Then the Fight Began

Honestly, it doesn't take long to turn a horse into a hot mess. It was probably the end of my first gymkhana series that Jake knew what was going on. He knew that in the morning we would get to the show grounds, enter the arena for a warm up, then any time entering the arena after that would be gallop time. He did get a better understanding of what he was doing in the arena, but we still lacked any sense of finesse to do a good job.

So it started to happen that soon as we would start to walk to the gate after warming up, Jake would shorten his strides, raise his head and fight the bit. He would also flag his tail and lift his knees high and snort. Many non-horsey people would get a kick out of it saying that I looked like I had a parade horse. While horse people just knew to stay out of my way, possibly knowing that I was creating my own time bomb.

With the high level of energy and the lack of a real control, events turned into battles. I would demand control and Jake would be so high on his own need to gallop that our frustrations and fights really started to come into play. I would enter the arena and he would go crazy, trying to bolt, prancing, turning when I was trying to keep him straight, running sideways, tossing his head and over all just barely in control. I would spend the first 20-40 seconds in the arena doing circles trying to get him to listen and calm down. Then the run would begin and I would try to rate around turns, but everything was ignored and our runs were sloppy.



I practiced at home as much as I could (which was once a month), and Jake was improving. He was understanding rating, and really digging in to the turning. He started getting his flying lead changes and really focusing. Yet somehow that never translated into the shows, I was nervous, he was nervous and the shows never yielded better results. The time passed and I grew angry. Angry that I wasn't getting better, angry that Jake would do great at home and would be out of his mind at the shows, angry that everything was a fight. So I started getting rough, jerking on the reins when he didn't want to listen. I didn't know what else to do anymore. I grew up in a place that it was discouraged, but seen at shows. To yank on a horse's mouth when they misbehave. Though as everyone knows, it never helps, and always makes the situation worse. Though luckily most shows have a sportsmanship clause and people get kicked out for rough behavior. I got warned a few times and did my best to kick the habit.

Yet Jake kept getting worse and worse. Soon he would start through temper tantrums, refusing to move, bouncing up and down, running out on the bit. It wasn't a pretty picture.

Though not all of it was bad. Sometimes we would have our moments of brilliance and somehow have a great show where my training at home would really pay off. Jake was fast, and if he turned, well then we would do good with our placing. Though half the time we blew any chances with a temper tantrum or a disqualification. I lived for those moments where we could pull something off. Those people that I talked  to regularly (who probably though was as much of a nutter as my horse) were surprised to figure out that I only got to ride once a month and that Jake only got out when I rode him. It became something I looked up to, that despite the odds we accomplished  something. Though despite that Jake acting up in the arena was going to be the least of our worries.