Work got in the way of most of my horse time during the week, but I managed to get a few rides in before packing up on Friday to head north to Aspen Farms, a beautiful event facility up near Olympia.
Three of us were trailering together and Deuce was going to be riding in a trailer he had never been on before; I thought there might be some brief trailer loading drama but the spotted boy is full of surprises. He pounced right up on the trailer like he had done it a million times. So off we went to a weekend of jumping and dressage fun!
3 hours later we had arrived at the farm; unloaded; got our ponies in their stalls and got settled. We were scheduled for a Friday evening x-country lesson so after we got all checked in; it was time to get tacked up and ready to ride.
Being in a new place with new voices and smells had Deuce all sorts of fired up; fortunately he had one of his trailer buddies near by to keep him company and set a good example while we tacked up. I spent a good long while in the warm up ring doing transitions and attempting to get his attention, but after a good 30 mins, I still had a horse that was on fire and could barely contain himself to walk. I figured once we started focusing a little more on terrain and jumps, he'd pull himself together and pay closer attention.
Sure enough, we got out to the field and did some more flat work to get familiar with the terrain and he settled right into a nice round canter after a few rounds of trot work.
First field we worked a little log then a larger Beginner Novice stacked log pile. The light bulb clicked on and there was my focused and mindful horse. We jumped the line a few times as each horse in the group was quite comfortable with the elements.
Then it was on to the next field, we took turns entering the field by jumping our course then cantering away from the group and over the next log pile to the other field. Deuce did wonderfully leaving the herd and was quite focused and looking for the next jump.
The group gathered in the next field and we went over going up and down banks. Then we took our turn to canter over a beautifully carved wood kayak at a Beginner Novice height then cantered up the hill to a bank complex, Deuce hopped right up the bank with no hesitation! Then it was hop down the bank. I learend it was so much better to sit tall and a little back to go down the bank... if I sit forward, Deuce gets a bit light and hoppy in the back end (ie a bit of kick out/buck action).
Our group mastered the banks up and down both sides so well that we moved on to the water complex for the remainder of our lesson. We started by trotting in and out of the water, taking a new route each time since there were 4 or 5 different approaches in through and out of the water. Deuce's first approach was trot trot trot..trrrotttt.......almost walking... leg leg leg looking at the water then then bounce into bigger forward trot right in and through as we went on to the other side. There was lots of prasing and pats for that performance and then he was all about seeing how fast he could go while going through the water again! Apparently, the boy LOVES to splash and run through water. I asked him for trot most of the time, but he really wanted to canter in; it was the funniest thing. With everyone having big splashing fun in the water, we ended our lesson on that note with big plans to do more work in the water complex the next day.
Deuce's stall faced out towards camp site and the main walkway to and from the barn so he could see all horses that passed by and thus felt compelled to greet anyone in his sights. The stalls had solid walls on 3 sides, and being a horse that likes to see everything, found it quite frustrating to hear all his neighbors but not be able to see them. In the brife time he had spent in his stall early that day, he had already started to wear a bit of a race track around the outside of his stall from circling. I hoped that he would eventually settle down through the night and get some rest or he was going to be one tired horse tomorrow!
Although the weather forecast was fairly pleasnt and dry for the weekend, the 3 of us from our barn had already opted to get a room for the weekend. Guaranteed dry, warm comfy beds and warm showers sounded pretty tempting to us.
The next morning, we were in charge of breakfast so we were at camp early in the morning cooking ham and scrambling eggs. Deuce and the others seemed to have settled and rested through the night as he was bright eyed a bushy tailed at feeding time and ready to face the day.
Our first lesson of the day was Dressage with Jessica Wisdom. Deuce was pretty amped up when we got to the lovely covered arena. He was quite ready to be in the outdoor and jumping with the other group not going around in circles in the flat, closed in arena... So Jessica had us do lots of changing speeds at the trot. We went for medium trot to very slow small trot to big fast trot. We did this both directions many times and what a difference that made! He settled into a steady pace and was more focused on me and ready to go to work. Jessica reminded me a bunch on my position (sit tall and back and keep those shoulders open and rolled back... and push my stomach forward. When I remembered to do all of that and soften my elbows too... Deuce could sit down and move forward and ooo wow, I had a fancy pants horse!! Woohoo! I was even able to soften my seat and hips and ride his swinging gait towards the end of our lesson. Pretty cool that there is a bit of a fancy mover in this spotted draft cross... I just need to learn how o ride him better to let that fanciness come through!
