Little Everglades week started out with a solo 14 hour drive down to Black Prong Equestrian Center in Bronson, FL. TJ had to work so he was flying in Thursday.
Odessa isn't a good eater or drinker so when I pulled her off the trailer, despite checking her just an hour before, she was showing signs of dehydration and a painful belly so the vet had to come out at midnight and tube her. Poor kid. Many thanks to Jeff for recommending the great vet!
The vet suggested we both take the next day off so I took a trip to the Florida Carriage Museum where some friends were showing at a pleasure show.
Monday-Wednesday AM was spent riding and driving around Black Prong and working on relaxation, going through water and trying to get her to stretch and accept contact on the bit. Wednesday afternoon we headed to the Little Everglades Ranch in Dade City, Florida where the show was being hosted.
Little Everglades is a beautiful place and the wildlife is spectacular. Sandhill Cranes could be seen and heard throughout the farm and a variety of birds and ducks as well as the cute Sherman Fox Squirrel call the Little Everglades Ranch home.
Dressage and the marathon were fun but our performance was not the best. She did her usual spaz out in the arena routine. This is starting to become a bit frustrating so I'm going to put my mind to figuring this horse puzzle out. There has to be a way to get her to start doing her job without frying her. I realize my hands are not the best, but she's extreme in her reactions even when good drivers work with her.
Despite the strong competition and frustrating performances, we were in 6th place out of 12 going into cones. The grass was pretty slick and with her quick reactions to even the slightest request I took all long routes so that she didn't risk slipping. Unfortunately I had a brain lapse going from 14 to 15 and almost went through 16. I realized what I had done and after a pretty ugly halt I had to do a big loop to get back around to 15. This mistake put me 15 seconds off the time and knocked me down to 9th place despite having no balls down.
Positives to the weekend were that she ate and drank really well for the first time so her vet checks went well. She went in the water with barely any hesitation and over the bridge without jumping the other side. The weather was beautiful. She's not slamming through turns in the warmups as bad as she was a month ago...still reverts back to it when the pressure is on but she's always done this. She was lovely when she wasn't being a spaz. We didn't knock any balls down in cones. Got some good advice from some really nice Advanced level drivers. Had a good time with TJ. The ranch was incredible. She drank water on the trip home thanks to Horse Quencher. We made it home safely.
Photos of Little Everglades CDE
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