Teamwork

Saturday (August 2nd), I entered my beautiful girl, Dancer, in a Trail Challenge competition for the very first time. We had been working so hard for the past month to make it to this point! We gave it our all and in the end, we came in 3rd place out of many others (maybe 20). I couldn't be more proud to work with this impressive mare. For more inspiration, keep reading! 

(BTW: I totally crocheted that saddle pad cover myself Pink was the game, style was our name!)

I don't like to brag, really, but I've been really impressed by this mare! I adopted her this May, so I've had her for only two months at the time of this picture. Since then, she's been on trail rides, ridden both Western and English, and now competing in a show. Now granted! This was just a small county show but it was a huge step for myself and her! I've only shown others' fancy horses and never my own! This was the first time I showed my actual horse at a show!
We worked out butts off all of July to get ready for one day and one run and it all paid off! We have so many random trail obstacles in our lot in front of the barn. People that drove by thought we lost our minds! These weren't the normal trail obstacles you would see in normal competition trail that has ground poles and a rope gate. No, this was a challenge with a metal gate, a large ball to kick, a dummy to hoist from the ground and set down again, a tunnel made of tarps and ribbons, raincoats, a kiddie pool!!, mailboxes, spokes, barrels to back around in a figure-8, a gate made of pool noodles, and a mysterious trailer to load in at the very end! It was a blast to play with! And a blast to compete in! 
Beach Balls: As we worked, Dancer began to show me the guts she really had. When I first introduced the balls to her, I used beach balls (because they're cheap and what I had) I put five or six balls in the round pen and expected a reaction! Her reaction: eat the remaining grass around the round pen. I threw the balls her direction: nothing. I kicked the balls towards her: nothing. I bounced the balls ON TOP OF HER: nothing... She was so unimpressed with my attempts to rouse her from the grass she had found. 
Kiddie pool: Now this got a reaction! I had some carpet and padding in it so it wouldn't break when she went through it. It wasn't the water or the carpet or the fact I wanted her to go through it that bothered her. What bothered her was there was perfectly good, dry land around it to step around it! She couldn't understand why she had to step through this thing....With many attempts later, she went through the pool and gave up trying to understand her very strange humans. 
Raincoat: The goal was to pick up a raincoat from one barrel, lay it over the horn of the saddle, trot to the next barrel, and set it down. Easy. Especially when the mare you're riding could care less about some raincoat. This blew my mind (and probably shouldn't have at this point...) I had grown so used to my gelding that is petrified by raincoats, that her lack of reaction just caught me off guard. Nothing I did with the raincoat seemed to phase her! :'D It was the most pleasant disappointment! Part of me wanted her to react but I was so relieved it was one less thing we had to work with!
Dummy: As you can see, there's a pattern forming. We lashed together some pool noodles and tied some ropes to make our little dummy to pull off of the ground. I'm pretty sure her expression was "Really? This is all you have?" when we pulled it up for the first time. A little heart broken, we set it back down. I got over it pretty quick and was once again so impressed with this little mare I recently adopted!
Everything Else: I could go through all of the obstacles but why bother telling the same story over and over again? Nothing seemed to phase this girl! She was a true pro! We even learned to side pass in just a few days! 

I couldn't be a more proud owner of Dancer. She truly impressed me with her attitude. If I could some her up in one word it would be "Whatever". She's got a lot of heart and spirit. I've truly grown attached to her and wanted to share our short success story, hoping others will share theirs too! We have formed a team together and I look forward to working with her more in the future! I cannot give enough props to the previous owner for treating this mare like the diamond she is!

I hope every equestrian has the opportunity in life to find that one horse that just makes them happy - together.

Photography (c) (my mom took the pic!)
-Do NOT use this picture in other works, alter it, claim it as yours, etc. Seriously, why would you? lol

Photoshop CS5