Working Equitation Clinic

Over the weekend, I took Sunny to a local working equitation clinic! I was on the fence about bringing TC but then decided against it. First, there were only two time slots and each were three hours long. I really didn't want to give up my entire day. Second, I've been very careful to not ride TC very long in his bareback saddle because of the pressure distribution issues. His back is still not particularly well muscled (getting better though) AND my back is starting to complain about riding bareback too much. 

Pony not sure what is happening

Pony, sixteen year old pony, pawing at the trailer

Pony not sure how to rein back in a straight line

Pony with a pole

Plus, no offense to TC, but he's kind of obnoxious at obstacle clinics if the point of the clinic isn't to destroy obstacles. Sorry TC. He was definitely jealous of Sunny going somewhere in HIS trailer though. He'll get to go somewhere this weekend so that's good! It won't be as fun but he doesn't know that. He thinks everything is fun. 

Another big win for bringing Sunny is to see how he'd do at working equitation! He's never done it but he just feels like a good WE horse, compact and maneuverable. My mom used to do trail classes when she was a kid and so I really hoped she'd be interested in the working equitation, even just to join TC and I at the next one! 

Pony putting the pole down

Pony considering moving while I hoist a jug

Pony ringing the bell

Pony listening to the instructor

We arrived at the clinic just in time. The three hour time is honestly perfect, but it is a lot of riding. It's a lot of standing around learning and watching other people do the obstacles, but it's a lot. I didn't want to warm him up very much and tire him out, he's not three hours of riding fit. 

Because of that, he came into the arena pretty perky, which was so cute. He doesn't get to go a lot of places. He lives a good life, don't get me wrong, but this stage of his life means chilling at the ranch a lot vs when my mom bought him, he was at an eventing barn doing lots of fun stuff. He’ll get to do fun stuff with my niece soon and hopefully this year my mom is going to trail ride him a lot!

While being perky means TC would have been considering knocking down obstacles and leaping around to make people laugh, Sunny was very serious with his energy. He knew we were going to be Doing a Thing and he wanted to be ready for it. 

Pony through the slalom

Pony at the bull

Pony at the gate

Pony around the barrels

Pony in the pen

The instructor had us start by halting near some of the obstacles (the gate and the jug) and reining back. I guess some horses try to step away from the obstacles. Sunny didn't think to do that so she quickly assigned us another rein back exercise through two cones. That was HARD for him because, and this was news to me since we never do it, he doesn't rein back in a straight line! 

Once everyone was ready, we started on the obstacles! I was familiar with all of them having done them on TC at two separate clinics, but it was great to hear more about them and how not to get eliminated. 

We went through each obstacle on its own and Sunny handled it all so well! Our primary homework was just to get him a bit more supple and confident on the smaller circles, that was it! I was so impressed with him. He was amazing at the gate, he was totally fine with the bull, and he actually has a walk pirouette, who would have thought? I certainly didn't put that on. 

Pony meets the bull

Pony getting fancier

Extra fancy pony

Pony does walk pirouettes?! How fancy is this pony??

At the end, we did a whole course and it was like, the most fun I've had on a horse (except maybe riding Flounder on cross country) in a long time. I didn't care about the mistakes I made, I didn't care that the pony wasn't exactly correctly connected the whole time, I didn't care that my biomechanics were a mess. I just had fun. That's something that I really can't get from dressage right now, so I'm glad I have Sunny to entertain me. 

The best part was that my mom was able to come watch the last third, which included our course! She was so happy to hang out and chatted with a bunch of the ladies at the clinic. She also got the video, so that was great! These screenshots are from the video, which you can watch by clicking here. It’s a bit boring, it’s literally just an introductory working equitation course. 

Pony with the cup

Pony jumping and communicating what he plans
to do after the fence o.o

Pony deciding to launch rider

Pony getting a bit too close to losing me

Laughing at pony’s dump attempts

There’s another clinic in December that I’m trying to get into! It’s a bit further away but it’s with the same instructor and I really enjoy her style. I also emailed her to see if I could get on her mailing list for shows. I really want to take the horses to one. TC is definitely going to get eliminated for being chaotic and knocking shit down, but it’d be fun! And with Intro only being walk trot and any tack being allowed, I think we could do it even if he’s not quite back to full work. 

Sunny though, I think he could be kind of competitive! He takes it so seriously. I mean, it’s a sport neither of us have ever done before, he’s not the fanciest pony in the world, and I’m probably going to get us eliminated for a stupid reason… but still! I’m hoping that having the trainer there will at least get us to complete the competition without elimination but either way it’ll be fun and that’s all that matters. 

Pony not sure why we are saluting when I am
wearing socks like this

Working Equitation Play Day

On Saturday morning, I got up and dragged TC off the property to a fun working equitation play day at a local barn. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I feel like all we've been doing is working hard on the dressage recently and I wanted to do something fun. TC is overdue for shoes, so going on a trail ride is out until the weekend after Thanksgiving (this weekend I'm going to session B of the L program!). So I figured this would be a fun thing to do!

The trainer putting it on was raising money for a charity (which is so awesome!) so I happily donated and we arrived Saturday morning at 9am.

TC wondering which obstacle he should knock down first

We'd never been to the facility before, so it was yet another new place for TC to go and be a perfect horse, which he was. He unloaded, stood up very tall, stared in a lot of different directions, then we headed into the arena with the other three horses in the group.

It'd been over a year since our last working equitation clinic, so it was good that the instructor reminded us how to perform all the obstacles. We then had some time to run through them all before we started the courses. TC was a good boy, but, as was to be expected, he was a bit too enthused. I could just feel it in him that he wanted to knock everything over.

Happy pony

We then started with the course! I was eliminated nearly constantly, but it was great.

The first obstacle was the three barrels, which I messed up. But I did feel like I did better than we did last time in that we had better bend and better geometry, but I didn't finish the last circle, woops. Elimination.

Next, we went to the bell, which TC tried to ring himself and then walk through. And from there we went to the bull. TC was definitely interested in knocking over the barrel and/or shoving his face in it. I had to shove him sideways away from it and tell him to quit it, which you're not allowed to do. He was fine once we got to the bull (which wasn't a bull, or else he would have also wanted to knock it down).

Our bull, you use what you have!

The next obstacle was the serpentine, which I think went super well, he was so much better than he was last year. Granted, last year we bucked through the whole thing and then jumped over a cone and nearly jumped into the pen. But honestly he was a good boy! We then headed to the gate, which I think TC did very well. And then to the animal pen, which TC again really wanted to climb into, sending me into a fit of giggles as I shoved him away from it.

Next, we went to the side pass pole, which we DID step on, because if TC isn't knocking stuff down or kicking stuff over, he's climbing on it. And then we went over to the jug, which TC DID NOT KNOCK OVER LIKE LAST TIME, so proud of him. And then we went to back up through some cones, which he was surprisingly good at.

To end, we "jumped" the jump, which he just walked over because of the aforementioned overdue shoes. And then we were all done!

We backed through these poles

It was SO MUCH FUN. I was so proud of him, the only thing he did was overreact to my leg when I asked him to trot after the second obstacle and a loud truck flew by behind us. But he unloaded at a new facility and was just a good boy. I don't know how many more times this needs to happen before I just believe that he's going to be a good boy wherever I take him, but clearly at least one more time.

I wish I had more time next year, but I'd love to do a working equitation schooling show at Intro if I can swing it. Next year is crazy though, so we might wait on that, but either way I'm excited to continue playing with this super fun new discipline on my perfect horse!