Spent the night out at a friends place, nearby and got back to the club in time to get ready for the led classes. I pulled Coopers rugs off, and he was looking a little ordinary. Yesterday was pretty hot and when I took him out of the paddock to load him on the float he was very sweaty. That, coupled with the travelling and the overnight stay in the stable and he wasn't looking too flash. So, I decided not to do the led parts of the classes, which is primarily what I was there for. I'm all for 'having a go' which is what I was heading up to do, but I don't want to insult the horse (or the judge) by presenting him to a led class that he clearly is not ready for.
So I helped Phil out a bit, and put cooper back away for the day. Headed over and watched Phil do the led, in which George received the 2nd, and Reserve Champion - after much deliberation by the judge.
I went to ride Cooper, to take advantage of being on the grounds, with their flat grassy workout areas and open spaces - he doesn't get to work out in that environment very often! So I headed over to the flat, after doing a small amount of ground work, just to supple him up, and have a bit of a chat before I hop on. I got to the grassy areas, and didn't we have some fun to start with! He doesn't often get to workout in areas like that (if you haven't seen Hawthorne Park at Grafton, they have a HUGE grassy area which some houses back onto. The area would fit around 10 dressage arenas in I'd say, its that big. So he started out just looking around, wanting to look at all the distractions in the backyards - the people, dogs, cats, washing on line, kids toys - you name it, and it was there to see. So the first 10 minutes or so was spent just letting him walk around and have a look, and then proceeding up to the trot. He still was in a bit of an argumentative mood in the trot, not wanting to round up, but I just let him do what he wanted (with his head) and continued to ask him to put it where I wanted. When he relaxed and put his head down, I relaxed, when he put his head up, I just asked him to put it down again. We got to a good place in the trot, so I asked him to canter, and I did some awesome long lines in the canter, with circles at the ends.
I was really happy with his work today. It would have been easy to get frustrated with him, and It would have turned into an argument. I just have to be more patient than he is, and keep asking him to do what I want, and reward that. I have to put my emotions in check, and not take what he does personally - he is a 3 year old colt, with allll this stuff to look at, of course he wants to look, and thats ok. Its not what I want, but its ok, I just let him look for 5 minutes or so, then let him know it was time to get down to business. At the end of the day, we had a good workout - it was probably longer than I anticipated, but who cares?
So I headed back, and walked around to the arena in time to watch Phil do his trail class - nailed it! George was just cool as a cucumber, and they did the class without a fuss for a 1st place. I headed back to the float, and hosed Cooper down and popped him into a yard with grass so he could have a pick.
Then I went back to the arena to watch Phil for the afternoon. He had a cracker of a day, winning each class he entered from trail, to pleasure, to western horsemanship, to equitation and even the rookie reining. After last weekend ranch roping for 3 days on george, and literally roping him to 500kg beasts for him to hold, to then turning up at a western event and cleaning up, certainly shows the versatility of him, and he is what you would call the 'poster child' for our stud philosophy - versatile horses that you can do anything with.
At the end of the day, we were packing up and I saw someone over looking at Cooper, I headed over and found it to be the judge of the day. We got to chatting, and she asked me why I hadn't shown Cooper today - obviously he didn't look as bad as I thought!
Never mind, we learn something new everyday!
We arrived home in the dark, and the rain, rugged up the horses and let them into their paddocks. Found out that the team penning was cancelled for Monday, and so decided on a day off. I headed out this morning (Monday) to check on the Juniors who i had let into the big paddock. Sure enough they were where I expected them to be - next door eating their lush grass! So, I decided it would be a real day off for me, and besides feeding all the horses, I wouldn't work with any of them today.
Back on deck tomorrow though,
Hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend, and remembered the people who sacrificed, so we could enjoy the lifestyle that we do today. Lest we forget.
TJK
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