Hey y'all, I finally got our pair of Morgans out to show, woohoo! What a
blast! We went prelim pair horse (they have both shown single prelim), a
mother and daughter pair, and our goal was to complete and be respectable!
Mission accomplished! We had a 58 in dressage, finally got the walk down
pat without one horse jigging, but screwed up the back up, as I did not come
in straight on my approach, usually our back up is one of our best moves!
But I was very happy with a 58!
The marathon was great, we made all the planned routes without problems
except one extremely tight turn in Johnson's Junction we had to back a
couple steps to make it around through D. I did not drive extremely fast as
I was not sure just how tight I could make turns with a pair as opposed to a
single. When you have to drive two horses with their noses tight to the
rails, I'm a bit afraid one might take the wrong side of the opening and get
hung up with a post between them, but that did not happen at all. I also
had one horse go off her grain the night before dressage which worried me,
but her vitals were all normal, and she performed very well. I called the
vet Monday morning thinking ulcers, but he was thinking sore throat and
prescribed antibiotics. Well, that was it, one day on antibiotics and she's
back eating her grain. Turns out at the vet checks her vitals were
excellent and recovery was quick, it was hyper mom horse who was slow to get
her heart rate down again.
I had a little problem in cones. Since both of my horses have driven
single, the older mare after 10 years of aiming for the center, still wants
to go center of the cones! She pushes her daughter over, so the two balls
down were on the young horse's side of the carriage, and she more or less
said "see, I got my side through, it's you putting the balls down junior!"
So I guess now I have to practice cones with the pair, something I rarely
do. I need to reschool mom to not aim for the middle?? I'll sure be happy
when I can get her son in the pair next season, and start fresh.
Anyway, we ended up third in our group of 3, next to Alan Aulson and Fritz
Grupe. I welcomed the competition and being able to compete with the "big
guys", and we were none to shabby! I compared our times to the single
prelim horses, and out of 13 we would have been 6 in that group on the
marathon, so I figure for our first CDE with the pair, we accomplished our
mission. My hubby navigator said we done good, but he expects improvement
next show! Talk about pressure, I'm just so thrilled to finally have the
girls out and completing a prelim CDE, I'm walking on air!
I also want to congratulate our friend Darryl Billings who brought out his 4
in hand for his first full CDE at the prelim level with the 4, and he
accomplished what he set out to do, to complete and not eliminate, and see
just what is possible with 4 horses. He did an awesome job, his cones
driving was a joy to watch. Well done Darryl.
Debbie
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