Saddlebrook Ridge Combined Test

Runkle left the property for his second 'outing' (in quotes because I'm not sure an in-house show counts as an outing?) of the season.

"Who, me?"

I left a LOT of time for warm up this go around. Runkle dropped his brain and did some sideways fancy prancing but after ten or fifteen or a hundred minutes of repeatedly asking him to pay attention to me and get to work he actually listened!

They did use a loudspeaker. I think he's only heard it twice in his life post track and he looked around at the sky like horse Jesus was speaking to him, informing him of the official show time. But he did keep his head on.

Runkle QUIETLY?? GRAZING??

Our dressage test itself was good, not great. The judges were sitting at a table at the end of the indoor which meant (to Runkle) that it would be easier for them to attack him with knives than when they are sitting in a car. So uh, I had a little bit of trouble getting him to go to that end of the arena. But we did the test, executing the moves as written in the order they were given and you know what? Sometimes with a baby horse that's all we can ask for. And I did get compliments on my PURPLE SHOW JACKET which I have no pictures of.

SOON.

Stadium was about forty miles away in the woods. The course was simple but had interesting fillers to look at which Runkle gave zero cow pies about. He started our warm up going mostly sideways (again) but eventually settled and was rideable.

This isn't recent. Note the nice weather.

We did the starter (2") round before the beginner novice and he was downright rude. I had little/no steering, he was staring at the jumps, lolloping around on the wrong lead. He really couldn't be arsed to listen to me or take notice of the jumps. This is why I haven't been farting around with anything below beginner novice. It's beneath his notice. Note how on the way to jump two he exits stage left... into the woods.

Our beginner novice round went MUCH better. I had power steering, he was rateable and he actually jumped the jumps. He wasn't even phased by the almost constant gunfire (watch with the sound up for full effect).

So what did we learn?

First of all, Runkle's learning how to get his brain back when he loses it. Secondly, I should not jump him away from home in his plain eggbutt, especially if it's in a field. I need my full cheek to prevent the 'exit stage left' situation. I'm also going to do dressage in my jump saddle for awhile because it'll make my life easier when he's an orangutan.

Hopefully our next outing will be more spring-like. Although nothing says spring quite like torrential downpours and eight feet of mud!!!