Open Barn at Upper Pond Stables

Today was a really fun day over at Upper Pond Stables in Litchfield. They had an open barn today and lots of fun activities and demos. They day started out cloudy and chilly but not bad. I trailered Buckshot and Marie over around 11:00 am. Brooke and I were doing the obstacle trail course demo at 1:00 pm but I wanted to see some of the other demos going on earlier. When I got there, I unloaded them and tied them to the trailer with lots of hay. Brooke came out and we groomed them both and saddled them up so we would not have to rush when it was time for our demo. We had only practiced the course just once the previous day. While that went fairly well, Marie was feeling quite fresh and kept putting in a buck each time we went up over the bank jump. Buckshot decided he would do the coffee can drag but he did not want to go near the fiberglass fence posts we'd set up to loop the end of the drag's rope on. They were electric posts and he was NOT going to touch them. Smart boy, but not good for the demo.

(The Chickens were having a great time hanging out in all our trailers. Silly things!)

This morning I threw in a couple extra obstacles so we had a water obstacle, tarp to walk over, sand pile to climb over, bank jump, triangle of logs, stone wall, coffee can drag, bridge, tires to walk through, side pass pole, backing, ditch jump and a gate. Just before it was time for our demo, it started to rain quite hard. So, we switched times with two other demos that were to be done in the indoor arena hoping the rain would pass. As luck would have it, the rain did pass. Brooke and I hurried out and did a quick run through of the course before everyone came down to watch. When it was time for the demo, both Marie and Buckshot did fantastic. They did each obstacle calmly and competently. I led the way with Marie and Brooke followed. I handed the rope for the drag off to Brooke but then Buckshot did go close enough to the fence pole so Brooke could hang it back up. GOOD BOY! He even did the side pass pole. He was unsure of what he was supposed to do but Brooke was calm and patient with him and got him to understand what she wanted. Once he understood, he was happy to do it. I am blessed to have two such wonderful equines.

After the trail demo, I did a quick talk about competitive trail riding and did a brief demo on the vetting process. Katie helped us by doing the trot out. I played the part of the vet judge and Brooke was the lay judge. Marie played herself. When we were done, we tied Marie and Buckshot back to the trailer and went in to watch Mary-Jo's bareback bridleless demo with her horse Tanqueray. She did a great job with this and everyone enjoyed it.

Brooke doing a showmanship demo with her horse Levi

Mary-Jo and her mare Mustang mare Tanqueray doing the bareback, bridleless demo.