Running I ETS

This last weekend, TC and I competed in our very first ETS! 

ETS stands for Equine Trail Sports and it's basically a way more formal version of the ranch competitions we did last year that TC loved so much. 

We ended up just going up for the in hand class on Saturday, it was super hot and staying overnight ended up being a bit too much to deal with given how my work schedule has been. But it was super worth a long day trip (and TC and I have recovered from it)! 

Hanging with friends! Peep Peony's adorable baby
horse Goose on the end

Since I assume a lot of people who read this blog are here from the glory days of dressage, I'm going to quickly go over what an ETS entails, at least the in hand class. Apologies if I make this even more confusing. 

There were eight obstacles and each obstacle had three levels to choose from. Level 1 was the most basic and Level 3 was the most advanced. Each level is worth the corresponding number of points. To qualify for the Novice division, you need 8 to 11 points, intermediate is 12 to 18 (I think maybe 19) points, and Advanced is 19 to 24 points. You can get 8 points by doing Level 1 for all eight obstacles. You can get 24 points by doing Level 3 for all eight obstacles. 

For each obstacle, regardless of the Level you do, you get a rider score and a horse score out of ten. Then your level is a multiplier, so if you do Level 1 really really well and get a 10/10 on both, that'll be way better than doing Level 2 terribly and getting a 2/10 on both horse and rider scores despite Level 2 having a multiplier. 

They differentiate between horse and rider so that if your horse is perfect and you're screaming like a banshee, they can give your horse a good score and you a bad score. Or if you're perfect but your horse is screaming like a banshee, they can give you a good score and your horse a bad score. If you're both terrible or both great, you can get the same score. 

So there's some strategy to it! We competed in the Novice division, so I aimed to do five obstacles at Level 1 (5 points) and three obstacles at level 2 (6 points) for a total of 11 points.

Went on a walk around the property

We arrived in time to watch the first round of horses and have a friend go over the course with me. Then it was our turn! Here were the obstacles in the order that we did them:

Pedestal (Cross over obstacle)

We opted to do Level 2 for this obstacle and it was a bad idea. For Level 1, you had to get both of your horse's front feet on the pedestal and then have them step off of it. Given that TC likes to stand on things, I think we would have scored better if we'd done Level 1. But I had a tough time deciding what to do, and Level 2 had you walk straight over it. I figured TC would be fine walking over it and I was wrong. We attempted twice but he only managed to get his front feet on it and then straddled it with his hind feet (it was VERY narrow). Oh well! 

For this one, we got a 4/10 for me and a 4/10 for TC for a total of 8 points. The multiplier took that 8 to a 10.40. 

I took *very* shitty pictures the whole day, oh
well, but this is the pedestal

Ring (Turn on the forehand)

Filled with dread when there were options for TC to stand on things that he wasn't supposed to stand on, we decided to just do Level 1 for this obstacle. There was a tiny metal square we had to put his front feet in and then we just had to do a 180 degree turn on the forehand. 

In true TC fashion, he stepped on the sides of the square (it was totally safe, just annoying) but he did do it less than I thought he would! So we ended up with a 5/10 for both of us for a total of 10 points. No multiplier because it was Level 1. 

Watching the competition from his day pen, he was
immediately destructive, apparently he hasn't
outgrown wanting to dig holes and climb
pipe panels yet

Teeter Totters (Cross over obstacle)

I was certain that TC and I could do Level 2 or even Level 3 with any teeter totter obstacle. He is a star when it comes to standing on things, after all. But both Level 2 and 3 used the BIG teeter totter and he's never been on one that giant. I decided that day was not the day to push it and so we opted for Level 1, which was just to walk across the teeter totter. 

TC was absolutely perfect and we both got a 10/10 for a total of 20 points! 

You can kind of see the teeter totter behind the judge

Sidepass 'T' (Sidepass)

TC somehow learned to side pass like a BOSS in the last few years. Like I didn't expect this. I think the belly tickler from the ranch competitions helped him? I don't know. He went years being kind of awful at side passing and now he's so good at it and let me tell you, we did not work on it. 

So I opted to do Level 2 for this obstacle. It was three logs in the shape of a capital T. For Level 2, we had to side pass over half the top of the T facing the bottom part, then at the intersection, do a turn on the forehand and side pass over the bottom part of the T. 

