The Flag Question, XC Schooling

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Texas. With the added unpleasant wrinkle of the snitch factor.
~~~

Question: How does Rodney feel about flags? We know he gets anxious with standards. Flags could go either way. Another form of standards or something completely different, and therefore not scary.

Answer: Flags NBD.

Cross-Country Schooling at Full Circle Horse Park

1st trip. Walked in-hand until everyone settled down, both horse and rider. The plan was to walk around the field. Ended up walking over most of the itty-bitty course plus a few others, including our first ditch. This worked out well, as I found out he could step over bigger things than I had thought.

2nd trip. Mounted up. Walked the path of the course, walking past each fence, narrating as we went. Get straight. Weight in the heels. Look up. And so on.

3rd trip. Walked over all nine fences.

Break. Performed excellent statue exercise at X in the dressage arena while watching Milton work. Relaxed so much, I decided to go back out. We compromised on doing half the course.

4th trip. Fences 1-2-7-8-9. Skipped the walk down the hill and back up. The trot was right there. If we had jumped anything at all, even so much as a cross rail in the last two months, would have trotted one or two.

Small potatoes? Physically, yes. Mentally? When I stood in the start box and gave myself a countdown from 10, I almost choked up. So yeah, there’s some baggage here.

No Show

Yes, there was a show on the grounds the day before. No, I did not go. I didn’t say anything because none of us need another ‘Why I didn’t go to a show’ post.

Short version.

After our first cross country school back in June, I had Plans. Might we, maybe, bop around the baby, baby novice course? [Achievement Unlocked]

Many, many things had to go right. A month of rain was not on that list. [Weather Update]

Mini-event was out. Maybe go for a repeat of dressage and crossrails? [Back In The Ring]

Nope. Logistics in August prevented us from schooling.

I considered going anyway and seeing what happened. However, Rodney is not a horse who functions well with surprises. So, we went the next day to address the flag question. Management was kind enough to leave the course dressed.