Saber Work

Last Saturday we did a little practice for the Major Howze competition. I laid out a 4.5 mile course and set up a saber target set at the end. Minutes after the troopers took off they called me because one of the horses was already injured. The Major Howze is rough on horses. I turned around with the trailer to go pick them up, but we decided that the horse was still rideable. He just clipped the back of one of his fetlocks, which bled allot. His trooper rode him over to the target area.

The troopers made decent time on the course. I couldn't get a good time because of the horse injury delay, but it seems they were making about six miles per hour. Not bad for the first practice. The target kill ratio wasn't very good, but typical for a first practice. They hit 50% of the targets. They lined up and charged in good order, but some of the horses jinked at the target sets. More practice will correct that problem.

Tonight, we set up a saber course in the arena and practiced for about an hour. I used a simple course without jumps to give the riders a chance to focus on horse control and saber work. All did pretty well. My horse, Apache, immediately began to hyperventilate once we entered the course. He crow hopped and acted stupid, but we managed to get some work done. If I could ever get him to relax, he'd be a decent horse. The other horses did okay. Regent, Charlie, and Kidd did well after some initial hiccups. Duke managed to improve greatly once he decided there were no guns involved. Cal made some progress although he is still concerned with the noise the saber makes when it hits a target. Chili did fine with everything except the ground targets. All in all, a good practice and we didn't even get rained on.