I want to hear Myrna talk about strategy!
Ok, here goes the book!
This may take awhile and I might come back to it with more later, but to get the ball rolling:
In PYR, the driver gets to choose which way to go. This may also be true depending on how other courses are set up, such as which way to go to get from gate 5 to gate 6, etc. I know that my gelding turns better to the left. Almost every horse has a good and a not-so-good side. Almost EVERY TIME I have tried to turn Alax hard right, we have PLOWED over a cone. He throws his head in the air and acts like I have asked for the world. I just figured this out this year, and so now I pick routes that are primarily on the left rein. Before, I just thought he was throwing one of his snits. It didn't happen with "easy corners", only hard turns, hence why it took so long to figure out. If I have to make a hard right turn, I try to use more room to do it with Alax.
Sometimes minis can squeeze into places that big horses can't, but you still need to walk the course to determine if there is enough room to "zig-zag" a set of cones. Some horses are just not good at zig-zagging, and I don't mean just a deviation, but a corner so tight that if you were driving a big horse, you wouldn't even attempt it. You need to know that about your horse. Patriot turns on a dime, Alax does not. Alax has more speed, so tight courses are not always to his best advantage. He loses too much momentum taking really tight corners.
If you have two gates that are close together on a "corner", get to the "outside" of the space between the cones to give you more room. (I'm not sure I explained that well.) Also, if you are going to hit a cone in gates like this, it will be the inside one. Getting to the outside of the set will help ensure that you won't hit cones. For Progressive Cones, get lined up square and ALWAYS drive the center. In PYR, minis can take gates at angles (when the gates are set at 2.5m), but not in a "measured" course.
If you have a choice about turning around before or after a gate, choose after. That way, you are not turning "into" or "towards" the gate, but have plenty of room to turn around after you have already went through it.
Try to reduce the amount of steps in between cones, but with some courses and some horses, staying on one rein will be faster than changing rein all the time.
When you are choosing a route, look up to see what you are headed. I hit a cone once because we went a direction that headed towards the out gate. Spider was focused on that instead of where I wanted him. That happened with Reva in Progressive Cones, too, where the gate was facing the creek. She thought we were going in the creek and wavered. Had I thought about this before hand, I would have given her more support physically and mentally.
Look for gates that "line up" with each other that you can take "together". Break up the course into "sections" so that you are not all over the course. Drive this half first, and then the other.
Know if your horse is better at first with flat out speed (spread out gates) or with tight gates. For example, if I drove Patriot flat out first, he would be so wired that he wouldn't listen as well later in the course for tighter gates. Alax can be just the opposite. (Depending on his mood) I may need to get the "flat out" gates done first so that he will listen for the tighter sets later. If your horse "poops out" on course, maybe you need to get the flat out gates done first and he can "putter" around the tighter gates later.
If you have to go past something "scary", get square with it enough that your horse can see that there is a way "through" the obstacle, that you are not headed right for it, but will drive past it. If you can, have an "out" that still fits within the rules. For example, in Kyle's PYR cones this year, there was one of those black wooden cut-outs shaped like a bear. Chad initially was going to have Kyle go one direction (on the left rein, Al's good one) past the bear to one last set of cones. I said that wasn't a good idea because if Al doesn't like the bear, he will go right and Kyle will have a hard time getting to that last set of cones. So we made the Bear gate Kyle's last set of cones so that he could either go left (the short route) or right (the "out", but longer route) to the Finish. We talked about this with Kyle during our course walk. Sure enough, Alax "stressed out" about the bear and Kyle turned him right. I couldn't say anything to Kyle during this run (nobody can talk to the driver during obstacles), so he had to remember this himself.
Some courses can require a "knockdown" or something you have to reach. If you drive this on the left of the obstacle (if possible), you have your right hand to use your whip or can put your whip and reins into the left hand to use your right. Practice driving with your reins in one hand for just such an occasion. I have known drivers that have not even attempted an "optional" obstacle, and I couldn't figure out why until I found out that they didn't feel they could drive one-handed.
As Lori said, "DON'T LOOK AT THE CONES!" Here is the mechanics of looking at the cones: You line your horse up. As you get closer to the gate, you focus on one cone. As you focus down, your head, shoulder, and ultimately your hand drop, too. As your hand drops, it tightens the rein. As the rein is tightened, the horse turns that direction AND RUNS OVER THE CONE! This is also true in narrow poles. Here is what you need to do: Get lined up with the gate and as you approach the gate, look at the winker stay adjustment buckle in between your horse's ears. Don't forget to breathe. Once your axle is past the gate, focus on the next gate. The wider the gate, the less you need to focus on the buckle, and really the only purpose of looking at the buckle is to TRAIN YOURSELF not to look at the cone! I'm serious!...you need to practice this!
Tell yourself, "Look up, look up, look up!"
You need to make sure your horse continues to move forward, or at least be engaged. Sloppy, strung out horses hit cones. Dolly is a semi-lazy mare and when you approach gates with her, we sometimes give her a little tap with the whip to keep her forward. Otherwise, she will putter through. The nice thing is that she is very accurate, so as long as she is forward, she is clean. If I touched Alax with the whip at a gate, it would unnerve him enough to bump him sideways. I just use a cluck with him, if anything.
In numbered cones, pay attention to "blind gates" or places where you may not be able to see the next number. These are typically the ones that people drive "backward". They know that "this one is #5", but don't look to see which way it is to be driven. A gate driven backward is a sure Elimination.
Know how the class is scored. Sometimes it is on speed and knockdowns are a penalty, sometimes it is on knockdowns and speed is a tie-breaker. In speed classes, knockdowns aren't going to be as important, and maybe you can "sacrifice" a ball. I have known people (including myself) that have hit balls and still won the class because the time with the 5-sec. penalty per ball still was faster than other drives. In knockdown classes, you'd better be accurate or you may not be in the ribbons.
Know the penalty rules. In pleasure driving, a canter is defined as three strides if an advantage is gained, and six if no advantage is gained. This is left up to the judge. At Walnut Hill this year, it was more like, "You pop a shoulder and you're done". I've got it on video. In CDEs, you can canter cones.
So here's the start of the Cones Strategy book. A big part of it is "know your horse". In order to do that, you need to practice.
Anyone else have any other strategies? I know that I probably forgot to list some here.
Myrna