TC did want to stand on the logs instead of side passing, so I ended up having to do a lot of management, reducing our scores to 8/10 for both of us. Because of the multiplier, we got a 20.80. So you can see how even if we'd gotten a 10/10 for both of us for Level 1, doing Level 2 but getting an 8/10 ended up being better points-wise! 

LOL my favorite picture of TC and
Goose

Bridge (Cross over obstacle)

I was unsure of whether to do Level 1 or Level 2 for this. The bridge was quite high off the ground, and Level 1 was just putting your front feet on it and then backing off, while Level 2 was halting in the middle of the bridge. I didn't trust TC's sense of self preservation to not fall off the bridge if he had to stop forward motion, so I opted for Level 1. We each got a 10/10 for a total score of 20.00. 

And you can see the teal bridge, also my horse's
chonky belly

Get on your Soapbox (Forward movement)

For this obstacle, we had to stand on a mattress and send the horse around us. Level 1 was just in walk and Level 2 was at the trot. Level 2 also involved halting for 3 seconds and then bringing the horse toward us. Well, oops. I forgot about that part. But we did do Level 2 and TC was PERFECT and the judge said "you can put him in my trailer any day," but still gave us a 4/10 for each of us because I didn't do the obstacle properly. Oops! Sorry TC! Total score was 10.40. 

Bright and early at the gas station!
Literally the worst pictures

The Narrow Path (Forward movement)

This was another one where anything beyond Level 1 was going to be ridiculous.  There was an L shaped pathway with big metal logs on each side of it. At first I thought it was a rein back obstacle and I think TC would actually be really good at that. But nope, Level 1 you had to walk your horse through it, Level 2 you had to trot your horse through it.

I need to work on trotting TC in hand, he is not a candidate for a breed show. Every time I trot him in hand (not longeing, just alongside him), he thinks it's the most hilarious game and usually leaps into the air, strikes out, and then tries to snatch at me. It does not help matters that I laugh at him every time. So we opted for Level 1. We got a 10/10 each for a total of 20 points. 

We did get a cute picture of them too

Tunnel (Cross under)

Remember that covered wagon from last obstacle show? Imagine that, darker, with logs inside of it, and ANIMAL PELTS ON THE WALLS. 

This is where this sport is sold for me. When we were walking in, TC saw one of these animal pelts for the first time, it was hanging on the gate. He *lost it* and was snorting with his neck all arched and his entire body rigid. We were blocking the way and I quickly tried to shuffle him out of the way (he would not move) to let some people in and some people out. The people trying to come in said "don't worry about it, my horse is going to have the same reaction, just let him get used to it" and the people trying to come out said "oh, it's okay, we are in no rush, let him work through it" and then the judge yelled over to me "you can let him smell it, it's pretty scary if they haven't seen that before!" 

Like literally he'd be judged on his tolerance of these things in the tunnel (which is why I saved it for last) and everyone was so kind about letting me do my clicker training. And the judge still gave me a 10/10 and him a 9/10 when we did the obstacle, despite her watching me clicker train it earlier. Like, wow. This sport is so much "for the horse" and I just love it. I've definitely been told multiple times to "not let him do that" when TC has been nervous at dressage shows. 

Anyway, 19 points to round us out (Level 2 was like, turning around and doing it again and I forget what Level 3 was, we obviously did Level 1). 

The dreaded tunnel

I ended up heading out before I knew what we'd gotten but the next morning, the scores were posted! We got 130.60 overall and that was good enough for THIRD PLACE (out of twelve!!). I am SO PROUD OF HIM. This was our first rated show in this new-to-both-of-us discipline and he was such a star. 

Like, I can't believe this is the same horse who was a chronic bolter and was so spooky. I still remember writing this hilarious post about things I hated because of him. Going to those bombproofing clinics out of desperation eventually led us to this amazing discipline. I'm glad to have something to work towards that isn't dressage. 

Why you house the horse? Horse
hates to be housed

We have two schooling shows coming up and then we'll be back in the rated ring in July. We're definitely camping overnight - a family friend has a solar powered electric fence I can use to keep him contained! I cannot wait, and I think TC is excited for the next one too!

SCCHA Obstacle Play Day Pt 2

Here's part 2 of our fun at the obstacle play day! Last we left off, we were halfway through the course and the horse had only just started to calm the fuck down. 

Walking Over Logs

There was a woman in the course walk who was pointing out how unfair this log pile was for short horses to walk over. And another woman pointed out that there are obstacles that were unfair for large horses too. TC conquered the log pile easily with his giant feet and big stride. I had a moment of thinking he might get claustrophobic in there and try to jump out, but he was pretty relaxed by this point in the course. 

