri night had the water up over 24". Not sure what they would have done if there were Prelininary level minis!! The Dartmoor ponies ended up having to swim to get through--what game little ponies! Their navigator almost had to jump out and push them through.
The Darties getting ready to go out:
the Belgian cross team:
the Fresians coming off the bridge:
in the water:
We left Friday in very warm (90 degrees) and humid weather to be greeted by clouds of mosquitos at the Good Hands Driving Center in Navasota, TX. Great. We had done minimal clipping on our two wooly bears. Happily, a storm front blew in that night with much cooler temps and a stiff breeze. Sat morning dawned cool (50 degrees) clear and crisp with 20 mph "breezes" that meant NO MOSQUITOS!!!!! VSE went last so Patty was able to get some photos at the cones course. The grounds were rustic but well laid out--my biggest complaint was the VSE 20X40 dressage arena was an afterthought so was VERY rough and difficult to drive in. The people were great and the whole event ran smoothly with 40 entries total.
Refresher--this event is in three phases: Dressage, Cones, and Marathon. Your dressage score sets the bar. You can't improve your score with cones or marathon, you can only lose ground with penalty points. Your goal is to get a good score in dressage and go clean in cones and marathon. If your dressage score isn't so hot you hope the leader knocks down some balls in cones, blows a hazzard, or scores time penalties in marathon.
Dressage:
the judges stand:
I *gasp* had the best score for dressage (50.25), with Al second. Patty scored higher than me under one judge and got CREAMED by the second judge--she felt Misty was too small and showed uneven gaits on the rough terrain. Duh. Sunny was the tallest/most horse like mini there and that was a huge advantage for her with our esteemed judge. Hey, I'll take breaks where I can get them and she did drive a really nice test.
Cones, very long course set on a hillside. Definitely made it more challanging:
Misty and Patty--look at the stride on that little girl!! They had the second fastest time; we beat them by less than 2 seconds. BTW, this was their first time to compete in their new custom Lignite cart (single seater, 46" shafts with metal wheels):
Sunny and I--she loves this event more than anything we have ever done. She turned in the fastest time for the entire training level:
So, by the end of the first day I was in first place and Al was in second. If I could make it through the marathon course with screwing it up, we could get our very first overall win. We headed back to Al and Susan's and turned in early.
Day 2. Marathon.
Again, VSE's were last to go so Patty went down and got some pictures of the higher level horses in the water hazard. The original estimate was for 8" of water in the pond but the heavy rains from Fri night had the water up over 24". Not sure what they would have done if there were Prelininary level minis!! The Dartmoor ponies ended up having to swim to get through--what game little ponies! Their navigator almost had to jump out and push them through.
The Darties getting ready to go out:
the Belgian cross team:
the Fresians coming off the bridge:
in the water:
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