So we had some lunch and an afternoon break and then it was off to a late afternoon cross country lesson again. And just as Anne promised, after a bit of trot and canter warm up on terrain, we were into the water complex. (I was happy to learn in our warmup that I still had lots of horse with energy and eagerness to concur the course but with more attentiveness to me)
So with a brief reminder about the water by trotting and cantering through in a few diffrent directions we then took turns jumping a cross rail into the water then cantering out. Deuce saw the cross rail and went for it but hesitated ever so slightly when he saw the water on the other side. I gave some leg and that was all he needed to hop over and in with a splash and a grin on his face, Then we practiced jumping up the bank out of the water which was super fun!! Running into the water and then jumping up the bank and out; did not phase the big spotted water horse one bit. Any opportunity to canter through the water and jump he was all over. What a fun fun time we were having! So after we had pretty well mastered the water complex and we each had a turn desining our own mini course that incorporated 2 different water entries and a jump in and out of the water, we were ready to move on to the next area. We went to the back field and road an up and down steep hill, which was like a fun roller coaster ride then hopped over a log with a slight drop on the other side.... what a pro! Then it was over to another field with a dun dun dun... a DITCH! Our last encounter with a ditch (which was really a trekaner - a pole over a ditch) did not go well upon first encounter. However, we had a mini ditch set up on our trail ride over to the the christmas tree farm next door and he'd jump over that thing on a loopy rein. So we trotted up to this lovely, well defined maybe 1 foot deep and 1.5 foot wide very inviting ditch. I had my eyes way up and both legs on and it was a trot trot trot.. leg leg leg leg.. stop and look. So I kicked and tap with the whip and went around again and trot trot trot hesitate leg "GO!" and he lept over very non gracefully and looked own and scared himself at the same time. Anne said go around again but be ready for him to do something weird... so I sat up tall, leg on trot trot trot.. he stopped.. but at the last minuet decided to go... well... I was off balance a bit from the stop and then the go sorta threw me around a bit but I was determiend not to come off so I grabbed neck and bobbled around and though I came out of the saddle, I did not come off! I re grouped and came to it again and it was a definate no way from Deuce. So we decided instead of getting in a battle with him, we;d just give him someone to follow over and show him how its done. So we followed another snappy Appy over - good ol Rocky who is quite the solid citizen on the cross country course calmly cnater up and over and Deuce stayed right on his tail and popped over too. We went around one more time for good measure and decided to call it a day. And a good day it was!
It was back to camp for summer and a bit of chatting about the day while the younger pony clubbers went off on their ponies for a jump scavenger hunt. We were all pretty tired and decided to head offf to our warm hotel room for the evening.
Sunday morning came early, but we were all looking forward to another round of cross country schooling. We got ourselves and our ponies fed and then set out to get saddled up and headed off to to the cross country field to meet Anne for our lesson.
The morning was turning out to be clear and cool and the horses were well rested and ready to go. Anne had us warm up again on up and down small hills then hopping over a little log that went down hill. We then reveiwd all the different types of jumps we had jumped so far and how to ride each of them. Then it was time to put togehter a course of our choosing. How fun! We had a whole field of jumps to chose from! When it was our turn, I had decided on a course that would give us oppertunity to leae the herd, come back to it and leave again while incorporating all the fneces we had gone over before.
Deuce was spectacular! He was so eager and ready for the fun that he did not even think twice about leaving his friends. He was looking for his first obsticle with enthhusasim and then once we jumped over the first log and on course, he was completky focused and waiting for my guidence to know where to go next! The course I desigend started away from the herd, way out in the far field over a log, then a turn back to go over a roll top, then a small coop, up the hill to the kayack, up bank, down bank, over the little drop log around into the water then up the bank out of the water and then a loop back down through the water again. WEEEE! Deuce was on fire! He not only ran the entire course like he knew what he was doing, I could feel the exhberance from him with how much fun he was having while we worked together to make our way around the course!
After everyone else in the group went through their courses, we headed off to another part of yet another area of the course with another water bobsticle. This set up was more like a pond with a gradual slope into the water and an oppertunity to run through a god 5 or 6 strides before a nice gentle slope out again. Deuce could hardly wait for his turn to gallop down the slope and into the water!! He was full of glee getting to go SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH as he canterd through! You can practiclly see the grin on his face!
After the run through the water, there was a long flat canter past a large boulder then to a slat fence roll top. Deuce sorta went a little sideways as we canterd past the bear like boulder but as soon as he saw our next jump, he locked on to it, I sat up with both legs on and he launched into orbit way over the fence and landed running on the other side!
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