Most of the time it isn't great to have a large horse
for these shows but for this obstacle it was

Standing On a Tire

But then the next obstacle involved him having to stand on a platform (a filled-in tire) and he is so giant that it felt like sitting on an elephant who was standing on a ball. He didn't quite understand that I wanted all his feets on the tiny tire but he did make an effort and I took it and praised him quite a lot

These are not large

Photo Booth

This was such a cute obstacle, they had us stand off to the side and get some pictures of the other riders on course. TC was an absolute pro and pretty smug about it. 

Had to catch this smug horse when I put my phone
away and he thought I might have cookies

We had another minute to wait but TC had settled in finally. We hung out until the next judge was ready for us. 

Ring Toss

We had to trot around some plants with a hula hoop and then stop and toss the hula hoop over one of the plants. TC was fine with the hula hoop and the tossing, he did some head shaking in the trot but I think by this point he'd settled enough to not murder me. Excellent. 

I love it, I will eat it - TC

Not fussed

Windmill

I forgot to say that it was kind of cold and windy this day so when we had to side pass around a little windmill, I didn't know how TC would handle it. Would he spook? Apparently not. He didn't spook, but I've never had to hold a horse back from stuffing his face into actual whirling blades. He was ADAMANT that he poke it with his nose and I was like... my friend... this is a metal windmill. 

Begging me to let him touch it

Duck Pond

This last obstacle was ADORABLE! We had to take a net and fish two little rubber ducks out of the makeshift pond with it. I picked up the net and TC was NOT okay with it for some reason. WTF. I have carried around my archery stuff with him, carried around my tripod, carried around a shrieking toddler... but a pvc pipe with a little net on the end? Terrifying. What was even more terrifying were the ducks. I did NOT expect him to spook but as I grabbed for my ducks, he sat down and ran backwards. I stuffed the net in front of his nose and he was like OH THE DUCKS OF COURSE and calmed right down. But I only got one duck, oh well! 

Skeptical about the net

Very concerned about the ducks in the net

I walked him out and as per usual, the horse is a celebrity. I think he just sticks out like a sore thumb and has this super chaotic-good type of personality. I got a lot of compliments with how I handled the duck situation too, which was really nice. The vibe is so different than at dressage shows, I'm kind of getting used to how friendly everyone is. I am definitely the kind of person you have to come up to and force your friendliness on, especially lately with work being so insane, I've needed way more alone time than usual. But everyone was so sweet and easy to talk to! 

I took him back to the trailer to hang out after letting him graze a lot while chatting with the person who won the advanced division the day before! He and his horse have been doing this for 18 years together! And his horse is Rico's age, 27! I think Rico would have loved the obstacle shows, maybe I'll let him play with some of the obstacles I'm making for TC at home. 

Back at the trailer, I ate some lunch and TC told me all about how much it hurts his soul to be tied to a trailer with a hay bag. He got a lot of carrots for his suffering. The woman next to me came back and we chatted about how it went, she does some pretty cool western stuff that went over my head and I just kind of gestured to my pawing machine and was like "yeah this thing was a bolter in his youth so I signed him up for bombproofing clinics to try to chill him out but instead I just discovered that the only thing he likes more than bolting is chaos so now I bring him to these events?"

Making sure the ducks are safe

I then decided to take TC on a walk to give him a break from the horrible plight of being tied for twenty minutes. It was lunch time, so we got to explore the part of the property that wasn't being used for the competition. There were some bridges and steps that we walked over and TC was REALLY EXCITED that obstacle time wasn't over. The first bridge he flung himself onto in a really dramatic way.  Then he actually took off trotting and dragged me over another bridge that he promptly ate shit trying to get onto. He did this several more times before I finally got him under control. 

We even ran into another person who does clicker training, I apologized because her horse was looking at me like he wanted to get paid too. But it's so cool to just casually run into other clicker training people in the wild. I really love this sport. 

I used the clicker to help him learn how to do the teeter totter backwards for the first time! Stepping up on the tall side and bringing it down. I was super proud of him for that! He also walked over a suspension bridge for the first time. He thought hard about jumping onto me (I was to the side) but then thought better of it and continued. 

Your life is the worse (he had water
but was flinging it all over so I took it
down for a bit)

Trails through the campground!

