Tag Archives For: ctr

09 Dec, 2013

Christmas in the Pines

/ posted in: CTR

I was out playing in the woods this weekend. I flew down to Pensacola FL for a competitive trail ride.

This was the weather on Friday.

On Saturday it dropped 30 degrees. It was cold and misty and very windy. I was wearing 2 shirts and 2 coats and was still cold. On Sunday it was t-shirt weather again.

Mules!

There were four all together. These guys were safety patrol on Saturday and the other 2 lived at the campground.

There were antlers. Some matched their owner’s.

Others were quite embarrassed that their mom was making them wear antlers.

See the difference between Saturday rider’s attire and Sunday rider’s attire?

15 Oct, 2013

Back to Alabama

/ posted in: CTR

I went back to Alabama for the second time in 3 weeks to judge a trail ride.

I didn’t think this one was going to happen. It was scheduled in a national park which shut down last week. They managed to move it to private land at the last minute which was a huge undertaking. I’m shocked that they pulled it off.

There were donkeys to pet.

I’m thinking of requiring a donkey or mule to pet in my judging contracts from now on.

There were dogs.

Of course there were the horses that I was there to see.

This guy has been competing as long as I’ve been judging, which is a long time now. He’s semi-retired but occasionally he comes out and plays for a day.

24 Sep, 2013

Trail Ride Obstacles

/ posted in: CTR, Horses

I was in Alabama this weekend to judge a trail ride. It went pretty well with only one sick horse. There was a minimal number of human injuries that resulted from humans doing something stupid.

Have you seen those pictures like this one that show a horse waiting outside an outhouse?

Turns out they are true!

This had the added degree of difficulty of the rider still holding the reins. If the horse had decided to leave that would have been a real mess! One of the complaints that some people have about our organization’s rides is that we make people do obstacles along the way. Our obstacles are nothing compared to what the riders do to themselves apparently.

I was really on my way to take a picture of this little guy.

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Heather