The Biggest Mistake, Ever

The planned weekend adventure began with a huge mistake. Bigger than big. Monsterous. It crossed my mind to not even write about it, it troubled me that much. I was up most of the night Friday night just reliving it.

After having a good training experience at the last show at Rivermont, it made sense to take Bandon out again two weeks later for the next show. I was looking forward to holding my "keep calm no matter what he does" goal again and adding, "ride him" to the list. The previous show was a litmus test to see how he was in an arena with other horses being ridden around him and I was riding defensively, ready to handle whatever move he decided on.

This time I wanted to give him direction instead of responding to his reactions. Much prettier, much more correct, and closer to the completed picture I'd like to have in a few years.

Friday evening at dusk, I brought the boys in, then walked Bandon down to the hose to clean him up a bit for show day. If you have followed my story awhile you'll know that we don't have running water at the barn itself, so I needed to bring him to the house.

The boys have a routine of being brought in at night and fed, we typically do all of our work in the mornings. Taking Bandon out of the barn at a different time of day had everyone riled up, Czech was calling high pitched cries to Bandon who wasn't sure why Czech was so upset and started fretting that maybe he should be upset too. My mistake had already been made but I didn't know it yet.

Once we were at the hose he danced around me, acting as if the hose were a flag that drove him forward. A few minutes into it, his head came up as I held pressure down and forward. That was the combo needed to bring my mistake to my attention and it was too late to fix it, I had put the grooming halter on Bandon instead of his standard halter.

I'd like to say that I made the mistake just by not paying attention to which I grabbed, unfortunately I had done it on purpose. Thinking his newer leather halter would bleed on his coat once it was wet, I used the 'never had a problem before' grooming halter that has no throat-latch.

As Bandon's head went up, my pressure under his chin pulling forward and down, no throat-latch to stop it's movement, in one quick slip, the halter was off and my horse was running backwards loose.

I often publish pictures of the horses on our property with trees in the background, maybe giving an impression that our property is very rural, it isn't. Those trees all have houses behind them and we live less than a half mile from a 5 lane highway. From the back of my home, you see my pasture. From the front, we live in a residential neighborhood with 11 houses on our short street.

circle by our house is where Bandon was being hosed, arrows show his path

Bandon took off towards the barn the most efficient way he could figure out, to go back through the left open gate I brought him through, he would have first had to move away from the barn and he wouldn't have even considered it. Once he realized the fence stood in his path, he ran to the road.  My view of him blocked by houses, I was terrified. My horse was gone. I could not see him. I couldn't run nearly fast enough to even keep view of him. I could hear his hooves on asphalt and thought, "Dear God, not the highway"

I ran as fast as I ever have, calling him in the sweetest voice I could muster, and then I saw him come around the corner of a house and back towards me. For another twenty minutes the horse ran loose. Slowly blocking him, so not to panic him back into the road, I kept him running the fenceline back and forth as I hoped he'd circle back to me each time he got to the farthest point. Czech was going crazy in the barn and probably helped keep Bandon pinned on the fenceline run. The daylight was almost completely gone at this point.

I let myself stop to call my husband and try not to panic as I told him Bandon was loose and he needed to come out, get Czech so I could use him to guide Bandon back into the fence, and to bring the key to open the pasture gate that was closest to Bandon. By the time he got out there, Bandon paused to breathe, near enough to me that I touched him and draped my rope on him.

Back in his stall, I caught my breath as he caught his and then I lost it with those full-body-shaking sobs. My poor husband looking at me saying, "Umm, honey, he's okay". Those moments when it was possible to have lost him, were agony.

I put his real halter on as we hot walked and then hosed off, he seemed as relieved as I was that we were back together. Going to a horse show felt trivial then as a wave of depression over came me and I almost didn't go at all.

The next morning I went over him carefully looking for any swelling, nicks, heat, anything. He was totally sound so we went off to the show if for nothing more than to enjoy each other's company.

Bandon relaxed into the atmosphere in record time. In the Green Horse Flat class, a mare was acting up and Bandon took it all in stride. We won both the flat and the Green Horse Hunter Hack with fences.

Out of the ring, Bandon stood quietly under a tree on a loose rein while we watched other competitors. We were nearly ringside, I was on his back, and he was calm. At times he became fidgety, once grabbing leaves up over our heads to munch on, overall was amazing though. We took on a crossrail course with good results and a third place, then an 8 jump crossrail course with another third. My brave boy wasn't hesitant or looking to refuse these new jumps at all, in the EQ over fences class we took fourth and a rail down as I mis-judged his stride. Back in the flat classes we went fourth and then took second in the EQ Medal Flat Class, including a sitting trot which Bandon has not been asked to do in a show situation before.

By the end of it, I was able to cue him softly, he was breathing and relaxing between classes, and we were almost able to stand in the line up with other horses without him wanting to immediately meet and greet all of his new found friends. Results that we had earned working hard on our groundwork for 10 out of the last 14 days, working our cues under saddle in different situations at home, and by just getting this horse out.

Maybe it's a tad controversial to add, we did it without any drugs as well. As I have gone through this training with Bandon, losing control off-site, I spoke with 17 different horse people I respect. Thankfully, they were candid with me on the topic and I found that 47% straight-up medicated horses responding the way Bandon was. Ace was popular, muscle relaxers were also very popular.

I was concerned with this approach but many told me that in relaxing the horse they were able to make progress that still showed next time they worked the horse. Often, being able to come off the medications over a period of time.

Three of those I questioned, used more homeopathic medications or medications aimed to alter the horse's hormone levels. Again, having good results of the horse being mentally present without being dangerous.

The rest I spoke with refused to use anything whatsoever.

I heard a lot of valid reasons to use medications, helping the body settle so the mind can work more effectively is something we have the option to use nowadays. I was unable to decide on any one method over another, or feel comfortable with giving anything to my horses, and ended up just going forward with nothing.

So at the end of a long show day, as I look at my horse covered up in his winnings, proud as a peacock over the state his mind has come to while we are off site, all I could think was Thank God it all turned out okay.

Monday morning we started again bright and early, ribbons freshly hung, back out to work the boys. Two-point needs to be stronger, canter seat needs to have an upper body that has less movement, and my sitting trot needed to learn to adjust to Bandon's shorter strides vs Czech. Show goals are being set...next time the jumping will be pretty, ever grateful to be out there with these horses at all.

Post Script : after publishing, a local friend contacted me with a reasonably priced plan to put in running water at my barn!