I couldn’t believe my ears.

I was on a field trip with The Knuckleheads.

We’ve been on a “back to basics” program all winter.

After failure of truly epic proportions….. at our first horse trial………

it became crystal clear…………..that we had some holes in our training.

So I started over.

I’ve had to do that with several newly acquired horses over the years. Here’s what I do. I pretend they are a “wild mustang” who has never seen a halter or a saddle………..and I quite literally start at zero.

Each day I progress like they don’t have any prior training, and I attempt to fill in all the holes that were missed the first time around. Sometimes these holes are bigger than they ever would have been………but that’s an entirely different topic. 

These two….. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum…………had more holes than most, and it’s been a pretty…… trying……. winter……..

We’ve been slowly…… ever so slowly…… chipping away at problems and building basics.
Riding two 5year old Thoroughbred babies has tested my dedication and commitment more than I ever imagined.

A few weeks ago things culminated in both of them ditching me while spooking all in the same week.

I started seriously evaluating the plan and thought more than once….. that I’m too old for this sh+*.

Something had to give. Perhaps I needed a trained horse to ride or they needed new homes………I wasn’t sure what direction we were going to take but I knew if I didn’t SEE some big change soon I was going to MAKE a big change.

I know I’m bad at eventing <duh…. Bad Eventer>, but my young horse training program is pretty solid. I’ve been producing safe & sensible young horses for a couple of decades……..

But THESE two babies weren’t quite getting it………

So I pulled out the last ditch efforts………….

I called the saddle fitter.

I got out the ulcergard.

And I put a fly bonnet on Baby Seabiscuit.

I’m not sure which of my last ditch potion ingredients may have been the closer. And maybe it was just my determination that we work it out, or someone gets out……

But after a few days of remarkably good behavior, we started calling it “The Magic Bonnet”. A sympathetic supporter commented, “It’s his Thinking Cap!!” 

We went from this……

to this.

We did basics and basics and basics……… and I decided it was time for another outing.

Remember…….the last outing had involved being spooked off ……..TWICE…….

This would be a REAL test as we were hauling somewhere they’d never been.

They were both……..

ANGELS

I was riding TheSerialKiller when our new acquaintance, whose property we were visiting, said something like, “He’s lovely. Is he for sale???””

I couldn’t believe my ears.

Bad Eventer’s reply, “No……. no he’s not.”