MiniHGal
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- Aug 18, 2003
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Well, I am finally mostly unpacked and recovered from the Ram Tap Combined Driving Event. Leia (hobbyhorse23) came all the way down from WA to join me in competing at Ram Tap, which was way awesome! I also saw dangerranger (Eric) there as well, as a spectator. It was great to meet them both!
The weekend started Tuesday night when Leia drove in to where I was boarding Fascination. So weird to meet someone you have talked to for three years, seen pictures of, but not actually met in person! She is a great gal, by the way--very sweet. Kody is hilarious, and much more interactive than Fascination. He looked SO cute all shaved up! Wednesday we played with the horses a bit...then Thursday I hooked up the trailer and discovered a nail in one of the tires!! Not a fun way to start off the day. Three hours later, it was fixed and I was back to packing everything up.
Fast forward to Friday...dressage. :new_shocked: Mom and Dan did alright--he gave her one of the best warmups he's ever done. Unfortunately, the dressage ring was very deep footing and he had to really pull. So that kind of destroyed their score. But he tried, and he looked good out of the ring.
I'll let Leia tell you about Kody's go, but I thought he went very nicely for also having to deal with deep footing. Not sure why they didn't pack the mini arenas like they usually do, but oh well!
Fascination and I didn't do so well on our score...but I was very pleased with her. She gave me a relaxed test (very hard for her), and really tried to put it together for me. :aktion033: However, she is not strong enough on her topline to collect up and give me the upper level gaits that we need. We are certainly making tracks that way, and have been doing tons of ground driving to really get her muscles going, but she can't hold it for very long when pulling a cart in the slightly deeper footing of the big ring. Oh well. I knew we would pay for it.
: However, all of our bends were very nice; not one comment of "could bend more" or "counterbent"...which she rarely gets anyway, but the judges were VERY picky, so we definitely have that part down....Yay. Bending is one of my big issues...early on, I don't care where their head is(to a certain point), whatever, as long as they bend correctly!!
Marathon day was bright and warm, which was good for the course(some parts would have become a mud pit!), though a couple of sprinkles wouldn't have been amiss. Alas, not so good for the horses. All VSEs had to do the same course as the big horses (YAY), so everyone had a walk section. I was first to go for the VSEs, so that I was 'with' the Intermediates, who went right before me. Leia can tell you how far Training VSEs had to go; I'm not sure. My mom with Dan went around 10 k, and had a nice go on marathon with the Pacific cart with the marathon shafts...I did not get to see any of it, however. He still doesn't quite get the idea of hazards=fast, but he is starting to understand. It was his second Prelim event.
Fascination went for about 11.7k on this marathon, and came in just fine. The course was deep in places, but we mostly avoided those parts (skirted them). We had 7 hazards, and were on course for about an hour and 15 minutes (not including waiting to start or vet check, but actually on course, being timed). Sect E was fun...the hazards were great. A couple of our times were not as fast as they could have been, owing to me not remembering a turn or going too fast and overshooting a turning spot. However, Hazard 7, which was the Intermediate only hazard (after going down a huge hill and before going up a hill), was literally a horserace. One or two tighter turns (still pretty open), and the rest was gallop room (we're talking larger than the long end of a 40x100m dressage ring, at least). Fascination liked that hazard, and we were only two seconds behind the fastest horse. So that was pretty awesome.
Then there was cones. It was wet. And sloppy. And Fascination and I hated it in unison. :cold: Dan and Kody had it pretty good; they were the first ones to go. Leia had a lovely cones go, I got to see hers, though not Mom's. Fascination and I, however, were 30-something horses later, with the Intermediates. So a bunch of big horses had tromped the arena to sludge. Some parts were packed, but most was very muddy. My poor cart was just nasty mud from top to bottom. But it was a nice course all in all. Fascination and I still had fun, though she wasn't as willing to go fast in cones as she usually is, and didn't have any balls down (clean run). We got to borrow Leia's driving cooler while waiting, which is like the best thing ever!
Finally we all went home. My mom took second to Cris's lovely mare, out of two, but Dan is making improvements. I took first, but that was pretty meaningless other than we didn't eliminate. Hopefully some people will be joining me in Intermediate VSEs at some point!
On Monday, Leia and I traded carts for a bit, then traded horses. This was a LOT of fun! The hyperbike is very cool, although it didn't really fit Fascination, as she is quite a bit longer and somewhat taller than Kody, so I would have to adjust it to really try it out and we certainly didn't have time! Kody looked REALLY cute in my Jerald Mini A, although it was a mite big on him (those 30" wheels add a lot of height!). Kody is a lot of fun to drive; he is very smart! Leia and I drive a bit differently(end goal is the same), but we were able to drive each other's horses no problem...I hope Leia will share the cute pictures from that try out session!
Kody is absolutely convinced that Fascination is his mare...unfortunately, so is Dan! They were fine while Fascination wasn't around, but not so much when there was a mare that, obviously, did not belong to the other guy! Fascination really couldn't have cared less, as long as someone was around. It was very cute.
