TNJ................ Louie's Experience at Region 4.....

Part One

Because Louie did not get shown at the first show, I guess I missed BG's role in getting horses from his barn into the ring. Had I noticed that BG really did not do anything to see that horses were prepared to show maybe I could have saved Louie some of the trauma that happened at the second show. I certainly would have known not to rely on BG to act like a trainer in any way had I been paying attention.

Even thinking about this experience and others with BG at the horse show causes me to remember WF's initial statement that BG really was not a trainer. Even BG himself said numerous times he wasn't and didn't want to be a trainer. Of course, those statements were made mixed in with all the selling he did of himself AS a trainer. He's denials of being a trainer came across to me as an insecurity instead of the true statement it was.

Since this discussion about Louie began because of BG wanting to claim trainer's fees for the horse at a horse show, I think it's important to know what BG actually did at that horse show that he thinks entitles him to reimbursement. Although I must admit it might actually be easier to tell you what he didn't do instead of what he did.

The man may have been there but he did not function as trainers I have known. Getting tack rooms set up and assigning stall locations are not anything I would say constitutes training. Along with those duties about the only thing BG was reliable about at a horse show was sitting on the rail when others rode and sometimes being in the warm-up ring before their class.

The man takes no responsibility for the care of the horses. He doesn't do it, he doesn't oversee it. He doesn't know which horse shows when and pays no attention to the usual preparations to get them shown. Clipping, bathing, schooling, feeding, watering, cleaning stalls, nothing is kept track of by BG, nor does any one do that job for him but then remember they do not charge show fees. Considering BG's role at those shows, no show fees makes sense to me.

BG does usually answer questions when asked and will do something with a horse if he is asked, but rarely anything is done of his own volition, nothing with horses of mine anyway. I certainly saw the same thing with the clients. If the clients or WF didn't keep track of it, then it got missed and believe me, things got missed. Louie was not the only horse that nearly missed his class that show.

Because of that behavior, Louie was not properly prepared to show. I had written in a post briefly about Louie's experience but really had not been honest about WHY it happened. Considering I told the story about Louie in two paragraphs , long time readers should have suspected something was up.
The only reason that Louie got schooled the first day at the show was because I reminded BG it needed to be done. During that schooling session he spent most of this time talking with a trainer friend of mine about the horse and paid little attention to the kid riding the horse. Louie did ok and the kid did ok. At least that part was good.

Later in the day I realized that Louie hadn't been bathed so I pushed for that to get done. I knew there wasn't time to fit a bath in the morning along with schooling and braiding etc. The bathing and clipping needed to be finished on this first day instead. Being of the belief that a kid getting to show my horse needs to be the one taking care of the horse, I saw to it the kid riding him got the horse bathed and talked to him about clipping him.

I remember I had planned to make sure that clipping was done too after the horse dried but it didn't happen. Maybe it was because of the problems getting a handler for Rhet that I forgot about getting the horse show clipped. I don't know for sure but BG didn't think about it. It's my understanding the kid did think about it but was afraid of screwing it up. That would have been OK had he said something to remind be but the kid didn't think about it and the horse didn't get show clipped.

Then for the morning start time BG told the kids they didn't need to be there until 7 am. With an 8 am start time, that didn't leave much time for schooling. When they showed up at the barn I was pushing like crazy to get Louie up to the ring for schooling before the session. We got there just in time to have the ring closed for dragging and I don't remember if Louie even got the chance to see the inside of that ring. He sure didn't get a chance to work in it.

Here's poor Louie his first time ever to go into the show ring and he didn't even get to see the inside of that arena before his session. It's sure not what I would do to a green horse. Not only that but Louie still needed to be clipped and braided and still get to his class. What it took to get the horse and rider ready for this class was not a pretty sight.

Louie seemed to tolerate all of these preparations even though everything seemed to be happening at once. He had people braiding while we were still clipping and someone working on his feet. It was a lot to throw at a young horse. Louie did not freak out externally anyway but looking at his actions later, this had clearly all been too much for the horse.

Louie nearly missed his class. There was little time for schooling so the horse did not get the opportunity to wind down from all the drama getting him ready. I suspect he went into the arena still wound up tighter than a drum, the poor boy, but you could not see it externally.

I remember thinking as I was looking down into the ring at him, the horse was doing pretty well with his composure but not using himself properly. He was heavy on the forehand and he wasn't really committed to the bridle either. People on the rail were impressed with how well he was doing for only 90 days under saddle but I was really looking at him next to the other horses out there thinking he didn't belong in the ring.

Looking back at it, the horse really was not ready. The horse was not far enough along in his training to be there. He was not groomed properly to be there. Emotionally he was not ready to be there. The way the horse had been prepared, then shoved into the ring traumatized the horse.

Louie had a traumatic experience that's all there was to it, It was evidenced by his behavior which I posted about in my next post about the show.
I wrote about the behavior that manifested after this class was over but I only posted about it the one time. Louie exhibited this behavior throughout the entire horse show.

Sadly I must say the horse is still affected by the experience today. He cannot go anywhere away from home without getting stressed out and pushing at me to take him home. Just riding him in a strange arena causes the horse to sweat. He does a little shaking and a lot of spooking. Louie who started off valiant and brave got pushed beyond his limits and it's going to take some time to fix.

This experience happened because of BG's lack of focus and responsibility for this horse which I guess is what I get for relying on him in the first place. I did expect, since he was training Louie, he would take some interest in seeing things got properly done to get the horse shown but I was most definitely wrong.

To be honest when I did my blog posts, I was seething that BG had done absolutely nothing to assure the horse was ready to be shown. I did not realize at that time that the experience had impacted the horse as profoundly as it did. I only learned that when I took him to a strange place to work him. That was when this behavior resurfaced.

I still cannot get over the fact BG was supposed to be Louie's trainer yet the horse almost didn't make his class and he was totally unprepared. I labored with my posts trying not to let the anger I felt spill over into the text as I tried to tell what happened to Louie in a way I didn't get BG all riled up. Storm was still not paid for and I was hoping I could hang on long enough to get some other horses started.

BG clearly dropped the ball with Louie at both horse shows and did nothing with my other horses except for Dandy being used by his clients but still expected to be paid for something he did not do. Considering what happened to Louie it takes a lot of gall for him to even suggest he should be paid for that nightmare.


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

More Issues with BG's Added Charges.........

This is Lilly, the midget mare, with Faith, I think, but to be honest I am going to have to go back and check markings to be sure.

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