Three of us fox trotter people in the group lesson were assigned to ride three abreast…noses lined up. \u00a0We were instructed to go at a flat foot walk. \u00a0Well that is fine and good, but on the arena corners, some of us were walking and others were going much faster. \u00a0On the straight-away, some of us had to fox trot to keep up. \u00a0Lucky was doing a fine fox walk…a little faster than a flat foot walk and not quite a full fox trot.<\/p>\n
Finally the rules were explained to us and we adjusted. The outside horse is the lead horse. \u00a0The outside horse couldn’t go faster than the other horses could do their flat foot walk. \u00a0We figured it out. \u00a0We rode around that arena like we owned it. \u00a0We were a force to be respected.<\/p>\n
The best drill teams has horses that are very close to all the other horses. \u00a0There’s not much room between horses when you are doing it right.<\/p>\n
Here’s what Lucky Star did. \u00a0He drilled his ears flat back and tried really hard to go faster than the other horses. \u00a0I continually had to pull him down into a slower speed. \u00a0With horses, ears flat backwards means “I’m going to bite and kick you.” \u00a0It’s alarming for the rider to have a horse that broadcasts such a hate message to other horses. \u00a0Other riders aren’t especially fond of people with horses that want to bite or kick their horse. \u00a0The place for such a horse is out of the arena or control that horse!\u00a0This ears back language is not wanted in a show arena either. \u00a0 Show judges typically do not place such a bad attitude, no matter how great they are performing.<\/p>\n
So, I’m thinking, Lucky is wanting to hurt my drill team partners. \u00a0But \u00a0as we rode along, he didn’t attempt to kick or bite. \u00a0hmmmm<\/p>\n
Here’s what it is. \u00a0Lucky Star is the leader. \u00a0He was telling the other horses that he controls them. Ears back, “I’m in charge of you”. \u00a0Going fast is another way to let the other horses know who is boss. \u00a0The horse in front is the boss.<\/p>\n
That’s what Lucky Star was saying. \u00a0“I’m in charge of you. \u00a0Obey me. \u00a0Stay behind me!”<\/p>\n
After the drill team successfully circled the arena in a flat foot walk, we were assigned to do a fox trot.<\/p>\n
Since fox trot has different speeds, we were allowed to do this single file.<\/p>\n
Lucky Star became the leader. \u00a0We burned up that arena! \u00a0Burned a hole in the track. \u00a0We came around to the end of the arena where we normally balk, and Lucky Star fired his way through and we burned a deeper hole on the rail. \u00a0We led the pack with Drill Team Lucky Star in charge. \u00a0Drill Team leaders never balk. \u00a0They stay in front…in charge and in control.<\/p>\n
Boy Howdy!<\/p>\n
Group lesson over for Lucky Star and treats administered into his awaiting mouth!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three of us fox trotter people in the group lesson were assigned to ride three abreast…noses lined up. \u00a0We were instructed to go at a flat foot walk. \u00a0Well that is fine and good, but on the arena corners, some of us were walking and others were going much faster. \u00a0On the straight-away, some of us had to fox trot to keep up. \u00a0Lucky was doing a fine fox walk…a little faster than a flat foot walk and not quite a full fox trot. Finally the rules were explained to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-country-franks-lucky-star","category-missouri-fox-trotter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2561,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions\/2561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}