How to Train Your Dragon

I feel like it would be hilarious to try and type a humorous sale ad for my horse (kind of like Karley and a few others did) because he so dang quirky! I might actually be changing my blog name soon, regarding this, so don't be startled.

It might go like this; Lovely, energetic, tall  red dragon OTTB with SO MUCH potential. Lofty gaits, lovely jump. Clips, if you stuff his face with cookies every 5 seconds and tell him he's a good boy. Loads easily, only onto slant goosenecks- good luck with anything else. Easy keeper, if you have a small fortune to spend on hay and grain. Jumps everything, right after he refuses it the first time. He actually stands for the farrier. Comes when called in pasture, sometimes. Ties, usually.

HAHA.

But for reals, he will jump anything. If he stops to have a good look at it first. *eyeroll*

He's still such a baby that I don't ever get upset with his baby moments over fences, which is almost always, and he's trying his hardest to be good. But sometimes I ask myself why, why must he test me and make me question purchasing his silly butt.

EME made the long haul to Flying Cross Farm for their bad ass schooling and water complex. Worth hr 3 hour drive, in my opinion.

B was incredibly chill right off the trailer and settled right into schooling mode, which included having to stand for lengths of time while Supertrainer coached off his back. I was so proud that he mostly stood still like a good horse.

An old pro

They started over the bank complex and I had an inkling he would question the sanity of stepping off a perfectly good ledge, as he's never been asked to do so before.

He jumped right up no questions asked...

...and promptly came to a slow meandering halt on the off side. Sniffed a bit, questioned Supertrainer and then LEAPED off like it was lava. SO funny.

The second time around he looked like he was going for it and then SLAMMED on the brakes 2 strides out. I mean truly slammed, it was jolting and impressive. I think ST was quite surprised. 

Then, he leaped off again. After that, easy. On all complexes (there were 3) he just sauntered off like he had been doing it ages. Cool B, cool.

Next was some easy logs, coops and rolltops. What is baffling to me is that he will leap over the larger jumps no problem, but act like asking him to first jump the baby logs is the most offensive thing in the world. He literally just slows down and halts before the fence, looks around and then jumps over. Would definitely be 20 penalties, and its oh-so-annoying, because he always goes over. 

Didn't bat at eye at this one, but the baby one warranted a refusal. Okay B, okay

ST spent some time linking together the coops, logs and rolltops and getting him a bit more in front of her leg. he was so incredibly chill about everything, she was actually riding him on a loose rein in-between fences. She thinks that he possibly just has like horsey ADD, because when he refuses, its rarely violent, its like he just isn't paying attention and slows down to a stop, then hops over. 

Next was the water, and he was wildly offended that this water was not in creek form and refused to get his feet wet at first. Then, all he wanted to do was play and lay down, and getting him OUT was the problem. FICKLE horse.

want. to. lay. down. must. play.

ST  trotted him in and out several times before asking him to jump anything. Strangely enough, again, he flat out refused the tiny crossrail out, but jump the RR tie with no question asked. OK B OK.

casual stop

Don't mind trailer aluma-butt

Sidenote, do you ever get offended that some people look so much better on your horse than you do. Some people just LOOK like riders and look good on everything their butt touches. I always look like a freak of nature. I touched on my conformation in my last post and no matter what I do, I don't look like I belong on a horse. Literally what I would give to be tiny and have short legs, SERIOUSLY. I look like an amazon and he doesn't even look like a 17.1 1/2 hh horse under me, lolz.

So after the water we played in the middle field a bit with a log pile and a baby brush fence. He thought both were horse eating monsters and casually refused both before gracefully popping over. Again, ST schooled him over and over them, but after the initial refusal, he didn't bat an eye. This is frustrating!

Easy

meh

Then, in the next 2 fields, he jumped right over the logs and the ditch, NO QUESTION. The mother effing ditch. One of the scariest things to jump, in my opinion! Didn't even care.

Lastly, the picture frame. I so wanted a pic of my majestic dragon jumping through that, but ST was skeptical, as it was large in height and "scary". But, because pics, she did it for me. Her tactic was to not even ride up to it like she was jumping, she simply walked up an let him sniff. Obviously won't be able to do that in a show, but we want him to realize even the scary fences won't eat him.

He sailed right over and through.

yeet yeet!

SO. Proud! Sure, he refused almost everything once. Thats no good for eventing, he would be eliminated before he could even get started really. But, he's trying, and hopefully its sinking in that the fences aren't terrifying and he can easily do this. Truly, he was having fun after each initial WTF IS THAT reaction, and he was incredibly calm the whole day. I hope it was a good learning day for him and that he won't get eliminated in XC in 3 weeks, but it is what it is. He's just a baby at this, and its OK. Maybe he's  not cut out for eventing and thats OK too. Or maybe he needs some more outings, who knows!

I told ST that as long as he remains on the ground and in the arena for dressage, I will be happy. I am honestly expecting an elimination, so anything would make me happy right now. Luckily, this is her job and she is confident in my horse. She's doing her duty as a great trainer to get him out there before the show. This is his 2nd XC school and theres will be one more before Penny Oaks. We are also lucky and have a mini XC field at EME with corners, rolltops and logs, so I hope we can get him consistent about not taking that R. I trust her completely though and am happy with the decision to have her ride him in the first event.