Well, we set off for a weekend at the barrel race. The weekend was long starting Friday morning. I saddled up Gabe not 15 minutes before my run on Saturday Morning (we got a little mixed up) and headed up to the arena. Gabe was acting a little off, but, nothing to cause great alarm. We went running into the arena and about the time we got to the first barrel, he bobbled then proceeded to crow hop the rest of that turn and the entire pattern. Everyone was yelling for me to push him, but, this was VERY unusual for Gabe. He was literally crow hopping every stride. I came out of the pen after finishing the third with a 21.6 second run on a standard pattern...Yeah, no where close to the money. But, hey, it was a clean run and I did not get bucked off....So, I headed down to the warm up pen to work the buck out of him. We did several circles when I looked down to see his shoe complete with all six nails. Ah, that was the problem. His shoe came half way off on the way to the first barrel and the nails were sticking him in the arena....No big deal, go get the shoe put back on to the hoof that is now missing half of the sidewall. I gave him some banamine and a bath to sooth him.
Got ready for round number two around 6pm. He felt good and was really flexing nice. We went running in to the pen! YAY! I thought he was flying! 3 strides to the first, he cuts hard to the left. Yup, we run to the left....He was lined up to mow over the first barrel. I stuck him hard and pulled him over...NOPE, he would not respond to anything! Before I knew it, he turned before he got to it and I pulled him up, made him do a hid end pivot to the right and took off to the second barrel. man, his second and third were AWESOME! He still clocked a 21.6 even with me STOPPING him. Yeah, he was cruising! To bad it was a no time...
After long thoughts about this run, I figure that he thought he was going to turn the barrel and get spiked in the foot again. I sure hope that this is not a new habit. I guess we will pick up an exhibition before our next open run to make sure that he is over and done with the ducking issue. After all of that, I can say that I had my two worst runs ever on Gabe in ONE DAY. But, I actually had the best seat on him than I have ever had in the past. Not once did he bounce me out of the saddle! Too bad no one noticed that part. I guess I am good at staying on him at the crow hope and can catch myself when he does the unpredictable....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
It is crazy what horses will do!! I ran barrels and poles the other day. I have run the barrel pattern twice in competition and never the pole pattern. I was riding a 12 hand pony and ran the barrels in 25. Which is bad because my husband ran the pony and got a 22. Then for the pole pattern. We totally ran over one of the poles. Totally my fault. You must really fly in there!! At least you stayed on!! I would have stopped and gotten off!! I am a dork though!! Good job!!
Post a Comment