Shady Oaks Combined Driving Event

Joseph and I went to this last weekend. We were two of about 50 volunteers. It takes a lot of people to run one of these! We had a great time, staying at Motel 6 in Lodi on Saturday night.

A Combined Driving Event is like a Combined Training Event before they took out the Roads and Track part of the Cross Country phase.

 Dressage is dressage but the arena is 40x100 meters instead of 20x60 meters.

Instead of cross country jumps. they have obstacles that are like mini-mazes. You have to go through each part in the correct order and in the correct direction. Each obstacle gets timed.

 We were judges at obstacle 3, the Water Hole.

This is a four in hand going throuhg obstacle 2, right behind my back. I didn't get to watch much. Then they disappeared into an orchard for a while before coming out for obstacle 3.

The jumping on the third day is replaced by a cones course, with gates made of two cones a precise distance apart. Each cone has a ball on it, so if the wheels even jostle the cone a little bit, the ball falls off.

Volunteering at horse shows is a great way to participate without loading up the horse and all the stuff!

Welcome, HusBun

Silver and I went to the Rabbit Haven adoption fair, where she had her nails clipped and scent gland cleaned, and met Pierre. Pierre came home with us as the new husbun. Bonding is ongoing and hopefully they can soon share a bunker.

 

He is more than twice her size.

Pierre is a rex bunny, so he is very soft but without whiskers and eyelashes. Here, you can see he likes to get out for exercise. While he was out, Silver escaped and explored his pen, then came out and chsed him around.  There was not growling or boxing or biting. I hope this works out.

Fairy Tale, Raider, and Yndi

Here are the photos I took on Tuesday. The white horse is Fairy Tale, a Gypsy Drum mare. The black horse is Raider, a young Percheron. The buckskin is Yndi. At 12.2, I don't let her play with the draft horses.

Tired

I have taken one person to a Dr appointment, and another person to a hair cut, the foot Dr for my new orthotics, a lesson from Amber, the supermarket for a week of groceries, some drama with a Gotland pony far away, the Gotland society and a horse rescue that has questionable ethics. I am pooped.

And the tire. I got the tire set up to drag, and thought I would drag it around while I led Yndi so she would get used to it. She got used to it in mere seconds, but I dragged it further because other people were getting used to it. It was heavy. I dragged it too far, and I nearly died.

I thought Yndi would drag it in the lesson on Wednesday, but no, we worked on leg yield in hand. It was hard. Yndi's bad habit of running me down came back. My foot hurts.

I took some great pictures on Tuesday. Yndi, and Raider the Percheron and Fairy Tale the Gypsy Drum Horse. I can't show them to you. Blogger won't load them. Today, anyway.

Good Week

I have sold three things on etsy this week, that is awesome!

I had an incredible lesson with Amber on Wednesday. Thursday I ground drove Yndi all over the ranch, with lots of stopping and chatting. She was so good!

My new orthotics came in. I have to make an appointment to get them.

Yndi? Hooked? Soon?

Well, Yndi is doing will in her training. Amber wants to set a date when she will be hooked. This is both exiting and scary. Can we do this without Roger? Amber has driving experience, but a while back. Yndi is used to her and in familiar Indian Hill territory. We will probably be fine.

She was funny last time I long lined her. She has a French link looser ring snaffle and she chews chew chew it. She sucks it up and down and gets drooly. Her main problem has been halting with a person behind her. We practice a lot. So.... we were practicing, halt, walk-on, halt, walk-on, chew chew. Sometimes not so good at halt, I said "Stand" and she stopped. Stopped fidgeting, stopped CHEWING! "Walk on" and the chewing resumed. Silly girl.

Two of my batik carrots sold!

I listed these:

Carrot Series One through Six

Carrots, listed on etsy today! 

Nice cotton twill, each done freehand. 

Wax totally removed. 

Size varies, 8" to 12".

Buy one, or more.

Milpitas High School Junior

Silver

Silver got a new grass mat. It still has that 'new mat' smell.

Lydia is not well. We think she tripped and fell in her after bath run on Monday and strained her back. That mead it hard to squat and poop, so now she is constipated. At the vet yesterday she had x-rays and got pain pills, but is still constipated and uncomfortable. Today I am taking her for an enema. I need to look up the symptoms of Lyme disease too.

Yndi