What Goes Up Must Come Down: Runkle's Second Show

Sometimes I write an entry and then delete the whole thing because I think "Dear God, I sound incredibly self involved."

This was one of those times.

Runkle had his second dressage show this weekend, first doing jumping and a w/t/c test! Big boy growin' up and movin' up.



Because I'm as lucky as a wolf (as the Mongolian's say) I was first ride of the day on Saturday. It's still scathingly hot and even with an 8am ride time both the horse and I were drenched through. Runkle never felt tired, just his normal pokey behind the leg issues. The judge arrived minutes before my test and I went into the ring. I let him have a little sniff around, look at the letters and car. He didn't seem phased by any of it. When she rang the bell I picked him up and headed down to C.



He was so quiet in the bridle, happy and relaxed through his ears and back. We swung through the final turn and halted at X. Even the halt was solid.

So besides his first w/t/c dressage test we can add another first: I've never cried happy tears after a dressage test.



I was so proud of him, and he had absolutely no idea what all the fuss was about. I was crying on him, hugging and feeding him treats and he just stood there going "what, we just trotted in circles. Psycho". But he wasn't done with the psycho-ness. The scores were posted and someone told me we won. I thought they were having a laugh with me. We had won? We had won!!! WAT.



More tears and hugging everyone and a thousand cookies for Runkle. WHAT A GOOD PONY. He rules.

I tacked up for jumping feeling like I was on cloud nine. He ground tied despite the commotion and I sauntered down to stadium warmup. He felt keen beneath me, assessing the new jumps in the field and walking with confidence.

Once at warm up he started to feel tense and nervous. The longer we were down there the tighter he got. He stopped and stared at a cross country jump in the field that we've ridden past approximately three hundred and nintey five times.



I felt his breathing start to pick up. I gently asked him to keep walking and he shook his head, and I swear I could feel his heart pounding against my legs. He's nice in that he gives me a lot of warning that he's going to explode and he was definitely getting ready to blow so I started to get off.

My foot was halfway over his back when he spun and ran, so I fell the rest of the way off and landed with my butt in the dirt. Calls of loose horse rang out as he ran (re: bolted) up the field. For a fraction of a second I thought he might jump the gate but he stopped and allowed himself to be caught.



I trudged up the field. His eyes were huge and staring but he had all four feet on the ground and he allowed me to catch him. As I walked back down to jumping though he started hyperventilating and then he reared over and over and over.

I should have been terrified but I just felt bad that he was so freaked out. I wish I could've explained to him that it's okay, I wasn't going to ask him to do anything hard, I wasn't going to ask him to race. Unfortunately horses don't speak English so we had to settle for putting him back in his stall to calm down.



Once he came back to neutral he got a small cocktail and we walked back down to warm up. Armed with a LOT of cookies I went and walked him around among the jumping horses for about an hour. Initially he was scared, but the longer we were down there the more calm he was until we were standing in the middle of the stadium course while someone schooled it and grazed.



It wasn't the clear round I had pictured but I was proud that he had gone from being petrified to acquiescing that we could stand by the jumps without running away, rearing, or shanking anyone with a shiv constructed of salt licks and carrots.

I'm still considering it a huge victory. And if anyone ever doubts the humbling nature of horse's I'll just link them to this post.

Pictures might be coming, but no video as my dad has UP AND MOVED AWAY and he was my official videographer. Although I'm glad I don't have Runkle's 'spin and fuck off' move on video.

Comments

  1. But the pinky is safe right? Because that would be the worst.
    Congrats on dressage and that is a bummer about stadium but it does sound like it was a positive experience in the end.

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    1. oh the pinky is very safe. when it started to go down i carefully took my right hand off the rein and then proceeded with my jumpoff

      i might start taping it again, at least when i think there might be a high 'flip the fuck out' risk!

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  2. HORSES! Yeesh! Congrats on winning the dressage! What a good boy. I'm glad you fell clear of him when he lost it, and that nobody was injured. I would agree that this was still a victory :)

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    1. if i learned nothing else growing up, it's how to execute a well timed dismount.

      and thanks :D I might be at HPNJ towards the end of august for an xc clinic, maybe you can come meet him!!

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  3. Well, at least the dressage was awesome. And he managed to shove his brain back in at the end, so that's a win too.

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    1. i'm always really impressed he can shove his brain back in. he's gotten pretty amped a couple times and been able to come back from it.

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  4. Wow! At least you're able to pick the "silver lining" out of the situation. Sometimes just standing still and not rearing has to be the goal. And congrats on winning the dressage :)

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    1. It's now a personal goal to do my next showcap with as many appropriate gifs :)

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    2. thank you!! :D

      and as it should be, for everyone!

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  5. Well, congrats on winning dressage. Sorry about the horrible reaction to jumping. That seemed unnecessary. I'm glad you came away feeling good about the day though!

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    1. yeah definitely an OVER reaction but we'll work on it!

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  6. I mean.... I kinda wish the spin and bolt was on film lol (only bc everything ended well obvi!). Glad he was all better and good call on the cocktail to eeeease the wheels in his poor little mind. Next time will be better!

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  7. Yikes, sorry you came off, glad your pinky is safe!

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