Show Woes

I know this is a little delayed - it was a busy week AND Mike's camera has performed a disappearing act so this is a picture-less post. Sorry - I'll update with pictures as soon as the camera resurfaces.

Anyway, the show. Got to the barn nice and early to clean up JJ. Tacked him up and rode him over to the show grounds. He was fine all the way there - I hopped off halfway up the field as he began to notice the commotion ahead of us, and walked him the rest of the way. He was fine. When we got on to the grounds he danced around for about 10 minutes before settling in nicely. Because we were a good 2 hours early, I untacked and let him graze for about an hour. He seemed to be enjoying himself.

Then I brought the saddle back out... And JJ freaked. Ugh. He wouldn't let me get close to him with the tack (why had I even untacked him in the first place?). He danced around for a while as I tried to get the saddle pad on, and finally I gave up and decided to lunge him a bit. Twenty minutes later I tried again and got similar results, except maybe worse. The only time I've ever witnessed this type of behavior from JJ was the first couple of times I tried to get him on the trailer.  He became extremely defensive and you could watch the transition as he lost all brain function and went into auto-don't-hurt-me-pilot (why did I untack him?!). It was about this time that the show secretary was calling my number into the dressage ring. Sweet.

I let JJ graze again, tried one more time with the saddle only to have it tossed in the dirt, then headed home - JJ on lead. So anyway, I know what I need to work on, and I keep telling myself (and everyone else) that at least I didn't get eliminated (kind of)! There's always next year.

Wednesday I went for a trail ride with a couple other riders and we decided to try out JJ's affinity for water. There's a nice little beach at a pond nearby. The two other horses walked in a stood while I brought JJ closer. He put his nose in the water curiously, then (and I kid you not) leaped in. LEAPED. As soon as he had all four feet in, though, I forced him out. Believe me when I say that horse was ready for a nice bath, and seeing as my saddle had just been thrown in the dirt I figure that last thing it needed was a soaking in nasty pond water. Oh well, at least JJ isn't scared of water. He's also getting better at picking his feet up over roots and rocks on the trails, which is good.

We've got a lot of work to do.