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
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!
On Saturday, TC and I went to our first Working Equitation clinic! It was held by a trainer in the bay area, so this was my farthest haul with my new trailer yet, a full two and a half hours in the trailer down and traffic lengthened it to three hours on the way home. TC was pretty irritated once we got home, sorry bud!
The focus of the clinic was on Ease of Handling, or the obstacle course. While TC and I have never had any working equitation experience, we were still put in the Novice/Intermediate group. The reason being was that we could walk, trot, canter, steer, and knew our leads. The lower level group was a much more beginner group, and was later in the day, so I appreciated being put in the higher level group so that I didn't get home at an unreasonable hour, even if we did feel a bit over-faced.
TC seeing the obstacles for the first time and
thinking "all of them, I want to knock all of
them over"
We got down there with a ton of time, so I hand walked TC all over the ranch. He was pleasantly curious about the place, but only screamed a couple of times and stayed mostly relaxed. After our walk, I hopped on and we warmed up in the covered arena. TC told me where all of the buckets, pitchforks, and wheelbarrows were around the outside, but generally was really good.
Soon it was time to go into the lower arena for the clinic! I was a little worried about the atmosphere. The lower arena is right by a road where big trucks, motorcycles, and bicycles (as well as horses! Teach me your ways, people who are willing to ride their horses on that busy, narrow road) were passing at speed. Plus, TC loves obstacles, so his beady little eyes were fixated on all of the obstacles rather than on me. So I hand walked him in there at first. He proved to be way chiller than I had expected, so I hopped on pretty early and never felt the need to get off! Much better than our last experience with obstacles.
I pick up jug, put jug down, TC pushes jug over... thanks bud
He's beauty and he's grace
We started by getting into two groups of three. TC and I were with the only other rider with no working equitation experience and another rider who knew the obstacles pretty well. We first did a jug obstacle, which involved picking up the jug and putting it down. TC let me do this and then wanted his turn with the jug. We then did the cup obstacle, which TC thought was great, he leaned into the pole where the cup was to get me nice and close to it. He helped me out a lot that day... for better or for worse.
We were told that square halts were necessary and I was immediately regretting telling the trainer that we were schooling Second. That's Second without square halts actually.
Moving the cup (and I put it back so that the instructor didn't
have to run over there)
From there we did the serpentine poles (I'm making up my own names for these, sorry people who have done working equitation before, TC was buzzy at first so I had to keep him walking and missed out on a lot of the knowledge of the sport). TC was pretty good in trot, though MAN is it hard to activate his hind legs when we're constantly stopping and starting. We got told that our geometry could be better... exposing another hole in our training- we don't school small figures often, and certainly none under 10m.
I did attempt it in canter, which was going well until TC saw a cone that he wanted to attack. He jumped sideways until he landed on it and I booted him off of it. I mean, the whole day was a constant battle with TC wanting to knock over obstacles and me wanting him to keep them up, so I decided not to canter anymore...
Looping around
We opened the gate, which went well, and then did the L shaped poles with the bell (official name I'm sure). TC wanted to help ring the bell and leaned into it, but he didn't spook or anything. We backed out at a glacial pace, but didn't hit any poles!
From there we did this donut circle exercise where you ride in a donut full of obstacles that your horse is NOT supposed to push or kick down. We walked it to the right and then came out, did a walk pirouette (thank god we could show that we're actually not totally idiotic for schooling Second), and then went back in to the left. TC even did it in trot! After the kicking sideways bullshit with the cone, I was not about to ask him to canter and have him take down the entire obstacle.
TC wanted to ring the bell too! We are kind of the worst at backing through an L
There were a couple of obstacles that involved circling around barrels, which went poorly at first and then better when I remembered my geometry. And a bridge that we walked over. TC put two feet on the bridge, sniffed it, then walked off the side of it. It took us a couple times, but then we got it!
Nearing the end, we picked up a pole and went to get a ring from a big plywood cutout of a bull. TC thought nothing of that, though wanted to be more involved with the pole. I finally got him to stop poking it with his face and he was totally unphased by the ring flinging down to my hand.
After that, we ended with side passing over a pole, which TC was great at until the very last step when he finally got to do what he wanted to do the whole clinic: destroy stuff. He knocked down the pole by backing up rather than going sideways.
He loved this part, though would have had more fun if he could have knocked more things over
We then were given a course to memorize. My awesome student took a video for me! If he looks occasionally uneven behind it's because a) it was a long day, b) he was really tired from lots of simple changes the day before, and c) I'm riding him incredibly underpowered.
It was SUCH a fun day! I don't think we'll be switching disciplines any time soon... but I think it was a really great experience for TC. He's come so far from the spooky, reactive horse that I had for so long. To be able to walk into a strange arena with strange obstacles and not only put up with them, but want to destroy all of them interact with all of them... that's just amazing!
He didn't spook ONCE the whole day, and I don't know if I've ever been able to say that at a brand new place.
