Finals

The GCPRA Finals are in the books. Frosty and I didn't do as good as I had secretly hoped we would...not that I really expected to win any money, but we struggled with the first barrel more than I am used to have happening.

On the first run, Frosty's blow-out was completely unexpected. He felt like he was really setting into the turn and then he kind of skittered out of the turn...



The next day, on run #2, I over-anticipated he might do the same thing again and over-corrected him into the barrel. Leave it to Frosty to leap away rather than run over the barrel. LOL. But after that, he didn't want to get close to those other barrels...




He ran 2.2 seconds off of the fast time, both days. I think more than anything, I was kinda disappointed that he didn't run o.u.t., like he did the last time we ran in Utah, but largely, I am impressed that he went in and worked as well as he did, in spite of being extremely uncomfortable with this arena. Frosty was not keen on the inset style of this place. The people and activity that was was going on above him and around him had him feeling extremely insecure. He had to (gasp) warm up amongst ropers, then wade through them to get to the barrel racers holding pen and they were practicing the laser show for the evening performance as well. WHY Frosty is so intimidated by ropes is beyond me. I can swing and throw a rope off of him, all day long and it doesn't bother him. Let him see or hear someone else swing one and he wants to leave. It's very annoying!

Frosty may be a little more intimidated by uncomfortable stimuli than 'normal'...Personally, *I* think he was hauled with Moon to enough rodeos and exposed to enough things that he should be used to all of this by now....However, I suspect that seasoning Frosty is fairly in line with what most horses are like. Since I got spoiled by Moon, other horses just seem a tad ridiculous. Moon was extra-ordinary in that regard. Few things outside the arena phased him and once he locked onto a barrel...NOTHING distracted him. Never-the-less, it's a good thing that was the last rodeo for awhile for Frosty. He is starting to lose his confidence on the pattern and we need to start going to some low-key jackpots, where the external stimuli isn't so overwhelming.

If Frosty's sensitivity outside the arena is more than a little annoying at times, it's quite fabulous when he is making a run. Where I struggled to get any sort of 'feel' with Moon and mostly failed....Frosty tells me everything I'm doing...almost too much sometimes. LOL. But I like it.

It's helped a ton that I have a plethora of pictures and a few videos of these last few runs. I have finally been able to put together a whole lot of little things that I am working on correcting/improving and good, ole Frosty...He 'tells' me when I get it right....Or when I am still missing the boat on the correction. It's refreshing to get that feedback from my horse. :-)