Krista Wilson Muldoon from Maryland worked tirelessly Saturday giving clinics. The kids all appreciated getting to polish skills. We all loved Krista’s positive attitude and constructive pointers. Krista designed both novice and masters obstacle courses and paired up the seven Intermediate/Masters Pairs. The pairings were kept under wraps until all the riders were tacked up and at the arena. Once pairs were announced, the teams had five minutes to come up with a team name. We were all impressed with how creative the teams were under pressure. 

Most of the riders took part in at least one clinic on Saturday and some took two clinics. Several riders took advantage of the beautiful horse trails at this venue Saturday afternoon. S. Melvin took her pony swimming in the lake on Sunday after the competitions were over!

We had 18 riders, all with at least some games experience. Saturday’s highlight was a Novice/Advanced Pairs scrimmage. This scrimmage was originally planned to be a beginner’s scrimmage but since we didn’t have any beginners (all of our newest riders to games had great novice skills), we decided that we would pair each with a rider who has ridden in the Advanced level. We made sure these Advanced riders were on calm ponies and stipulated that the Advanced riders could only walk or trot. This allowed the novice riders an opportunity to gain experience with an advanced level partner. The scrimmage played in a 4-lane field. What fun it was cheering all of the pairs. All of the novice riders showed that they will be the kids to watch one day.

On Sunday, the individuals obstacle course gave our riders a unique and exciting way of testing their skills. Most of the riders haven’t had a chance to take part in this type of competition. Each riders’ primary goal, besides trying to get a stellar time, was to try and improve on their own first round time by correcting mistakes during the second round. Over half of the field did just that. Five-second penalties were assessed for uncorrected errors such as a tipped stone or sock outside of the bucket. Riders had to quickly decide if it would take more than 5 seconds to fix the mistake. First and second place in the Masters obstacle course was literally decided by tenths of a second. What an exciting result.

Our two Intermediate riders held their own in the Masters obstacle course with extremely respectable times. These girls were paired with other Masters riders and competed in the pairs competition. This competition was fun and challenging since most of the pairs had never ridden together before. This is a great way to quickly make fast friends (no pun intended).

It was exciting to have so many riders from out of state … five riders from North Carolina, five from Georgia, and two from Maryland. We were blessed by absolutely wonderful weather that had the first hint of fall in the air.

Many thanks for all who came out, worked tirelessly and supported the competition. Particular gratitude goes to Krista Wilson Muldoon for coming from so far to be our clinician. Thank you for your wonderful instruction and hard work. You were a major reason this event was such a success. We also want to recognize those that pitched in and brought loaner ponies from out of state: Julie Ann Holland and Nancy Harmon. These same ladies also pitched in hours and hours of setting up and handing out equipment. Thank you to Carrie Gates for being our medical staff and patching up more than one games-related ouchy and also helping with timing and scorekeeping. All those that pitched in to round up and repack equipment, hats off to you. Many thanks to Rick Henderson of Croft State Natural Area for seeing to the needs of everyone and making sure we had everything we needed to run a smooth event from a working PA system to garbage cans by the arena. He runs a tip-top barn, too.