Opps

Opps, is right!  Boy oh boy did we have a lousy run the otherday!  We were supposed to head out for a 2 1/2hr run but we needed to stop at a creek that we pass about a half hour out to fill up water buckets for feeding later that night.

I have never done this with this team, though my older team- the one my son is running this year- has done it bunches of times.  So I really didn't expect to have any trouble.  Wrong.

To get down to the creek we have to turn off the main dirt road and take a little trail to the river bank.  There I was going to turn them along the river, stop the atv, get off wade out and fill the buckets, get back on, turn the team around and head on down the road for another two hours.

The problem was I have no adult, experienced leaders, and to accomplish the above task requires about 7-8 new commands for the yearlings to learn (well really they aren't new, just applied in a different context than normal... it is stil "gee" for right turn, "haw" for left, "whoa" to stop, and "hup" to go.  Anyway...)

It turns out 7-8 commands in a new context was about 6-7 too many!

The short version is a 10min. stop for water turned into a 45min pain in the neck.  Both the dogs and I were so dispirited by the exercise I decided to cut the rest of the run short and home!

And that leads me right back into the Goal Setting post I started the other day...right where I will pick it up next.....