Are you game?

Excellence takes many forms in the equestrian world.  There is the elegance of dressage, the precision of jumping, the savvy of a good cow-horse and the bravery of an eventer.  But for breathtaking 'wow' factor it's hard to beat the excitement of Mounted Games and the amazing athleticism of the riders and ponies who play them.

This weekend I was lucky enough to be able to watch a Mounted Games Clinic with Jim Dunn and Cindy Johnson of the Canadian Mounted Games Association.  Mounted Games is an evolution of the Pony Club's Prince Phillip Games and, unlike PPG, it is open to riders of all ages.  It was inspiring to watch the riders, mostly from Pony Club, work on their running vaults, hand-offs and targetting.  I came away with many new drills and lots of insider techniques I can hardly wait to pass on when our games practices get up and running in the spring!

Take-away message from the clinic:  there's training and there's practice.  Training is repeating a skill over and over again till both you and your pony are so bored you can do it with your eyes closed.  In other words, you're working on muscle memory for both you and the pony, just like we do with sword drills.  Practice is taking those trained skills and stringing them together to rehearse games at increasing speeds until you're at the top of your speed and accuracy.  Spending time training before you practice makes your practice more efficient and your game smoother.

If you want a longer look at what the clinic was like, this video was taken at a similar clinic with Jim and Cindy in Alberta.

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In unrelated news photographer Kam Lau dropped by the Red Colt Open House in September and took some lovely photos of the horses and barn.  Check them out here.

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Finally, thanks to everyone who came out to the barn to lend a hand on Sunday.  I'm not sure whose backs are sorest:  those on digging and gravel crew or those of us who were hauling up rubber mats and unearthing the layers beneath them.  Whichever gang you were on though, the horses (and all of us humans at Red Colt too) are very grateful!