1st lap Canter for the Cause 2018 Pemlico Track

This is the raw video footage from my first lap in the 2018 Canter for the Cause ride. It was done on Pimlico track. Forest and I hadn't been riding together very long and he was only a little over a year off from racing.
I wasn't terribly confident in our relationship at the time. I was also really annoyed that there was constantly slow people hugging the rail and were in the way of us going fast.
You can see that he wasn't really interested in going into the starting gate which is interesting. I really didn't think that would be an issue.
I was in my Australian saddle back when it fit him really well. Prior to his growth spurt and me having it modified by the master Colin Dangaard to fit Forest again.
I modified a hackamore for the ride and pretty much threw it away right after the ride. It gave me real control over him at all and never fit him right. You can see my fleece nose wrap that I made to keep it from rubbing on him.
The video really gets rolling at the 11min mark. I really wanted to spend the first lap warming up to do a fast second lap. I really wish we could have warmed up off of the track somewhere. at he 12:20 mark we get rolling and he and Dinah get into racing mode. lol at the 12:40 mark he starts to not listen and goes for the win! at the 16min mark there's a rider that got bucked off and their group was all over the track.