Well the ponies are all learning their new discipline. The last of them are being retrained. I am very pleased with the scores of those that have already been retrained. My National Champion stallions have taken to it beautifully, both trained to what I consider poor in the tasks, scoring high in the 300's. Exactly like I expected them too. My Grands are doing well too, as are my Experts. There is a good deal of competition in the Beginner and Novice levels. I expect to see improvement each event they compete in. If not in placing then in final score. Thus far I consider the experiment to be a success. Now I need to update my show string post to reflect all the changes. Only one horse that is competing is competing in something other than TDE, and that is Dreamer in Harness.
I have cut down on my mare band, even after sterilizing several of them I ended up rehoming them. I am going back and charting out which horses fit my goals. I am thinking of channelling my efforts into 3 Day Event ponies. Right now I have horses competing in TDE, Dressage, Harness Racing, English, Endurance, and one in Western (he's not doing that well and needs to change). My one Harness Racer is undefeated in 93 events, none of my other horses come anywhere close.
Just did a bunch of culling, my herd is pretty well suited to TDE. Retraining a few to see if they can't pick up a title or two higher. One should really be culled -- based on the standards I set for them -- but I'm giving her a shot because the one low area she has that puts her over my requirements is the lowest of importance by my rankings. Now I need to update my show string list and make some changes in my notes. |