Fancy's Horse Show Debut
- Kirsten Kumpar
- May 16, 2016
- 2 min read
Earlier this month, we hosted the last schooling show in our annual winter series, and of course Fancy had to play horse show pony! I entered him in the baby green under saddle, since we haven't started jumping yet. My goal with this horse show was to simply expose Fancy to the hustle and bustle of show day life without the additional stresses of a trailer ride or a new location, then have some treats and go back outside to be a horse. This show comes at a good time, right before I go out of town for two weeks to take some clients to the larger A shows at Waterloo. Fancy will be looking at a nice little two week vacation after his initiation into horse show life - the perfect way to process a new experience!
The morning of the show, I let Fancy longe for a few minutes to stretch his legs and blow off some mental/physical energy. It's a good thing I did, because his class was scheduled right before one of the junior classes, so he got to play in the warm-up ring with about 10 other horses! This, quite simply, blew his little mind. He'd never been in the ring with that many horses, and he started having track flashbacks and hopping up and down. After lots of pets and some circles, he was able to walk a few laps without exploding, I let him go for a time-out back in his stall for 10 minutes before he showed. A few cookies later everything was forgiven and forgotten, and we headed to the show ring.
Fancy was wonderful in his class - I couldn't have asked him to be any better at this point in his training. He hacked with one other horse (a much more reasonable number than 10, Fancy thought) - and the other rider did a great job of giving Fancy space and not crowding him so he could try to focus. Fancy was able to trot around on the loose rein that he likes; while he needed a little more reassurance in the canter, he stayed relaxed enough to pick up his right lead on the second try!
We may have ended up placed second out of two, but I was thrilled. My OTTB tries so hard to be a good boy, and has already shown me that he wants to learn something new every time I ride. I could not have asked for a better ride! He got his cookies, and went right back outside for a well-deserved roll and two week vacation.
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