Last Sunday, I helped out at the Walkin' N Circles Ranch sponsored ACTHA (American Competitive Trail Horse Association) ride. Lisa (of Laughing Orca Ranch) judged and her son and I came along as assistant "zombies". It was fun watching everybody ride and see all the neat costumes. (It could have been better if the wind wasn't blowing and I were riding though ;) ).
I thought a lot of the obstacles in the ride were quite challenging, especially with the high winds, but I must admit that I thought ours was fairly easy. We had the sound obstacle. The rider rode up to a rock circle or log square and had to stand quietly inside for 30 seconds. Most of the horses did great, even seeming to fall asleep but some of the horses and donkeys didn't want to step over the logs. It seemed harder for the horses to stand still than to actually be afraid of the noise. The neat thing was that Lisa dressed as a leopard and I was a zebra while her son was all camoed out like a big game hunter. We didn't even plan it. And the sound box made wild animal sounds. I think the horses were more bewildered at our costumes than the sounds. But a lot of the horses really went on alert over our "Scarey Dude" because he was blowing in the wind and there were some ghostly sounds coming from him. Afterwards, we said that we should have put Scarey Dude in the circle and then had the rider ride up and stand next to him for 30 seconds. I'll bet the scores would have been a LOT lower then! haha!!
Here are some photos from the day.
It Couldn't be Once, Without Us - song: '87 and Cry, artist: David Bowie, album: Never Let Me Down
