A Little Healthy Competition

A few posts ago, I wrote about my riding goals for the upcoming year.  Most of them pertained to doing an ACTHA ride, and well... I'm doing it!

Mother's Day weekend this year, I will be doing not just one but TWO Competitive Trail Challenges (CTC). One is on Saturday, and the other is on Mother's Day Sunday. My mom has decided to white knuckle her way through the weekend with me, and we are both very nervous.  I also have a good mix of excitement added in, but I'm pretty sure my mom is just scared to compete.

We are driving almost two hours to get there, and we're going up on Friday.  There will be capture the flag on horseback Friday night, and on Saturday they have a zip line you can do as often as you'd like for $5. I think the weekend will be fun and a great experience for all of us. We are practicing different obstacles to prepare ourselves as best we can, but I need some help.

I really want to be able to turn on both the forehand and the haunches, as well as side pass well.  However, while I can get decent turns on the forehand and haunches from the ground, I need help learning how to ask for them from the saddle.  Additionally, my side passing is... well, I can sometimes get a nice 3 steps in a row but not consistently, and I could use the help of someone who actually knows what they're doing.

The great thing is, I could easily take some lessons from Silver and probably do pretty well by the second weekend in May. The bad thing is that my money is running dangerously low, and just going to do the rides is going to stretch our income as it is.

Still, I'm thrilled to be doing my first ever *real* competition. I spent a lot of time this last weekend working with Rocky on not being scared of a plastic sled- he is consistent in his fears, and the sound/movement combination of a sled makes him very uncomfortable. A perfect desensitization tool!