Equi-Trek Competition

Gizmo and I have been a very busy team. I competed in an Equi-Trek competition with Gizmo this weekend and we placed 9th out of 20 riders. Not bad! I hate competition, but my friends convinced me to take a go at it so I did. It was very rewarding and I'm glad we did it. We rode 7 miles on Friday and 7 miles on Saturday. We went through ravines, bogs, over logs, and through creeks. We were airborne for all of the ravines, so I know I need to get that fixed. All of the other obstacles I just need to practice. The last obstacle was backing around a tree, and accomplishing that one made my whole day. We also need to work on his impulsion on the trail. He has way too much go and not enough whoa. Very different in the arena! He wants to race every horse and also be up their butts. If a horse in front of him gets out of sight, he goes nuts. I have a lot of work ahead of me. By the way, I just recieved my scorecard from the judges and they gave me a plus score for my backing around the tree. What a surprise. I am very proud to have accomplished that obstacle. I remembered a video of Pat helping a girl on Parelli Puzzles and it all came back to me. I needed to look to the outside instead of the inside like most people do. You need to look where you need the hips to go! I used the outside leg and viola, he did it. I had to overcompensate twice because he turned a little too much, but I did it and that is all that matters. I loved the trail competition. I've always wanted to do it but would have never done it if it weren't for Lucy. Thank You Lucy. I hope to be as good as her one day!