I know I say this a lot, but what a fun weekend.
Because things went so well Friday night during a much needed email server upgrade, I was able to head to Hermitage on Saturday to see how the Elizabeth Keathley clinic was going and to check out the tack sale. Elizabeth is a great clinician and with work no longer in the way Elizabeth graciously agreed fit me in for a Sunday lesson during her lunch break.
Poor Odessa started Sunday morning out with a little trauma as a hidden wasp nest came to life while we were parked in the McDonalds parking lot. My eyes bugged out as I looked into the trailer to see why she was moving around so much and saw 4 wasps circling her head. I've always been of the mindset, don't unload on the side of a highway unless absolutely necessary, but with no other choice I unloaded her. She almost wiped out on the newly surfaced slick parking lot but stayed upright. So now we are standing in front of the McDonalds right next to a huge intersection on a 4 lane highway. TJ killed the wasps and moved the trailer to better footing for loading. She was so good through all of this and despite the commotion and getting stung on the neck, she loaded without any complaints.
The wasp episode must not have been too upsetting because Odessa was definitely in an agreeable mood at Hermitage. We had a good lesson with Elizabeth and she gave us some things to work on. We are still working on getting her consistently round and using her back more but hopefully that should be coming along better over the next month.
Jesus Hernandez (Jose's father) also helped me out with some backing hang-ups where she's backing hollow instead of low and round. In about and hour, he wipped up a bosal and headstall that I can use on her to teach her to put her head down while backing. Jesus is a wealth of experience and knowledge and it was very cool to watch him work through the braiding of the bosal and then all of the different knots that went into the headstall. He then showed me how to work her in it and dang if she didn't drop that head right down and do a marching back after a few attempts. Hopefully I can replicate the lesson at home.
Lastly, if you haven't entered the Hermitage Classic HDT, you need to. This is going be a big deal event and Hermitage's owner Steve Wilson is doing it right with a professionally designed and built course. With it's spectator friendly obstacles and Steve's love of great parties, I see this event becoming a fun Kentucky tradition. We are now fortunate to have three great driving shows in the state of Kentucky.
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