Last Barn Night

Last night was the last barn night. We will be moving our equipment outdoors soon. In one way I am looking forward to it- no more dirty, smelly horse arena....

but on the other hand we do live in Alberta.....
the wind sometimes is so cold and strong it blows over all the jumps you have just set up. There are days we can't use the chute at all. It will take two sets of tunnel bags to hold the tunnels in place, and some days the dog walk is deemed unsafe (small dogs can be picked up by the wind!) The gophers and resulting holes can be killers, mowing the field is not all that fun and although I enjoy being outside the bugs, hot sun and resulting sun burn is not all that pleasant.

then again some days are beautiful and perfect...I personally enjoy training outdoors more than indoors. For some reason it seems like there is more freedom. For us, there is most definitely more training time- as we can go out pretty much anytime we'd like and train.

Last night Wicca stayed home and the boys got to come. As a barn wrap-up we ran two courses- a steeplechase and a gamble.

Vito got to play and did pieces of the steeplechase. He did really great and actually did better than I thought he would! He was super excited to be there, and with help from Julia to rev him up at the start line he dove through the tire and onto the course. His A-frame was great, except he face planted on the way up the first time! But his contacts were good- I am still baiting the target for him but he is clearly understanding what I want! He had a great send to the table, and finished the course in great time. He had a blast!

I ran Boone as well- he was VERY excited to get to play, and took only a little reminding of what a start line is. We have been working hard at home every day so it was nice to see that he is getting it. I like to run courses once in a while as it gives you a good indication of what you need to work on. Boone also got to do the gamble- which of course he didn't get but he had fun gathering points!!! He is so cute when he runs!

Boone:
Sending ahead to a jump
Tunnel discrimination
rear cross on jumps
finding a line
weave poles
contact independance


Vito:
distance
sending ahead
discrimination
weave poles
speed and motivation