Trail Obstacle Challenge - Guiness Book of World Records

.....Attempt June 13, 2010. WE DID IT!!! Well, not sure if we made the record or not, but we were a part of the attempt, and finished the course with smiles on our faces. Okay, so I had a smile on my face, G I imagine was just happy to get back to his hay.

The alarm went off at 5:00 am and it really was the last thing I wanted to hear. Although we went to bed at 10:00 I think I only managed about 5 hours of real good sleep. So reminiscent of those first days of school and work jitters – what is it about women anyway? Why can’t we just shut down our brains like the click of a switch? Hubby’s head hits the pillow, 5 minutes later he’s snoring, lol.

We had the trailer packed and hooked up to the truck the day before so all we had to do was load G in and hit the road. It only took 10 minutes so we were on the road by 6:30. The day was damp and dreary, but weather reports predicted only a 30% chance of showers or thundershowers so I was being optimistic that we’d stay dry. About 20 minutes from our destination the highway was really wet, so we just missed a down pour, but that was all the rain we were to see. When we got to McCulloch’s Morgan Farm, we were directed to a parking space – I was so thankful I’d asked hubby to drive. He had to maneuver backing the trailer between the front porch of a small house and a tree, all the while not hitting a rig already parked in this yard. He did an awesome job. Found out later the gal whose rig was there drove around the barn so she came in straight lol. There was a wide variety of rigs here, from the oldest and smallest to the Freight Liner hauling a 3 horse LQ with bump out (gorgeous!!); horses tied to trailers, some in portable pens. Folks for the most part were walking around in rain gear, as they had been hit by that passing down pour. 

We started chatting with the gal next to us and it turns out she’s not only from a town two over from where we board G, but she’s also the vet tech for our new equine vet! How small a world is it? She came by herself hoping to meet new people to trail ride with, well, she got lucky right off the bat, lol. I asked her if she wanted to buddy up on the ride since it was our first time doing something like this. Turned out to be her first time too, so it was great as we didn’t hold each other up to any expectations, lol. She is owned by a 12 year old Buckskin mare named Ellie. Very sweet and well built QH. Here they are coming back to the finish:

And us looking out the indoor arena where we warmed up a little:

Me & G hanging out after registration:

The rider briefing meeting was held at 9:00 where the obstacles and trail maps were handed out. Great. Not one single obstacle that we’d worked on the past three weeks, figures!

This event was really well organized, and I thought the woman I had been conversing with via email was, well, a woman. Turned out she was 18-19 years old. Boy was this girl organized, she did an incredible job.

Two groups were scheduled to go out. Twenty riders at 10:00 and then the remaining seventeen at 10:15. We went to the start line around 10:12 and were told we could head out. The first obstacle was less than a mile away....it was the dreaded blue tarp on the ground. Object was in one minute to get your horse to the center, stand for 3 seconds on a loose rein and walk off. G has seen blue tarps, he’s walked by them, he’s stood by them, and he’s even half worn one. But walk on one? I’ve never asked him to do this. G snorted, dropped his head and side passed right. He side passed left. He backed two steps, he stopped and snorted. The judge said “times up”. I said is it okay if I ask again; they said yes. This time I gave G a little kick rather than squeezing and he stepped on it with two feet and stopped. I asked again. We got to the center, I asked him to stop; he did. Woohoo! Okay, so the easy part is getting off it right? No. I had to give him a bit of a kick for motivation and the moment his hoof moved and it crinkled, he snorted; but then lept forward. Ahhhh, we’re off it. I praised the heck out of him, and we walked a few paces off to wait for Claudine and Ellie. Ellie dropped her head, snorted. She side passed right, side passed left, she backed, she side passed again. She ran out of time, and although they continued to try after another minute Claudine decided to walk her around it. Ellie looked at it the whole way like it was going to eat her alive. Off we went through the woods.

As a side note; this Morgan farm (McColloch Morgans) consists of 600 acres and it backs up to Preservation lands. We both kept commenting on how gorgeous these trails were. For the most part they were two and a half horses wide and because of the sandy/small stone soil, in pretty good condition considering all the rain we’d had. We’ve also agreed that if they hold any more events such as this, we’re there!


Hubby was able to walk out to two of the obstacles that were a stone’s throw from one another, so when we approached obstacle 2 he was there to take pictures. This was a square box on the ground with a small evergreen in the middle of it. Originally there was supposed to be come kind of animal in a cage, but because of the weather they didn’t want to risk it. THANK GOODNESS!! Now if it had been a chicken, maybe, but anything else and I bet G wouldn’t have gone in there. For the pleasure division, you just had to walk your horse in forward and around the tree. So turning on the haunches was required, and G did well on this one. This first picture I was facing G away from the two horses that were in front of us. He was doing great on the trail until we told these two riders they could go ahead of us. Once they started leaving an obstacle G wanted to follow. Then it would take 3 minutes to get his mind back on me, so I found this was easier. What he couldn’t see couldn’t hurt ‘um.

