2019 5th Annual Functional Horsemanship Arena Challenge Results

On 5 October 2019 we finished the 5th Annual Arena Challenge. West Texas had received quite a bit of rain in the weeks and day before the event, but we were blessed with clear skies, a light wind and 85 degree temperatures to see riders compete in the four divisions of Stock Horse, Open, Intermediate and Novice. Riders entered the arena and executed horsemanship tasks and negotiated obstacles while being evaluated by two judges with diverse horsemanship backgrounds - Martha Diaz, a noted Dressage competitor and instructor, who combined with Sara Tyree, a Extreme Cowboy Association (EXCA) judge and horse trainer, to evaluate each rider.

My goal for this annual event is to promote horsemanship and motivate competitors to never stop learning, and I try do that by putting some tasks and obstacles together that will challenge them. Such as small box turnarounds, tight switchback turns around upright poles, barrel patterns and other riding that requires the rider to get and maintain a good bend to their horse.

I also intend for this annual competition to allow rider's across disciplines to compete equally, build respect across disciplines and share horsemanship by demonstrating what do they do and how they handle their horses. It is eye opening when a Dressage rider say's "what do you mean when I have to ground tie my horse, or back him up with the reins while standing in a box?" Or when a Pleasure or Trail rider states that they "don't know what leg yield or shoulder's in movement is." And even when a Team Roper say's "Backing in a circle? Why in the world would I want to back my horses in a circle?"

Most years I include tasks from competition the year before that rider's had trouble with as well as trying to introduce new things. This year I had the rider's dismount at the end of their run, blindfold their horse and lead out. I do not have a time limit on tasks or obstacle, as it doesn't do a horse any good to attempt sometime for 60 seconds then have to move on without success. Really just teaching them that they can or should avoid things that initially bother them. Not allowing the time for the horse and rider to sort it out doesn't help them developing their thinking and build their confidence. So we give as much time to the horse and rider as they rider needs.

With the blindfold tasks this paid off as several or even most of the horses had trouble with a shirt being draped over their head blocking their vision, but with the rider letting the horse know they were there and not putting pressure on the horse until they were ready, almost all the horses ended up leading out after just a bit of sacking out. I got onto the blindfold thing when I was stuck in a grazing unit when a hail storm hit. I ended up taking my shirt off and covering my horse's head to minimize the effect of the hail hitting him, until the storm abated. Blindfold's have use when moving horse's through fire and smoke such as a barn on fire or evacuating for a wildlands fire.

One task that I almost always include is lead departures but this year I had the rider's announce what lead they intended on departing on. As they rode to the end of the arena, the turned then executed a shoulder in movement halfway back before transitioning to a leg yield (forward momentum with lateral movement) around a barrel.

This year in the stockhorse division I added a task that required the rider to throw a long, flat loop around and barrel and trot their horse around the barrel feeding out their rope, stopping, reversing and trotting around the barrel while they re-coiled their rope. Sometimes you get a loop on a calf and need to give him slack as he moves, especially if he's moving on his own accord closer to the branding fire or spot where you doctoring the calves. This was the first time many performed a rope management type drill and several told me they were going to practice it as they saw the usefulness of it.

This article wouldn't be complete without mentioning the winners, so when final scores were tallied, the results were:

Stock Horse Division: 1st Place - LuAnne Santiago (Chaparral, NM); 2nd Place - Laurie Esparza (Socorro, TX); and 3rd Place - Jessica Bailey (Chaparral, NM).

Open Division: 1st Place - Robin Lackey (Las Cruces, NM); 2nd Place - Lauie Esparza (Socorro, TX); and 3rd Place - LuAnne Santiago (Chaparral, NM).

Intermediate Division: 1st Place - Marianne Bailey (Chaparral, NM); Kay Lee (Las Cruces, NM); and 3rd Place - Jessica Bailey (Chaparral, NM).

Novice Division: 1st Place - Joyce Getrost (Las Cruces, NM); 2nd Place - Jessica Bailey (Chaparral, NM); and 3rd Place - Mark Schleicher (Carr, CO).

