"Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole and once it has done so, he/she will have to accept that his life will be radically changed." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday, March 7, 2011

Good advice - don't step on the rocks and don't jump into the tree. Well, I didn't step on the rocks.

FINALLY! XC at Full Gallop completes our checklist of farms to ride at in Aiken.  (Paradise, Jumping Branch, Sporting Days, Full Gallop, and Sandy Hills.)  We rode with Cindy/Patrick, Lauren/Poleon, Aileen/Archie, and Sally/Delight.  

Tyler experienced a lack of energy and tougher elements than usual.  He kept up with the group, save three fences.  Sally kept us from jumping things that could cause a problem or would use energy I would need elsewhere.  Tyler gave me a few issues with his attention over the first six fences.  Once we finally clicked, all was good.



We had a training issue with the bigger ditches.  We hadn't been over ditches that big before, we hadn't seen a ditch in months, and there was water in the ditch.  Tyler usually doesn't care about ditches but those things affected him.  After a few tries, we figured it out.  



Before one fence, Sally warned us not to canter over a pile of rocks.  We didn't.  At the red ramp, there was a tree over the left portion of the fence.  No one else ran into the tree, except us of course!  





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