Cadence: Quaid's Show Recap

 I am back from the show and I'm still processing a lot.  I want to start with Quaid's show experience.  We trailered to the show Friday morning. I had everything packed and brought Carmen in to the stall to get ready. Quaid has totally twigged onto the process and decided that he was totally okay without her. 

Quaid: have fun Carmen! I'll take care of things here!
Carmen: wait, what? How is that fair?!

Carmen has also twigged to the process but is much more cooperative (I said what I said).  Not that Quaid was difficult to catch, he just wasn't volunteering. 

Quaid: darn it

The trip was uneventful and both unloaded and went into their stalls without fuss. I had booked times in the ring for both horses. I decided to ride Quaid first. I hand walked him first and then mounted up and rode back in. You may recall the that the show ring is in an old skating arena so it's a very different experience.  I had my show goals in mind and wanted to have a ride that helped establish that we can work in new places without drama. The ride was tense. It was not as hot a mess as last year but it required a lot of work on my part and there were quite a few times he said 'no'.  But I persevered. We were not alone and I struggle with that and I find that it makes me more uncertain on where to go. Partly because I don't want to freak out Quaid and partly because I don't want to interfere with someone else's ride. And I have zero doubts that this transfers to my aids. I finally shook my head and started riding the test we were doing. Once I was focused on that everything improved. 

To be completely honest that night I was not feeling good about the next day. In the morning dread was a hard ball in my stomach. And, sure, I could have scratched. But the only way for us to learn to do the thing is to do the thing. So I sucked it up and tried to put a happy face on. I had decided to warm up an hour before our test because we were just riding the one. It's a simple walk-trot test that takes about 4 minutes. If he was tired that would be fine. 

The good part was that Quaid was 100 times more settled in the barn than he was last year. His stall was perfect because he could see horses in all directions and there was a lot to occupy him. 

Hello! 

Fortunately, Jane was there to help us warm up. And it was awesome. I had my phone and earphone so she can call and give instructions. It made it so nice to hear her just talking quietly in my ear rather than trying to hear her over all the noise.  Her main goal was to manage our chaos. I was to half halt and keep his rhythm but had to make all my aids as quiet and slow as possible. I have a tendency to get abrupt and that, funnily enough, does not help. So Quaid gets brace-y and pulls, I half-halt, nothing happens and I do it harsher. Then he freaks out and I freak out and Jane is holding her head in her hands thinking that it would have been easier to go to med school. Or be a coal miner.  I had to think of it like stretching dough (my analogy), if you pull too fast or hard it tears. If you don't use enough pressure nothing happens. But if you pull gently it stretches and stays elastic. 

And my god it worked. We were able to keep a steady cadence. The more I softened the more he trusted and came back to me. Most of the warm up was at a walk. We trotted the last little bit and there was no slamming of brakes or careening. Was it perfect? Nope. But it was good.  

Then it was time to go in. I went in, walked him around the ring, made sure he saw the judge sitting there (no surprises please) and that I was breathing and still being soft but there.  She rang the bell and we started.  

And guys, it was amazing. Not win all the things amazing. But it was steady and he listened. He asked a few questions and got a little tense at times but did not melt down and I did not panic. I was smiling at the end because it was all coming together. I halted at X and saluted. I was over the moon.  My friends in the audience started clapping and cheering. Then all those emotions that I had tamped down: the pit in my stomach, my worry that I would screw up this wonderful horse, that I would forget how to ride all came out and I started crying. I'm sure the judge thought I lost my mind. I was so happy he gave me his trust and his heart.  Paulina said 'omg you're making me cry too!' and Tanya was all ''I'm not crying, you're crying'.  The steward gave me a tissue and cheered with me (once she learned they were happy tears lol). 

look at those focused ears 

After the judge said to me that he was a lovely horse and you could really see the quality of his trot at the end. The scribe told me 'that's the best I've seen him' because she was there last year. So I think the judge figured out that there was a story there, lol.  Our score was 63.12 and got us a second. But that was not the point. I was really happy. 

The next day I decided to keep the same warm up time. I think that I should have gone with 45 minutes because by the time we hit that point he was kind of over it. But he was still good. Last year he really struggled with being with other horses in the warm up and wanted to fall back on his understanding of herd dynamics and did not trust me when I told him something different (like don't kick the horse that's crowding you). This year he was much more comfortable and that got better over the weekend.  

I brought him out to relax a bit before we went in for our test. We went in and started. A friend took a video of it so here you go: 

He is clearly trying really hard. At around the 2 and half minute mark you will see that he starts to shut down. We just finished the free walk and, as I was picking up the reins, he noticed something and started to spook. Here's the good part, last year that would have been the end and he'd have had a huge melt down,. Instead I took a breath and quietly asked him to go forward. He refused. In the past (like 2 weeks ago lol) I would have gotten more firm and harder and we'd have spiralled. But I didn't.  I just asked again and we went forward. And then we carried on with the rest of the test calmly and quietly. 

This, of course lowered our score. And I probably should be sorry. But honestly, this was the BEST thing that could have happened. Because I rode it in a way that built trust. And, instead of being a huge disaster, it was a blip and we carried on. That was worth a million red ribbons. 

In muy last post I wrote out these goals for Quaid and I at the show: 

My goals for Quaid are:

1. keep his focus on me in the warm up and the ring.

2. ride through any resistances calmly and with clear aids.

3. trot forward and don't try to hold him too much.

4. if things go wrong regroup and keep going,

I'm going with 'nailed it'. 

Enjoying a celebratory roll

There's a lot to unpack from the show but it was definitely a big step forward for us and our partnership.