Formation Riding Clinic

Well Diego and I did something TOTALLY different today and went to a Formation Riding Clinic, think Drill Team stuff. I got there early enough to let him run around loose in the arena and get all his ya-yas out. He was still pretty jumpy when I first went to mount up, and then we got put in the direct middle of the group of 13 at the first line up; all I could think at first was how big of a wreck that could be. Thankfully Dig does "whoa" and stand very well.

The instructor was a retired mounted police officer, and just did a REALLY great job and kept everything very slow for a while and then we built up skills from there. By the end of the day, we were walking and trotting in colums of 1, 2, 4 & 8 and could put ourselves into and out of the columns at the walk and trot. We also did several different turns and ways to line up and reverse. We all had a chance to be at the front, middle, and back, and rotated the partners we were with throughout the day. We had a GREAT time and Diego was so good. I think we both had a lot of fun!

Oh, and at first I was a bit hesitant to go, not knowing the group that was hosting it, High Desert Horsemen. I wasn't sure if it was going to be all QH's with jeans and cowboys hats or what, but actually it was a really fun low-key group. I think there was one other Arab, several mustangs, some QH, some jeans, some cowboy hats, but also a lot of helmets and aussie and endurance saddles and I wasn't the only one in tights. =) Although I think I was the only one with bright blue tack. ;) I'm looking forward to doing more with this group. They have a big two-day despooking clinic in Oct or Nov that I can hardly wait to do. Just fun, fun all around!!!