My problem is one of certainty rather than confidence. I can be plenty arrogant confident when I feel that I know what I am doing. There were moments waiting for my classes on Sunday morning at Nationals when I was not totally a hot mess [Show Report]. The problem comes when I am not sure. If I am not 100% certain, then I must be completely lost, no?
I am an either/or person. (IRL friends are rolling their eyes so hard right now.) It is no accident that my eventing colors were black & white [Best Laid Plans]. I’m not good with gray areas. Never have been.
Unfortunately, for me there will always be an element of uncertainty with saddle seat. When a ride goes sour, my instinct is to sit in the center of the saddle and put my leg on. This is not what ASBs are trained to expect. Therefore, I either get ignored or make a deteriorating situation worse.
What did Rodney do while Milton was gadding about the countryside [Milton on the Move]? He ate hay.
This is huge.
It’s huge because Rodney ate hay in the pasture, not in the stall. Until last weekend, we had been putting Rodney up while Milton was away. We didn’t want Rodney to spend the entire time galloping the fenceline screaming for his missing roommate.
After successive approximations and closely monitoring Rodney’s behavior, we took a deep breath and left Rodney out when we drove off with Milton. Rodney’s response? ‘Via con Dios. Don’t let the gate hit your butt on the way out.’ This means that when Milton goes to a multi-day show, we don’t have to bring Rodney (problematic) or keep him in a stall for days on end (un-ideal).
Rodney going to a show? Don’t wanna talk about it. Wanna bask in the victories we have.
We spent the Thanksgiving weekend trailering back and forth to Stepping Stone Farm to school Milton with the carriage. After Greg’s lesson, Coach Courtney was kind enough to let us park the carriage and use the ring while most people were vacationing, eating turkey, watching football, etc. Four days, four trips to the barn.
On T-day itself, we took so long making the adjustments to the carriage that our Thanksgiving meal occurred on Friday. One day, Milton was so good that we were stunned at what a nice horse we had. Another day, not so much good. It was later than usual and Milton took exception to the shadows at one end of the ring (my theory). Here are Greg’s texts to Coach Kate.
Day with Milton all planned. Then he spooks at something only he could see coming out of the the corner. 15 minutes later we changed direction. Oh no, something in the corner from the other direction! 15 more minutes circling in 2nd direction. 5 minutes for cone exercise and done for day. Oh well, the joys of green tb’s.
The first 4 times through the corner, he was spooking. The next 15 times was, ‘I bet you can’t make me go through the corner!’ and he was right. The next 10 times, he wasn’t quite as right.
Lather rinse and repeat other direction.
But, even when Milton was bad, he was bad as a driving horse. There was no why-are-we-doing-this-with-this-horse moments. It’s not how everyone would spend their holiday, but it works for us.
Did I swan about muttering that the original plan was for ME to be coming to SSF to school MY horse? Never. Well, hardly ever.
