Thursday, April 2, 2015

New Plan

Well, if something's not working.. do the opposite.  So instead of trying to warm Prair up six ways to Sunday, today we decided to not warm Prair up. 

At all.

Since the lunging areas are death traps, Prair got a long hack in the morning (early) and put away again.  Then, thinking we could avoid the anxiety of the warm up, the new plan was just to walk straight to the ring and... go.
Annotated map of the Show Grounds

And it totally worked. 

 So after one round at 2', she away she went away until the fences were finally raised to 2'6" and again - she walked straight from her stall to the ring and.... she put down two decent rounds. 

Thinking that this may be a decent strategy for us while at a facility where every possible warm up area presents a unique challenge to the mare... I wanted to try my hand at the whole "get on go in" plan so I added one final 2' amateur class at the end of the day and aside from one late change, all went surprisingly well. 

Prair managed a 2nd in her early 2' round, a 1st and a 4th over 2'6" and another 2nd with me in the irons at the end of the day.

All in all a much, much better day at the show.

Tomorrow all hell breaks loose while the Ammys are turned loose for Equitation.  I gave Prair extra treats in an attempt to bribe her.  Fingers crossed this weird new no-warm-up plan keeps working.

8 comments:

  1. Interesting! Warmup rings are so stressful! Unfortunately, it's my eye that needs warming up, not my horse :( I have to get the chips out of the way before I go in the ring! Haha

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  2. You gotta do what works, and I'm glad you found something! That place looks CRAAAAZYYYY!

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  3. Whoa, totally different day than yesterday! Hope it all works out

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  4. Hey, I like this plan. Not sure I could ride it, but more power to you.

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  5. If the shoe fits - wear it ☺☺☺

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  6. the facilities look awesome, provided everything isn't flooded out... new plan sounds like a winner!

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  7. Catching up!! :D sounds like a great plan, I peaked at your pics so obv a winning strategy for the mare :D

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