Our friend K (organiser of our area Trec) had invited some friends over to go hacking and play with the obstacle course.
It started out a fabulous day, lovely sunny weather even - but a few mini disasters kinda put a downer on things.
Firstly while mucking out my trailer that morning I discovered a rotten hole in the floor
my friends OH patched it up and I travelled her on the opposite side (getting it fixed this wek) but we still had travelling issues. The heavy rubber matting lifted during transport (because there was a slightly raised board under part of it) and Mocha threw a fit in the trailer halfway through a busy saturday lunchtime town. Pulled off the road as best I could, and discovered the matting was all rucked up underneath her, curled over and humped up and getting under her feet.
Had to unload in the crazy traffic to fix it, and had doubts about her getting back in (after the fright) but amazingly, she just did!
We were very late as a result and we tacked up and set out straightaway.
5 of us, decked out in hi-viz (as we are all Treccies)
We were only about 200m up the road, when the mayhem started.
K and J were at the lead, I was in the middle and B and D were at the back.
We passed a junction and met a car, car pulled into driveway on narrow country lane to let us pass. behind us a van pulls out of the junction and decides he's coming on ahead.
Van passes B and D .... he's got a big rattlely ladder on his roof, its a caddy van, so there is a good 2ft of ladder sticking out front and back.
He's about level with me, when he realises with the car thats pulled in, and the horses ahead, he can't pass ... so he starts to reverse. B's horse is on the grass verge, van isn't reversing straight and nearly takes his eye out with the ladder (or at any rate, he was heading straight for him)
B is screaming at him to stop, he's pinning her horse (TT) into the verge... horse takes fright and bolts forwards, straight up the verge. I turned Mocha onto the grass verge, at galloping horse, B manages to pull him up and not kill us (he's a massive draught horse and would have sent us flying!) and the horses are wedged together and jostling on the verge ... by this time K and J (infront) are past the pulled in car, so the road ahead is clear and we are the verge ... and the van, starts coming again ... now bearing in mind... this all happened in a matter of secs... we haven't even regained proper control of the two horses, and TT is liable to go off again.
Rattle van is relentless and the best thing I could think to do was box TT in against the hedge, we're both screaming and waving at the van to stop ... because well, we'd really not like it to pass us, there are plenty of driveways, pull in's and if he'd just wait one second, we'd get out of his way! Like the place where the other car had pulled in was 10m up the road!!
The horses are coiled like springs and jigging, we're so close my left leg is locked into the B's. Rattley van is close behind us, spitting to get past ... and he just keeps coming. He was right up tight to Mocha, if she stepped out an inch to the side he would have hit her ... I had half a thought to try and stave his windshield in with my stirrup iron as he passed. We both screamed at him throughout to no avail. I mean TT is still in the grip of flight and half a shove from him would send Mocha sprawling.
Once he's passed he puts the foot down (he's clearly one of those 'horses shouldn't be on the road types' ) and flakes it up the road past the two girls ahead, J and K.
K's horse M is nervous and already upset by the screaming etc ... She spins after the van passes, loses a leg and skidaddles on the slippy road for about 20secs before going right over on top of K.
M is about 16h MW, she crushed K's leg entirely.
K has a broken foot (dunno how she escaped with her leg really!) and is whisked off to hospital - the horses are all on edge and we called it a day on the hacking idea. K says to stay and play with the course as we all travelled down for it
Took us awhile to settle the horses (we did all the lead ones first) and the sun went away. They all did all the obstacles lovely in the end.
I have a massive fear of leading in trot with my horse behind me (requirement for some Trec obstacles) ... I always think the horse is going to hamstring me!!!
But we practiced and Mocha was actually really good (her led obstacles usually let her down)
Did all the ridden ones then, perfect reinback, staircase, S-bend, walk/trot/canter corridor (did it in each) drop fence and ditch. Bending poles in trot and canter. Perfect in all. First time I've tried to canter bending poles on grass actually, and she did perfect two time changes!! (even though it was quite slippy)
I have videos of the last few (first ones are a bit dark, watch in fullscreen as they are HD)
Trot and Canter over the up/down slope. The rules are to maintain whatever pace you choose throughout. This is a level 1 obstacle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzRD8pOkQCY&list=UUfHMp0RK5-9c-5qYlLiA7Dg&index=1&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuGlp1zwmdA
Then we had a pop at the level 4 down/up slope ... we did it in walk only, as its something we'll have to practice ... my horse is used to drains, and a jump in the middle of this will cost us points ...
I made the mistake of standing around at the top looking down into it waiting for the camera, where she had some doubts... but we had no problems a second time (excpet breaking to trot, again losing points) the hesitation/reversing etc would also lose you points.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7E1x0Nt2AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rkv18jEwss
Last I did the bending poles again to get it on camera ... Mocha was a bit wise to it this time though!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8CP3D7pMlQ
She was actually unusually quiet all day...like, better then good ...
and then when we got home I noticed her straining to pee and discovered she was really dehydrated!!!!
(just goes to show, if you were a dodgy dealer, you don't need drugs to take the edge off a horse, just withhold its water for a few days!!)
She was drinking small amounts of water in the morning and in the evening, but I reckon something must have put her off the water in the field ... and she obviously hadn't been drinking.
She's recovered now, gave her a few sloppy feeds and she eventually started drinking about 5litres every half an hour. Took her a full 12 hours to get back to normal though
So I feel quite bad that I made her do all those things - and even pushed her at the 'centre of the earth'.
So a sort of a 'mixed' weekend. I stayed over at my friends to stable Mocha and make sure she was back to normal though, and had a lovely time with my godson ... who loves 'Moke' (he's 2 and thats what he calls her!)
