TC the Ranch Horse

I felt bad that TC didn't get to have a fun outing because he was laid up for the mounted archery clinic. Not that he was aware he was missing anything. I considered taking him on a trail ride this last weekend to make up for it, but then I saw that the local horsemen's association was having a play day, complete with a ranch competition! 

I was not sure what that was, but the flyer made it sound like it was an obstacle course! I quickly printed out the entry form and mailed it once I knew that TC's return to work was going smoothly. And then on Saturday, I loaded him up and off we went. 

TC had SO MUCH FUN

We got there with about an hour to go before the competition. I hopped on and went to join everyone in the arena. There were a few hours in the morning dedicated to ring desensitization, but I wasn't interested in getting there too early. I also figured that TC would generally be fine and that we weren't going to be very competitive so there was no point in getting up early to make sure that we were able to practice each obstacle enough to perfect it. 

There were seventeen obstacles in the course. Some TC had definitely seen before or were inherently easy. He's opened plenty of rope gates, I've mounted and dismounted him before, he's walked over a bridge, he's not afraid of crinkly stuff, and he's obsessed with mailboxes (no mailbox is safe from his investigation and the mailman blows his mind). 

Others were different though! I focused on the ones that I thought might get him and then we walked around with the group to learn our course and how we were going to be judged. 

TC looking around at the obstacles trying
to figure out which one he wants to do first

The judging was mostly on horsemanship, how calm your horse remained, and how you performed the obstacles themselves. You got extra points for your horse not spooking, but you lost points if your horse, say, tried to climb on top of an obstacle. 

After we learned the course, we broke for lunch and I hung out with TC at the trailer while he ate some grass. TC decided after realizing that half of his day was going to be eating grass, that he LOVED ranch competitions. 

We waited until our turn and it turned out that we were going to be the last ones in the arena. TC was an eager beaver, not made better by a horse in the pasture next to us galloping around like mad. He came into the arena and briefly considered that he might be a bronc horse instead of a ranch horse, but then a human came up to us and he remembered that his purpose in life is to make humans laugh, so he cocked his head at her and eyed her in the bizarre way that he does when he's excited. 

Best part of the day according to TC

Here was the course: 

Rope Gate

This was just a rope hung between two posts. I haven't really opened a lot of rope gates with TC, but we open and close the arena gate every day, so he was perfect of course! It was a great obstacle to start with to gain some confidence. 

Egg and Spoon

We had to carry a golf ball in a serving spoon around a cone and drop it into a bucket. Most people were able to manage, but I think we did the worst in this one because TC kept stopping so that I could maybe give him the golf ball, which he thought was a treat. I probably should have carried it in a different location, since it ended up being right where I put my hand when I'm offering him a treat. He stopped 5-6 times and every time he did, the golf ball swayed aggressively in the spoon. I thought this was HILARIOUS, so I giggled the entire time. We did end up making it to the bucket, when I put the golf ball in it, it bounced right out because of how big TC was. I think it still counted though!

Tire Maze

TC, climber and destroyer of obstacles, was actually really good through the maze. We were to walk between the tires, which were placed very tightly to give a slight path between them. During the lunch break, they had put some whirling toys in the tires, but TC didn't care about those and marched carefully through!

I've never seen him so focused lol

Dismount + Mount

We had to dismount, pick up the horse's right front leg, then go over to a picnic table and mount back up. This all went well until TC considered following me up on top of the picnic table. I've never seen a horse so confidently pick up a leg to put it on a table before. NO THANK YOU. I stopped him, got on, and we moved along. 

Cowboy Curtain

The wind was blowing like crazy, but we'd schooled this one enough in practice where it was a non issue! He walked right through it even though I felt in his body that he would have preferred to gallop through it, silly horse. 

Belly Tickler

There was a 2x6 laying on the ground with a bunch of pool noodles sticking up. We had to side pass over them and as we did that, they "tickled" TC's belly. Honestly, the hardest part of this was the side pass, since he's never really had to do one for that long (usually just to get to the gate to open/close it) so he kept trying to leg yield. He figured it out though and we got a lot of compliments on that!

Belly tickler behind us, look how excited
this horse is to be on course lol

Teetering Bridge

This was just a bridge with a 2x4 under it so that it wobbled, TC didn't care so we walked right over and kept going.

