Back in time

It was Spring of 2016, and my 2 year old untrained stud had just arrived to his new winter home from his lavish Florida paradise. I only had plans for groundwork at first, scheduled our first showmanship and halter show for 2 months later and got to work.
Q recently gelded and just turning 3

I had an excel list of things to accomplish: cross-tying, ground-tying, tarps, lunging, cavaletti, showering, and of course everything that goes with showmanship (stand square, walk/trot at shoulder, pivot). I had devised a thermometer map to track our progress, which looked like this a few weeks before our show.
SMART goals!
We had been practicing for several weeks. And, before I proceed, I must say that Q was super quiet at home, and did the showmanship patterns relatively well. He would stand square, back, trot forward, and pivot on his right hind (most of the time). He did all of this on a slack line.

So we took the trip to the showgrounds on the day before so that Q could be familiar with the location before the show. As we waited for the trailer to pick us up, I was a bit apprehensive.  The last time he got on a trailer, he left his home and was in a no-mans-land for almost a week. My apprehension was unwarranted. He looked at the trailer, and with a little prodding, stepped on and got in place.

Once we arrived at the showgrounds, he roamed around with me, eating grass and looking. We got the opportunity to go into the indoor arena to walk around, and he was ok with it. He looked to me for guidance, but all was ok.

By the next morning, the horses on the showgrounds had gone from 5 to 50, and the loudspeakers were in full effect. People were sitting in the stadium and were shuffling around.

I had also arrived on the grounds 2 hours late, not having heard my alarm clock (and having made the bad decision to sleep at home because my bed is so comfortable). After racing to the show site, getting caught for speeding, and begging friends to feed, groom and braid my horse, I finally arrived with my pulse beating my heart out of my chest.

By the time I got Q into the arena for a last look and smell before his class, he was absolutely wired. A real spaz that couldn't stand still. He was circling around me, balking, spooking, not moving forward. Not ok.

He was a bit difficult to handle, but was never mean, aggressive, or dangerous. He was most obviously frightened and needed assurances. I was completely ok with it, and I felt that we had already accomplished the objective of the trip, which was to get him out into a new environment and build on to our training program.

We line up to enter the class, and Im second to last, waiting in the scary tunnel of doom. When its my turn, instead of walking in a straight line to the judge so that she can inspect his way of movement, Q circled twice around me. When we passed the judge, instead of trotting to the cone so that the judge could inspect his way of movement, Q did the most beautiful trotting side pass with much elevation. Instead of standing for inspection of the judge, he danced around. But, boy, did he have presence!

There were 7 horses in the class of all breeds, mostly Quarter Horses of all ages. There was to be six placings. I figured that Ill be 6th place or disqualified (for lack of doing any of the requirements and the judge's inability to inspect him). 6th place is announced and its not us. Too bad. But no big deal. They continue to announce 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and Im telling Q what a good boy he was and that we are going to go out for a few minutes rest. And then they announce us in First Place! What???

A few minutes later we return to do to Showmanship class. Of course, Q is still super wired and could not even stand for the group picture. So, he did not perform 4 out of the 5 manÅ“uvres.  We placed last.

Before I left the showgrounds, I was making the rounds of volunteers thanking them for organizing the show when the judge came up to me during a break and told me that I had a beautiful horse. I thanked her and apologized for our dancing and prancing and inability to execute the patterns. She looked me in the eyes, grabbed my arm emphatically and said: "No, you have a beautiful horse."

So we hopped on the trailer to go home, and Q had a good roll in the sand, messing up his shiny show coat, and I fed him some carrots and apples.

I learnt an important lesson that day on how sensitive my Q was to my emotions and my heartbeat. After that day, I took great caution that when my energy was in the wrong place I would not do any hard work or new lessons. Even if that meant progressing slowly.

After that show, we got back to work, and attended a mountain trail obstacle a few months later with Mark Bolender. Turns out, Mark would have many important insights for me and give me some fantastic tools to work with. It transformed our relationship.

Being away from the barn for the next 5 weeks will hopefully afford me some perspective on my objectives with Q and how I should build our training plan for the summer. Of course it will be peppered with lots of play and good times.

Coming next: Our first days in  Budapest. Sunny and warm at 16C.

Comments

  1. That's quite a compliment from the judge!! And he does look gorgeous in that photo!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Dom. I love big butts and I can not lie. But the QH judge compliment inside the sea of QH competitors, and having come from the QH world, really resonated with me especially since my Q was not quiet and well behaved like the other QHs.

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