Wild Man

Houston & I were finally ready for our first Training Level event after being together for almost 4 years.  It takes a while to re-train a race horse and train me from the ground up. 

Our first Training posed new questions.  Dressage was more complicated and since this was not our forte it was at the top of the worry list.  Cross-Country was bigger, longer and faster- not that big of a worry since Houston thrived on Cross-Country.  And stadium was simply bigger with a few more questions, again not that big of a worry.

The morning of the event I decided Houston needed to look the part of a Training Level horse.  I braided his mane and tried to make him look super fancy.  Do you know what doesn't work on an extremely long framed, thinner boned horse with a long neck and face??  Braiding their mane!  Poor Houston looked like a mule.  We have never braided since, it didn't suit him and he was embarrassed.  Dressage went fair, we didn't get much of a lengthening- but we tried.

When Cross-Country rolled around I was prepared to make time and have an excellent run.  With Houston being an ex-racer, we have always had some issues with the start box(this small white fenced in area where you stand anxiously awaiting the count down until you can start your course).  I try not to enter the box until we are at least on 8 of the countdown from 10.  I've always made Houston walk or trot out of the start box to make sure he's paying attention to me and not in pure race mode.  Since the speed is faster for Training I decided he could canter out.  Big mistake!  We flew around our course in no-time.  Had zero problems, except getting Houston to stop when we got back to the finish line.  My trainer was very unhappy as we finished almost a minute ahead of the optimal time (this was considered dangerous).  I never felt unsafe, Houston adjusted himself for each jump and was balanced the entire time. 

Needless to say we did not place thanks to all the penalty points we received from our race track like Cross-Country course.  But we did get some amazing pictures to remember it by.