All posts tagged mgaa

MGAA Nationals 2013 – Success!

July 16, 2013

I have lots to say about MGAA Nationals 2013, but for now, I’ll just leave it with *Success* WOOOO

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by riderofchaos on July 16, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Mounted Games

Tagged horse, mgaa, mounted games, pony

Posted by riderofchaos on July 16, 2013

https://blueridgepony.com/2013/07/16/mgaa-nationals-2013-sucess/

Poe’s First Outing

July 8, 2014
Yesterday I took Poe to his first games outing. Sadly there are no good photos to document it. But Lindsey’s’ friend Jenn do managed to snap this one off of us preparing at the start line. Details in a future post.

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by riderofchaos on July 8, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Mounted Games

Tagged horse, mgaa, mounted games, pony

Posted by riderofchaos on July 8, 2013

https://blueridgepony.com/2013/07/08/poes-first-outing/

MGAA Mid-Atlantic #2 Mounted games Competition 2013

June 18, 2013

Two weekends ago, June 8/9, was the MGAA, Mounted Games Across America, Mid-Atlantic #2 Series Competition in Centre Hall, PA at Grange Equestrian Center. It was a 2 day competitions with three sessions for a total of 39 races.

My team, Old School, competed in the adult “fossil” division. I was joined by my usual teammates, Linda, Kim, Carol Ann and guest teammate, Genevieve. Simon was a bit perkier than usual, and even a little hot for his first few races. His energy waned a little during the second session, but he did pick up his hooves a bit during the final. He was certainly not speedy, but he was moving out more than usual. I attribute this in part to the change in his bitting. That combined with the hard work and training we have been putting in made a difference.

Although it was a bit bumpy, we won our first session by a small margin. Linda had an uncharacteristic rough start, but had her game back in shape after the first few races. The second session, was rough for me. I had a terrible Hug-a-Mug race in particular. Time Flies kicked our butts in this session leaving us down a good 10 or more points.

The final session of 15 races started at 8am on Sunday and we went in ready to roll. We played hard, trying to make up the gap that Time Flies had on us after session 2. By the end we came close, only 2 points behind our friends in pink, but ended in second followed by Red Solo Cup, Mischief Managed and Antiques Road Show.

The camping was fantastic as always. Although Carol Ann and I switched things up a bit and joined our friends Val and Jon and their lovely son Dexter for the weekend. We camped off to the side, away from the security lights, and enjoyed a quiet social time. Val and Jon and I go way back, like early 1990s, way back! woe! And we had some fun reminiscing and hamming it up all weekend. Our dogs all had a fantastic time too, playing together and visiting the neighbor dog, Penny. I am looking forward to reuniting at Nationals next month for another chill camp out with this group plus a few other friends.

Another fantastic MGAA competition, with over 140 ponies hitting the field. The Masters A final was hard fought, ending in the last race with a 1 point separating the first 3 teams, and the other teams meager points behind. Lots of great action was seen in all divisions, with lots of collective OHS and ahhhhhs.

Photo: Equistar Photography

Cayla and Niki
Photo: Equistar Photography

Photo: Equistar Photography

Genevieve and Ruben
Ruben is from Camelot
Photo: Equistar Photography

Kim and Tonka
Photo: Equistar Photography

Photo: Equistar Photography

McKayla and Phoenix
Photo: Equistar Photography

Photo: Equistar Photography

Claudia and Galaxy
Photo: Equistar Photography

Photo: Wendi

Genevieve and DJ
Photo: Equistar Photography

Photo: Equistar Photography

Ryan accidentally pulled his ponies bridle off in the middle of a race!
Photo: Equistar Photography

Photo: Equistar Photography

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by riderofchaos on June 18, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Mounted Games

Tagged horse, mgaa, mounted games, pony

Posted by riderofchaos on June 18, 2013

https://blueridgepony.com/2013/06/18/mgaa-mid-atlantic-2-mounted-games-competition-2013/

Pony Shock Collar Training

May 2, 2013

You already read about the overall experience at MGAA – Mounted Games Across America’s Mid-Atlantic Mounted Games Series #1 competition. You already read about how I locked my keys in my truck, and now you get to read about Pony Shock Training.