Weave + Flag

We had to weave through some poles that were a bit close together. Technically we had to trot through it, but it was too tight so we just walked. At the end, we had to stand next to a flag on a loose rein and count to three. TC was great! 

Bridge and the weaving poles (flag was tied up)

Hula Hoop

We were supposed to pick up a hula hoop from the fence, put it on the ground, put the horse's front feet in it and do a turn on the forehand. TC's feet are way too big to put in a standard hula hoop, so we used the bigger one and we were not so great at this, oh well! 

Tarp

Another easy one for TC, he loves walking on stuff! 

Look at those ears, they make me so happy

Nutter

Omg my favorite obstacle. We had to stand quietly while a lady with a wagon full of noisy stuff walked by us. Then she took a folding chair out of the cart and opened it up to sit down in it. Oh, and all of this while wearing a silly headband and tooting a horn. Love it. TC thought she was pretty funny, although he wasn't a huge fan of the chair. But clicker training for the win, he just took a slight step back. 

Trash Crossing

Another one where TC got to walk on stuff, he walked right through a box of plastic bottles. 

Trash crossing, push the barrel, tarp, around the world

Reinback Z

We had to walk forward through a Z and then rein back in it! TC's love of standing on things did us no favors here. But we did make it through.

Mailbox

For a horse who is obsessed with all the mailboxes along the road at the ranch, he did not love this mailbox, probably because I had to open it for us and he was not involved. But he was a good boy! He did have to check what I had to grab out of it though. 

Spider

They had a black plastic bag with stuff in it, eight black pool noodles, and yellowish orange paper plates cut out to look like eyes. We just had to walk around it, TC thought it should be stepped on. 

Can't quite see the spider in this photo, it's in the
back corner of the arena

Push the Barrel

There was a barrel laying on its side with poles on either side of it to create kind of a chute. We had to have the horses push the barrel down the chute. Despite wanting to step on things, I've never really been able to get TC to push things consistently. But the horse loves a crowd, so when he figured out that everyone thought it was great when he pushed the barrel off to the side, then pawed at it to get it back to where it was supposed to be (people clapped and whooped because it looked like we'd lost the barrel), he pushed the SHIT out of that barrel and I had to pull him away from it when we got it to the end of the chute. 

Around the World

This one is hard to explain, basically there were two barrels, one with a PVC pipe coming out of it and resting on the other. At the end of the PVC pipe was a rope, so we had to pick that up and spin the PVC pipe around in a circle and put it back on the second barrel. TC was really good about this one, super easy!

You can see the barrels

When we got done, I was SO proud of TC. He handled every obstacle so well and remained completely chill even in the wind and in his very first judged obstacle course. When we came out, we got a lot of compliments about our partnership and how in tune we are with each other. That honestly feels so good whenever people mention it! I've been feeling like our partnership has completely changed in the last couple of months, I should dedicate a post to it. 

We were all done for the day except for awards. I didn't get a chance to see how anyone else did for the entire course, but whenever I looked up, people looked like they were doing really well! So I didn't expect to place. But that's okay, I was just excited to be able to do something fun with TC! Between the EHV-1 outbreak keeping us home and his extremely minor surgery, we hadn't gone anywhere in so long. 

I untacked him and then walked him back over for awards and let him graze again.

When awards started, we found out there were eight competitors and they were going to ribbon to fourth. I kind of hoped that we had gotten a ribbon! We heard fourth get awarded, but it wasn't us. Then third and second went by and it wasn't us. I started to get TC's head up to go back to the trailer, but then WE WERE CALLED FOR FIRST PLACE!!

Everyone clapped and we got a lot of really nice compliments. I was shocked! We got our cute blue ribbon and I put it on TC's halter, our first ribbon since August 2020. 

He's always looked so good in blue,
maybe he knows that...

I had so much fun at this little playday! I can't believe we won. That little blue ribbon surprisingly meant a lot to me as I thought more about it coming home. TC has given me a fair amount of blue ribbons, but they've always represented our dressage skills to me. This little ribbon represented our partnership, which felt really special. 

I'm excited to hopefully do more of these things, although I think next time, we'll move up a division and try the harder course!