Trail Horse Challenge Report 2024
OMG!! Who could have predicted this was going to be such a fun and successful horse day out?? After being introduced to our judge, Tammy Wiehl, everyone a walked the course together. Before returning with horse.
We started with the Online (lead) Green obstacle competition. With 13 obstacles in 5 mins it was game on. The focus was on making it the best possible experience for the horse. No pressure, just confidence building.
Every obstacle received a score out of 10 each for both Horsemanship and confidence. Obstacles were either scored out of 5 for easy ones and out of 10 for tough ones. Hence to attempt each obstacle but not achieve it could still score you a max of 20 points per obstacle.
Stand outs for the Green Online Leesa Cato and Arlow showed us just what a beautiful, deep, relationship they had with Leesa encouraging and checking in with Arlow at each obstacle. He did amazingly despite only having one eye. Tom Walker and Kaos were inspirational as they worked their way patiently and confidently around the unfamiliar course. Congratulations to all competitors
The Open Online was a lot of fun with obstacles going up a notch in difficulty ‘the other love of my life’, Reynard, was in his element scoring 345 out of a possible 360 points finishing well under the allotted 5 minutes.
To keep horses and riders moving we also had an Online and ridden keyhole and barrel race competition this tested both their skills and fitness!! We were treated to a little bit of bronc riding from Mel and Riley evidence the spring grass is here.
The Ridden Green competition brought our participants back to entertain us again. Leesa and Arlow continued to impress as did Tom and Kaos but Mel Price and her boy Finn treated us to a display of trick riding that had us all on the edge seats.
After lunch the ‘big guns’ took to the course with Mel and Riley coming in 4th being edged out by Shirley O’Donohue and Shakaan. Coming in second was Julie Robins and her boy Max who never stopped trying to please his mum. But there can only be one winner… finishing with time to spare and giving us mere mortals a master class in relaxation and confidence was Jenny Scahill and Charleybrown. CB never flinched when the wind blew the helium balloon under his belly. The combination scored 297 out of a possible 360 points.
Well done to all who competed in our inaugural Trailhorse Challenge. Eva is already talking of running another one next year…. please fill in the survey and give us some feedback. The good, the bad and the ugly.
A big thank you to our judge Tammy Wiehl for her consistent considerate judging. Thanks also to novelties steward Jill Compton and ‘the other love of my life’, Jim Mitchell, for time keeping the novelties. Thanks also to Eva for designing and setting up the course and doing all the other little things that make a day like this such a success. And finally thank you to the participants and their trusty horses for your amazing attitude and support of one another.
Cheers Jane
Madam Prez