The Horsemanship Award, voted on by the competitors and the judges was won by Debby Hale of Deer Mountain, Texas.



The prize table was again robust and it wouldn't have been so without generous support from our major sponsors: Cashel Company (Cindy Lang); Starr Western Wear (Edie Zuvanich); Spokane Traffic Control (Tammy and Mike Beggs); Animal Health International (Adrian Morales); Tractor Supply Company (Ben Lucas); Linda Seeds Tack and Repair; and VCM Equine Management.

We also thank Claudia Lukason, owner of The Edge Equine Solutions and lifetime barrel racer, who was on hand to donate several Mineral Lick Tubs and provide Magna-Wave treatment on 4 horses and several humans. Claudia has an uncanny ability to find a problem spot on a horse very quickly, let the owner know what she thinks is going on and treating that issue with her Magna-Wave therapeutic unit.

Arena Patterns: Ground Poles and Box

This is another easy pattern or obstacle for your arena, consisting of ground poles and a box, that everyone can use and use in multiple ways so you and your horse and can get a lot out it. While it can just be used as ground poles to go over and over with your horse to help him learn to pick his feet up, and to help you with the timing of the feet, it can also be used for turns, backing, side passing and tight turn arounds with forward momentum, which judging from the Arena Obstacle Challenges I run each year, seem to be a problem area for many horses and riders.

I had a client in my arena riding a horse who was half draft horse - pretty tall maybe 17 hands, but short backed actually. The pair had a problem with turning tight circles. We weren't going to get everything solved that day, but after working on lateral and vertical flexion, and controlling the head/neck, front end, barrel and back end - which I advocated doing everytime that horse was pulled to ride, we moved onto the drills you see in the diagrams below. As I demonstrated the many various things you can do with ground poles, the client said words to the effect that she "would have never thought about doing anything but riding over the ground poles like cavalettis, like in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Riding over the ground poles really helps the horse pick his feet up. The change of interval from the first five poles to the last ground pole on the far side of the circle adds a challenge in concentration. I think this exercise also puts a reason into asking the horse to get soft, drop his nose vertical, as it helps him see the ground poles.  You can also change up the interval from pole to pole.

  

Figure 2. This is pretty much the same exercise as Figure 1 but adds a small circle under forward momentum in the box. I have my box with 6 foot long sides, but if you have a really large horse you can extend the box somewhat. I do that for big horses competing in Arena Obstacle Challenges. The idea is to do this circle smoothly without it looking like a narrow turn on the hocks, then a step forward, then another narrow turn on the hocks. It helps if the horse is soft and can follow his nose keeping the bend without fading out - which requires forward momentum. The follow on to the circle in the box is to do the circle using only a neck rein and once you can do that, do it using only leg cues and pressure.

Figure 3. This exercise is riding between the ground poles, doing a turn around after you get through the poles in order to get lined up and go through the next set.  The basic idea is to do a 180 degree turn with forward momentum.  You can turn on the front end or on the hocks which will likely require re-lining up a bit to proceed forward through the next ground poles.  After four trips between the ground poles, you enter the box and execute a 360 degree turn with forward momentum.

Figure 4. This is pretty challenging - riding forward between two poles, side passing to get lined up for the next set, then backing up. Repeating this until you can side pass over then step into the box for a tight circle.

While you could ride over this pattern and these obstacles for a while before ever doing the same thing, if you change up the way you enter the poles, or doing it in reverse, I would consider sticking to a particular pattern until you horse gets comfortable with it and improves quite a bit before you change it up.  You can also side pass over the poles - in fact, another way I use ground poles is to trot over them and stop my horse so he has his front feet on one side of a ground pole and the rear feet on the other side of the pole, then side pass him one direction or the other.    

You are only limited by your imagination and what's safe for you and your horse to perform.  One more variation is that once inside the box, position up and do turns on the hocks or on the front end rather than doing a circle.           

Arena Obstacles: Ground Poles

It's hard to compete in any obstacle related event where you don't have the requirement of trotting or even loping over ground poles. Some of the ground pole obstacles will have specified distances between poles, sometimes basing the distance between poles to the required gait they have to be negotiated at. And sometimes you may see ground poles arranged like the spoke of a wheel, much narrower space closer to the center of the wheel and also elevated to add to the degree of difficulty.

