Play Day

By Patty Wilber

The forests were closed. (But it is raining still! Some areas just reopened!! On the other hand, some of the trails we maintain in the Pecos burned in the Jaraso fire–that is another story…) The point is this: last weekend, we Back Country Horsemen folks had no trail projects to work, so some members decided to put on a Play Day.

Lisa took more than 400 photographs (except this one ‘cuz she obviously didn’t take it herself–tho it was her camera!) Almost all of the pictures in this blog are hers.  Thanks Lisa!

 It was not a small undertaking!

There was food and drink and obstacles and games!  I brought my gate, some barrels and a mounting block.

There was a bridge over a tarp, a cowboy curtain (a blue tarp shredded and hung from a rod), a log drag, an elephant block, a slicker and hat, poles, a big stuffed animal that we put on our saddles (wildlife rescue!), move a plank around a barrel, trot over logs, a tent, a walk in wash rack with a  dog at the fence (and you had to back out) and horse bobbing for apples!

We played the ribbon game (ride in pairs, each person holding the end of a ribbon (or toilet paper) and the last pair still holding on, wins), a clothes race (race at whatever speed to the end of the arena, get off, don over-sized clothes, remount, race back to the other end), egg on a spoon (winner is the last one with the egg on the spoon!) and I “judged” walk trot and a walk trot lope class that had horses, mules and donkeys. There may also have been a ride-a-buck class, where you sit on a dollar bill and the last one with their dollar bill gets all the money–not sure if that one went off or not, but it was on the agenda!

Wait!  “Agenda” is just the Wrong (capital Wrong) term for a Play Day.  Game List?  Event Schedule?

It was PLAY! Something us serious and responsible grown-ups frequently forget we can do and enjoy (and it might even be good for us!)

I recruited Marcia (she brought Top) and I took Mojo and Stetson (might as well earn a paycheck while playing, um…does that mean I wasn’t really playing???).

Truthfully, it was lots of fun (and good training).

I have standard obstacles (poles, bridges, gate, cones) that you might see at a show in the class called “trail”–which is really kind of a silly name because the class called trail is rather unrelated to riding on an actual trail… But my horses have not seen some of the fun challenges set up at the play day.

I did not even get to all of them! Bobbing for apples for example.

Cathy and Sox bobbing for apples!

I started on the ground.

Stetson and the cowboy curtain: “don’t wanna”

The horses trust me (most of the time) so my strategy was: go through myself, apply some tension to the lead line and ask him to give it try. In just a moment…

Stetson says: …well….

ahh! ok ok i am going!!

Notice that he doesn’t really LIKE it–his head is up and he is moving hesitantly, but I asked, so he tried.  I just love the try!  We did it a few times on the ground and then rode him through!  Mojo too.

Going for it! Look how quiet his body is!

The tarp and bridge were a big non-event for both Mojo and Stetson, which is kind of funny because at the last show, the bridge threw Stetson completely off his game and he danced around it as though it were crouched and ready to attack…For this bridge, Stetson did not even hesitate and Mojo seemed to think it was pretty fun!

The move the plank around the barrel was problematic for both because of the noise of the board on the barrel (our barrels were metal). But, I walked them each around the obstacle, then walked them around while carrying the plank and then walked them one step at a time while riding and both did it really well–if a little slowly! No pictures of this but here is the set up copied from the Internet:

Pick up the board, walk a circle while holding the board and keeping the end on the one barrel. Replace.

Stetson needed more time than I spent to get into the elephant block, but Mojo took to it like his next job will be in the circus (or maybe he just liked the feeling of being so much taller!).  When I rode him to it (after the introduction from the ground), there was no hesitation. Up he stepped!

After the playing, we had wonderful food and a local cowboy poet for entertainment (oh yeah and a meeting).

Thanks to the organizers!  It was a blast.

And more good news: In two weeks Pecos BCH’ers will be back on the trail!  We are packing supplies for the Volunteers For the Outdoors and I will be excited to get Toots and Lacey out there (and Jim will take Cometa–who is recovered and back to his sassy self.)