Jody Strand Clinic - Taking a Second Horse

Part 1

That evening after the first day of the clinic, Jody Strand was the guest speaker at the annual Daffodil Arabian Horse Association dinner meeting. While Jody had said at the clinic he wasn't going to speak, he relented when the actual time came speaking briefly about the Arabian horse and nationals this year.

One of his comments had to do with the quality of those horses competing at that level. He mentioned despite entries being down, the actual quality of the horses had risen dramatically over years past. The division that jumped out at him the most was the hunter pleasure division.

For many years on the Arabian horse show scene, the hunter division has been the dumping ground for those horses that couldn't cut it anywhere else. You'd see country type horses without enough trot or western pleasure horses just doing an extended gait making up the majority of the class. Seldom did you see a class filled with true hunter type horses.

Jody felt that had most definitely changed. He thought the overall quality had risen so much that the hunter division was now probably one of, if not the, toughest division out there. Jody said the calibre of horses in those hunter classes literally blew him away.

This comment interested me because one of the reasons I wanted to bring and extra horse to the next day's clinic was about this same topic. Richard had said the horse was a western pleasure horse. While I've been saying all along that I wanted to show him as a hunter, even though I believe he would make a great western horse as well. I was hoping for an opinion from someone who really understood what it takes to be a national calibre hunter horse.

I had to press and press some more to get the man in charge of the clinic to confirm that I could even bring the horse. Despite the fact all the spots were not filled, he was really hoping to leave them that way. The decision was finally made by him asking Jody what he wanted to do. Jody's response had been for me to bring the additional horse. Now with the door open about national calibre hunter horses, I was really looking forward to what the man had to say about one of my Legs' babies. Would he think he could hold is own in such a tough division?

No matter how hard I try to get home early from those annual dinner meetings, it seems like it always takes forever to get myself out of there. Since it wasn't until a conversation at the end of the dinner meeting that I got the confirmation I could bring my second horse, I was late once again getting myself home and into bed.

I thought it was going to take a crane to pick me up out of my bed and deposit me in the truck, I was sooooooo tired when the alarm went off. I knew I had horses to load and equipment to check before I could even leave, yet the cobwebs just wouldn't leave my brain. Then there was the issue of clipping that second horse. I hadn't even looked at him since my return from nationals. I tried to remind myself of that task as self applied pressure to force me up and onto my feet.

I finally did make it out of bed but I was moving in slow motion. The clock seemed to be doing double time and Legs was to be one of the first horses worked. The list of tasks running through my head were moving much faster than me. For the first time I was thinking maybe this clinic had not been a good idea.

My goal was to arrive at the facility an hour before start time. I expected I would need that much time to get my horses and myself moved in and the horses fed. We were leaving home before they'd had time to eat and there's nothing crankier than Legs when he's been denied his breakfast.

I remember as I grabbed Legs from his stall to load him into the trailer, the look I received. Not only did the horse not want to leave his stall, he didn't want to load into the horse trailer either. He put on the brakes right at the open doorway and glared at me. This was the first time I can ever remember such a refusal.........and the first time it occurred to me my horse might be too tired for this clinic.

Then I went to retrieve the second horse. "Yikes!" was my first impression. This horse was covered in so much hair even I couldn't tell what lay beneath. How was I thinking Jody Strand could tell anything about this horse?

The vision of the "icelandic pony" that Shannon Armstrong used to call Mark in the wintertime formed in my head. Yupe, this horse pretty much looked just like that picture. Back then I hadn't even been able to recognize the horse and he was a horse that I knew well. When I asked Shannon who the horse was and she replied with the "icelandic pony" comment I knew it was a horse I should know. When she told me it was Mark, I was shocked. Now before me stood one of my horses so transformed all I could think of was that story. Things weren't looking good for much success at this clinic.

At least the horse loaded willing in the horse trailer. He didn't even think twice about jumping right in and going for a ride with me. Then, he hadn't been worked in over two months. That tired voice in my head again played a now familiar resolve, "What were you thinking?"

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

Legs



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