In which I teach the Dragon something new and not actually useful

 It's been a long time since I posted here.  

I haven't been bored, but the >>gestures at everything<< has been a lot.  Still, it's all soup now, and too late to remove the onions.  On we go.

My friends Nancy and Jean and some others from the Cross-State Ride compete in "mountain trail" events.  I didn't know what that was prior to my jaunt down to the Oregon Horse Center with them in October. Mostly, I needed a few days away from the routine, so I loaded up the Honda with warm clothes and drove to Eugene.  Because, why not?

It turns out that Mountain Trail is kind of a cross between agility, dressage, chess, Calvinball, and watching paint dry.  

Riders go onto a manufactured indoor course and show off their horse's adroitness and compliance.  They are judged on precision and cooperation between horse-and-rider.  Briskness is not part of this--in fact, moving out seems to be actively discouraged in favor of thoughtfulness.  

Nancy, Felicia and Jean at the Oregon Horse Center

I found the whole thing intriguing.

The reality is that the Dragon doesn't enjoy being in tight quarters with other horses--not in a barn, and not in an arena.  

It's entirely possible that part of her aversion is, um, also my aversion?

Anyhow, hauling Herself down to Oregon for six days of living in a shared space with a couple hundred riders and nowhere to zig-zag around real trees at a proper Standardbred trot would not be our idea of a good time.

HOWEVER, what if I could learn some stuff, teach her some skills, and play along at home?  

That sounded more like my cup of tea.

I decided to try a virtual trail event.

In these events, you don't have to go anywhere.  It can all happen in a home arena, a pasture, or even a driveway.

I looked at the sample course on the website and thought, "We can do all that!  Let's give it a shot!"

...and then, I got the information about what I was supposed to do for this "event".

"walk up to the ball, and push it through the maze"

Of course, my first thought was "if I saw a giant ball on a real trail, I would hop down from my horse, stab the ball several times with my pocket knife, and strap the limp skin to the back of my saddle with any other trash I picked up along the way."

My second thought was "at no point in my life would I see a yoga ball on the trail and ask my horse to push it down the trail."

My third thought was "however, I did teach my horse to fetch a frisbee."

So, we set up the course at Fish Creek one Sunday and ran everybody through it.  Most horses (including mine) had never seen a ball before.

Patty introduces the ball to young Hope

Some horses immediately got the hang of it, and Junior League Soccer stars-in-training were born.

Fiddle was more...contemplative.

At first she wanted to walk around it.  I think that's valid, because it's what we would normally do with a roadblock that I hadn't stabbed and skinned.

I asked her to touch it with her nose, which earned her a cookie.  But she didn't want to bump it around with her nose, possibly because she's still protecting her mouth after being rendered "Toofless" a few months ago?  Or possibly because it was Just So Filthy?  Hard to say.

Our next option was for her to kick the ball.  At first she got a cookie if it touched her leg.  After a while, she only got a cookie if she tried to bump the ball with a leg. All this was done with me on the ground, but she was watching the other horses move it around with riders aboard, and she learns a lot by watching.  

So I saddled up, and we practiced more.  Sometimes the big ball got stuck under her belly (this only happened to her because she was the only one with such long legs!) but it didn't worry her.  I mostly let her figure things out and handed over cookies every time she tried to do something vaguely similar to what I wanted her to do.

And then...we walked away.  I have learned that this mare does best when I introduce something and get her pointed in the right direction, and then give her time to think.  

The following week, we practiced more, and then Patty shot our "competition" video:

I threw that in the email box, and then walked away from it.  After all, I am still coping with >>gestures at everything<<.

Yesterday, we got our score sheet from the judge.  I was thrilled at the score and comment on obstacle #3, "move the ball through the maze"!

Score: 9 out of 10.  "Good partnership.  Horse was very helpful."

I do not consider this kind of competition to be the best prep for actual mountain trails, where rockfalls, awkward trees, and bears are more plausible than unavoidable yoga balls.  

However, I definitely see the use of working on partnership and helpfulness.

This isn't nearly as ridiculous as teaching a horse to fetch a frisbee.