Waredaca

I must say that I have made the trip to and from Waredaca more times this past week than I think I have for the entire year! What a great place, a huge round of applause for the entire Waredaca family for running such an event. I know that Waredaca is a fun place to compete, one of the closest Horse Trials to Kaleidescape (takes us a little under an hour); but this time I got to view the competition from an entirely different perspective. Yet again I was at an event trying to complete all of my apprentice requirements to get my 'r' eventing judge's license. All weekend I got to shadow the Technical Delegate (TD) for the event. Sounds like fun, yes, until you are the one sitting out on a gator in the middle of the cross country course in the pouring down rain! I just wish that competitors for one second would take a step back and think about all of the efforts that organizers, officials, and volunteers go through so that we can run around out there and have a great time.
As if I didn't get enough of Waredaca each competition day, I went back on Tuesday for their open cross country school. I rode Freddie and Lara took Sam, with Sam really being the priority because he and Lara are competing at the Area II Beginner Novice Championships this weekend! We had some work to do! Luckily a very productive time was had by all. Sam was feeling great, almost cocky and tackled every difficult beginner novice question there (and quite a few novice ones as well) that Lara even remotely pointed him towards. Freddie had a big time. Humble beginnings, I admit, as he was completely startled by a group schooling the water and splashing thru the trees where he wasn't able to see them, poor baby horse. He recovered, however, and was soon doing some splashing of his own. In fact, he more or less took off with me into the water at one point! A little bizarre, not going to lie; but welcome and in fact so much better than taking off in the other direction as I have had green horses do on more than one occasion. Unfortunately Gunsmoke was left behind to guard the truck and trailer; and with no one else with us we have no pictures or video to prove that Lara jumped the preliminary ditch and brush with no reins and that Freddie and I bounced out of the Intermediate water :)
Morris was not left out of fun for the week, no worries. His lesson with Karen had to get rescheduled due to some pouring down rain. It won't kill him to wait until Monday no matter what he tells you. He had an excellent jump school in the indoor, and I am hoping to recreate it outside over some more difficult fences tomorrow.
It has also been an excellent week for the baby, Zeana. Check out her pictures and for sale ad on my website, we need to find this girl a home sooner rather than later and she is gonna grow up to be pretty cool! Worked in company for the first time this week, and also is now a pro at the indoor. She has been the easiest baby in the world to work with and I think even at the age of 3 there is a pretty well-functioning auto-pilot button.
Will be in touch after the weekend. Freddie has to go cross country schooling again as he prepares for his eventing debut out at Richland...Morris is gonna show him a thing or two about how the big boys do it on a championship level track. Or at least that's what I'm hoping for!
Photo of Morris, courtesy of Peacock Photography