Exercise with Options

beardie1234 says:

Wanted to setup the weave poles/jump sequence but didn’t have enough space clear of snow so had to settle for the A-frame to start. My leg was bothering a bit so my front crosses don’t look especially graceful…sorry about that. The blind worked better for me than the front at the start in the small space exercises. Reviewing the video I’m not sure I did the rear cross options correctly. Even to me (!), the rear seemed weird at the start. What worked better for me was the front at the start then the rear. Had lots of trouble with option 1 of the challenge. Truman wanted to take the backside of 4 every time. I think it was because I had to stay very close to him to get the curl at 3. The only way I could get him to take the front side of 4 was to give him my “close” verbal which means let me stay close to you and don’t move away from me (and you can see him head check in the video when he hears it). It was easier to get the front side of 4 with the threadle option 2. However, Truman seemed to have a harder time with the curl at 3 when I threadled him. Then, it occurred to me if I did the threadle at 2-3, I could let him slice 3, FC on the landing side of 3 and pick him up on my left, rear cross on the take off side of 4 and then the backside slice at 6. This seemed to eliminate all of the ambiguities for Tru, it was easier jumping for him and easier handling for me. Not sure it was faster, but it was a whole lot more reliable. Thanks for choosing this…good lessons for both of us.