It started out a fabulous day, lovely sunny weather even - but a few mini disasters kinda put a downer on things.
Firstly while mucking out my trailer that morning I discovered a rotten hole in the floor
my friends OH patched it up and I travelled her on the opposite side (getting it fixed this wek) but we still had travelling issues. The heavy rubber matting lifted during transport (because there was a slightly raised board under part of it) and Mocha threw a fit in the trailer halfway through a busy saturday lunchtime town. Pulled off the road as best I could, and discovered the matting was all rucked up underneath her, curled over and humped up and getting under her feet. Had to unload in the crazy traffic to fix it, and had doubts about her getting back in (after the fright) but amazingly, she just did!
We were very late as a result and we tacked up and set out straightaway.
5 of us, decked out in hi-viz (as we are all Treccies)
We were only about 200m up the road, when the mayhem started.
K and J were at the lead, I was in the middle and B and D were at the back.
We passed a junction and met a car, car pulled into driveway on narrow country lane to let us pass. behind us a van pulls out of the junction and decides he's coming on ahead.
Van passes B and D .... he's got a big rattlely ladder on his roof, its a caddy van, so there is a good 2ft of ladder sticking out front and back.
He's about level with me, when he realises with the car thats pulled in, and the horses ahead, he can't pass ... so he starts to reverse. B's horse is on the grass verge, van isn't reversing straight and nearly takes his eye out with the ladder (or at any rate, he was heading straight for him)
B is screaming at him to stop, he's pinning her horse (TT) into the verge... horse takes fright and bolts forwards, straight up the verge. I turned Mocha onto the grass verge, at galloping horse, B manages to pull him up and not kill us (he's a massive draught horse and would have sent us flying!) and the horses are wedged together and jostling on the verge ... by this time K and J (infront) are past the pulled in car, so the road ahead is clear and we are the verge ... and the van, starts coming again ... now bearing in mind... this all happened in a matter of secs... we haven't even regained proper control of the two horses, and TT is liable to go off again.
Rattle van is relentless and the best thing I could think to do was box TT in against the hedge, we're both screaming and waving at the van to stop ... because well, we'd really not like it to pass us, there are plenty of driveways, pull in's and if he'd just wait one second, we'd get out of his way! Like the place where the other car had pulled in was 10m up the road!!
The horses are coiled like springs and jigging, we're so close my left leg is locked into the B's. Rattley van is close behind us, spitting to get past ... and he just keeps coming. He was right up tight to Mocha, if she stepped out an inch to the side he would have hit her ... I had half a thought to try and stave his windshield in with my stirrup iron as he passed. We both screamed at him throughout to no avail. I mean TT is still in the grip of flight and half a shove from him would send Mocha sprawling.
Once he's passed he puts the foot down (he's clearly one of those 'horses shouldn't be on the road types' ) and flakes it up the road past the two girls ahead, J and K.
K's horse M is nervous and already upset by the screaming etc ... She spins after the van passes, loses a leg and skidaddles on the slippy road for about 20secs before going right over on top of K.
M is about 16h MW, she crushed K's leg entirely.
K has a broken foot (dunno how she escaped with her leg really!) and is whisked off to hospital - the horses are all on edge and we called it a day on the hacking idea. K says to stay and play with the course as we all travelled down for it
Took us awhile to settle the horses (we did all the lead ones first) and the sun went away. They all did all the obstacles lovely in the end.
I have a massive fear of leading in trot with my horse behind me (requirement for some Trec obstacles) ... I always think the horse is going to hamstring me!!!
But we practiced and Mocha was actually really good (her led obstacles usually let her down)
Did all the ridden ones then, perfect reinback, staircase, S-bend, walk/trot/canter corridor (did it in each) drop fence and ditch. Bending poles in trot and canter. Perfect in all. First time I've tried to canter bending poles on grass actually, and she did perfect two time changes!! (even though it was quite slippy)
I have videos of the last few (first ones are a bit dark, watch in fullscreen as they are HD)
Trot and Canter over the up/down slope. The rules are to maintain whatever pace you choose throughout. This is a level 1 obstacle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzRD8pOkQCY&list=UUfHMp0RK5-9c-5qYlLiA7Dg&index=1&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuGlp1zwmdA
Then we had a pop at the level 4 down/up slope ... we did it in walk only, as its something we'll have to practice ... my horse is used to drains, and a jump in the middle of this will cost us points ...
I made the mistake of standing around at the top looking down into it waiting for the camera, where she had some doubts... but we had no problems a second time (excpet breaking to trot, again losing points) the hesitation/reversing etc would also lose you points.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7E1x0Nt2AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rkv18jEwss
Last I did the bending poles again to get it on camera ... Mocha was a bit wise to it this time though!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8CP3D7pMlQ
She was actually unusually quiet all day...like, better then good ...
and then when we got home I noticed her straining to pee and discovered she was really dehydrated!!!!
(just goes to show, if you were a dodgy dealer, you don't need drugs to take the edge off a horse, just withhold its water for a few days!!)
She was drinking small amounts of water in the morning and in the evening, but I reckon something must have put her off the water in the field ... and she obviously hadn't been drinking.
She's recovered now, gave her a few sloppy feeds and she eventually started drinking about 5litres every half an hour. Took her a full 12 hours to get back to normal though
So I feel quite bad that I made her do all those things - and even pushed her at the 'centre of the earth'.
So a sort of a 'mixed' weekend. I stayed over at my friends to stable Mocha and make sure she was back to normal though, and had a lovely time with my godson ... who loves 'Moke' (he's 2 and thats what he calls her!)