I also decided to walk over to the campground to see how it looked. It's SUCH a nice campground! There are four little pipe pens to every picnic table/campsite and most of them were accessible enough to get your truck and/or entire rig near. I'm definitely going to camp next time we do something like this. TC thought it was great and had a blast walking through the more wooded area. 

I stayed a little longer to watch some more of the competition and say goodbye to everyone. I wasn't going to wait the entire day for the awards. I figured we'd been last in our division due to my animal being so feral. It didn't bother me though, I'm glad we challenged ourself with the Intermediate division and I'm glad we had this outing before we head to our first real ETS this weekend. 

Look how cute these campsites are! This one was
a bit overgrown (didn't want to post pictures of
peoples' setups)

It was great to see how he was at a brand new facility for the first time... I guess since October, but still. It was also great to get my rig out for an outing before hauling a lot longer. And it was good to see how TC did over obstacles he'd never seen before. 

We'll definitely try to make the next one of these! And hopefully we'll be camping next time too! I got a few more things to make my trailer camping situation even more comfortable. Hopefully this will be the last year I camp out of it because at the top of my list is to buy a camper for my truck so that I can do more comfortable horse camping adventures. 

SCCHA Obstacle Play Day Pt 1

At the last minute, I signed up for a schooling show! It was perfect timing because we'll be competing for real at this facility in July and we also have our first official ETS this weekend. The horse hasn't done obstacles since last fall and we haven't traveled much since then either. 

It was so fun!

It ended up being a great day! My truck and trailer both needed new tires this spring, so that was a bummer for my bank account, but I'm glad I could stop worrying about their age. They felt great hauling over the hill in the morning to get to the facility. 

We got there about a quarter of the way through the course walk. I left TC in the torture chamber trailer and got us registered, then I walked the course. 

Look how cool this covered wagon is!

I had signed us up for Intermediate because Advanced sounded hard and Novice sounded easy. There were no descriptions, I just decided that arbitrarily. The Advanced was hard but even the Novice was no joke! These are some hardcore obstacle people in comparison to the local ranch competitions TC and I did last year. 

After walking the course and deciding that as long as TC didn't get too enthusiastic, it would be fine, I went to get him out of the trailer. He unloaded, saw the obstacles, and lost his ever loving mind wanting to go over to them. 

I took him on a walk around the property that wasn't blocked off for the event. I realized that this was going to be the first time we didn't get to practice the obstacles beforehand. Hmmm. TC tried very hard to yank me over to the obstacles and I had to drag him back to the trailer to tack him up. 

Why must the horse be contained

Now, there was definitely a lot of sass radiating out of this animal that made me realize that he was going to consider launching me so that he could get to the obstacles sooner. You'd think the best plan would be to ride him down, but this horse doesn't ride down or longe down. He just gets chock full of adrenaline and audacity and is an actual nightmare the more he does. This is the type of day where at home, I would have immediately turned him out and watch him gallop around and around. 

So I decided to not ride him. We did ground work and then I got on him about 3 minutes before I was supposed to go out on course. 

Except that the judge wasn't ready so we had to stand and wait pace in small circles because someone thought that standing still may require rearing, which I think is a feeling he's learned that he can give me so that he can keep moving. 

Reining Back Serpentine

Obviously the first obstacle included reining back, so we did not do particularly well on this one. Normally the horse is quite decent at reining back, but he was all bunched up and wanting to poke the obstacle we were reining back along. When I wouldn't let him, he figured his butt might be able to poke it, so he swung his hips around and then refused to do anything but walk directly backwards toward the obstacle. I had to take a step forward to get him to not hit the obstacle. But then he figured it out and it ended up okay. 

The first three obstacles

One Rein Weave

The next obstacle included weaving around plants while only holding onto one rein. I knew this was going to be tough since the horse doesn't neck rein and it turns out I should probably teach him. I ended up picking the wrong rein. I decided that I loved pulling on the left rein that I may as well use that one. Except the first obstacle was to the left so when we went to turn back away from it, he was like nah and tried to drag me to it so he could finally touch it. At least he didn't snatch a plant like this one horse did, it was so cute!

Side Pass Speed Bump

For some reason, there was a tiny speed bump headed into a grob, which had some water in it and was fenced off. We were to straddle the bump and side pass across it. The horse is shockingly good at side passing for an animal who was convinced that his legs would get permanently tangled if he ever went sideways as a young horse. But what he is not good at is ground textures, they elicit a lot of skepticism. When I did finally get him over it, he thought I might want him to jump the fence into the grob and I probably overreacted like NO YOU WILL NOT BE JUMPING THAT and he sat back like I TOLD YOU THE SPEED BUMP WAS DANGEROUS and put himself back on the safe side. We did eventually get through the obstacle though! 