A year or so ago, I was demonstrating riding an obstacle course that had three ground poles laid out before you had to cross over a wooden pallet bridge. The horse I was on riding did just fine, not nicking any poles and crossing the bridge in stride. The riders asked me to explain how I got my horse to do so well. My reply was "well you'll have to ask my horse. All I did was give him his head, direct him forward on a loose rein and he did the rest." I got the impression they thought I was giving a flippant answer, but really all I did was just get out of his way, thinking that he would likely not want to step on this poles.

A few days ago at a horse show this topic came up again when I was asked by someone how to get their horse trotting over ground poles without clipping them with their feet. The person explained that no matter how many times they tried to go over ground poles her horse would clip the poles with his feet. She also asked what was the exact distance apart they should be putting these ground poles. What I told her was as far as distance apart, pole to pole, she should look at the rule books for the type of competition she was doing - sort of like rehearsing that obstacle. Otherwise I'd vary the distance as it's likely to improve the horse's thinking and timing.   I asked them how much she practice traversing ground poles and she replied once or twice a week she would take her horse over the ground poles a few times, but her horse would clip so many of them she would stop not wanting to sore up her horse's feet.

I asked her if she was using 4 inch oilfield pipe for ground poles. She said they were PVC pipe, so I replied I wouldn't worry so much about your horse hitting the PVC ground poles, it's really only annoying the horse and that annoyance will work in your favor if you ask your horse to go over the ground poles more than a few times he'll get tired of hitting his hooves and have more attention  picking up his feet and maintaining suspension over the pole. 

She asked me what signals I'm doing with the reins and my legs to get the horse to pickup his feet. I told her that while I'm diligently working on connecting the reins to a horse's feet, I'm just not good enough to do to influence a horse when crossing ground poles. I just give the horse it's head via a loose rein, and use my legs and seat to keep his momentum up to maintain the gait across the poles.

Ground poles are something you'll likely have to do more than once a week to get good at, and just a few attempts at crossing these poles probably ain't enough either. I know ground poles are boring but they don't have to be. In the diagram below, I've attempted to depict crossing a set of ground poles, then adding a turn on the forehand or turn on the hocks to get set up for a repeat run over the poles.

You could also double your horse to bring him back over the poles. I'll just bet that after six or eight passes over the poles, the amount of times a horse clips the poles will decrease. I also like to mix up the tempo as well. After each pass over the poles and turn around, whether it's a turn on the forehand or hocks or whatever, sometimes I'll stop for 30 seconds or so before I ask the horse to go, and sometimes we'll move right out after the turn around.

Just remember that crossing ground poles is much harder for the horse when the rider is in contact with the horse's mouth as the horse needs to see what he needs to be stepping over. Riding over the poles on a loose rein, allowing the horse from freedom with his head or having a horse that will soften at the poll when asked is not only an asset, usually just plain necessary to negotiating the poles. Your seat and balance can affect the horse's timing as well. Bouncing around the seat, or being pulled forward if you are riding in contact as the horse drops his head to see the poles is not giving the horse the best chance either.

One pole obstacle that I have been doing lately adds small turns at the trot, stop, side pass one pole in one direction and another pole in another direction.  It's kind of hard to pass up a chance to work on lateral movement. 

So when training or if running an arena obstacles challenge consider adding tasks to that obstacles whether they are just ground poles or not.  If you have an arena or field with an obstacle course you have probably figured out that it gets boring to both you and the horse to do the same obstacles, the same way all the time. Plus nobody wants to spend a lot of time setting up obstacles, so it becomes necessary to getting the most value out of each obstacle. Figure out different ways to negotiate the same obstacle, keeping your horse and you mentally fresh as well as challenging your leadership and the horse's abilities.

Backing in an Circle

When some people start backing their horse in a circle I think they assume since they ride in a forwards circle in an arc,...... with the horse's nose slightly tipped in the direction of the circle and using the outside leg to push the horse around the inside leg,.... that they think they can do the same only going backwards to achieve the backing in a circle.  I sure as heck can't get it done that way.

