Tally and I have been on a bit of a rollercoaster of massive highs then deep depressions again. He did his first Training (3') event with me on Waitangi Day (6/2/2008). His dressage was shit, I forgot the test and Tally sulked the entire test as he thought it was boring. He nearly fell over with shock when he noticed the bright yellow judges car and *gasp* SHEEP. Warming up for cross-country he went absolutely beserk and leapt the practise jump frrom a stride out, then reared before the start box. In my view, biased as it may have been, the XC was huge. Tally absolutely loved it, he went beautifully. The one jump I was terrified of, he cleared by miles. He jumped clear in the show-jumping and came second on his dressage score.
His next event, he did a shit dressage, went absolutely beserk before the XC, rearing and bucking, then leapt the first three fences from two strides out, smacked his knees on the fourth, refused the 5th and had a massive rearing fit, so I retired. This was a massive "back to the drawing board" moment, so I've been working his brain with some clicker training and just doing light schooling. The chiro came out on Wednesday and Tally wasn't walking straight by miles, so he had his back readjusted etc etc and is walking much straighter but is very stiff. I was going to show-jump today but decided that due to his stiffness, this just wasn't fair.
Cross-country at Wanganui, homeward bound!
Being cute in the paddock (22-2-2008)
The two faces of Tally
The first jump at Aoukautere
