Baby Seabiscuit & Bad Eventer have started over………….

so many times in our 10 months together …it’s hard to even think about whether we’re making any progress.

A few months ago we reached THE breaking point.

A deer crashed out onto the trot path quite a bit ahead of us, and darted off into the distance. It was far enough away most horses (even barely started horses) wouldn’t have paid it much attention.

HOWEVER……..

Baby Seabiscuit noticed.

We were about a mile from the barn. That mile involved, more than one emergency dismount, spooking, spinning, rearing, bolting, knees buckling, and more than a few threats involving where his next meal would be coming from.

He absolutely lost his mind.

And just couldn’t get it back.

It was a full on crazy-pony-nervous-breakdown.

I had to make a decision.

Do I want to ride this horse ever again?????

I wasn’t sure there was much hope at that point, but I knew something had to change……..so I started from scratch……..once again.

That was 4 months ago, and we’ve been muddling along day by day since then.

Frankly, I had decided it was probably hopeless.

With no goals, no time frame, no shows on the calendar, and no aspirations or expectations……. I decided just to work on each problem as it came along.

We spent days doing nothing more than trying to WALK down the trot path without spinning and bolting. Some days we only made it a few hundred yards from the barn.

But slowly, day by day, we made it a bit further, with a few fewer of these…..

Last week we had our first strange horses visit our home turf. (Strange horses BLOW HIS MIND.) Baby Seabiscuit turns into crazy maniac horse when someone new arrives, so this was a big test. He handled it remarkably well.

In honor of our guests I had just set out 2 new jumps that he’d never seen before. New jumps, especially at home, often result in spinning and bolting. He’s certain they weren’t there before, and they must house horse eating goblins.

He was being remarkably calm and obedient, so I put my big girl pants on and we jumped the new chevron…..

and the new wall…..

and for the first time ever…… (as described by our visitors) the sure-enough-for-real ditch & brush

It was an amazing day. I felt like all the back to basics work was finally coming together.

But I had this nagging worry that it was just a fluke, and before I knew it we’d be spinning and bolting again.

Today we were on the trail by ourselves and…………..

IT HAPPENED.

A deer SMASHED out of the woods directly in front of us. It leaped in the air, headed our direction in 3 mighty bounds, saw us, spun around and ran smashing into the trees in the other direction.

What did Baby Seabiscuit do???????

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

I have never been so proud.