Tuesday, November 3, 2009

ONE DAY TO GO!


DAY 54 (Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009): This was the day set aside for meeting the rental horses and having a judge’s briefing. Although I had already “met” my rental horse, this was my opportunity to ride her again and try Crosby out with her again.

In the morning, Crosby was entered in a conformation show in Leesburg, about an hour to the north. He had to be there at about 7 AM, so we left early without any real exercise. At 8:15 I handed Crosby over to a professional handler, whose son groomed Crosby. At about 8:30 Crosby entered the ring with the handler. The handler had spent no time with Crosby at all; he just grabbed Crosby off of the table and ran to the ring. Crosby did fine, but his down & back looked like an obedience exercise (he was looking up at the handler). I can’t say Crosby showed well for this man. He moved nicely and stacked beautifully, but there just didn’t seem to be any fire. If the handler had spent a few minutes with him, things might have been different, but it looked to me like Crosby didn’t figure out what was wanted of him until they were about done. Crosby didn’t win breed, so we headed back to the hotel. Then I took a nap until it was time to head to the barn.

At 1 PM we arrived at the Kelly’s Ford Equestrian Center. Some of the other exhibitors were there. The barn saddled our horses and 3 of us went out (without dogs) to look at the trail. The trail was well-marked and easy to follow. Dogs were not allowed in the judged exercise area, so we couldn’t try our obedience in the same area that we would be judged tomorrow. After about 45 minutes checking out the trail and trying out the horses, the other exhibitors and I separated and took out our dogs separately. I got Crosby out and practiced the speed, something I had not practiced with the dog yesterday. Crosby had no trouble keeping up with Molly (rental horse), and he performed a hock, recall, stay, & speed with good results. All were practiced off-leash. Forging a little again, but not too much.

Most of our riding without the dogs was done in a downpour. The rain stopped, thankfully, for a little while when we took out our dogs. I didn’t work Crosby very much. I wanted him to rest, and you can’t do a lot of corrections anyway when you are in the public eye. Crosby responded very well to all of my commands, so we kept it short and stopped on a good note.

At night, the exhibitors and the judge and the judge’s husband had a GREAT TIME whooping it up at Joe’s Crab Shack. Road Trial people are THE BEST!
MILEAGE: 1

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