The show is at Port Mayaka in Okeechobee, FL. We are going with several people and horses. Paul is taking Buddy. He has been doing really well over the last couple weeks. and I think that he will do really well. I think he has gotten over his people fear.

Miss Anna and Bunny are competing at the Preliminary Level for the first time. They have been training really well over the summer and I think that they are also doing to do great.

Jan and Jack are also going to be competing. He should strut his stuff over the course of the show. They should have some fun.
 
Afterwards, Paul and Little Dude are going to be driving at the holiday horse fest in west palm beach on December 11, 2011. There is going to be a lot of people at this show and suspect that Little Dude is going to be in heaven. they are supposed to be over 5000 people. I’ll keep you informed about the shows on twitter, Google+, and Facebook.

As far as show go, Paul will be driving him in the hazards at the Wellington Fall Classic this weekend. I will be driving Bunny in Cones. Paul & Buddy are doing the pleasure classes + the cones.

On the Buddy front….. hopefully he has learned his lessons over the summer and he will behave. He is only 6 and he needed to learn the same lessons that LD had to learn a year ago.

I will keep everyone updated on the show via twitter.

Everyone went over to the Fred Merriam Clinic a couple weekends ago. LD showed a lot of improvement in his dressage work + Fred actually drove him a bit as well. I have a little bit of hope that I might one day be able to drive him short term anyways.

Buddy saw a hazard for the first time there as well & I was in the back of his carriage for it. I learned a couple things. One, Paul doesn’t listen & two, bud seems to have enjoyed the challenge. I am actually looking forward to this event. I finally get to so something!

Keep you posted!

Well, as for the job. I am going to give navigating a try. “gatoring” is the person who is on the back of the marathon carriage. Paul has been driving another pony named “buddy” & he has a marathon carriage. His official first show will be the Port Mayaka May Day HDT. So, we will how he does.

Little dude has done very well this past show. Paul and Little Dude did a very good dressage & cones. But was really cool was LD was very social & calm all weekend. He didn’t even want to be turned out. He was very happy just to hang out in his stall and the people that walked by. I will have some pictures soon of the water hazard at Little Everglades HDT. I think everybody will like the shots.

I couldn’t take any pictures because I got to navigate for a another driver. It was a blast! It was her first HDT & she needed a “gator”. I hope she will continue to do it, even when she get home to Michigan.

Write again soon!

In other news, Paul’s other driving horse in training, Buddy, is coming along well. he’s getting his own 4-wheel CDE carriage at the end of the month. Buddy is a 14.2 hand Welch/TB cross gelding. He is as cute as a button. I hope to get some decent pictures of him and Paul at the clinic this weekend.

Paul’s Dressage Horse, Ben, did well at his last schooling show. he got a 62.400%. He’ll be heading to the 2 shows in Venice, FL on April 9-10, 2011.

Our current schedule is going to keep Paul hopping. Between Driving and Dressage, Paul wont have a break until the 3rd weekend in April. I will try to keep everyone updated as the event proceed.

I learned some stuff at wind chase. LD had never given me any type of speed at a competition before, so I excepted him to be slow. Quite the opposite, we had speed. I screwed up the pattern by the way I had walked the course before we went. I had walked the course WAY too tight for any type of speed, but LD didn’t get mad at me at all.   He went about his business and cantered most of the cones. He was wonderful.

On Sunday, we went over to the Little everglades Continuous Fun Drive. What a blast! First I need to say that the facility is BEAUTIFUL! The hazards (games) were both fun & interesting.  I even got LD + carriage + harness + Me weighed.  He weighs a lot less then I thought he did.  Overall, the “NO CANTERING” rule was the hardest thing for us to follow.

For one thing, LD HATES the color white. I don’t know why. He doesn’t like to be near new things that are white. One hazard was all white + very low to the ground. We got eliminated in that hazard because we cantered the entire thing.  He was very drivable but it was funny to drive. We had to spell words by using the dressage ring letter. That one was the best one for us. I couldn’t stop laughing because how LD was acting regarding the painted white circles around each letter.

I am hoping to find out if there will be any pictures available from the Little everglades event. There were plenty of people taking pictures. For our first weekend driving together in competition, I think we did very well. We didn’t win anything but I got the confidence.  I think I needed it in order for me to go ahead and fill out the Black Prong HDT Paperwork with me as his driver. Paul is his driver for the Nature Coast HDT at Black Prong in 2 weeks.  After the january BP event, LD and I will start working together on getting our act together for BP in March.

LD is improving by leaps and bounds with me. I was able to drive him last weekend a couple times and we didn’t frustrate each other. I was so happy. He was doing so good one day that a short workout went a little bit longer then Paul wanted it to because I lost all track of time. I am actually looking forward to the Fun Drive at Little Everglades now. From there, we will see if I can drive Black Prong in March! Here’s to hoping that we can get along with each other.

We did decide that it was time to sell Lookie’s harness. I wanted to hold onto it, but I don’t think Lookie would have wanted it that way.  Plus,  Paul doesn’t want to watch it degrade over time. It is the first time I have been able to agree that it is time to start moving on.  I don’t know if or when we might have a full size horse again. Paul has so many horses to work with right now, that I don’t see the need for one. I don’t ride anymore & LD was bought for me to drive, not Paul. So, time will tell.

On to the next event!

I have been driving LD some. Paul has been having us driving in the small ring, working on bending and dealing with his personality quarks. (Learning to breath on my part, mainly) We did get to go out on the polo tracks this last weekend. I am going to go ahead and sign up for the continuous drive at Little Everglades in January. I will be the first time in the open for Me in Little Dude. Paul and Bob will not be there to save me, I have got to get brave. I think it is going to be fun.

As far as upcoming events, Paul is signed up for the Black prong HDT show in January with him, although I hope to be able to compete him there in March. Paul will also be his driver for the dressage and cones at FCMR event this month. After that we will see who is his driver. Nothing is set in stone.

Paul did wonderfully over there as well. He showed just how gifted he is with horses in general as well. He drove Miss Bunny (Anna’s pony) over there to a  2nd place finish. What is amazing is that he did it without any driving practice before hand. Miss Anna got sick the day of the show and Paul literally had only 30 mins to learn the Training Level Dressage test and go warm-up & drive bunny. He had not driven bunny in months and only once in the puddle jumper that miss anna uses with bunny. I thought that task was not going to have a the good outcome that it did. He has a gift for horses that I just can’t explain. I just wish I had that type of talent.

He has a gift. I don’t know if there is any more to be said than that.

Pictures are available of Paul driving both miss bunny  & Little Dude.  Just follow the links below for the pictures.
Paul Driving Miss Bunny (Jan Navigating in Hazards) & Paul Driving Little Dude

He is going to make a wonderful driving pony for me one day (if I can get my act together). I have started to drive him again, but only about once a week. I need to learn to trust him and he needs to learn to trust me too.  Paul is making sure that we are learning together in a safe manner that both of us can handle and not try to harm each other.  But, it looks like Paul will be driving Little Dude for the January’s Black Prong Event.  The closing date is just too close for me to say that Little Dude and I will be on the same page by then.