In my mind, the most important characteristic of a budding Event horse is curiosity combined with a willingness to explore new realms of the world. Our horses have to be incredibly versatile and able to adapt to many different situations in appropriate manners. Cross a river? Sure. Trot through a field of cows? It might have to happen. Go over little ditches, creeks, and skinny trails? Yep. All of these things are stepping stones on the way to leaping straight over that big log directly into the water at The Fork, or jumping the coffin combination at Jersey Fresh, or even simply galloping away from the rest of the crowd at his very first event. Leo needs to understand that he and I are a team, that he can rely on me completely, even when things are a little freaky.
I ride Leo for short periods of time, because due to both his general lack of fitness and his mental immaturity he can’t really handle more than 20-30 minutes of work. He still thinks that works is, well, really HARD! I believe it’s a combination of actually not having the muscles to competently do the exercises as well as an overall lack of work ethic. However, we’ve been learning new and exciting things each day! I want him to think about our sessions together as mentally stimulating, fun, and rewarding. He’s a smart horse, and I think he will really thrive on having new activities instead of repetitive hum drum boring stuff.
Once a week Leo goes on an extreme adventure with his stablemate Nyls, who is surprisingly adept at playing babysitter. I conveniently have access to about 2,000 acres of land in conservation easement that is owned by a friend and neighbor who is an avid fox hunter, and therefore makes sure that there are trails, gates, coops, and river crossings maintained all year round. This land connects to mine, as well as extending all down the dirt road where my farm is, so I get to adventure through it all the time. Leo met some donkeys (Walter and John Henry) for the first time and clearly was not aware that other farm animals existed. He also crossed his very first river on Sunday, which was very exciting! I cross as many rivers as possible, and I have yet to have a horse who has a serious water problem due to the fact that it’s just a part of every day life here.
Rivers and Donkeys OH MY!
We also went to our first schooling show on Saturday, and although he doesn’t really have transitions or sometimes steering available, I figured I would see what he did traveling to another location and experiencing a small scale show environment. I have to say, he was probably the best behaved “baby” that I’ve had. He was a little nervous and gawking in the beginning, but I got there early and walked him around a lot and let him graze.
He was super for the first 10 minutes of his warmup too. That is, until I asked for the right lead. He EXPLODED! He crossed this fairly large indoor arena in about 4 strides with his head straight between his front feet, completely broncing for the rodeo. He was headed out the door, but thank all the gods, there was a lovely lady named Liz King who was sitting on an experienced Fox Hunting horse who blocked the way, because otherwise we might have ended up in the next county. He veered off and continued broncing, and I admit I thought he might get me. I regret wearing a dressage saddle, it makes things significantly more difficult when you’re trying to stay on a 17.1 hand porpoise/horse who is bolting and twisting across the arena.
However, I didn’t fall off (Leo: 0, Kate: 2). And, despite the goggling eyes and open gaping mouths of the onlookers, he was actually perfectly fine to finish his warm up after that. He was, admittedly, a little tired and therefore a little more well behaved. He did a perfectly fine test, and scored a 73% at Training level. He also wins the award for literally the first horse I’ve ever ridden that didn’t spend half of his first test spooking at the sides of the arena. As you can see below, he still has a hard time with transitions, and he’s a bit fussy in the mouth sometimes, but he scores points for rhythm and relaxation, so hooray Leo!
