I got to ride three times this week. 

Mia was an angel, since Debbie had a cantering lesson in the main ring I rode in the other ring with two girls exercising their horses.  Mia was so good, she stayed at the walk each and every time the horses galloped (yes, gallop, not a canter) past her, she did not flinch when the horses were galloping towards her.  Her whole attitude was--“I’m in my thirties, I don’t need to run around any more!”   I was sort of limited with what I could do, but even so Mia managed to remind me to watch my hands, keep centered, and keep light.  Mia was ruined before Debbie got her, but it was not with 3-Day work, just bad Western trail riding.  I have not had much trouble getting Mia to learn to enjoy me riding her, and in return for my decent and humane riding I now get to ride a horse that is actively teaching me how to ride properly with my new bit.  She’s a wonderful horse!

Mick was as stiff as usual, stiff to start out, stiff after standing, and super stiff after backing.  Mick had been 3-Day evented in his youth and I am beginning to believe that a lot of his physical problems started then.  Mick, as a proper Arab, is super cooperative, he tries and tries and tries to please his rider even when he hurts.  Every time he shows he tries hard, every time he is used in a lesson he tries to obey his rider, Mick gives until he hurts and then he tries to work past the pain.  Sometimes I feel guilty riding him, and I work on loosening him up, getting him to stretch out, and I work on him moving to the side with turns on the hindquarters and turns on the forehand.  Right now he MUCH prefers turns on the hindquarters, I think it hurts his back to cross his outside hind leg in front of his inside hind leg.  I can gradually loosen him up so he can do a 180° turn on his hindquarters but when I ask for more than one step of the turn on the forehand he switches from the turn on his forehand to a turn on his center, to a turn on his hindquarters.  He is not mean or abrupt about it, he is just saying that it hurts him to do a simple turn on the forehand.  Debbie likes how his muscles have developed with my riding, he no longer stands with his hind hooves right next to each other or mainly on his right diagonal, he is starting to square up.  Did he have a bad fall over a cross-county jump that wrenched his back?  I don’t know and I don’t think I will ever find out, I just have to work with the horse that is under me, pain, faults and all.  When Debbie gets the massage book finished I hope we can help a little more than the chiropractor has been able to.  Then, maybe, I will be able to get Mick to enjoy our rides more.

Today I had another frustrating ride on Bobby.  I am still using the Pee Wee bit on him (and Mia), and the one good thing about my ride is that he is still not grinding the bit between his molars every minute it is in his mouth like he used to do with every other bit I tried on him (Herm Sprenger Dynamic RS egg butt, Dr. Bristol, JP Dr. Bristol, and Mullen mouth snaffles.)  Riding him today I was reminded of reading dressage trainers who say that every time they teach something new the horse offers everything he has learned before giving the trainer the new movement.  Well, with Bobby, just about every time I have tried something new tack-wise, Bobby offers every single resistance that he has ever learned.  With this new bit we have gone all the way back, with Bobby trying every trick in his pony play book to NOT DO ANYTHING I ASK FOR.  He did this in the Mullen mouth snaffle too, just not quite as bad.  I talked with Shannon about it, she told me he does it with every rider recently, and he even does it when someone is leading him.  She said Bobby cooperates for about 10 minutes and then he gets scared and resentful.  The lady who donated him used to lease him out to little riders trying to do 3-Day Eventing, and Shannon thinks that Bobby is scared that if he is cooperative for too long he will just end up having to do 3-Day Eventing again.  Considering the execrable riding I’ve seen on videos of 3-Day cross-country runs I really don’t blame Bobby for being scared of being forced to do this again.  If I was a horse I would not want to do it either.  Why would I?  I mean these riders continually punish their horses when their horses are trying their hardest, yanking hard on the reins, getting off balance and hauling themselves back into position with the reins, getting left behind over the fences because they are doing the “safety seat” and both hitting the horse’s mouth and slamming down on the horse’s back when landing.  I don’t blame Bobby for his defenses, he may not be polite about resisting but he has done nothing to actively harm me (though at times I have to WORK so he does not run me into the fence.)  IT IS NOT BOBBY’S FAULT THAT HE WAS RIDDEN BADLY, though I am sure that his little riders blamed him and punished him for trying to defend himself from their abuse.

People, the 3-Day Eventing cross-country runs, dressage tests, and show jumping are not for most beginning riders, especially children!  This event used to be called Military, because it was for cavalry officers (i.e. adults) who had lots and lots of lessons, riding hours every day, riding lots of different horses, riding at cavalry schools with proper cross-country courses, and who were taught how to train horses.  These cavalry men were not riding 13.2 hand high ponies or 14.3 hand high Arabs, they were riding TBs or warm bloods, usually over 15.2 hands high.  These cavalry men were not beginners, children or weak women, they were military, strong, fit, and they had learned how to be bold, and their horses were strong and fit and had learned how to be bold.  I am not saying that weaker riders cannot event, I am saying that weaker riders have to learn how to be REALLY GOOD riders before eventing, otherwise the horses undergo terrific abuse, the horses end up getting hurt, their mouths get ruined, and the animals end up being RESENTFUL of all riding and riders.  I had to stop watching eventing cross-country videos, it gets bad when I can see a bad fall of both horse and rider coming 6 to 10 strides away from the jump.  There are good cross-country event riders out there, they don’t continually yank their horse’s mouths when they become unbalanced and scared, they know enough so that they can get the horse to the jump within his strides, and they can jump decently.  You have to be a BOLD rider to do cross-country runs successfully, and if you are not particularly bold may I suggest that the show jumping and dressage classes may be better for you, at least better for your horse.

And no, I have never ridden 3-Day events.  When I was younger I would ask my riding teachers and all they told me was that I had to learn to ride much better before I could expect to compete in the 3-Day, and now, with my MS, I do not have the balance or endurance needed.  At North Forks I did ride some horses who had been evented, bold horses who demanded respect and desired competent riding.  They were the horses that demanded that I start riding at a much higher level than I ever had before.  I owe these horses a lot.  THEY had not been completely ruined by eventing and were quite able to tell me when I was riding badly and some of them would help me ride better, AND they were reliable fox-hunting horses too.  They were sound, and able to give good rides in lessons, on trails  and cross-country, and they did not resent being ridden, even by me as bad as a rider as I was and as weak as I was.  I wish I could say that of the ex-eventing horses I ride today.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran