Woodsmith Farm

This weekend was Odessa's 2nd horse show, 2nd time in a dressage arena, 2nd time to see a cones course of any sort and 2nd time in obstacles.  It was her first time to show at prelim and she was great. Our dressage was OK and she was much, much calmer but she didn't maintain any sort of collection which I am OK with.  She's been driving about 2.5 months now and a lot of that has been just getting her out to see things and building her confidence.  I hadn't planned on even showing her this year so I am not going to push the things that seem to concern her and let her tell me what she's comfortable with.  We scored a 64 which I thought was wonderful considering.

The cones were not so great.  She was trying her heart out but she just hasn't been schooled on them so it was a bit erratic and definitely not pretty and flowing. I don't have a good perspective on time so I pushed her a bit and her time was 2:31 with a max time of 3:00, so we could have slowed it down and been more accurate and calmer.  Experience will help both of us on cones. I priced out 10 sets of cones and balls from the Gayla for $600 and hope to pick them up today or tomorrow.  Ugh on the price.  Who knew plastic cones could cost so much.  It has something to do with how they are made at an angle that makes the process more expensive than traffic cones.

The marathon was super.  At the start I was zoned out going over the obstacles and when I walked forward on the 30 second count down I didn't realize I wasn't pointed through the start of E.  Off we went just to the left of the start.  Everyone yelled at me and we had to swing back around.  Woops.  Note to self, pay attention!  My poor navigator was so confused.  This was her first time navigating.

Odessa was great through all of the hazards.  She's so responsive and so willing that she's a dream to guide through everything.  I just need to get my stuff straight so I communicate with her effectively.  She's always looking but I sometimes fail to communicate so she gets confused.  She never gets flustered or upset though.  She's actually a better horse than I am driver at this point so I really need to work on bring both of us along and not mess things up.  She had the fastest time in 1 obstacle and was second in 1 or 2 and 3rd in 1.  I picked fairly tight routes and she did well so hopefully with Rachel's help in Indiana we can get some good times in.

Fred and TJ won the prelim horse pairs division with Noah and Yoder.  Good job guys!

Thank you to the Gayla for putting on these wonderful schooling shows.  They are helping us out so much!  Thank you Wendy for navigating and Halee for helping out and videoing!

more Gayla Schooling show photos

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