Cross Country Pace Event with Highboy

This weekend I was in Parker again, at the Colorado Horse Park.  This time I went with Highboy to do a pair pace event.  It was put on by the Arapahoe Hunt club as a fun way to kick off their season in Colorado.  Essentially it was a cross country jumping round, with several options and levels so I could choose his course based on how confident he felt.

As we went to the warm up arena Highboy was feeling HOT.  He performed some of his favorite airs-above-ground and generally tried to cause mayhem on the path to the field.  Fortunately a very tolerant rider was ahead of us, who was very forgiving and helpful and even offered to trot the path with us, which helped Highboy to settle.  If I had tried to keep him at a slow walk the entire way it would have been like trying to keep a lid tightly closed on a pot of boiling water - steam has to escape somewhere.  Trotting worked much better.

I love my face in the warm-up photos.  Highboy is having a grand old time running sideways and being ridiculous, and I can see myself telling him "go FORWARDS" and gritting my teeth in an effort to keep my composure.  It was a challenging morning for me because of the wind.  It was blowing pretty hard, and the wind will often give me terrible balance, issues with vertigo, and vision problems.  These are all leftovers from the brain injury I experienced seven years ago.  I tried to pay close attention to my balance so I would notice if I needed to dismount, and I eventually decided to do my run because I wasn't dizzy, and I didn't have any black spots in my vision.

I had gotten to the warm up quite early so that I would have plenty of time to get Highboy to settle.  As a result, he was actually very reasonable when our start time rolled around.  We entered the start box and then took off to the first fence, a large log.  Highboy slammed on the brakes, looked at it really hard, and then leaped over it from a standstill.  He did a similar maneuver over the second fence, then galloped well up the hill and took the third fence with a smaller look.

Just after the third fence a person ran in front of me, flagging me down and waving.  It turned out someone had fallen off by the last water hazard, and they needed to assess the situation so they stopped the other riders on course.  The person needed to be taken by ambulance to the hospital, so Highboy and I waited about twenty minutes on the top of the hill while paramedics took care of the person.  Finally we were given the go-ahead to continue our course.  While I'm terribly sorry someone fell and was hurt, it was actually a good thing for Highboy to learn that sometimes I'll stop him on course and then he can wait patiently for a while before we go again.  It was also an opportunity for me to focus on my ride, and to practice tuning out the little doubting voice in my head.  I know what I do is dangerous, and so I take all the necessary safety precautions such as wearing a helmet, impact and air vests.  Then I practice positive sports psychology to keep my head in the game.  Just another good learning experience for both me and Highboy.

Because he still has a lot of growing to do, Highboy had only schooled cross country once last summer before this event, and we only do very small jumps on occasion in the arena, in addition to his liberty work with the clicker and playing over the jumps.  There has been no serious training over fences so I can keep his body sound as he develops and grows.  He has spent this summer doing lots of trail riding and going on many long walks around the property up and down hills.  I like this kind of conditioning for several reasons.  It builds our relationship to spend so much time together enjoying each other's company.  It allows his body to slowly acclimate to its new shape, strengthening bones, tendons, and ligaments without overly straining them.  It also is good for his brain to see new things and work through different types of footing.

All the time spent at slower speeds building his confidence and learning to navigate terrain changes really paid off this weekend.  Never having schooled water before, Highboy and I skipped the water hazards, but that was the only thing we needed to pass.   Highboy was balanced and comfortable going both up and down hills on course, and he didn't bat an eye when I asked him to jump up the bank.  The jumps themselves were easy for him, though he took some hard looks so he could gauge size, and then leaped over the fences from a standstill several times.  The most humorous ones were when he would stop, look at the fence, snurrfle the jump with his lips and take a quick taste of the plastic flowers, then realizing they weren't edible he would launch into the air.  By the end of the course he was galloping well and jumping confidently over the larger fences.  His entire ride was a positive progression. 

We did some very big trotting on course, I was imagining what it will look like when we get to doing an extended trot in a dressage test.  We even got a photo where NONE of Highboy's feet are on the ground!

In some of the landing photos you can tell Highboy is looking at the ground to figure out where to put his feet.  Almost as if to say, "Now where do I go with these hooves?"

There were definitely some "green horse moments" when Highboy wasn't sure what to do over a jump, but it's all part of learning how to play the game.

He was really starting to find his rhythm and enjoy himself by the end.  During the final gallop to the last fence I heard some of my Fort Collins friends hollering and cheering for me and Highboy as we approached the last jump.  It was great to feel like we had an audience!  Highboy galloped to the jump and launched over, causing some gasping and more cheering.  He crossed the finish line wanting more, in a good galloping rhythm, and eager to see what came next.  Always a good way to wrap up a ride, with more confidence than when you started it.

 A huge thank you to Kimberly Hale Photography for spending her Saturday taking photos at this event.