Hated this thing, there were too many different
ground types

Step Up & Turn

We had to wait for a little bit after the speed bump, so we walked in small circles trying to get him to stop trying to mow down the competition so he could do more obstacles. There are always a few obstacles that remind me how gigantic my horse is. This was one of them. We had to walk up the soft side of a bank complex and then stand on top and turn around. Now, my animal is not an event horse, but at the very top of the bank complex he was certainly ready to leap off the (very small) double down bank and head off to Kentucky. But I did somehow get him turned around and he walked back down pretty quietly. 

Descriptions!

Covered Wagon

We had to walk over these narrow logs heading toward this big covered wagon made out of two gate panels and I guess some netting? It was super cool. The logs proved to be very confusing to TC, who is wide enough at his base to step to the side of each log, which was hilarious and not the point of the obstacle, I will be getting small logs to practice over. He then is a very claustrophobic horse, so I was SO PROUD of him for walking through the covered wagon and not losing his shit about it, especially on a day like this day where he didn't have a lot of shit to lose. 

Concerned horse, but he was so good!

Barrel Roll

I thought this would be a shoe-in for this horse, but it turns out his chaotic nature was dialed up and about a third of the way down the chute for the barrel, he thought it was hilarious to twist the barrel around, which is how he plays with poles in the arena. I didn't want to give up (or have him think that the point of barrels is to twist them) so I had him shove the barrel down sideways. He thought that was kind of stupid because why shove the barrel down when you can stand on the logs that are containing it? Or on the barrel itself which I had to yell "NO" at him lest he squash their barrel and/or hurt himself. 

Before he twisted the barrel

But by this point, he was pretty relaxed and having a great time. But this post is getting insanely long, so I'll post the second half of the course and day tomorrow!

Ranch Competition Champion

We'll be back to dressage data science next week! Today I wanted to catch up on another topic. A couple of weeks ago, I decided on a whim to take TC to another ranch competition playday thing. If you remember, we did this in May and we ended up winning the Novice division! After absolutely zero practice and no preparation, I decided to move us up to the Open division. 

I did us a disservice by arriving late. I figured he wasn't in the most amazing shape right now and I didn't want to be on him too long for the desensitization portion (they give you like 2-2.5 hours to go practice before the competition), then make him wait around a bunch, then get back on for the competition. Just seemed like a lot and I had nothing but my TCS to ride in, I'm a bit careful about riding too long in it given that there's no tree. 

Turns out that me arriving *just in time* to do 30 minutes of practice ended up me arriving just in time to see someone fall :( she had to go to the hospital so the ambulance came. Sounds like she is okay (she was wearing her helmet!), she was conscious, just had a bad back already and wanted to make sure it was okay.

Professional Ranch Competition Horse

So I took him on a walk while that happened and then there was an announcement about us coming in on foot and walking the course. I went over and asked if it was okay if I rode TC during the course walk. I promised I wouldn't get in the way or touch any obstacles, but it was a way to get in the ring before our competition. 

Obviously TC thought that walking around a bunch of fun obstacles with a group of people meant that he was in the circus. He kept doing tricks and then staring back at me like "they LOVE me, I can just tell" and I was trying to just keep him somewhat focused so that I could hear what the course was. 

We then left and I tied him back up to hang out while I studied the course. He pawed and pawed and pawed. If there's one mistake I've made, it's that the horse will NOT stand at the trailer. He will not pull back or panic or anything, but he will stare at you aggressively and dig a giant hole. 

It was so fun!

Finally, we were on again and he was HOT. He would not stand still, he had to get in there and show off. Look at all the people watching, look at all the people judging, there was music, there was an announcer! 

There was a ton of backing up, so I did some clicker training with reining back (I regret not bringing my neck rope, he reins back way better in that). Soon, it was our time to go in. 

TC says, pls let me go in the ring

The course was similar to the one last time, but it was much harder and there were a few extra obstacles, some that TC had never seen. 

The first obstacle was the rope gate, but instead of walking forward through it, we had to use our left hands and rein back through it. TC was perfect except wanting to take the rope from me. I said no thank you and we moved on. 

