Jamulfest Gymkhana 10-16-2011

My daughter joined me to ride Hoss in the gymkhana for Jamulfest this year. Jamulfest draws many more riders than the other gymkhanas during the year. There's a parade in the morning, and vendors and games and a beer garden set up in the church parking lot for the day. The gymkhana offers buckles for the winners at this event.

Before we left, I trimmed Hoss's feet and fit him with his new Easyboot Edges. They seemed to fit him very well right from the start.

When we arrived, there was a rider down in the arena surrounded by three or four people. Horses and riders were filing out of the arena. It turned out that, while warming up in the arena, a young girl was bucked off and stepped on by her horse. She had failed to tighten her girth adequately, resulting in the saddle pad slipping out behind the saddle. The horse was irritated by the loose pad and bucked in an effort to rid herself of it. The rider went over the horse's head, failed to release the reins, and pulled the horse right onto herself. She was stepped on badly, on her head, breaking her helmet in four pieces. She had a gash down her face from the mare's foot. An ambulance drove her to a location Life Flight could retrieve her from (Life Flight could land at the arena, it's plenty big enough, but nobody wants to land a helicopter that close to 100+ horses; they'd have more people to tend to) and she was taken to the hospital. It has since been reported that she underwent surgery to fix her eye and sew up her gash, and she will come home today. The only thing I am rather appalled by is, it took an incident of this nature to cause the gymkhana organizer to require anyone under 18 to wear helmets. I've never understood why they weren't required for all riders, never mind for children.

There were five events in the gymkhana, one of which we did not participate in. We figured the Pony Express event wasn't for us. This requires two horses and riders, so it was a little impractical. The other four events were Figure 8 Flags, Speed Ball, Cups, and Keyhole.

While the Pony Express event was being run, I rode Hoss along the road on the back side of the arena. We'd taken a lesson the day before, so I was trying to work on my new lesson. Hoss was particularly lively and ornery. I trotted him down to the far end of the arena and tried to turn him around. He started bucking. I pulled him into a spin, kicking him and asking for softness. It took a few circles, but he gave in. Then we trotted back down. Again I asked him to turn around, and I got sideways toward the other horses. Once again I circled him, and even "doubled" him on the arena fence. "Doubling" involves turning him into the fence, then back into the fence, back and forth until he moves out as expected. I got him paying better attention, then headed back down to the far end, where he again proceeded to try to bolt and buck. I spun him around some more and kicked the snot out of him. Fortunately everyone was paying attention to the competitors in the arena and very few noticed our little fight.

It was quite a little battle, and those boots stayed on just fine. I thought it was a pretty danged nice test, considering the tap dance he was doing in them.

It was just about time for my daughter to take Hoss in for Figure 8 Flags, so I got Hoss back over to the gate and hand him over. I instructed my daughter on the technique for getting Hoss to behave himself, then turned them loose.

My daughter and Hoss prepare to go in

This was a tough day for Hoss. He wanted nothing more than to run like a maniac. The events we were doing required control. And, of course, we had missed warm up, so he was hot.

In Figure 8 Flags, you ride down with one flag in your hand. There are two barrels set up with buckets of sand on them, each with a flag in it. The object is to plant the flag you have in your hand in the farthest bucket, get the other flag out, circle around back to the first barrel, plant the flag you've just picked up and get the last flag, then finish in the middle. And of course it's a figure 8, so you go around the barrels in opposite directions.

My daughter rode down to the second barrel, got her flag planted, and Hoss jumped back from the barrel. She tried to get him closer, but he was not having it. They went around the barrel three times – the limit – and went ahead and came back.

My daughter attempting Figure 8 Flags

On my turn, I rode Hoss on down, planted my flag, was reaching for the other, and Hoss moved away from the bucket. Nothing I could do would get him closer to that barrel. I got some improvement before we made our three turns, and then the back of my left leg cramped! I hollered, "Near-fatal butt cramp!" got a flag to take back and went out of the arena with a very crampy leg.

So both of us got no times on Figure 8 Flags. Hoss has always been suspicious of barrels. I suppose this is something I'll have to really work on.

My daughter trotting down for Speedball

The second event was Speedball. My daughter rode Hoss down to the cone, and Hoss was not about to have anything to do with the thing. He's done this event at least twice before and done just fine, stopping right next to the cone. Today he was not going to get anywhere close to it. So my daughter finally took the chance and tossed her golf ball into the cone. A shout of amazement went up from the crowd. No one could believe she'd gotten the shot from at least a foot away.

My attempt at Speedball

On my turn, Hoss was just as ornery. No way was he getting next to the thing, at least not as close as I wanted him. When I dropped my ball, I missed. Another no time for me.

The third event was cups. This turned out to be a little easier. My daughter rode Hoss down to the far pole with the cup on it, retrieved the cup, and rode to the second pole and was able to stick her cup on securely. They then ran all the way back down to the gate.

I did okay as well. Hoss was fine with getting close enough to the poles. I don't know what the heck he was thinking. Usually he's much more cooperative, but I suppose I should have seen it coming what with his behavior outside the ring and in our lesson the previous day. I let him run back down to the end of the arena.

Hoss and I finish Cups

The last event was Keyhole. A chalk outline is drawn in the arena, a narrow lane with a circle. The object is to go between the chalk lines, into the circle, turn about, and go back out without stepping out of the chalk outline.

Hoss has always had a bizarre relationship with "different color dirt." While riding, if we come across dirt of a different color than what we've been seeing, he will stare at it with great suspicion and may even refuse to cross it. He's gotten far better about it, often just going through it with little or no encouragement.

My daughter rode Hoss down to the entrance into the keyhole. Hoss planted his feet and would have nothing to do with it. We weren't able to find a pair of spurs for my daughter to use, so her kicking was ineffectual. She finally hauled him into a circle, after which point he walked obediently enough into the keyhole, turned about, and came back out. They set the record for the longest keyhole: 74 seconds.

When I rode Hoss down to the keyhole, he gave me a little resistance, and while I was trying to correct him, the right rein came off the bit!  I stopped him and leaned forward to try to reattach the rein (it's a clip and it had come loose), which he took as time to turn around and go back. I circled him around a few times, then the judge said, just get off, I'll let you go again.  I hopped off, fixed my rein, rode back down and started again.  On our second try, he jogged right into the keyhole, turned about, and trotted right back out.  I moved him up to a canter to return to the gate.
It was pretty late by the time we got home. We went into town and picked up pizza for the rest of the family – my husband and both kids were home, plus my daughter's boyfriend – and we gave a ride to a horse back to its home. I fed Hoss, and my husband made me my dinner. I can't have the pizza, so he grilled me up a hamburger patty to go with my salad. I was a bit of a bad girl and ate a sliver of pizza. My son saved me from myself and ate the last of the pizza.

When I took Hoss out for our walk this morning, I noticed he was stumbling every once and a while on his left front. I suspect that trip on Thursday caused a bruise in that foot. When we got home, I cleaned up his soles and put his Easyboot Gloves on. He'll stay in the pasture the rest of this week. He already appears happier. With any luck, he'll heal up in plenty of time to go to Moab on the 25^th.