Yes, it was a wonderful weekend of driving and spending time with my beloved daughter, Gretchen. I arrived at Wentworth Farm about midnight on Thursday and tried to be very quiet as I knew Kim (Larry’s girl) was sound asleep. Thankfully, I was able to go to sleep almost as my head hit the pillows. I had spent my time on the plane making sure that the entire dressage test was well memorized.
Friday morning, Kim and I loaded up the trailer with all my “stuff” including Princess Pony who seemed to be on best behavior. I followed in the rental car and checked in. Kim helped me unload and dropped the trailer off. Maggie seemed enthralled with her barn mates who were three Fjords and two half Welsh AND the tack stall next to her that had hay right up against the stall front… Even though she had plenty of hay in her stall, she followed the mantra of Welsh. Hay “stolen” tastes better than hay in your stall. The hay was quickly moved back.
Larry arrived slightly later for our little mini lesson. Friday was the dressage and cones day for Intermediate and Advance so I didn’t want to use the warm up dressage ring by the proper dressage ring but instead used the other warm up ring. With a little bit of squirming and avoidance factors, Maggie started to use the whole ring mud, water and all. I was pleased even though I had a VERY strong pony.
After about 25 minutes, both Larry and I agreed that this was all I was going to get today. Larry hopped off the back of the carriage and moved on to his other lessons for the day. I walked Maggie around the grounds for a bit making sure she relaxed…. I was then off to pick Gretchen up in Ocala.
Saturday morning was an early one. I needed to do another cones course walk through after spending plenty of time Friday evening trying to figure out all the places we would have trouble with. It was a very difficult course with tight turns and twenty six cones sets. All levels drove the same course and only the time and width of cones varied.
WE were first to go at 9am. Larry arrived at 8:20 and we hitched. Off we went to the warm up ring. Thankfully, Maggie was much more relaxed than on Friday. We did plenty of walking and some supplying trotting circles but I kept it really low key.
Entering the ring went better than expected and we had a decent entry, halt at X and salute. No spook at the hated shavings at X. As we continue down the center line, the shaving at G got a good leap over but I was able to regroup as we continued to our first forty meter circle. We did
Friday morning, Kim and I loaded up the trailer with all my “stuff” including Princess Pony who seemed to be on best behavior. I followed in the rental car and checked in. Kim helped me unload and dropped the trailer off. Maggie seemed enthralled with her barn mates who were three Fjords and two half Welsh AND the tack stall next to her that had hay right up against the stall front… Even though she had plenty of hay in her stall, she followed the mantra of Welsh. Hay “stolen” tastes better than hay in your stall. The hay was quickly moved back
Larry arrived slightly later for our little mini lesson. Friday was the dressage and cones day for Intermediate and Advance so I didn’t want to use the warm up dressage ring by the proper dressage ring but instead used the other warm up ring. With a little bit of squirming and avoidance factors, Maggie started to use the whole ring mud, water and all. I was pleased even though I had a VERY strong pony.
After about 25 minutes, both Larry and I agreed that this was all I was going to get today. Larry hopped off the back of the carriage and moved on to his other lessons for the day. I walked Maggie around the grounds for a bit making sure she relaxed…. I was then off to pick Gretchen up in Ocala.
Saturday morning was an early one. I needed to do another cones course walk through after spending plenty of time Friday evening trying to figure out all the places we would have trouble with. It was a very difficult course with tight turns and twenty six cones sets. All levels drove the same course and only the time and width of cones varied.
WE were first to go at 9am. Larry arrived at 8:20 and we hitched. Off we went to the warm up ring. Thankfully, Maggie was much more relaxed than on Friday. We did plenty of walking and some supplying trotting circles but I kept it really low key.
Entering the ring went better than expected and we had a decent entry, halt at X and salute. No spook at the hated shavings at X. As we continue down the center line, the shaving at G got a good leap over but I was able to regroup as we continued to our first forty meter circle. We did
get some bending but we definitely didn’t get her normal concentration. All the spectators and people moving chairs on the viewing areas did wonders for her abilities of keeping her head in one direction and feet moving in another Gretchen jumped on the back of the carriage and we went over to the cones warm up area. Both Gretchen and I showered Maggie with praise. All of her issues were baby stuff. Gretchen hopped off and I gave Maggie a quick warm up at speed a
nd turns. Into the ring we went with a flourish. We did our circle, halt and salute and then a big swing around to head through the start gate with some leeriness but she went. I don’t remember much about each cone set because it all happens so fast but there were some memorable moments. I do remember as we headed into set 5, Maggie saw the volunteers standing/sitting at the edge of the ring and there was a loss of momentum and small squirrel.
The more we drove the course, the more confident she got and the two back to back serpentines sets (four cones sets) really let her listen to me. The tight turns for the rest of the course went well with only minor hesitation as she ‘saw’ the photographer at sixteen.
As we went through the finish line, all I could do was praise Maggie BIG time!!! Once again, there was plenty of clapping as the announcer called out her name and told people that this was Maggie’s first CDE. Maggie made the time which was an even bigger thing for me.
Gretchen hopped on the back of the carriage as we headed back to the barn. We had to stop a couple of times because of incoming exhibitors. Much to my surprise, numerous people were very impressed with little Princess Pony and especially with her way of going.
One of the Training people that shared housing with us asked me how many cones I had down. I said “At least, 27!!!” This became the joke of our adventure since there were only 26 sets… MUCH to my surprise, we only had 5 cones down BUT they were mostly major crunching not
those little nudges that are frustrating.
