Wow. So a LOT has happened since I last blogged (including numerous vehicle write offs, health issues, family pet deaths and just general bad luckery). I have gone from feeling excited about my future with Beau to selling him in my mind, looking for a new horse, trying things out and finally realising that I have an amazing horse on my hands.
So where to begin. I guess after I last wrote I was feeling excited about Beau's progress. He was still very spooky and napped like a b*gger, but I felt like he was less spooky with me and was slowly beginning to gain trust. We got a sharer on board. Tick. She could ride 3 days a week. Tick. She had a BHSAI qualification. Tick tick tick. But I realised that qualifications do not a good rider make and unfortunately Beau got progressively worse over the few weeks that she was with us. She-who-will-not-be-named rode with confidence and an "if he says no, push him forward and make him do it anyway" attitude but I have learnt that Beau, who she suggested was "not fit for purpose" and was "evil" is actually a very scared, nervous horse. So after an evening which ended on said sharers bum, she was gone as quickly as she came. Good riddance!
So after that I was feeling incredibly low and I will admit now, through gritted teeth, that I regretted my decision to get a horse. Not only was he difficult to ride so I wasn't enjoying the time I spent on his back, I also didn't have a sharer which meant I was up there a LOT. 5 days at the yard + 2 days complaining about the horse at the yard = a very unhappy boyfriend. Sad face. I was spending all my money on Beau, getting his back checked, his saddle checked, buying calmers for him and just spending every spare penny I had trying to get remedies, cures, bells and whistles to help my poor horse learn to relax. No Beau, the world is NOT trying to tear you apart. And if he had been a total ass in the stable it wouldn't have been a hard decision to make. But he was adorable. He is adorable. If I could take him home with me and let him sleep at the end of my bed, I would. I reckon that would be the end of my 4 year relationship with my partner, however, so a stable does him just fine. For now.
It all came to a head when I had a friend up to see him and as I rode around the ménage she said "wow, he moves beautifully". Before you could say "eat your words" he started bucking like a lunatic. I couldn't ride him forward. I couldn't ride him sideways. I couldn't ride him around or backwards or any way in the world. Other than vertical. And to cut a long story short it ended up with me sitting on a bench having a panic attack with people around me searching for a paper bag, which I have now come to the conclusion do not exist in this very plasticy world anymore. So that day I came home with a heavy heart and sobbed to my boyfriend that I was going to sell Beau. I was so heart broken.
But then.....like a beam of light shining from the heavens a friend handed me a leaflet about a product which I can only describe is for horses with ADHD (or more scientifically looks at the amount of calcium stored in the brain). I figured it was my last resort and within two weeks of being on this supplement he was a different horse. Oh I had great fun smirking at the yard manager who told me "in all my years of working with horses, those supplements have NEVER worked...you're wasting your money"....stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it little miss cynical. I'm such a believer in this product. I'm not saying that it works for every horse and even if it was flour that they were putting in his feed, I'm believing in it so it's making me confident and him confident and it's just a beautiful, quite expensive, cycle. So he is still a massive scaredy cat and his little ticker goes crazy if he sees PONIES IN THE DISTANCE...petrifying things. I've realised that it's actually the unknown that scares him the most. So if he can hear something, or smell something, or KIND OF see something in the distance.....well, lets just say it's taught me to have a sticky arse. But he can take on luminous balloons hanging off barbed wire. Car boot sale? No problem. Big yellow noisy tractor? His best friend. But turning a corner when he doesn't know what's around the bend....HELL NO.
But the difference now is while he's still a nervous horse and will always be hot, he is a warmblood after all, he is listening to me. So he's not turning into a complete rodeo pony. If I use my voice and my leg he will react and if I can keep his mind active and keep him moving forward he is a total dream. Then, to top it all off, I got THE SHARER FROM HEAVEN! She has trained horses back in Poland and has competed to Advanced Medium in dressage. Beau goes so well for her and hasn't put a hoof wrong (although I'm not holding my minty fresh breath). She is also a doctor. OK, I made that last bit up. But she's fantastic!
I nervously entered us into a prelim test a couple of weeks ago and by some total miracle we got a total of 64.2% and a blue rosette. I was delighted with us and there is a SLIGHT chance that I shed a tear, although that's not hard for me.....I cry at Don't tell the Bride. I cry at 16 and Pregnant. I cry at Made in Chelsea. So two things we can take from this:
1 - I am an emotional mess.
2 - I have horrendous taste in television.
So things are looking up for the Beau Beau. He's a lucky boy....SO close to becoming dog meat. I kid, I kid. But not many people would have kept going. I'm not much of a giver upper type person and I'm not saying I'll have Beau forever, but for now things are great. We are starting to train novice at home now and I have great dreams of us competing at higher levels by the end of the year but I also had dreams of taking over the world, hanging out with Donna Summer and being a winged pig so I won't expect them to come true. But one can hope......
Over and out
Victoria & Beau
