Summer Clinic Campout

Volume 2 of our clinic campouts. I'm really liking the format for this point in my life. It's fun being 2025 me who just rolls in with a baby pony who's literally been out in a field for three months and is going to bring who knows what to the party. We just see where the week with the clinican takes us.

2026 equine happenings will probably look a whole lot more structured, but if I can I'd like to take a little of this current self forward with me - especially with horses there's a lot of opportunity in not being attached to a plan or a schedule.

Anyway, in keeping with 2025 me, the last clinic I went to was 3 months ago and that was also the last time I trailered horses anywhere.

So, Reggie was a little surprised when I loaded him into the trailer. Then, very surprised when it wasn't even a fire drill and the door closed we drove off to a farm about 45 minutes away. In keeping with our last clinic's fun, a few of us decided to camp on site. Reggie's neighbours this time were my good friend's two geldings and they all decided to be besties at first sight. Her two are older but the goofy gelding energy is strong in all of them and they instantly adopted Reggie into their bitey face stallion games mayhem.

He liked this a lot better than a stall

Making himself right at home

For our first lesson we just recapped what we learned 3 months ago. Reggie exceeded any and all expectations. I would have been totally fine with anything, my main goal with any of these outings is just for him to get out and about and have fun. Any learning or gains beyond that is a bonus. 

is suddenly looking like a grownup tho

Apparently though, time is not a real concept in Reggieville, because remembered 3 months ago like it was the day before, and even learned a few extra things since then.  I'm guessing rather than magic, that happened just by being handled fairly regularly this summer.  Our 45 minutes went by in a flash, but to recap, he's at some point learned how to longe walk/trot/halt/reverse very solidly. He does shoulder in along the rail, he does haunches in. I can send him away, I can ask him to come back. Turns on the forehand, turns on the haunches. The answer to anything you ask is "Yes!" and it happens immediately. He tricked a whole lot of people into thinking I'd been doing a ton of work, but I think the giveaways of how very green he is are there if you know where to look - it's a very fine line for me to keep the energy levels from spiraling over the top and the pony on task. I don't think he truly knows as much as it looks like (yet). He's very much just mirroring his handler and being an uber smart and sensitive little overachiever.  

His first night sleepover went well. My friend's geldings had a bigger pen to share and enough room to really run. Reggie's was a smaller space, but with room to move, so happy thundering hooves were heard playing well into the night :) That felt like a relief because at our last stay away we had outdoor stalls and by the third day he was getting stir crazy despite my best efforts at getting him out a lot.

my accommodations. 

For our second lesson, the antics of the previous night must have taken the edge off because he was pretty much exactly like the horse he is at home (spicy and a huge personality, but in a fun way). We did some modified walk trot patterns and WE type questions on the end of his lead and he was absolutely great. He's about the most bold and confident guy you'll ever meet, so he literally just wants to eat obstacles for lunch (or smash them, depending on how satisfying the noise is). So, with that conquered, it seemed an opportune time to think about next steps, ground driving in particular. He got to wear a saddle pad and a surcingle. I want to say it was the first time he'd had a girth on of any type. He's a sensitive guy who doesn't overly love things touching him unexpectedly, so again I had minimal expectations for anything. But again, he tried so hard for us. While he certainly needed some time to think on things, he happily walked and trotted around in his new wardrobe.

He feels very standard Welsh Cob - like the drama and reactions and feelings are high, but there is not a mean bone in his body. His brain always remains installed and available for direction, to the point you might wonder if he's really just having a bit fun with you. The saddle pad was for sure going to eat him, then .5 sec later he wanted to eat it instead, lol.

We've been in the middle of a drought and have some serious forest fires around, so rain was welcome, but oh my gosh did it ever start raining the second night. In retrospect, had I known how bad it was going to be I would have taken him home for the night. As it was, everyone else was planning on staying and G had the truck on a fishing trip, so poor Reggie just got a rainsheet and multiple apologies from me. His dislike of things touching him includes rain (and blankets) so he wasn't an overly happy camper. Luckily his new friends were much less spoiled and far more worldly and set a good example of horses functioning like horses. So, he resigned himself to life in the great outdoors. That didn't stop him from asking everyone he met to 1) take him home with them and 2) take off his blanket. It's amusing to me how many people got the memo and were like "OK so I know this sounds weird but I swear Reggie asked me to take his rainsheet off" :D

He fits Bridget's blankets already! I was a bit worried I didn't have anything for him, but I had one in the trailer from some long ago Bridget adventure. Can we also appreciate that he was OK with me putting a blanket on him? And despite some thoughts of removing/eating it, he left it alone all night? In my defense, our climate is mild and blanketing seemed like a problem for future, more mature Reggie, rather than the current situation with two destructive babies sharing a paddock and their own pony cottage ;)

Our third lesson was immediately the next morning and it was still monsooning. Reggie got his wish and I finally took the rainsheet off for our lesson but now the rain was touching him and he short circuited a little. He was really struggling with the blowing rain (honestly I wasn't a fan either), but hello, experience we needed to have. We again put the surcingle on, this time adding a second line clipped to the top ring. The clinician looked after that line while I looked after the other, playing around with letting it fall over his back or behind his back legs. Eventually I took on both, longeing on the circle with one line off the near side of his halter and one coming off the top off the surcingle. I liked that as a gentle way to introduce us both. I'm still just longeing as I normally would, but we both can get a feel for having an extra line around and no big deal if either of us loses the plot, I can drop the one connected to the surcingle with no risk. That line IS currently problematic for him but he's sensible enough about it that I'm feeling confident to keep going without a coach or helper present. Eventually when we're both comfortable I'll have a line on each side of a cavesson and do things 'correctly', but this felt like big steps towards ground driving and eventually riding.

sorry for the non exciting images - I had big plans and the nice camera with me but the weather was awful for our lessons and I didn't want to ask anyone to stand out in the rain to play photographer.

An added bonus to the absolutely miserable weather was that Reggie couldn't wait to hop on the trailer and go home. No loose horse PTSD or shares in Folgers coffee or a carrot farm required this time LOL. The downside to the miserable weather was that the highway had a tree fall on it and we were stuck in traffic at a standstill for 30 minutes or so while the crews came to clear it and restore the power. I won't pretend he was quiet to trailer or happy to wait - impatience is basically his middle name right now, so there was some pawing and carrying on back there. But, nothing overly silly and again the expectations for a 2 year old travelling without a friend to his second clinic ever are not high :)  Anyway, the delay just made getting home to a hot shower (and dry barn for Reggie) even sweeter. His buddy Buck was over the top excited to see him again. It's nice how they are still the absolute best of friends but not unmanageably herd bound. I love my mares but I do feel like geldings get the win for generally being more amenable to changing social situations.

reunited at home and some sunshine coming back

We've got another clinic tentatively scheduled in 2 months, making it mid October. I'm thinking if ground driving with Reggie is going well, we'll let Buck have a turn. 

let it be known I have now harrowed my arena because I have plans of actually doing some ground driving homework