Ellie did well on this one, Claudine had her back around it so she scored extra points (open division).

Off we went to find obstacle 3. These were spaced about a mile apart from one another, so it gave you time to mosey through the woods, which we did. It was so beautiful I really didn’t want to rush through it.  Obstacle #3 was a hoola hoop on the ground where you would place your horse's front hooves and then do a turn on the forehand.  BUT, what they found out after the first group is that if a horse stepped on it just so, the hoola hoop would pop up and pop the horse.  Needless to say the hoola hoop got put aside and they just asked for people to do a turn on the forehand.  We did okay on this. 

Obstacle #4 for pleasure riders was to trot from one cone to the next and come to a complete stop, drop their reins for 3 seconds.  Since G doesn't trot I asked if I could canter, which was the request for the open division.  So we did.  G did really well.  I was pleased at his prompt response both in the up and down transitions.  See, all that arena work does come in handy, lol. 

Obstacle #5 was near #2 so hubby was waiting for us when we arrived.  He told us it had taken 45 minutes to get there from #2 (not sure he was happy about that).  This was the dreaded "L" on the ground.  For pleasure you only had to back up through the straight section, open did the full L.  Glad I registered pleasure, cause getting G to back up straight with barriers on the ground doesn't work so well.  He is just starting to back straight in an open arena....so this was pushing the envelope a bit.  I was pleased that he only stepped on the right outside bark barrier; hence the smile on my face in the 2nd shot.

I sure wish I’d brought a second camera to take some pics along the trail.  This was one of the prettiest places I’ve ridden in awhile and surprisingly not all flat!  Not hills by definition of those living in places like Pennsylvania; but considering we’re at the beach, very surprising.  Claudine and I kept saying “dang, I want to come ride here again”.  We rode up a drive way and through a small saw mill which was also a surprise.  I later found out from hubby that the current owner is the great great grandson of the founder who bought the land for $5 an acre.  Wowser!

We finally made it to obstacle #6 which was simply walking over 5 ground poles.  Pleasure division simply had to walk it, so it was a piece of cake.  Up ahead they had five more poles that were elevated for the Open division which needed to trot over them.  I should’ve gone for the extra points – but so far we’ve only trotted over ground poles, not elevated ones.  From the last obstacle it was less than a mile from the farm.  We left at 10:14 and returned at 12:20. 

As we were coming up the drive I was doing serpentines to keep G at a walk so we wouldn’t out walk Ellie.  When G hits wide open flatlands he really likes to move out so I thought this would be a nice cool down and easy way to ask him to walk.  I looked down the road and see about twelve people standing at the finish line.  Most in judge’s t-shirts; there are two photographers and hubby with my camera.  I asked Claudine if it would be a problem if I moved out and she said not at all.  So with that I squeezed, and asked G to gait.  We started to rack and I pushed him further into a really smooth step pace.  It really put a smile on my face.  I know, showing off for the judges lol.  Well, they were giving out prizes for best dressed western, English and best groomed horse so I thought maybe his flash would wow them a little.  NOT, we didn’t get best groomed.  Darn.

On the way home we were talking and he said “ya know when you were coming down the drive, one of the judges asked me why I was doing serpentines” and he answered “G is a Walking Horse and if she lets him go, he’ll out walk that nice Quarter Horse she’s riding with.  Maybe she’ll let him gait so you can see how smooth he is”.  Within 10 seconds of him saying that is when I opened him up lol.  Hubby said there were lots of comments like “wow look at that”; “shoot how smooth is that?” “her head isn’t moving one iota”.  When I crossed the finish line we had our picture taken several times and I got a few questions regarding Walking Horses.  Nice that he behaved so well for me, as I love when I can contribute to positive marketing for the breed.   Here we are coming up the drive

 

(that expression is one of relief....we did it!!!)

Following the ride we gathered around the tents for a lunch.  We had hamburgers, hot dogs, potato, pasta and fruit salads and water/soda.  It was really neat to sit around and talk about the course and how folks did and their experience or lack thereof in CTC events.  I was surprised at how many first timers were there, and hubby was surprised that the majority of riders were over 40-45.  

After lunch they held the award cermony which everyone stuck around for which I thought was nice.   All the riders received a Guinness Book of World Records certificate, a commemorative red ribbon and a couple of little equine items (I think antibacterial spray & EZall's shine & detangler).  So I have a few things to add to our scrapbook album.  When I ever get around to doing G's!!

 Hubby also had to take a picture of the one horse he was fascinated with.....only it wasn't a horse.... His rider was the only Junior rider.  And for my gaited horse friends, no, he wasn't gaited.

We didn't want to stick around to wait for all the scores to be posted so I have no idea how we did "officially".  I do know we got a zero for the tarp, lol.  I checked ACTHA's website when I got home this evening but our ride hasn't been posted yet.  I'm just happy that we had a wonderful experience and that G gave me his all.  Considering he was in a strange place with a strange horse, doing strange things, and the fact that he kept his head, means it was a successful ride for us both.  But when I find out, I'll make sure to add them to the blog.