September 23, 2019

For this event we were at a new venue for us; Morvin Park in Leesburg, Virginia. They recently put in some new arenas big enough for us to run a full set of lanes. We used the arena out in by the barns. It is lovely with the lush felt footing and very well maintained. In contrast to the immaculate new rings, the barns are old and out dated and not as well set up as we are used to. Mainly there is no way to drive up to them for loading and unloading. And the lower barns do not have an overhang to protect equipment, but they are located right by the arena and parking and we were lucky and it didn’t rain.

I had high hopes for Possum going into MA5. He was superb at MA4 and three weeks later at the one day pairs. I thought we were past the pony-challenges. But he regressed and spent most of session one trying to buck. I felt like a little kid trying to pull his head up and boot him on. It was very frustrating and somewhat discouraging.

He was much better in session two and was just reserved in speed but no attempts to buck. He did get unstraight a few times in both of the first two sessions. It’s something he is very inconsistent at and that we have been working on at home. This is improving, just slowly.

He was a good boy Sunday for the final session of 15 races. He was moving out some and was straight almost the whole session.

I have not found anything to cause his mood changes. His tack is fine, and I’m taking care to note if anything changes when it comes to gear. I’m also attempting to be consistent in my riding. The only thing I am not excellent at is keeping my vocals consistent. He is a very vocal pony. More than anything I’ve ridden before. Yelling to him seems to get him moving more than kicking or using my seat by a long shot.

His attitude also doesn’t seem angry or unhappy. He has been eager to go out and seems to really enjoy playing. He is an easily bored pony and I think he enjoys the mental stimulation of games. He also seems to be comfortable physically and not in any pain or discomfort. So I don’t feel he is reacting to an outside stimulus.

At this point I’m in the mindset that he is “pulling pony stunts”. He doesn’t seem to have led a very hard life up to this point and has spent more than his share of time as a privileged pasture puff. He has also tried lots of other “get out of work” stunts for riding, general ground handling, being tied, trailer loading, and the farrier. We have cleared most of these stunts up, although he still needs some ground manners. So progress.

It was a good competition. The team was on and having fun. It was one of the most fun competitions of the year. We finished a strong and tight fourth.

Riptide, the intermediate team I coach was also enjoying a fun weekend with lots of smiles. They are a really fun team to work with that I am super proud of.

Some old games friends also made a return as “Nostalgia”. They have been on a hiatus from games, and most of them from horses altogether, for a solid 10-15 years. They’ve put in some lead up work and they looked great out there and they were tons of fun to play against.

I also got to see Zoe! She’s been out this season and is preparing to move to California so I haven’t seen much of her lately. It was a nice catch up with her and her sister Colie!

Good times!

Video of Session 3 part 1/2

Video of session 3 part 2/2

We were graced with this video taken during session 3 by Carly’s fabulous mom!