When the girls started horse showing, a wise person, a veteran of many horse show scenes, said to me, "Face facts, you're in for hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror." She was kind of right. I'd substitute "routine" for "boredom." And while "sheer terror" seems a bit extreme, I'd definitely agree to "moments of spiking adrenaline." Like when Bestie took off bucking and backing wildly in a huge class with Maddie aboard, or when Dude suddenly decided in a halter class that he really missed his barnmate, and started rearing and dragging Katie around.
Even now that we're not showing anymore, I still find those moments. Like last week, when Katie rode Bestie. The words, "Boy, she's being really good for you" were not 30 seconds out of my mouth when Bestie shimmied away from the wall, did a little crow hop, and Katie popped off. Unhurt, luckily, but definitely emotional, miffed, and determined to get back on. Bestie stopped right away and looked down at Katie. From my perspective, Bestie looked a bit surprised to see Katie looking up at her from the dirt. To Katie's credit, she calmly walked the mare over to the mounting block, remounted and continued trotting Bestie around the arena for another ten minutes or so with no further mishap.
It seemed to me like a classic case of pissed off mare syndrome ("What??! This girl is WORKING me!"), with the tractor mower roaring by the door as a little excuse for misbehavior, followed by good behavior when she realized "Oops, I crossed the line." I think if she had really meant to be bad, she would've taken off bucking and farting as soon as Katie fell. After the ride, Katie took her back to her stall and got her tucked in for the evening. I later sidled into the stall, looked Bestie in the eye, and said firmly, "Don't you EVER do that again." Just wanted to let her know where I stand.
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