Saturday, May 7, 2011

PlayDay

Moon says...'I did my thing...Can we go home now?'...
I'm thinking my plain dun horse has blossomed this year and is looking rather hunky. Moon never gets compliments from people before they see him run...Today, he got lots of them before the playday even started. Can we get a Hell Ya for the glory of rice bran?

I decided I was ready to open Moon up a little bit today. Unfortunately I am not used to him having so much power and he almost got away from me going to first. I had to haul on him a bit to get him rated down. Also, Megan did not put the roping rein on the bridle and I had long split reins-Yikes! I was struggling to get them gathered up. 1st barrel was only about one stride after the timer and about the time we hit the starting line, I had an 'oh crap' moment. We was going a tad fast. I have been trying to keep Moon rated down going to first because I want to work on that 'floating out' problem he sometimes has. I just read an article by Sharon Camarillo the other day about using your hands better in the turns and I had two things on my mind for this run...maintain 2-hand contact on the reins and pushing Moon through his 2nd and 3rd turns.

What do you think...


I actually thought this was one of our better runs in quite some time. I will take this and improve from here.

Megan didn't catch Spooks' barrel run on video. Bless her heart, she was walking Moon out for me. I had to jump from one horse to the other. It wasn't much of a 'run'. Spooks is still learning. He did take a few seconds off from the last time...went from a 25 second run to a 21 second run. I'll take that and be happy as well. She did video his pole 'run'...


Considering this was only the second time Spooks has even seen the poles (Yea, I've been really bad about not practicing anything but the barrels with the horses), I thought he did pretty darned nice. I guess I will have to start practicing. He might actually get good at them. He's such a fun horse to ride. Just does whatever I ask. He's a bit ducky and dodgy in straight lines, but once he figures it out, he's going to be awesome. He was reserve high point horse today. That's not too bad....two playdays in his life and has been the reserve high point horse both times. If he never makes a super-fast barrel horse, at least he will be fun to have around to do other things with.

Megan did go with me today and she rode Turk (the paint horse). We'll forgo showing any of those videos-LOL. Megan has not put any time in on Turk and it really reflected. I will say though...it was good experience for him and maybe Megan will be more interested in investing some time before the next one. ;-)

13 comments:

Living Large And In Color said...

Moon is looking gooooood...You should have been with me today. You knw it is going to be one of those days when you have to work your dressage horse and they are having a mounted shooting event at the facility right? Right.
You know I was wearing riding tights and 1/2 chaps too right? Right. It was a special moment to go with the whole dressage queen image.
They wasn't laughing when they saw that mare big powering and blowing with her tail over her back when I was jogging her off the truck. And I did put her through their little course dressage saddle and all.
And there was that awesome moment when colty thought about jumping over the hood of my truck. OH MAN, it really IS Spring!!!!!!!!!

Congrats on the good showing today.

Dena

GunDiva said...

Thanks for the videos! Looks like a lot fun and what a beautiful day!

Shirley said...

Nice to see you and Moon run; he sure is looking good. Fast too!

ACountryCowgirl said...

Lookin good!!! I love that spooks:) I can't wait to see some more of your runs. I will have to make it to some more. I see you will have a carbondale one if that is at the rodeo grounds, we do all the mowing maintenance there. It will be fun to come watch some more.

Allenspark Lodge said...

Well, looks like all that hard work is paying off. Moon looks great! I put some rice bran in the horses' beets to offset the potassium levels. I don't want Jesse any bulkier, but Washoe is sure filling out. Wonder if that has something to do with it?
Congrats on some good runs.
Juanita

in2paints said...

I thought your run looked fantastic! Moon is definitely a lovely boy... not plain at all, that's for sure! I've done some barrel racing, although that was a long time ago, but I've never done any pole bending. Looks like a lot of fun! Wonder what Lilly would think about doing poles... :)

Sherry Sikstrom said...

Dayum!! That Moon horse is a snappy one!!! I always kinda liked his pics ,but you are right he sure is looking good now.And Seems like he has wheels too!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Wheels? Yes, he does. LOL

I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around how fast this horse has the potential to be. He doesn't even unwind until he comes out of 2nd. The question may not be if I can get him solid, the question may be if I can ride him when he gets solid. Those long, old strides on him just eat up the ground and it's a little freaky at just how fast those barrels are coming at you.

GoLightly said...

dang, he's a hunka chunka. He'd make a helluva junior jumper, me thinks..

The bay horse now has competition for my drooling ;)

Unknown said...

Oh Spooks is looking good! Not to ignore Moon - he's looking good to with that rice bran. But man, for the first time on poles - you got a nice one there...

Kristen said...

lady those runs were good! Moon's run looked great, I could hardly notice that you had issues with the first barrel... good job on all of the work you've done! And Spooks had a great run on poles considering it's only the 2nd time! He got his lead changes and that's always a positive! :) looks like a fun weekend!

Michelle said...

Sounds like you had a great time! Wish I could see those videos here at work...

Andrea said...

Girl, Moon is looking great! I do the rice bran thing too! Keeps them ponies looking nice! Your run on him was great!! And just a quick comment on your pictures on the last post, with the squirrel!! LOL those are too cute!