Sadly, my camera bit the dust before Leia's cones go, and our times were always at the same time, it seems like! So few pictures are available, but hopefully there will be some from the photographer at the show. I will post what I have in the next post!
:
The weekend started Tuesday night when Leia drove in to where I was boarding Fascination. So weird to meet someone you have talked to for three years, seen pictures of, but not actually met in person! She is a great gal, by the way--very sweet. Kody is hilarious, and much more interactive than Fascination. He looked SO cute all shaved up! Wednesday we played with the horses a bit...then Thursday I hooked up the trailer and discovered a nail in one of the tires!! Not a fun way to start off the day. Three hours later, it was fixed and I was back to packing everything up.
Fast forward to Friday...dressage. :new_shocked: Mom and Dan did alright--he gave her one of the best warmups he's ever done. Unfortunately, the dressage ring was very deep footing and he had to really pull. So that kind of destroyed their score. But he tried, and he looked good out of the ring.
I'll let Leia tell you about Kody's go, but I thought he went very nicely for also having to deal with deep footing. Not sure why they didn't pack the mini arenas like they usually do, but oh well!Fascination and I didn't do so well on our score...but I was very pleased with her. She gave me a relaxed test (very hard for her), and really tried to put it together for me. :aktion033: However, she is not strong enough on her topline to collect up and give me the upper level gaits that we need. We are certainly making tracks that way, and have been doing tons of ground driving to really get her muscles going, but she can't hold it for very long when pulling a cart in the slightly deeper footing of the big ring. Oh well. I knew we would pay for it.
Marathon day was bright and warm, which was good for the course(some parts would have become a mud pit!), though a couple of sprinkles wouldn't have been amiss. Alas, not so good for the horses. All VSEs had to do the same course as the big horses (YAY), so everyone had a walk section. I was first to go for the VSEs, so that I was 'with' the Intermediates, who went right before me. Leia can tell you how far Training VSEs had to go; I'm not sure. My mom with Dan went around 10 k, and had a nice go on marathon with the Pacific cart with the marathon shafts...I did not get to see any of it, however. He still doesn't quite get the idea of hazards=fast, but he is starting to understand. It was his second Prelim event.
Fascination went for about 11.7k on this marathon, and came in just fine. The course was deep in places, but we mostly avoided those parts (skirted them). We had 7 hazards, and were on course for about an hour and 15 minutes (not including waiting to start or vet check, but actually on course, being timed). Sect E was fun...the hazards were great. A couple of our times were not as fast as they could have been, owing to me not remembering a turn or going too fast and overshooting a turning spot. However, Hazard 7, which was the Intermediate only hazard (after going down a huge hill and before going up a hill), was literally a horserace. One or two tighter turns (still pretty open), and the rest was gallop room (we're talking larger than the long end of a 40x100m dressage ring, at least). Fascination liked that hazard, and we were only two seconds behind the fastest horse. So that was pretty awesome.
Then there was cones. It was wet. And sloppy. And Fascination and I hated it in unison. :cold: Dan and Kody had it pretty good; they were the first ones to go. Leia had a lovely cones go, I got to see hers, though not Mom's. Fascination and I, however, were 30-something horses later, with the Intermediates. So a bunch of big horses had tromped the arena to sludge. Some parts were packed, but most was very muddy. My poor cart was just nasty mud from top to bottom. But it was a nice course all in all. Fascination and I still had fun, though she wasn't as willing to go fast in cones as she usually is, and didn't have any balls down (clean run). We got to borrow Leia's driving cooler while waiting, which is like the best thing ever!
Finally we all went home. My mom took second to Cris's lovely mare, out of two, but Dan is making improvements. I took first, but that was pretty meaningless other than we didn't eliminate. Hopefully some people will be joining me in Intermediate VSEs at some point!
On Monday, Leia and I traded carts for a bit, then traded horses. This was a LOT of fun! The hyperbike is very cool, although it didn't really fit Fascination, as she is quite a bit longer and somewhat taller than Kody, so I would have to adjust it to really try it out and we certainly didn't have time! Kody looked REALLY cute in my Jerald Mini A, although it was a mite big on him (those 30" wheels add a lot of height!). Kody is a lot of fun to drive; he is very smart! Leia and I drive a bit differently(end goal is the same), but we were able to drive each other's horses no problem...I hope Leia will share the cute pictures from that try out session!
Kody is absolutely convinced that Fascination is his mare...unfortunately, so is Dan! They were fine while Fascination wasn't around, but not so much when there was a mare that, obviously, did not belong to the other guy! Fascination really couldn't have cared less, as long as someone was around. It was very cute.
Sadly, my camera bit the dust before Leia's cones go, and our times were always at the same time, it seems like! So few pictures are available, but hopefully there will be some from the photographer at the show. I will post what I have in the next post!
