He went to his first show this past Saturday as a "spectator", and though he generally overall did well, it was a mixed bag. We parked a good distance away from the arena and warm-up areas, but he could still see all the goings-on. But, when I tried to walk him in a field near the trailer where a handful of folks were warming up, he'd get nervous, snort, dance and leap around on the lead line as I was walking him (I used 15' lead to make sure I had safe distance as he was doing all this, but also I was able to keep a hold on him and not have him get loose!). But after a minute or two of that, he then calmly walk and then stand quietly, relax, eat grass for a few minutes, and then it was the same over and over (wash rinse repeat as they say). One upside, he didn't constantly scream...
At one point I tied him for just a few seconds to get something out of the trailer tack area, I hear him start dancing around, and then I hear a "pop!" Uh-oh. I look around to the other side of the trailer and he's broken the bailing twine he was tied to, and he's standing there about 4 four behind the trailer just looking at me and Kidd (my friend's horse). While I'm glad he didn't run off like a banshee with it's hair on fire, I'm bummed that he was being so silly/nervous that he broke the twine because he's normally very good about his limits (i.e. when he tries to go backwards but feels the halter/lead pressure from being tide up, he stops rather than pulling harder).
By the end of the day we put him in the trailer to wait with a haybag for the last hour or so where he could still see the arena, lights and other horses and hear the announcer, etc. He was very good while waiting, only one whinny, no pawing nor kicking, and he was munching hay after awhile (staying in the trailer was oddly a good thing for him, he seemed to feel pretty safe in the trailer) - his little brain had had *enough* of standing tied to the trailer after ~1 1/2 hours earlier in the day, so tying him there wasn't an option, especially when the only horse he knew would leave to go warm-up or whatever. *sigh*
I feel bad because it was *way* too long of a day for his first show visit, but we had no idea it would take so long (I went with a friend who barrel races and they don't have a set time to compete, just a number, so it takes as long as it takes others to do a run, plus dragging the arena after every 50 riders... and she was # 162!!!) - we had thought we'd be gone maybe 4 hours or so, we ended up being there 6 hours... ugh.
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| Chillin' at the trailer until he reached his limit... |
I hope I didn't set Sport back in his training by taking him that day... I felt really disheartened on the drive home, and still feel pretty discouraged by how he'd go back and forth between nervous and relaxed. I was really hoping for more relaxation after he was there for awhile... :-( Especially since we have been working at home to on groundwork exercises to make her more confident. I hope he gets better as we progress, I fear he won't... I soooo wish he had some of General's confidence. *sigh*
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