With only a little over three months left until the Thoroughbred Makeover, Dom and I are on a cycle of ride/train, eat, sleep, work, repeat. We continue our dressage lessons, work on the canter, try to get more of a right bend in every gait, and do more sitting trot work. But there are only so many times I can go around in a circle, cross a diagonal, make a serpentine, or go down the center or quarter line before we get antsy and are ready for something new!

I enjoy dressage. It offers the challenge of precision, builds athleticism in horses, and forces me to be hyper-aware of by body position, my seat, and how I am communicating each movement to the horse. But, I also enjoy many other riding disciplines and it’s important that the horses I produce are calm and confident in a variety of situations – whether they see a barrel or cow, walk through woods, or jump over a rail. My ultimate goal is to produce horses safe enough for me and my husband (who rarely rides) to hop on and go for a trail ride.

Earning a ribbon. (Photo courtesy of Jessica Hanneman)

This is why Dom and I are preparing for Competitive Trail at the Thoroughbred Makeover. Each month we incorporate more skills and new obstacles. Dom has difficulty backing (likely due to Shivers), so we’ve focused on this since I began his training. We’ve progressed from backing in a straight line, to backing in an L-shape, pivoting on the hind quarters and then side-passing. He picked up pivoting quickly, but side-passing is a work in progress.

Next, I introduced opening and closing gates, tarps, and flags. Although successful at home, when in a new environment, Dom lost confidence. These obstacles became new and scary. So, despite hours of practice, we made it through only a few obstacles at our first fun trail class at April’s Minnesota Horse Expo. This was a great experience for us and gave me a baseline to work from.

At the Expo, one obstacle Dom struggled with was confidently walking over logs placed between two ground poles. So, after dressage practice when I noticed wooden ground poles next to each other, I used them to practice walking over “logs.” I separated them at different angles, so there was enough space for one of Dom’s feet between each pole.

At first, Dom stared at the ground poles with apprehension, thinking I was nuts for asking him to walk over these! He insisted there was absolutely no way his feet could fit. After several attempts he gave it a go and much to Dom’s disbelief, his feet fit between the poles! Afterward, he walks over our impromptu “logs” more confidently and with less hesitation.

A few weeks later, we felt ready for another trail class and entered the St. Croix Riders Saddle Club Boots & Brass Fun Show in Baldwin, Wisc.

The trail pattern was posted the afternoon before the show and included a bridge. I quickly made a makeshift “bridge” and although it was narrow and unconventional, Dom fit and it could hold his weight.

I lead Dom to the “bridge,” and placed his feet on the panel to show it was safe. Eventually, he stepped up and walked across. Then we worked on it from the saddle. With many successful passes over the “bridge,” we had a chance at the show, but with such little practice, I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t go as planned.

Dom was amazing at our second off-property experience together. At the show grounds he was initially nervous but we walked off his energy, then provided hay and water at the trailer where he stood calmly tied.

We warmed up just as we do at home by practicing dressage skills, backing, and side-passing. Then it was our turn!

We walked to the first obstacle: the bridge. This bridge was a set of plastic platforms and looked completely different from our practice bridge. We tried several attempts to cross, but Dom repeatedly avoided it, so we moved on to the next obstacle.

We trotted around a fake cow where Dom took it wide and stared it down. Next, we trotted over ground poles. Dom was unsure about the distance between the poles and broke to a walk, but we quickly picked it back up and went to the open-ended box. Slightly confused, Dom went in and backed out. His feet got tripped up when we side passed a ground pole but we were able to continue the side pass for the length of the pole.

A mailbox was next, which was something we had never practiced. Dom was a little apprehensive, but slowly made it close enough so I could lean in, open the mailbox, grab the flag, wave it over head, and return it.

Next was turning a full circle to the right and then to the left within a box. This proved to be challenging for Dom because he was much larger than most horses at the show and the box was a tight squeeze for him. He bumped the edges a few times but he stayed calm and tried his best!

Then off we trotted weaving through the poles for the last obstacle. We did it! We finished the trail class!

I was so proud of Dom and impressed by how far he had come since our first trail class at the Horse Expo! I didn’t care how we compared to everyone else because Dom had knocked it out of the park as far as I was concerned! But then the biggest surprise came, when they announced we had actually placed fourth. We got our first ribbon!

We still have more work to do. There are many more skills to practice but we have come so far as a team. We have built a great foundation of trust in one another, so I can’t wait to see where we will go in the years to come!