I often comment that Talos does really well in groups of horses, & I feel like sometimes people look at me like I’m an idiot because duh, herd animals.

However. This is not true of all horses.

Let me tell you about Griffy.

I don’t have a good picture example so just trust me, he is not a fan of other horses in large groups. He has his buddies of course:

But big groups of horses doing stuff makes him incredibly anxious. I think it’s leftover from his jousting days – he doesn’t like other horses charging at him & I think he gets nervous and protective of his personal space.

Anyway, yesterday the fall series of shows kicked off, after the summer break. Good thing the temperature dropped to a balmy 92 degrees or it would have been really uncomfortable. 🙄

It was not an auspicious start – we were at the trailer getting ready when I pulled off Griffy’s fly mask – and to my horror his whole halter slipped off!! I grabbed his mane & yelled for M. Praying he wouldn’t run off with no halter or lead rope….I was sure he was going to gallop away & get lost, never to be seen again, or find his way to the road & get hit by a car despite the whole property being fenced.

It felt like it took M. 3 years to walk around the trailer, but I’m sure it was only an hour. She started to say something that devolved into “Oh!” When she saw me clinging to my naked horse. Gods bless her, she walked up to him with a big smile and almost-but-not-quite gave him a hug while I frantically untied the lead rope & tossed it over his neck while she slipped on his halter.

I showered him with good boys for not running away, but my heart was still pounding when we went to school the course.

That was largely uneventful, except the cross country course was open right behind us & whenever a horse would go thundering by, Griffy would get nervous & call out. However, I was able to redirect him, we got through all the obstacles, & it was good.

After schooling it was back to the trailer for grooming & a little pizzazz;

Then back up when it was time for judging to start.

This was a mistake I made – there are two ways to get to the obstacle course. The front way along the road, past rows of cars & trailers, or the back way, which just happened to have a huge group of horses waiting for their turn on cross country.

M chose the back way & like an idiot I followed her. I could have easily said “hey can we go the other way?” And it would have been fine…. But honestly I didn’t realize how upsetting it would be to him until we were already through it. He even did a little spook just because his nerves were so on edge.

Anyway, we got on the course & everything was ok until about halfway through. I don’t know why, or what they were doing, but a group of 4 of those riders began cantering in circles behind the course.

Griffy called out to them, and when I asked him to walk he danced around, threw his head down, & bucked – not at me, just out into the air.

I exhaled.

I said “ho, ho” the way I do when he’s walking too fast to his morning alfalfa.

I waited for him to calm down and told him good boy.

We did the next obstacle, then it was the same thing, although the buck was more of a leap in the air.

I took a deep breath. A distant corner of my mind said “OMG we can’t do this we have to leave.” But I just exhaled, told him ho, ho and good boy.

He did it one more time, then it was the last obstacle & we were done.

The awesome thing is that not that long ago – maybe not even a month ago- I would not have been able to handle this. I would have gotten scared, it’s not like him to have huge reactions, I would have felt like I couldn’t hold on to him, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve even seen him buck, not counting just playing in the pasture. But I was able to silence the part of my brain that said “you can’t do this!” And just work through it with him. After our test C. Quietly told us she was proud of us. I told her for a moment I thought of leaving & she smiled & said “I was waiting for you to ask to leave, I was going to say no.” I smiled too, I know she would have helped us, but I’m all the more proud we got through it on our own.

I don’t think Griffy was misbehaving, being “naughty” or bad – he was overwhelmed & uncomfortable & anxious & expressing it the way he knows how. But I can see how someone would think it was bad behavior, and I admit by the third time I was like “Again, seriously?” But punishing a horse for being afraid & anxious is never the way to go, and I stuck with trying to be a calm presence in the eye of his storm.

We ended up fifth overall, and I couldn’t be happier if we had been first.

At the bottom of our score sheet, C. Wrote two comments I will love forever:

I love my potato kite.