Workshop Week

I officially name this week Workshop Week, because this week we go to two workshops, and a show that counts as one 4H workshop and one 4H meeting. =) On Monday,....

Erica picked me up at about 4:50 pm on Monday, and we drove to pick up Taylor before heading to the barn to get our ponies and all our tack (and junk). We arrived at the barn and I went to get my pony. I put Zan in the crossties and grabbed the tack box from the tack room so that I could start grooming Zan. He wasn't very dirty at all! He had clean hooves (though he had a chip in one of his hooves - time to see the farrier again!), a not-too-ratty mane, and an only partially dirty body and face.

I left my boy in the cross ties so that I could put my saddle, bridle, girth, saddle pad, helmet, show halter, show lead, and jumping standards in the trailer and truck. Then, I ran and grabbed the bitting rig and the lunging bridle, along with the lunge line. Taking Zan into the arena, I only lunged him half as long as I'd have liked to; Erica said that he didn't need too much lunging; she thought he'd be fine. WRONG.

As soon as we had everything together and Pete and Zan in the trailer, we were off to the fairgrounds. It was a pretty uneventful drive with just Erica, Eric, Taylor and I. When we arrived, however, it took a while to get Pete and Zan out of the trailer. As I tied Zan to the side of the trailer and started grooming him, I laughed when I saw Pete has slimed all over Zan's back. I kept brushing, though, and soon had Zan all tacked up and ready to go. I tightened my girth and swung onto his back to wait for Taylor.

We headed to the arena and walked around outside of the gate, waiting for Erica to let us into the arena. Five minutes later, Erica let us into the arena and went to set up jumps. Yes, this was a jumping workshop. Yes, I expected Zan to be slow and unwilling to go forward. Boy, was I wrong! He was alright when we were walking. There were only four other people in the arena with me - someone I didn't know, Macy (on a contesting horse), Taylor, and Olivia (on Rascal) - and they didn't get in my way. Everything was nice and quiet. But then I tried to trot. Zan burst forward, just letting loose all the energy that he'd had coiled up, ready to spring. Goodness gracious, let's just say that the rest of the workshop didn't go so well.

Besides the fact that Zan wasn't too willing to stay in the middle of the jumps, he did go over the jumps and he did let me attempt to control him. After everyone was done with trotting the jumps (which were really just four poles on the ground), Erica and Meredith (the other helper for the workshop) spread the jumps apart some more so that we could canter them. Zan did so well cantering them! Yes, we were fast, but,... he went over them and went over the middle of the jumps. Thatta boy! ;)

After pretty much everyone else was done, Taylor and I stayed in the arena as Olivia, the other person, and Macy slowly exited the arena. I cantered Zan. And cantered. And cantered. Over, and over, and over, and over again. We were so fast his good way. But at least I tried to make it look pretty. His bad way, he wouldn't pick up the correct lead and kept exploding forward. But in the end, everything was pretty much alright. I was tense and nervous about this workshop, so I guess I can say that's why everything went so wrong.

Oh, well. Tonight, for our English Pleasure workshop, I'm going to lunge Zan for at lest 20 minutes and then ride the crap out of him for the actual workshop as long as it isn't canceled.

Another day, another dollar going towards my I-need-to-get-off-this-crazy-horse fund! ;)