My riding vacation veered into learning experience.

Tanza picked up a rock on Tuesday.  I felt he was off but did not jump off and investigate, and I KNEW better than to think that just because I was riding with a vet meant it was ok to just shut my mind off and expect them to tell me if the horse is off,  but I did it anyway.   I am struggling to take it as tough love, rather than obnoxious jerk that they didn't say anything.  But regardless of why, it is a good lesson to me to never never ever rely on people riding with me to help assess anything going on with my horse.  And Tanza is stupidly stoic and just sucked it up when I didn't investigate and remove the rock.   That means I probably need to get a HRM with him and I need to really listen when he gives his subtle complaints that he is tired or something aint quite right.

But he also got race brain on Tuesday so I can't only putter with LDs on him, as I don't want to be riding a horse that is go go go through a technical section where I want him to slow down a bit and really pay attention to the trail.  

Also if the RM does this format next year,  I will probably plan on just riding a couple days, go home for a few days and come back for the second weekend of riding.  Most of the in-state folks did that this year and it wasn't so much fun for me with all the other region folks that knew each other with me not knowing who they were.   

But it was ok.  I hadn't scribed for a vet in over a decade and that was a good refresher and I got to know the ride vet a bit more.  He is really gruff in the vet line.  I now think that this is because he is naturally pretty friendly; so he forces himself to be gruff and abrupt to keep the vet line moving along.  I liked his style.  CRI on every horse, and then pass/fail for other parameters; both vets would mention if guts were quiet, or a horse was a little bit off.