At some point the rider will usually use his outside leg to move the back end into the circle and because the nose is tipped to the inside this slows the momentum, usually to a stop, and then the horse may make a large movement with the back end sort of like a roll back and his head comes up. The end result is that both the horse and the rider are frustrated as the horse can't figure out what you want and the rider....

When I back in a circle, I'll start with my horse straight then ask him for some softness and back him a step, and as he begins to finish that first step, I tip his head very slightly in the opposite direction of my circle or arc.

It's likely a good starting point to do this initial movement a few times giving the horse a short break in between each time so he understands that's what you are asking. And without much outside leg pressure, you also likely see the beginning of an arc.

In the beginning I had to have a light hold on outside rein to keep his head tipped slightly to the outside and with the inside rein I use pressure and release to get him to back, using my outside leg to apply a little bit of pressure on the rear of his barrel to keep the back end moving inside the arc.

You'll have to forgive my drawing above (I'm only slightly more advanced than drawing stick horses) as well as my narrative on how I back a horse in a circle. It's hard to describe accurately what you do in the saddle,.......probably easier to describe how to castrate a house cat, that's why I shot the video below, it should do a better job at explaining.

In the video below, while my horse is not backing in a collected manner (broke at the poll) as I'm not so much in contact with the bosal on his nose,....it's at the end of a long day, but he does have a natural head set and that's okay with me as long as he is not being bracey and keeps his momentum. 

Arena Obstacles: Twist on the Old Rope Gate Obstacle

If you have ridden in several American Competitive Trail Horse Association (ACTHA) Challenges, it is likely you have seen the rope gate obstacle. It struck me as odd to ride a six mile trail ride only to come to a simple rope gate as an obstacle. But I guess it serves to see if the horse and rider can position up to open and shut the rope gate. And of course the rope gate, which is safer than wire gates, is something you'd don't see in a pasture but is safe way to measure these skills.

ACTHA recognized that not all riding groups have access to six miles of trail, which also necessitate six different judges or a pretty well planned route and organized transportation system to move people for judges around, so they came up with the Arena Obstacle Challenge format.   While ACTHA did not invent the arena obstacle format as many local and regional competitions have been using this type of obstacle format for decades, it is a great idea. Probably the most famous, or at least most challenging, of these arena obstacles are the Extreme Cowboy Racing Association (EXCA) founded by Craig Cameron years ago.

I'm of the opinion that if I spend hours trailering to and from an event, such as an arena challenge, I liked to ride against multiple and challenging obstacles. Some of this can be achieved by putting your imagination to work and designing obstacles that require multiple tasks on horseback using obstacles.

In other words, get multiple uses of your obstacles. This saves time and space, as well as letting the competitors go home thinking they got their money's worth.

The drawing above is a diagram on how to get more from your common rope gate obstacle. Basically the idea is to restrict approach to the rope gate so the rider has the challenge of positioning his/her horse for the gate as opposed to riding straight in.

After the rider opens the gate, moves through then closes the gate, a dismount is required. Then the rider opens the gate with his horse in hand, moves his horse through, then closes the gate. The last task would be to re-mount either from the fence or a mounting block.

The rope gate obstacle as run this way requires not only the ability to position up your horse for a side pass to open the gate, then go through and re-secure the gate, but also requires moving your horse in a tight circle or moving his hind end independently of the front end; it requires a demonstration of a safe dismount and how well the horse stands before an open gate before given the cue to proceed through the gate in hand; and lastly requires a mount from a mounting block or fence where the rider needs to position his/her horse to enable this mounting.

The gate in this instance is nothing more than a length of rope with a snap link on the gate opening end. A length of PVC pipe with a cross piece to retain the snap link serves as the gate latch. A traffic cone helps hold the PVC pipe in place and reminds the rider not to bump into it. The anchor end of the rope gate is simply secured to the arena fence. I'm using a lightweight wooden ground pole to restrict access/approach to the rope gate, but small traffic cones or a flour line poured onto the ground will work as well.

In the video below I am demonstrating how I think this obstacles should go, albeit smoother for better riders than I am.