Horse Show Recap--Sunday

So, my friend and I came in with a plan on Sunday. We fed, and while Mort ate she took her mare on her morning hand-walk. Mort panicked and spilled a lot of his food. I cleaned his stall and watered him etc. The love of his life came back and he settled. Then it was our turn for the walk. I walked in the barn for a bit, but every time I came to our aisle he would scream to her and get worked up. So I went to one of the warm-up arenas and walked there. He wanted to jig and I had to stick my elbow to him a few times to remind him to not get in my space but he did slowly start to walk flat. I eventually had a somewhat reasonable horse and I touched on some in-hand ground work and he was decent. We went back to braid. I checked in with the show office to see if they had any scratches that one of us could switch with so as not to warm-up together. No luck. So we came up with a plan to warm-up in separate arenas and try to sneak them around each other for the actual showing. My friend was amazing and let Mort and I have the arena that was intended for our ring. I actually ended up being able to switch with another rider and went three rounds early. We then snuck the mare in as Mort snuck out. We both still had tension, but nothing compared to the day before. I again went into this test with relaxation as the only goal. We spent the warm-up doing a million changes of direction and finding those moments when he would give and let go in the base of his neck. I actually ended up feeling confident enough in the test to let him think about some lengthens. I didn't push for them or ask for them, but I also let him build instead of throwing in a bunch of half-halts. We didn't get much in the stretchy trot, but he did give me some good free walk. We pulled a 62.9%. Then we had our final test of the weekend. His girlfriend left while I was tacking and we snuck her out after her test while I started my warm-up in the other arena. We then did a very similar warm-up in our correct arena and I felt like actually trying a little bit in this test. I asked for some conservative lengthens. I found a little stretch in the trot and he gave me some really nice walk work (earning us some 7's). His canter felt pretty good and if I felt like really asking for a lot I think we could have gotten some solid work. Overall, it was a decent test. It wasn't as good as we could put down if he had been relaxed but I was happy with what he was giving me. We got a 64.5% and both left the arena feeling confident. It was not the weekend that I expected. In my head the tension that we had worked our way down to by Sunday would have been all that we started with. I was hoping to be able to get some low/mid 60's on Saturday and pull some high 60's on Sunday. Obviously starting off with a personal-low of 50% and a very overwhelmed horse on Saturday made me readdress my game plan. I'm very disappointed in how Mort handled himself. I don't blame him and I'm not disappointed in him by any means, as he was truly just so upset that he couldn't handle life. He did his very best to stay with me and be obedient in spite of that and I am happy about that. But I'm still disappointed that all of our prep work and training had to go out the window to go back to just building confidence in each other. I understand that that's just training horses. I didn't buy a made horse and it's my responsibility to work him through these issues. We both did our best with what we were given this weekend. But sometimes reality sucks. On the flip side, I am very happy with how we were able to work through it. I got to see the worst (hopefully) that Mort will give me. We not only got through it, but we continued to get better and better with every ride. I know if we'd had a couple more rides we would have continued along that trajectory. I convinced him that I was to be trusted as a leader who wouldn't take us to our deaths. He got more and more confidence in himself and me. I got to gain confidence as a rider who can work through something like that. I also found out that I could sit a rear and keep going. I also got to work on my bravery in saddling back up after a truly bad (and scary) ride. Mort and I are both coming out on the other side better than we were. Our partnership is more solid and I've got even more tools in my toolbox to help settle a nervous horse. I also know to never stall near this mare at a show again!