Chance's First Trail Challenge! And A Surprise!

I had signed up to do a couple of trail challenges with Chance, one in April and one in June. Our weather usually doesn't cooperate this time of year, but I knew that I had to get Chance put back to work after giving her the winter off. We had a few dry days here and there and I started lunging her and then put the saddle back on and started riding again. I was only able to get about 6 rides on her before our first trail challenge. On the day of the challenge, the weather report said that there would be early morning rain and then it was supposed to clear up and be partly sunny, but we were heading about an hour and a half north of my house, which means the weather could be worse up there. I was picking up a friend and her horse, who had agreed to do the challenge with me and also be my "buddy rider" for Chance during the challenge. When my OH and I left our house that Sunday morning it was cloudy, but dry. After we picked up my friend, C and her QH Dymond and headed north on the freeway, it started to rain. And it never stopped. We arrive at the trail head and it is pouring. And 37 degrees. Brrr.....

Chance and Dymond's first trip together. They got along great.

We went and checked in, then unloaded our horses. The first riders headed out at 10:00 and it was about that time. We did not have to be in the first group so there was no hurry getting the horses ready, although once we had them saddled, we put their blankets over them to keep our tack and them dry.

Tacking up our ponies.

We decided to go ahead and get on our horses and stand in line to do the trail challenge. We did not want to be out in the rain any longer then we had too. It wouldn't have been that bad if it wasn't so darn cold. Tracey, from the Mustang Diaries blog was there. She got to visit with Chance, who she hasn't seen since Chance was about 4 months old! 

Tracey, from Mustang Diaries blog, got to visit with Chance for the first time since she was about 4 months old.

We watched quite a few other riders do the challenge. Almost every horse had a difficult time with an obstacle. And it wasn't a difficult course.

Waiting our turn.

My friend C and her horse Dymond went first. Chance stood quietly and watched. She was being so good for not having been anywhere since September. Once my friend completed the course, she was going to be my buddy rider and would be riding out on the course with me. She went in the lead and went through the first obstacle, which was walking through a bunch of big boulders. But the problem was...... water. Since it had just been pouring, everything was under water and water has been Chance's biggest issue. I had been working on water at home, from the ground and riding. But it had continued to be our biggest challenge at home. So it probably took about 5 minutes to get her through the first obstacle, but she did go through it.

The first obstacle, walking through boulders.

Then we rode up to the side pass challenge. Thankfully this one was not under water. Chance did pretty good with this one. I practice side passing every time I ride, so I was pretty confident she could do this.

Second obstacle, side pass around hitching posts.

And she did, slowly.

Walking through the middle and side pass the other direction.

I actually kinda messed up the direction of the side pass. I didn't quite hear the judge correctly on how we were to do the obstacle, but they let me correct my mistake.

Still side passing...

My buddy rider then rode next to me down to the log cross. They weren't big logs, just trees laying at angles on the ground. Again under water.... if it wasn't for the rain, nothing would have been under water.

Heading down to the log cross.

My buddy rider rode through the logs and then I tried to get Chance to go. Typically she would have walked right over those logs, but with the water.... no go. We worked on it until the judge said time was up.

Refusing the logs.

The next obstacle was dragging a log by a rope. I passed on this one because I have never done this with Chance and I didn't not want to put us in a dangerous situation. Then we had to dismount, lead our horses to a mounting block and get back on. I have never used a mounting block with Chance, I don't own one, so I wasn't sure if she would want to walk up next to it. She did, but moved her butt off to the side a little. And she stood still while I got back on. 

So I am not sure how we scored, but probably not very well. That's okay. This is just for the experience, not an award. We have another one coming up on June 2nd. So maybe this time it won't rain and we will do better!! 

Now, remember the ShowSheen Try-Pak giveaway I had awhile ago? One of the winners never contacted me, so my contact with Absorbine told me to draw 2 more winning names for a Try-Pak. And so here are the 2 new winners....

Crystal and Laura!!! Please email me your mailing addresses to thepaintedcreek@gmail.com. Thank you!!