Cones…those orange things that lay around the perimeter of most any arena. We think of them as arena cone-litter. People with horses have invented a lot of things to do with cones. We do cone-weaving, cone-circles, cone-sidepassing. Some horses even have perfected cone-squishing and don’t forget cone-eating!
In the versatility challenges, cones assume many a different role. Cones become cone-portant because they mark transition spots or patterns.
In the last Pine Dell Natural Versatility Challenge, we had cones to mark the
transition from walk to trot/center and another cone to mark the transition back down to walk. Cones demand your respect in versatility challenges.
Cone-portance demanded that the horse do the required transition exactly at the cone. In the first cone from walk to trot/canter, when the horse’s front feet came to the cone, the trot/canter was to happen. You need to know your horse for the cone-portant transitions. How many steps does it take your horse to start trotting/cantering when you ask from a walk? How long does it take your horse to come down from a trot to a walk? The answer to that is when you start asking the horse to make the transition at the cone-portant!
We have cones in every Pine Dell Versatility Challenge. Cone-portant will be
asking for transitions from slow trot to medium trot to fast trot in the next
versatility challenge. Gaited horses can do any gait faster than a walk and
slower than a canter demonstrating three different speeds.
Feel the Power of the big Orange! Feel for your horse to make snappy
transitions. It takes savvy horsemanship.