Hercules was a true gentleman today for his first “public” appearance. He was very well mannered and a pleasure to be around. We arrived early and spent some time getting Hercules groomed. We wanted him to look his best. Hercules would be the only mustang to compete here today and was a great ambassador for the breed.

The online course was the first “test” of the day. There were over 20 competitors. There were two courses going on at the same time and we were #4 on the far course. We had a series of 4 tasks to do within a 5 minute time limit and we were awarded points for doing each task. We could do the tasks in any order. The tasks were to have me sit on a hay bail and pick up all 4 feet and clean them (without moving off of the hay bail), standing in a 8 foot circle and fly spraying both sides of the horse without the horse stepping out of the circle, slalom the horse through a line of 6 cones from a line that was 9 feet away, and last was to “squeeze” the horse over 3-35 gallon drums laid on their side from a hoola hoop that was 6 feet away. The fly spray task was the only one we knew we could do but we gave all the rest of them a try. I was able to get 3 of Hercules 4 hooves up and cleaned while sitting on the hay and Hercules “snacking”. Then we went to the fly spray and aced that one. Next we tried the slalom. And though we had been practicing this at home we had not been practicing from that distance and we didn’t do so well. Hercules got confused as to what I was asking him to do so we ended up just passing on the task. Then we went to the barrels. We haven’t practiced him jumping anything so I settled for him going up and touching the barrels. I knew that later in the day I would have to ride him over the barrels so we would come back later and practice that.

After the lunch break I went back to the trailer and saddled up Herc so that we could practice before our test. I also discovered the Herc likes to drink out of water bottles. We were to go #3 on the course. Janet worked with Herc on the ground and getting him over the drums so he understood what I was going to ask him to do. Once I was in the saddle he was all business and did everything he was asked to do. The basket had not been put in place yet so I practiced picking up a helmet from the drum and moving it to the other drum.

Our tasks that we would have to complete in the “Freestyle” class (under saddle) would be. Picking up a basket full of stinky lama hair from a 55 gallon drum and packing over 20 feet and setting it down on another drum, cross the 3-35 gallon drums 4 times (twice each way), trot or canter each direction 4 times around a 90’ diameter circle and then stand in the middle with the horses head over the drum for 7 seconds on a loose rein, and then to go inside a 20’ diameter circle and place the horses front hooves in a hoola-hoop and do a circle on the forehand and then place the horses back hooves in the hoola-hoop and do a circle on the haunches.

When it was time to start the course we got our first glimpse of the basket. It was a huge stuffed Easter bunny basket. Then the kicker is when you picked it up it made a noise like a bouncing spring. Herc did great until I went to set the basket down and then he got a little worried and backed away from the drum. After a little bit of encouragement however he did move back to the drum so that I could set the basket down. Then we went on to the drums and passed over those with ease. Hercules chose not to jump them (why exert energy to jump when I can just walk over them) and calmly walked over them 4 times. He was kind of sluggish on his trot and I lost count of how many times we had gone around the circle so looked kind of funny but did finally get our 4 circles done and then Hercules decided it would be more fun to knock over the drum instead of stand with his head over it. By this time we were out of time. I was so thrilled with how well he did and how well he took everything in.