Oliver, for the last two times I've taken him schooling at Denny's, has been a bit tense and wanting to tighten up and jig around and just not pay attention, so I took a cue from Marissa (who has been so good about taking Brady everywhere and letting him chill) and took him over to the Horse Park where they were having their Pipe Opener II and let him take in the sights of a show. He's never been to the HP, so this would be interesting. I fully expected him to a) balk at getting on the trailer, as we had a disagreement the last time he loaded; and b) be very excited at the commotion at the HP.
He started off by just hopping on the trailer. No arguments, no backtalk. Whew. I had suspected at the last that he might not have gone completely through the "cycle" that John Lyons talks about, but I guess that was the last phase and he was fully trained to load now. When we got to the HP, it was REALLY busy and crowded with trailers, and the wind was blowing in strong gusts, plus it was chilly, so I expected the worst and thought I might have to longe him. Oliver sat on the trailer and learned to be patient while I went over and hunted down Christan and Co. over at the warmup arenas, watched a few rounds, and then after about 20 minutes decided to head on back and let him off the trailer. He apparently didn't do anything at all, not even eat hay (wish he would - maybe he doesn't like that little haynet), so I unloaded him. He immediately tried to eat the dead grass, so I knew he wasn't too upset. Keith was over in the big field working Spike, who apparently was a little overwhelmed by the atmosphere, so I took out the longe line and decided to longe Ollie, who wasn't very interested in being longed. He wasn't excited in the least, just interested in everything going on, so after a few circles each way, I decided that it was pointless and tied him to the trailer with his pink hay bag (which he seems to like) and saddled him up.
We wandered over to the warmup arena and saw lots of scary things on the way there, but Oliver was all grown up and when he looked, I legged him on and he just marche past them. He gawked at people coming out of the PortaPotties, jumped a little at the loudspeakers overhead, and stared at a sign, but other than that he was a Very Big Boy. We walked around the warmup arena a few times, and he offered a stretch almost right away. I had to remember to not allow him to just put his head down, but to march him into the contact so that he took the reins forward and down so that the stretch would go through his entire back. We picked up the trot and I was able to stretch him at the trot, too, which was a lovely surprise. Cantered both ways, even picking up the right lead, and I figured we were done for the flat, and we headed over to the warmup for stadium to pop a few jumps. Luckily, they were still set for BN. I trotted the crosspole without an issue, picked up the canter, and then cantered the oxer (for some reason, I was less nervou about jumping the oxer than the vertical). He grabbed the bit and ran at it about two strides out, which really annoyed me. After trying to keep him round the next time, I slammed on the brakes and pulled his head around to get him listening to me, and then we cantered at it again, this time staying round to the jump. He is letting him ride him a bit more, although he likes to take off just a tad long instead of sitting down in front of the jump. I have a feeling that this will change once he sits more at the canter on the flat.
I was thrilled. He was such a good boy. He stood on the trailer for a little bit longer while I went to go pay, track down Christan and Co. and say goodbye, and we went home. I think we may actually be able to do Lumber River, if not Longleaf, soon!
Oh, and obviously I'm talking about Oliver only now, you may have guessed that Sam has been sold on. I hated to do it, but I was getting very stressed out about campaigning two horses. Sam has a new mom, Jean Long, who seemed to click with him immediately (not hard to do with Sam) and I'm sure she'll love him just as much as I do and have just as much fun. I do miss his silly face around the barn, though.
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