Sundance's Recent Outings

Little Sundance has had three outings the last three weekends in a row. I've been riding him 2-3x per week all summer to give myself something else to do than TC's rehab stuff. And so I decided to bother him with some travel. 

Who is that tiny pony in the warmblood
sized trailer??

Three weeks ago I took him over to our local trail facility, mostly because I hadn't hauled my rig in a long time and didn't want my first haul in all that time to be hauling the four hours to the vet and back in one day. 

Sundance LOVED it and actually tried to delay getting into the trailer to go home. He and I just did this paved bottom loop which, because he's barefoot, he got to walk in the middle of. He was passed by joggers, cyclists, and even some people walking (he is the slowest walker) and didn't mind. He even let me bring my binoculars and look at birds while we were out there. 

Happy pony!

The following weekend, I decided to bring him over to my niece's riding lesson since I knew my mom would be there and I could bully her into riding him. I participated in the lesson on him ("racing" my niece from one end of the arena to the other) and then shoved my mom on him. She walked all over the property and trotted in every arena! Pretty good for a woman who has declared several times that she is DONE with riding. 

It was super cute to see my mom and my nieces riding together (the little one got to have a pony ride). Maybe next year I'll bring both TC and the pony over and we can have three generations riding at once. 

No pictures from that, so here is one
from this last weekend

Then this last weekend, I decided to stuff the pony in the trailer again and take him over to the ranch competition. Now, TC has done this competition several times and performed very well. It got to the point where I'd just arrive after the practice commenced, walk the course on foot, and then go get TC, do the course cold, and still win. 

If there's two things TC likes, it's people and obstacles. And playing with obstacles in front of a crowd of people, all ooing and ahhing over how large and impressive and bombproof you are? His ego has never been bigger than when he has done these ranch competitions. 

Meanwhile this is what we do at home

Sundance on the other hand... is still bothered by normal things. Like he didn't like the pool noodles touching him. And the plastic bags flapping wasn't his favorite thing. And the fact that the bridge was up on a pole so it thunked down as he crossed it caused him to leap off of it. 

I felt bad comparing him to TC because he genuinely did SUCH a good job for a pony who was pretty skeptical of my antics when we met. He made it through the noodles, and he survived the plastic bags. He did walk over the bridge with some clicker training help. And outside of those, he backed through the Z of poles, he let me carry a flag all over, he actually walked through the plastic bottles, and he even let me drag a bag of cans from his back which I was not expecting he'd tolerate. 

And we did it all bareback! 

All the plastic bottles, and he walked
over them!

Buuuut I opted not to compete. First, I had already been on him for an hour when practice was closed and we had to leave. And then it was going to be a full hour before we even started competing. I had other things I had to do that day so decided to pack up and head out. Plus I will admit, TC has completely spoiled me. 

It was a great day though! This weekend I'm out of town, but once I'm back, I think I might keep up the weekly travel sessions with the pony. It's been good to remind myself of what I'm working toward with TC. And it's great for the pony to get some outings in, he does seem to enjoy them even if this one wasn't his favorite. 

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!