ITREC Sunday

Sunday followed Saturday. No surprise there. This was a new day and a chance to finish the ITREC series. This would be the last competitive trail ride of the year. It would also be a day I’d get to ride with my niece, Jesse, and her friend, Crystal. This would be their first ITREC ride and it would be fun to experience this ride with them.

I loaded up Scamper in the dark so we could get to Camp Wesley Woods in time for Cowboy Church. It was a crisp morning with frost on the grass as I walked to the barn. Thankfully, we’d meet in the barn instead of sitting outside. I’d worn my warm socks and long underwear but that would not have been enough layers to sit still very long. If we had met outside, I would have been like every squirming kid you’ve sat next to in church. After the short service, I headed back to the trailer to saddle up. The sun was up and starting to melt the frost wherever it hit the grass, the contrast between shade and sunlight was obvious.

Judge Sarlynn trying to soak up the sunshine.

For each ITREC ride, we’ve been blessed to have photographers captures some amazing pictures. On this ride Lori Shatz Miller outdid herself and got some great action shots. So this post, I’ll let the pictures tell the story whenever possible. The descriptions below for the obstacles are for the Finesse Division. Working Horse and Going Green had slightly different tasks.

Obstacle 1 – Where’s Witchy?? “Pick up stick from barrel. Walk to hat and pick it up with stick. Turn 180 on haunches. Return hat to ground. Return stick to barrel.

Witchy

Lori just missed the big spook as I raised the witch hat with attached wig. The above picture is after Scamper stopped at the very edge of the judging box. But we actually fared better than my friend, Holly. Lori’s camera was ready this time. My friend did a great job sticking in the middle. I hope she forgives me for sharing this with you all.

“I’m not too sure about this..”

“That’s just what I thought, too scary!”

“I’m outta here!”

 

 

 

 

Obstacle 2 – Haunted Wagon ” Start at first line. Take rope from judge/assistant. Walk horse past second line. Turn horse to face wagon. Back four steps, pulling wagon. Drop rope.

Obstacle 3 – Trick or Treat at the Zombie’s Den “Pick up pumpkin from barrel. Walk over pole end farthest from tent. Straddle pole. Sidepass pole to tent. Person inside tent will unzip tent and offer piece of candy. Take candy, place in pumpkin. Return to barrel at a walk and replace pumpkin on barrel. You may keep candy!”

This obstacle had the potential for some excitement.  Fortunately, we had a nice ride to get to the meadow to relax before the adventuresome trick or treat.

Yep, that’s just too much!

THE HAND

Scamper was really pretty good for this obstacle except that he made sure he wasn’t too close to the tent.

Obstacle 4 – Spectacular Spidey “Begin at marked leg and proceed counter clockwise. Walk horse into center of pair of legs. Stop. Back out and proceed counter clockwise. Walk horse into center of pair of legs on opposite side. Stop. Back horse out and exit area at walk.

Spidey

The Finesse Division had the easiest task on this obstacle, in my opinion. Working Horse riders had to walk over the poles near the center. The horses had to really be careful about where they placed their feet.

Obstacle 5 – Cowboy Polo “Take broom from judge/assistant. Walk to ball. Hit ball into ‘goal’. Highest points for not hitting ball out of goal area.”

This obstacle involved a colorfully striped, large beach ball and a kitchen broom. Some horses weren’t too sure about that ball, but most in our group had no real problem. Sometimes Scamper’s biggest issue to walking up to strange people but in this case, he was good.

GOAL!

Obstacle 6 – Zombie Feeding Grounds “Walk into box, stop. Perform a 360 on forehand. Walk out of box. Try not to tick poles.”

I couldn’t find a picture of this obstacle. But picture a rectangular box with wooden poles forming the outline. Inside the box is full of leaves and human body parts covered in blood (of course they were plastic). Working Horse riders were to avoid stepping on body parts. My division didn’t have to worry about that.

Just a word about the pictures in this post. Lori Miller is so gracious to post so many pictures on ITREC’s Facebook page and she has given us permission to copy them without charge. That’s very different from any other horse event I’ve attended in the past.

All in all this ride was fun. Scamper still had a bit of a Saturday hangover and was kind of “sticky” at first. By the end of the day he was much better. The end result was the same as Saturday–fourth place. It was frankly disappointing but we were just four points behind 2nd place. The witches hat made the difference on this day. By the way, my niece finished in 2nd place and her friend took 4th place in the Working Horse Division! A good start for those two. Plus they had a chance to talk and not get interrupted by little ones.

Friends

After our awards for the Sunday ride, it was time for year end awards. Sunday’s ride was a formality for the winners of my division and the Working Horse Division. Cathy Erickson and Cheri Aldrich had their titles sowed up on Saturday. Going Green still had some drama and no one was more surprised than Linda Strohschein when she was announced the year end winner of the belt buckle for Going Green.

I did take home 2nd place in Finesse and have a beautiful key chain as a reminder of our adventures. I am so blessed to have such a great horse and he showed his versatility this year at ITREC.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12 (NIV)