Now before you scream abuse, keep in mind the shock was less than an electric fence shock.

As is typical at venues that allow portable paddocks, I popped up a paddock in the camping area for Simon. He loves being in the middle of the action, and being free to move about, and I love the savings I get on the cost of a stall and shavings. Unfortunately, I was unable to find my portable paddock kit before I left. Ironically I packed the portable fence charger, portable spool of fence tape and the gate openers away for the winter in a place that I “would remember where the kit was come spring”. Apparently my memory is not in tune with that thinking.

I managed to scrounge up some loose pieces of tape and figured I would give it a go. I normally forget to turn the charger on anyway, and had not even bothered to hook it up all last year since he never challenged the perimeter.

I should also preference this with how annoying Simon can be. I cannot leave a bucket in his paddock or he throws and kicks it around endlessly. This includes buckets of water. He knocks them over, and then kicks them around. So I remove his buckets, offering him water at frequent and regular intervals, and keep them waiting a few yards from his pen.
Saturday morning, I woke up at 5am, prompted by my bladder. I could see Simon was still laid out snoozing away on the ground, and I slipped back into bed after doing my business, but not before he caught sight (or probably sound) of me, and nickered good morning. I ignored him and crawled back into bed. About 20 minutes later I heard him beating a bucket around. The stinkin pony had pushed his chest into the fence and stretched his neck out so he could get hold of one of his buckets and had it under him, rhythmically kicking it with all 4 feet. I climbed out of bed and took it away from him and decided that I might as well get my day under way.

That evening Simon had already eaten his feed and had a nice pile of hay to keep him company, but I noticed he was watching us with mischievous eyes while we ate our dinner. And I suppose he had had enough of not being the center of attention, and he grabbed the fence tape in his teeth and yanked it up and off the poles. We jumped up, yelled at him and put the fence back in place. But it wasn’t but few minutes later that he grabbed the top of one of the step in posts and pulled it out of the ground and marched on out and into the center of camp. I tied him up to a trailer for a while, but eventually needed to sort out what I was going to do with him for the night and decided to return him to his paddock, where he promptly started the pull-the-fence-down game back up.

Fellow camper, Genevieve had an idea. Let’s try putting the dog training shock collar on him that another fellow camper, Carol Ann had for her dog. Gen got busy, and rigged it up with bailing twine and stepped back for action. Sure enough, as soon as I let go of his halter, he went right to the fence, and Gen gave him a zap. He looked a bit confused, probably because fences usually shock the end of his nose, not his throat, and he immediately tried again. Zap. It took one more go and the pony had it figured out. He stood in the middle of the paddock and glared at us.

After a while of him not testing the fence, we took the collar off, but sure enough he went right back at it, and the collar was back on. He did not test it again, knowing the collar was the culprit.

So it was a bit of a 50/50. He clearly got the message almost instantly, but he also knew it was only enforced by the collar.

Gen applying the collar

eeek, push the button!

Annoyed with the collar on

In time out.

banging a bucket

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by riderofchaos on May 2, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Mounted Games, Pony Stuff

Tagged horse, mgaa, mounted games, pony

Posted by riderofchaos on May 2, 2013

https://blueridgepony.com/2013/05/02/pony-shock-collar-training/

2013 MGAA Mid-Atlantic #1 Mounted Games Competition

May 1, 2013

The MGAA – Mounted Games Across America – Mid-Atlantic Mounted Games Series started up this weekend with the first edition held at the PG Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

I arrived Friday afternoon and set up camp. Shortly after my teammates and other fellow MGAAers also arrived and set up for the weekend. A couple of us got in a nice hack Friday evening, before grabbing a bite to eat and turning in at a reasonable hour.

