Baby Boomer Dreams - Dandy's Story - The First Class continued

Part 1

The rest of the ride with my Arabian horse went about the same. When they stopped us on the rail they asked us to back up. I remember I had Dandy off the rail at that halt and he stopped perfectly square and parallel to the rail. For the back the horse dropped his head and lifted his back as he reversed while staying nice and straight. It couldn't have been a prettier back.

Although I must admit I'm always confused whenever asked to back up a set number of steps. Riding a quadruped my mind just doesn't want to compute what five steps might be. I go with five footfalls which makes more sense to me.

Once we finished the back, they let us stand until the whole class was stopped. Then we walked off a few steps before they sent us off on the reverse. My horse moved off softly and turned keeping his hind end engaged. It seemed like this ride was about as good as you could get.

When they asked us canter, my horse coiled up underneath himself and moved off fluidly in a totally forward motion. The canter was soft and round and it didn't seem like I had to much to keep him there. He just stayed together like he knew exactly what to do. If I hadn't known better I would have thought this was his good way of going, it was so smooth.

By this time, I couldn't wait for the hand gallop. Would it be a soft and breath taking as it had been the first way of going? With a couple of turns of the arena I got the chance to see.

Again I carefully shortened my reins, then placed my fingers up on his neck and as I moved into the two point position, my horse lengthened his stride. I thought I was in heaven. The hand gallop was so smooth and so much fun. My horse was so soft and responsive. This ride couldn't get much better.

This time they transitioned us from the hand gallop to the trot. I sat down, pushed and clucked the horse into the trot. The horse didn't miss a beat. From one gait to the other, he made it look like it was easy. I didn't do too bad either, I actually came up on the correct diagonal and we were off. The trot was fluid and sweeping just like his entrance into the ring.

It wasn't until the last lap of the that trot that we had a problem. Then that same horse that had cut Dandy off before came flying at us again from across the arena. The horse didn't cross our path but was clearly headed at us.

Dandy must have thought it was happening again. My horse stopped just like he had before. He rolled up softly underneath himself and broke to a halt. It was just for an instant, one brief blink of an eye and then Dandy trotted back off like nothing had happened..........but it had.

I looked around the arena and saw two judges strike us off their cards. I could even see the disappointment on their faces. It had really been an incredible ride but there was no excuse for the break this time according to the rules.

We trotted on into the line-up and I looked down the row at all of the beautiful young hunter horses standing there with their adult amateur owners. It was an impressive sight. I watched as the photographer made his way down the line taking pictures. I had to focus on something. I was crushed by that one flaw while still elated at the experience.

Dandy put things back into perspective for me as he stretched out to pee. The horse could hold it no longer. He had no sense of the decorum of a line-up at nationals, nor even the need of the photographer to get his line-up shots without Dandy's interference. Who wanted that in their memorial pictures from nationals. The horse didn't care. He stood there and made a great yellow lake right there under his belly. I couldn't believe how long it flowed. The photographer had to come back and take our picture and the one of the horse next to us, once the horse was finished. It was actually great comic relief at the time.

From that point on in the lineup I quit thinking about the bad thing that happened and thought about the good. It was an awesome ride. I couldn't have asked for a better ride from Dandy at that time. For a young horse that had started off his show career with that experience at the Tacoma Unit, his response here was understandable.

To this day I can't even imagine a better ride. Even thinking about it now gives me goose bumps. I couldn't have been more proud of my pony than I was that day. He had conquered his demons and given me everything he had to give. I couldn't fault him for being frightened. I couldn't be more impressed he had handled it appropriately instead of running off.

Outside the arena, the owner of Feature Farm (the big farm I used to groom for) and her adult daughter came up to us telling us what a beautiful ride we had had until that one fatal instant. I mentioned coming off of two cards and they corrected me. They had seen us stricken from three cards. Not only had we been on enough cards to make our cut, we had actually had one extra. In a class that size making three cards was amazing. It was too bad that fate had intervened. We did not go on to the next cut.

I checked those judges cards later when they were finally posted in the show office. In all three sections of the Bonanza hunter pleasure class there was only one horse of the 89 entries that made it onto three cards. Dandy would have been the second horse had it not been for that second break. A pretty impressive feat for a home grown horse, that was the first horse every trained by his amateur owner. We might not have made our cut but we had certainly done ourselves proud!

To be continued............

More Schooling

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