Jasper is NOT a show horse

Jasper takes a very short break between his practice high-level dressage moves just before we head to the ring for our first class.

Jasper and I had an exciting and fun weekend, to be sure. On Saturday, we trailered down to the Lewiston Roundup Rodeo Grounds for a small schooling show. I had no high hopes for our success at the show, which ended up being a very, very good thing. We unloaded and set up without incident, but when it came time to mount, Jasper started doing some very....exciting maneuvers. I never really figured out what set him off, but have since decided it may have been the wind picking up the white number on my back and flipping it around. Either way, he was doing this incredible piaffe with his neck arched and was snorting and blowing like a stallion. He looked BEAUTIFUL, but it made me a little anxious. What was especially funny about all his pre-show antics was that this was an AQHA club show, so everyone else's horses looked half-dead doing the peanut roll in the warmup arena. Oh, well. I did eventually get mounted with the help of both Wayne and Lacy, and off we went. He warmed up very well, and we even took a few turns of the fairgrounds between all the hubbub and activity without incident. When it came time to enter the indoor arena, he seemed to have relaxed pretty well, and I thought we could get through our three classes without a big deal. I was wrong.

"At least he's not bucking!"

As soon as we entered the arena (we were supposed to enter at the trot), he caught site of the crowd to our right and paid special attention to the two little girls waving small American flags and running up and down the walkway between the stands and the arena. Pow! Big spook! I calmly pulled him back over to the rail, but at this point, he started looking for more scary things and I felt like I was riding a 1000 lb powder keg. As soon as we passed the scary crowd, we came to the viewing room side of the arena, which is suspended above and has a noisy metal staircase leading to it. Of course someone with 100 lb shoes decided now was the most appropriate time to make their way to the viewing room, and we had another giant spook to the middle of the ring. By this time, I could hear the snickers in the audience and thought how ridiculous the two of us must have looked--I did remember to SMILE for the judges, though! I sidepassed Jasper back to the ring under the viewing room when they crackled over the loudspeaker "Please walk your horses!" and Jasper teleported again into the middle of the ring.
This is essentially how our three classes of the day progressed. Our second class was slightly better, only because the kids decided to sit, but he still was ready to take off any time the loudspeaker crackled, which it did often. I felt like a pinball machine--I don't think we made a straight line for more than 2-3 strides. We placed last in each of our classes, which was third two times and fourth another. I didn't buy a show pony, I bought an endurance horse!

Here you can see the trifecta of horrors: Loudspeaker, Viewing room, and Metal Staircase of Death.

Today we went on a training ride down the road, and I decided I wanted to work on rating him and having us lead a little. I warmed up for 20 minutes or so in the indoor arena, where I realized that to rate his speed in the arena, I use my seat, and when I try to rate him on the trail, I use more of the bit (which he objects to when he's really ready to go). Today I wanted to do more with my seat, and it ended up working really, really well. I knew there was a disconnect between the arena and the trail, and finally was able to start solidifying what it was today. He lead the entire way, and only did one medium sized spook the whole time. I've realized that when we're trotting and I allow him to choose the speed, he then decides he's in control and spooks far more often and more violently, which I'm assuming is because he's running the show AND feels responsible for looking out for cougars. So today I used half-halts and seat aids to rate him. He did get a little fast when we were about a half mile from home, but he did so respectably and I "allowed" it. He clicked into power trot mode, which is exhilarating and wonderful. We chugged along at a quick 11.6 mph clip for the last half mile, and I was beaming. What was especially funny is I could feel him "click" into professional mode just prior to that point. I knew when it happened because he started really moving out and stopped sightseeing and just chugged on with a loose rein. I knew he had it in him, it's just been a little bit of a learning curve for us. Jasper is the kind of horse that needs a lot of guidance and that I'm really going to actually have to RIDE for the starts of both training rides and e-rides. Once he's got the idea and our hierarchy has been established, I think I can turn him "loose" without incident. I love my horse, bad shows and all!