Kai Clinic

On the second weekend in November, WallE and I ventured to Shelby twice. The venue was too close for me to justify staying the night and I think WallE enjoyed getting back to his pasture every night. We went on these back to back adventures alone. I am very appreciative that WallE is so well behaved tied on to the trailer, loading and unloading. 

After an hour and a half drive down back roads, we arrived at Windridge Farm. WallE stood patiently on the trailer while I went to the restroom, checked in and signed my waivers. When I returned, he unloaded and stood tied to the trailer while I mucked out the back and groomed him. Closer to go time, I tacked him up and headed up to the warm up area. 

I was not quite sure what we were supposed to do and WallE knew this. Looking back, I think if I had just waited to go in to the main arena instead of trying to have a warm up on the hillside, we would have been better off. However, I did not wait and WallE pulled some shenanigans before we were allowed to go into the arena. He continued his shenanigans in the arena until we began jumping. 

Once we both had a focus and purpose, everything was fine. WallE did not put a hoof out of step and we had lots of fun. We did have one refusal, but I think if I would have had a bit more 'go' we would have gone right over. Earlier I had opted to place my crop on the fence...I should have grabbed it. 

Nevertheless, the showjump was very fun to ride and we worked up to a course with lots of bounces, ground poles and oxers: Right lead canter, four bounces, left lead canter, two canter poles, jump, one canter pole, right lead canter, three bounces, right lead canter, two bounces, right lead canter, oxer, right lead canter, back to the original four bounces, left lead canter, roll back to the oxer, right lead canter, vertical, ground pole, vertical, five strides of canter, oxer, left lead canter, three bounces, left lead canter, oxer, one stride, oxer, four strides, oxer. 

I left unsure if I had learned anything new, but as the weeks have gone on I have been using more bounces and ground poles in my set ups at home, so I guess I did learn something or get a flicker of an idea! 

The second day was cross country day. I took WallE straight out into the field, had a quick warm up and was ready to go. He was perfect. We had one of our most fun cross country schools to date. I am not sure if it is because he settled in the first day OR a few weeks ago we came out and played around the venue, but he was great! I was very happy with the entire day and look foward to our next cross country outing.