3/9/2023 0 Comments Week 3: Horse Shows!This weekend we got to go to a local hunter show at Thoroughbred Training Center (TTC) and got to show in three 2-foot classes. During our three classes, I worked on keeping Marty going and having a forward pace. By the last class, we were both pretty tired, so it was hard for me to keep him going and we ended up trotting a few jumps. It is impressive that Marty can trot over a 2-foot jump but we still need to work on building up his endurance so he can canter the whole course. We have to make sure that he can get around a course safely before we try to work on getting flying lead changes and making sure he isn’t wiggly while going down a jumping line (this is important because if he isn't straight when he jumps it could cause him to have a bad spot).
During our first class, Marty had a forward pace, and we even had a flying lead change! In our second class, he was also super good, he was a little bit slower than in the first class. But our last class needed some work, I and Marty were both tired and we didn’t have a break. Because there were very few people in our classes we hardly had any time to catch our breath. We ended up trotting a few jumps (we don’t want this). But this was our first show without one of my trainers Hailey, so overall I was happy with how things went. Marty even went through the big scary water puddle, which scares some horses because they don't have good depth perception so they can't tell how deep the water actually is! We ended up getting two 2nd places and one 1st place! We still need to work on getting Marty to move forward more, we also need to build up his endurance. Eventually, we will start working on getting flying lead changes constantly, but only after we get him moving forward better. I also need to work on some stuff. Like building up my leg strength so I can ask Marty to go faster without using spurs. While spurs are a very nice tool to help you they might agitate your horse (they make Marty mad) and your horse might eventually become “dull” to them. When a horse is “dull” it means that they don’t respond to what you are asking them to do. To help Marty I need to build up my strength. We have also noticed that his back is stiff and he gets extremely tense when you apply pressure to it, so we are going to look into horse chiropractors and see if his back is bothering him.
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