My team, Old School, competes in the adult “fossil” division, which usually starts off the day as the first division. This weekend my usual team of Linda, Carol Ann and Kim was joined by longtime friend, Jon and his newish pony Jeeter. Kim was also on a new pony, Milli, who has been blogged about a few times, starting back in December. We all met up in the ring, bright and early Saturday for our first session of 12 games.

We started off pretty decently, with some hand off situations to clear up and some other new pony circumstances to accommodate for. But all in all it was a good session. Simon and I rode clean, with no mistakes, as did most of the team. And we reworked some things before we went back in the afternoon for our second session of 12 games. We must have sorted something adequately because we finished the session in second. Simon and I managed to run clean again, as did most of the team, although Simon was starting to slow down even more than his usual slow pace.

It is never surprising in this division how a single simple mistake can kill the whole race for a team. For the most part riders in the adult “fossils” division complete races cleanly, and at a pretty good clip. With vaulting not being a predominate skill among all riders in the division, teams that have even a few vaulters can annihilate in races that require dismounting and remounting. Our team does not have any vaulters, and it is pretty evident in a few particular races.

After the second session we got together and discussed the orders for Sunday. Taking into account the changes the ponies were making and how the new ponies were developing.

Saturday after the final session I had a meeting with the MGAA International Team. This is a really exciting topic that I have not mentioned yet on this blog and I am not going to elaborate on at this time. So grab that suspense and enjoy the wait until I do start blogging about it in the months to come. Be excited! I am!

After the meeting I spent the evening socializing with my teammates and friends, laughing, eating, roasting marshmallows and playing with Puppies. It was a lot of fun, and Ill talk about ‘pony shock training’ in another post.

Sunday we were back to the ring for our 15 race final session. We hit the field hard with a terrible warm up race through bending, fearing that we were showing our worst side for the day. But luckily we were just working out some bugs and got our tails in gear for the start of the real first races. We cruised through the session, with Kim and Jon both borrowing Simon for a race a piece, and a total bumble on my part in ball and cone race. I pulled up too soon for my placement and was not quite close enough to reach the cone, and Simon was being a pig about moving up to it, so I placed it lefty, which sometimes seems to trick the pony on protest. I think Simon decided to get me back though, because he flicked his tail out as far as it could go, and popped the ball back off the cone. I am always aware of his backend, and had made a point of keeping it clear, so he had to have stretched his tail to its maximum to reach the ball. Stinking pony. I officially killed that race for our team, because, as previously mentioned, a single screw up in a race can cost it all for you.

Also by the final session Simon was totally carousel-ing out on me too. Plodding along at his happy merry-go-round pace, with no urge to race what so ever. He knew what he was doing and I am giving him the virtual stink eye as I type this. Smart evil pony.

I started the final race, flag fliers, and I was rockin on through it, and actually getting a decent simon-pace out of him, and somehow, my flag pull went to pot. As in, it didn’t leave the pot! I felt it slide between my two middle fingers but I wasn’t able to grip at that angle enough to keep hold of it and it slid back into the holder. BOO. Luckily it didn’t come out and I just needed to circle back for it, but wow, does it suck to mess up in the last race of the weekend. Genevieve of EquiStar Photography (who so awesomely allows me to use so many of her fantastic photos on this blog) just happened to get a great shot of me “pulling” the flag and you can totally see it popping up but not in my hand. I wonder if she can photoshop a flag into my hand?

In the end our points from all three sessions added up to a third place finish. I suppose a yellow ribbon does match our team gear. SO pa-za! But Blue matches our gear too.

I already posted about how I locked my keys in the back of my truck in the cap in a previous blog post, which sort of capped off the packing up on Sunday. Otherwise it was a wonderfully uneventful drive home and a great start to the 2013 MGAA Mounted Games Season!