New play ground

New play groundToday I spent most of the afternoon setting up a new playground which I will use for the next few weeks. I went to the hardware store and got some bollards and witches hat (orange cones). Only spent $100 which is not too bad. I made a neat squeeze using cones topped by those soft foam noodles that kids use at the pool. The playground now includes a weave pattern, a figure of 8 pattern which I can do standing on a pedestal, a ground pole, a tarp on the ground, a tarp strung between trees for the horses to go under, a float, a row of cones to play the yoyo game and a couple of jumps. I also have a few hoola hoops and other bits and pieces I can use.
It was with some trepidation that I took my "just started horse" trigger for a play. It's my third play session with him and as I have said before he is a very big 10 yo TB who has done nothing for years and raced in his early life. I must say I rehearsed in my head what I would do if he freaked out when he saw all the bright colors. He is a LBE who goes RBE when unconfident. I dont' think the RBE is his real horsenality but has been learnt from racing and I can't wait to discover the real Trigger.
Anyway, I channel Pat, as Linda would say, and much to my delight it went really well. We played for about 1 hour with no drama. Did the figure of 8, the weave the jumps... Even managed to walk calmly over the tarp at the end. As long as I interrupt the pattern when he starts going RBE and do plenty of hindquaters disengament I manage to keep him with me. I went home a bit on a high and feeling much more confident that I could deal with big horses. I also realised that size didn't really matter, even a smaller horse is still going to be way bigger and stronger than me. It's all about savvy!!!