Sunday, November 16, 2008

Last jackpot...

... at least for a little while. Our district doesn't have any more booked after today's. Kimfer mentioned that Charlie had e-mailed her about hosting some in the new year. (one of the benefits of Kimfer & Julie being our provincial directors is that they have to approve our district jackpots so I get a bit of a head's up)
So even though I would really have stayed in bed today I got my butt up and went barrel racing. My cold is pretty much over (I think) but I have that horrible nagging cough that always lingers for me.
It was actually pretty nice out today, but we still ran indoors. Crazy to think that 2 weeks ago we had an outdoor jackpot. Even crazier to hope that we would have been able to today.
Raincloud ("Applejack") warmed up nice, a little lazy but pretty good. I remembered to try to implement some of the changes the Berteig sisters mentioned regarding leg position while we warmed up. That is going to take some work and actual concentration to break my bad habits!
We didn't place in the money today, but I didn't even care. For the first time in ages I got two really decent runs with the little guy. I was especially happy that he didn't bow out super wide coming out of 2nd on either run! :) In fact he came out of 2nd pretty much perfect and ran straight and hard to 3rd. I also remembered to push him one extra stride past 1st and I think that made our turns there much smoother. I need to remember that he always wants to turn just a tad too early on 1st.
I think where we lost time was coming in. He really doesn't like running into Walker's indoor from outside. Next spring I should ask Tom if I could come over and just work on getting him more willing to go in and then work on getting him to run in. It seems to be something to do with the change of light outside to darker inside.

5 comments:

  1. Congrats on 2 good runs! Sounds like a very good accomplishment near the end of the season here.

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  2. Yeah that change from light to dark will get alot of horses. At the World Show in Oklahoma I watched alot of runners get tripped out by having the footing change the second they ran though the gate then there is a weird and kinda steep uphill ramp (covered in dirt) that shoots them into another area. Some of the horses spotted the ramp right after the turn and slowed up before they even got to it - was like they said "wait a minute, that's not where I just came from... just where does that go?..."

    Glad you got a chance to to get out and compete. I want too as well. Looking forward to our last hurrah of the year coming up in next week.

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  3. Good for you!

    I also have problems coming out of second. It takes me a few runs to really make myself told the turn that one extra stride until my horse is completely turned.

    On the running in...is it possible to just walk AJ to the inside gate and let him find 1st before asking him to run? I haven't run inside in a few years, but I do remember having problems with my horse finding the first barrel when I ran from the outside in-I started just walking to the gate and letting him find 1st before letting him take off.
    Obviously I don't know how the arena is set up, so this might not be possible-just a thought.

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  4. BECG - walking up to the gate is not much of a problem.
    I find that when running at this arena (Walker's indoor) the horse's that can and will start to run before they're inside have better times.
    My guy will walk in but its a short distance from the door/gate to the timer line and I find he doesn't want to run too hard until partway through the pattern. (Like coming out of second).
    When we're at places where he starts to run earlier he is running good by the time we approach 1st.
    I'm quite sure its the change in lighting running in from the outside. Once we're in full on winter and we race inside there is no running in from outside and he runs better.

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  5. It's great to have friends with benefits isn't it!;-) I love that Larua works for our vet- she can reach them any time day or night.

    I'm glad you had 2 great runs, not a bad way to end a season, knowing how you can approve for next years!

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