Saturday, October 8, 2016

Off season: Doin' it wrong

I fail at taking vacations and now I fail at the off season.

I mean, I've done some things right.  My horse is a hairy, hairy beast and his next clip (probably tomorrow) will be a trace clip.  He's been on the trails three times in the past week.  We have done one serious dressage school in the past week.  But as for having an off season?  Whoops.

On the 16th we're zipping out to a local two phase.  Three phase for most of the kids, but Theo and I are there to relax.  Getting around cross country is not relaxing for either of us.  We'll do the Beginner Novice dressage and show jumping.  It should be fun and get us some miles over fences with actual fill under them. Oh, scary!

It really has been this long since we jumped away from home

Then November 20th is an indoor H/J schooling show.  2'6" hunters and eq courses?  Sure, why not!  Good to diversify.  On November 27th is a dressage schooling show.  Might be a good idea to do one more run through of First 2 and 3 before we go into hibernation.  I probably won't even braid, wear my show apparel, or in any other way stress myself out.  My horse will be looking a bit like a goat, what's the point in trying to braid?  And with late November, it's going to be about doing the miles and getting back on the trailer.  Clinic attire seems more appropriate.  And easier to keep warm.

But Theo is a horse that does better with regular trips off the property to remind him that the world is a big place.  These are super small scale and casual.  Should be fun.  Next year looks to include some H/J outings, so might as well see if we can convince him to jump scary things on the first try.  I'm hopeful.  He's gotten very brave about things like liverpools, tarps, and traffic cones thrown in a random pile under a jump.  We've just never asked him to do any of that away from home.  It's always been plain rails.  Even when we moved up to 2'6" in a two phase, the show was only using plain rails.  Theo and I have never seen real fill at a show.

The king of plain rails.  And I hate this picture so much.  Thank goodness for a jump saddle and getting back into shape.

But he does love to jump things and can be quite brave once he knows what game is being played.  And with hunters/eq stuff, there's warm up courses!

My poor horse.  His mom is a workaholic.

4 comments:

  1. Your horse's mom keeps him busy! That's probably a good thing :) My horses end up spending a lot of time in the same arena for the winter (I have no trailer yet)

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  2. I love your plans. I wish I could go along with you!

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  3. Haha! I'm a workaholic too. I am jealous that you get to go play with jumps. :)

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  4. Well, they at least sound like pretty fun plans. :-) Good luck!

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