The obstacle course has been interesting; so far Java and Lindsay are in the lead...not really a shock there! Wyneke and Spencer did the best job remembering the course and leaving everything up though.

I have been asked "why are we doing this?' by a few students, so here is why:

1) It is entertaining for me.
2) It helps show training gaps...a big example would be the number of horses that take a few too many seconds before agreeing to do the turn on the forehand...riders are letting their horses take too long to answer them in general, which leads to things like picking up the wrong leads, not getting lead changes, messing up turns and transitions, taking too long to start a leg yield and so on.
3) Rider faults come to the forefront when pressure is on; Hands come out of place, eyes start to look down and the leaning which throws the horse off balance! Oy vey.
4) Having to do things in tight quarters makes riders really think of rebalancing their horse and containing the horse between hands and legs. This is needed for things like corners in dressage, and tidy turns in jumping, but it is easier to let precision slide when there aren't markers forcing you to make a certain track. The tight weave pylons, and L's both really show the benefit/need of keeping the horse between the reins and legs.

So I think doing more exercises like this will be in order!

Reminder; entries are due for Heads-Up horse show next Monday. let me know if you are interested in going!

Karen