The next obstacle was an umbrella. I had to pick up the umbrella, open it, hold it over my head, and walk a circle with it. TC has never done this before, but he has seen umbrellas. He thought it was GREAT. I kind of feigned not remembering how to open an umbrella (#californiaproblems maybe?) so that I could do it slowly. He grabbed it in his teeth and I had to wrestle it out of his mouth before our walk around. 

Next up was a big garbage can, one of those big green bins that you put yard waste in. It was half full of water and you had to walk up to it and flip the lid, making a big banging noise as it fell open. I could have sworn that TC would have at least startled, but he didn't. I think he realizes that the point of these competitions is to let me do whatever the fuck I want with him and then he gets a ribbon and a lot of attention. 

Best boy

Next we had to dismount near a cone, pick up his right front foot, lead over to a picnic table, mount from the off side, then go stand by the cone and drop the reins, allowing the judge to count to ten before picking the reins up. TC has been mounted on the wrong side exactly once... when I realized I'd never done it before and so jumped on him from that side to get on for the competition. He hated it then, but he was fine in the competition. He also stood perfectly still with the cone in his mouth for the ten seconds. Ridiculous. 

After that were two exercises we'd seen before: the car wash and the belly tickler. The belly tickler is a bunch of pool noodles sticking straight up that we side pass over so that they thwap his belly. He doesn't care about either. By this point, the announcer actually said "Megan, does your horse spook at anything?" and it's like... not really. 

Garbage box thing

Instead of just walking over the bridge, we had to put two front feet on it from the side, then turn on the forehand to face it and walk over it. TC was great at that. 

Following the bridge, we had to do a very odd weaving exercise over 4 cones. We had to face a cone, then turn on the forehand 180 degrees to put the cone under the horse's belly, then turn on the haunches to put the next cone under the belly, and repeat until we went through all 4 cones. TC thought that was weird but he did it SHOCKINGLY WELL for a ginormous horse who is not always aware of how many legs he has. 

Next, we had to go put a jacket on and walk around with it. I started noticing that the one other Open rider was doing some extra stuff, so while walking around with the jacket on, I whipped it off and flung it over TC's face, who thought that was just great. 

After that, we had to walk over a small jump and then over a tarp with water on it. TC thought that was HILARIOUS and spent a lot of time carefully knocking the jump down and then snuffling in the tarp. I was like... my friend, please. People laughed though, and this is one of many reasons my horse will never jump.

You can see the garbage can in the
background

Next was to watch some silly person run around with noise makers and a yoga ball in a little cart. He thought that was excellent. 

From there, we had to walk the long way through a bunch of bottles in a rectangular space. We had to halt in the middle of it, which TC thought meant that he should paw the bottles a bit and I was like NO. 

Next was the rein back zig zag thing, which he did surprisingly well. Open didn't get to walk forward through it, but that was no problem. 

Following that, we side passed to a mailbox, opened it, took out a stuffed spider, shook it over our head, then put it back and side passed back. TC thought that was fine and I did an extra move by sticking it on his head. 

Next was walking over a garbage bag in the shape of a spider with big googly eyes. TC was great with that one last time and this time. 

Then we had to do a spiral in and out around some cones at the trot. I was half expecting this to be our downfall, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was! The last tiniest circle wasn't terribly balanced, but that's okay. 

Such a nice day too!

Our third to last obstacle was rolling the barrel, which he clearly remembered from last time and he was much improved. What a dude. 

Then we had to walk around a barrel that had a pvc pipe attached to it, we held one side of it and kind of spun around. Open had to rein back the circle and that took us FOREVER. 

And finally, our last obstacle. We had to drag a full on tree branch... TC walked right up to it super confidently, but we haven't dragged that many things. I made a mistake because we got halfway to our destination without him actually noticing that it was coming with us. I could have sworn he saw it...  He did not. He spooked and went to zip off. I think I could have salvaged it by stopping him in his tracks, but I just let him go and then we restarted and he was totally fine. Woops!

The competition was tight, but we ended up winning the open division!!! We got ourselves another blue ribbon and we got a lot of praise from everyone about how amazing our connection was. We only got a couple of questions about the TCS too, so that was cool. 

I cannot wait for the next one, I think they do them twice a year. 

Such a good boy!

I think next year we may try our hand at an Equine Trail Sports competition. They have them a little north of Sacramento at a couple of places. I think TC would love to do them and I'd love to have something to work towards that isn't just dressage. I think we also may try a Trail Trial, we'll see what I can get into our calendar. 

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!