Sunday trail pattern

While having some "down"time this week, aka being home with a cold for a few days, I had the chance to visit Tim Kimura's website.  Tim is known as the "guru" of trail class design, earning him the moniker, "Tim the trail man".  I printed two of his patterns and studied them for some interesting challenges for Sarah for the coming weeks.  Normally, I like to set up an entire trail pattern for her once a week, or for more difficult patterns, I will break it into two different parts.  With Tim's patterns, each obstacle can be broken down into several parts!  Today, I took one obstacle from one pattern, broke it into thirds and set up a third of it.  Along with that, I added half of a gate obstacle.  These two obstacles provided challenge and entertainment for one Sunday session.  The first obstacle, called a "house" (Susan thought that it looked more like a "church", how appropriate for Sunday!) consisted of a "box" made out of poles, with a peaked top.  Laid out, it looks something like a tic-tac-toe grid with a roof on top.  The object of this one was to trot into the grid from upper right (facing the bottom of the "house"), turn 90 degrees right, pass through the middle, travel around to the left to pass again through the center of the grid and then into the "roof" and stop, do a 360 degree turn to the left, and walk out through the top of the "roof".  Many variations on this can be made.  This works great to keep the horse always thinking and listening instead of anticipating.  This was a great exercise for Sarah.  She realized that it was best to slow down and be more careful when asked to turn at a moments notice, never the same way twice.
The second obstacle was a typical rope gate, but had added difficulty, because a pole was placed lengthwise directly under the rope, so that the horse has to step over the pole while passing through the gate.  It also has a pole placed lengthwise parallel to that pole directly behind the gate, forming a narrow boundary.  So, the horse must be careful with her feet so as not to knock them into either pole while maneuvering through the gate.  Sarah did quite well with this, but a distraction for her is always the rope, she wants to reach out and bite it!  I guess that she thinks she should be the one opening and closing the gate.  Heck, if you ask her, she would rather be the one deciding everything!  Oh well...such things are in the dreams of every horse...this is why, if you can get the horse to think that it is her idea when it is actually your idea, that you will be a great trainer indeed!
Of course, when finished, Sarah had her weekly beauty treatment and manicure, and alfalfa cubes of course AND the obligatory peppermint...again, a very happy girl was she.