The course for the last Craig Cameron sanctioned Extreme Cowboy Race in Sandpoint, Idaho was awesome! It was packed with challenges, which made it lots of fun! I rode Smart Little Cayenne, my 4yr old filly. I will list the obstacles in order and how I did on them:
Tunnel: The front of the tunnel was obscured by hanging tarp strips and pool noodles. You had to duck upon entering the tunnel as it was pretty short. It was constructed of wire cattle panels curved over the top and covered in black plastic. Cayenne hesitated at the front and then went on through.
Ground Tie: On paper, this didn't sound too difficult. In application, it was a bit harder! You had to ride towards a baby goat tied to the fence, ground tie in a pole 360 box, dismount and go about 15 feet to the goat, untie it, move it to the next fence post, retie it, and go remount on the off side. Cayenne stared at the goat from the starting line and I was worried she'd leave as soon as I left her "ground tied." I even left my reins up on her neck so she wouldn't step on them! She did great and didn't move at all! The goat refused to lead and pulled back as you tried to tie it so it was a challenge in itself!
Pony: You had to pony an actual pony in a figure eight around a couple obstacles. Cayenne had no problem sidepassing up to him, letting me take the rope off of the fencepost, and leading him on the figure eight. He had hung back on the person who rode ahead of me so I just led him at a walk and kept him in position.
Jump: Two 55 gallon barrels laying on their sides. We took it at a trot and I was able to push Cayenne over them fairly easily.
Tennis Ball: Pick up a tennis racket off the fence, stand in the saddle and hit a tennis ball hanging from a tree branch. Cayenne did well on this one and stood still while I hit the ball. I, on the other hand, didn't have very good balance so I sat back in the saddle immediately after hitting the ball so I wouldn't fall off!
Circle: Pick up a length of rope off of a spool and lope a circle around the spool while holding the rope. We did pretty well on this one although the rope wasn't tight all the time, which meant our circle was an oval!
Log Drag: Actually, a jump standard drag. Pick up the rope off the fence and drag the standard down the fence a ways before putting the rope on the fence again. Cay did fine. I trotted her while doing the drag.
Ball Carry: Pick up a big rubber ball sitting on a feed tub, carry it about 30 feet, set it on top of a 5 gallon bucket. Cayenne did fine but I was unable to make the ball stay on the bucket. I don't think anyone else did either.
Bridge: The loudest, scariest metal bridge that teetered on a ROUND pole! Everyone had issues with the bridge. Cay put a foot on it, pulled back and moved her hip right, out of line with the bridge. I got her straight again and pushed her straight over the bridge. I was really happy with this as I didn't think she'd go over it. She doesn't like questionable footing and that bridge was definitely in that category! She may have done the best on the bridge out of everyone.
Sprinkler: Ride through an oscillating sprinkler on the ground. No problem.
Ring Pick-Up: Three plastic rings were lightly attached to the fence. We had to go down the fenceline and grab them by hand. I trotted down and missed the center ring. That was no fault of Cayenne's, just my lack of coordination!
Spin Box: Spin twice left and twice right. Cay thought we were doing a rollback initially and attempted to leave the box. I stopped her and she did the rest of the spins pretty well.
Unsaddle: Dismount, unsaddle, remount bareback, go out of the arena out into the back part of the fairgrounds, pick a stuffed snowman/santa off of a treebranch, return to the arena, go all the way to the other end of the arena and through the finish line. I was excited to get to use my new cue to get Cayenne to move up next to the mounting block. I learned it from Bob, a fellow rider at the Pat Wyse clinic, just for trail competitions. I hopped on the mounting block, cued her, she stepped right over to me, and I jumped on with no problem. I trotted her out to get santa and loped her back through the arena.
It was a tough course to remember what came next! I really liked the difficulty presented. It was timed but time only counted for tiebreakers and in the horsemanship score. I trotted or loped Cayenne between most of the obstacles and she rated back down easily and quickly. I think everyone liked the course. There were five entries in the Open Division and I took 2nd place. I'm pretty happy about that! I don't expect Cayenne to be "trained" for at least another full year and more likely two. I'm happy with how she's working for me so far but have to remember that she's young and inexperienced!
The Cowboy Race was on Thursday. Friday I left for Deary, Idaho for the American Competitive Trail Horse Association competition on Saturday. That will be featured in the next post.
Thank you to Janene Grende for taking these and allowing me to share them! Janene is a talented artist and owned a relative of my Smart Little Cayenne. Her horse, "Grandma's Redsky," is featured in a silk painting by Janene that also graces some Montana license plates. Isn't that awesome?! Her site is www.janenegrende.com
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