The rest of Saturday was spent walking the marathon course many times with Gretchen. We were trying to figure out ALL the things that she might panic at and coming up with routes that were very friendly for first time pony.
Gretchen is AWESOME as a navigator. While Gretchen has done it several times for me, I think going to WEG really changed her attitude to her role. At WEG there was this incredible Canadian four in hand that was a ‘family’ matter of father and daughter. At the last hazard, the
daughter KNEW her Dad was totally tired. As they went into the hazard, she yelled out “DAD, do you know where you are going?” I guess Dad was tired and she talked him through EVERYTHING and they did a great job working as a team.
Gretchen was all that for me on Sunday. Even walking hazards for me, is a painful experience. My bad right ankle gets ‘annoyed’ with walking and the pain starts to drain my mental capabilities. I have to walk hazards both in their order and then backwards so my mind is actually working for the last hazards.
We came up with a game plan. We wouldn’t worry the small stuff such as kpm per hour but just the big picture of having a happy pony at the end. Gretchen wore a watch and I didn’t since I knew just driving was going to take my full concentration. I knew that I would most likely have to put Gretchen down in the water hazard and more than willing to take the hit for this. We also agreed that we would retire if we thought Maggie’s little brain was over faced by it all. WE want to have FUN and have a pony that thought it was fun also!
Well, this is what we did and we DID it!!! I won’t bore you with all the details as I have done before. Maggie did her thing and yes, I did put Gretchen down in the water hazard. We never bumped a hazard. We confidently trotted some hazards. We walked some of the complicated gates since we were still be haunted by Maggie’s lack of understanding of WHY people were standing about BUT we didn’t miss a gate. We almost made the time by less than 30 seconds.
At the end of the day, we had a VERY happy pony that had no issues at vet check and MORE than a little pony left. Gretchen and I laughed as we left the vet check and headed back down to the barn. Maggie was ready to GO again!
I guess the best part of the whole thing was the drive back to the airport for our flights home. Gretchen and I were examining the whole weekend in detail. Gretchen called Larry because we had to leave before he could come to Black Prong. Larry was very happy that TEAM Novak had such a good go by OUR standards. Gretchen had my phone on speaker so I could hear also. Larry said “Pretty impressive that a pony can go to a dressage event one weekend doing well and two weekends later go to a CDE and complete it. THAT shows you how versatile she really is!!!”
The more we drove the course, the more confident she got and the two back to back serpentines sets (four cones sets) really let her listen to me. The tight turns for the rest of the course went well with only minor hesitation as she ‘saw’ the photographer at sixteen.
As we went through the finish line, all I could do was praise Maggie BIG time!!! Once again, there was plenty of clapping as the announcer called out her name and told people that this was Maggie’s first CDE. Maggie made the time which was an even bigger thing for me.
Gretchen hopped on the back of the carriage as we headed back to the barn. We had to stop a couple of times because of incoming exhibitors. Much to my surprise, numerous people were very impressed with little Princess Pony and especially with her way of going.
One of the Training people that shared housing with us asked me how many cones I had down. I said “At least, 27!!!” This became the joke of our adventure since there were only 26 sets… MUCH to my surprise, we only had 5 cones down BUT they were mostly major crunching not
those little nudges that are frustrating.The rest of Saturday was spent walking the marathon course many times with Gretchen. We were trying to figure out ALL the things that she might panic at and coming up with routes that were very friendly for first time pony.
Gretchen is AWESOME as a navigator. While Gretchen has done it several times for me, I think going to WEG really changed her attitude to her role. At WEG there was this incredible Canadian four in hand that was a ‘family’ matter of father and daughter. At the last hazard, the
daughter KNEW her Dad was totally tired. As they went into the hazard, she yelled out “DAD, do you know where you are going?” I guess Dad was tired and she talked him through EVERYTHING and they did a great job working as a team.Gretchen was all that for me on Sunday. Even walking hazards for me, is a painful experience. My bad right ankle gets ‘annoyed’ with walking and the pain starts to drain my mental capabilities. I have to walk hazards both in their order and then backwards so my mind is actually working for the last hazards.
We came up with a game plan. We wouldn’t worry the small stuff such as kpm per hour but just the big picture of having a happy pony at the end. Gretchen wore a watch and I didn’t since I knew just driving was going to take my full concentration. I knew that I would most likely have to put Gretchen down in the water hazard and more than willing to take the hit for this. We also agreed that we would retire if we thought Maggie’s little brain was over faced by it all. WE want to have FUN and have a pony that thought it was fun also!
Well, this is what we did and we DID it!!! I won’t bore you with all the details as I have done before. Maggie did her thing and yes, I did put Gretchen down in the water hazard. We never bumped a hazard. We confidently trotted some hazards. We walked some of the complicated gates since we were still be haunted by Maggie’s lack of understanding of WHY people were standing about BUT we didn’t miss a gate. We almost made the time by less than 30 seconds.
At the end of the day, we had a VERY happy pony that had no issues at vet check and MORE than a little pony left. Gretchen and I laughed as we left the vet check and headed back down to the barn. Maggie was ready to GO again!
I guess the best part of the whole thing was the drive back to the airport for our flights home. Gretchen and I were examining the whole weekend in detail. Gretchen called Larry because we had to leave before he could come to Black Prong. Larry was very happy that TEAM Novak had such a good go by OUR standards. Gretchen had my phone on speaker so I could hear also. Larry said “Pretty impressive that a pony can go to a dressage event one weekend doing well and two weekends later go to a CDE and complete it. THAT shows you how versatile she really is!!!”
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