Baby Steps

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not very good at being patient.  One of my favorite quotes (that I made up myself) is “patience is a virtue and virtues are optional”.  While I might get away with that most of the time, I’ve had to pay for my sins since getting Cowboy.  When I bought Romeo in 2008 I taught him to jump and trot in a circle and then entered an event.   He was pretty much the same no matter how I rode, except he jumped a lot better when I rode right.  He never ran off, he never reared, he always did what I asked at least the second time we tried it, he wasn’t complicated, he let me skip a lot of steps in his training, and he was almost always the same horse from day to day.  I have to admit, I got a little spoiled by that.  When I decided to sell him and move onto another prospect, I didn’t realize how much I took him for granted!

Meet Cowboy.  When I said I paid for my sins, I literally paid for them more than once by ending up on the ground wondering what happened.  Cowboy is extremely athletic and he knows it.  He loves to try to get his way by rearing and wheeling repeatedly (I’m glad there is no video of the first time we tried to get him in the water!).  He can be a complete dead head one day and a crazy fool the next.  If I come to the barn a little bit off my game or distracted by anything, he knows it immediately.  If I try to skip a step, he makes me pay.  He bolts and leaps if I sit the wrong way or flop (even just a little bit) after a fence.  Basically he is the exact opposite of Romeo, which is what I asked for but didn’t really realize what I was going to end up with.

I bought Cowboy in October of 2011.  My goal was to make our first event in the late spring or early summer of 2012.  We quickly scrapped those plans and made a new goal of late summer.  That got pushed back to fall, which ended up turning into a few schooling shows and a starter mini trial at the end of the season.  While I was disappointed every time I didn’t get to go to an event, I hoped that we were working towards something bigger than just our first show.

This spring started out a little rocky.  Between a lot going on away from the barn and Cowboy’s ever present attitude, it started to seem like we might be pushing back the start of our show season yet again.  After a show jumping melt down at our first combined test and a less than ideal cross country schooling, it started to look like a real possibility.  However, what I lack in patience I make up for in determination. 

After moving to Leigh’s, we started to turn things around pretty quick, being spoiled with two lessons a week can only help!  After building some confidence at home, we went to our second cross country schooling this past Sunday at Flying Cross.  Cowboy has been to Flying Cross several times and did well at the starter mini trial last year so I was hopeful that he would have a positive school.

He started off with a lot of confidence in the starter field, except for a brief rearing fit when he didn’t want to go under the power lines (yes, we rear about that!).   He jumped almost all of the beginner novice fences and did the banks.  We even managed to jump down the bank and then go over a small fence, this wasn’t totally planned but he jumped down really well and kept going, it was absolutely in our way!  The biggest thing I have to work on myself is staying out of his way.  Romeo went better when I got in his way, Cowboy absolutely can’t stand it.

He still isn’t sure about getting his feet wet, or the splash that the water makes.  He is VERY interested in the water but he can’t figure out if he wants to drink it or if it is going to eat him.  After trotting around in the water for a few minutes, he was agreeable to jumping up the little bank out of the water.  After a little more time in the water, he was happy to jump down the training level bank into the water, now we are getting somewhere!

Our last goal of the day was to introduce him to a ditch since I really want to go to May Daze and he had never seen one.  I was expecting some fireworks but it turned out to be a non-issue.  He hopped over the small one and then moved up to do the Novice ditch and the half coffin.  He then proceeded to jump around some Novice fences and a few small Training fences.  I knew we were getting somewhere when I thought (for just a second) that I might want to try the stone wall, but I think we need to leave a few firsts for next time!  Best of all, he seemed like he was enjoying himself and looking forward to the next fence instead of being scared to death.  We still have a long way to go but I was so happy with him!

As a reward, I filled out our first USEA entry form today!  I can’t wait till May Daze!  Maybe I have learned a thing or two about patience but it sure feels good to take a few steps forward.