More or less looking to see what calls everyone else makes with their young horses on show days when they get delayed and run SUPER long!
Took my just started gelding to a show yesterday, he is pretty saintly compared to all my other baby horses, a thinker in most cases yet looky which is expected, it was a crazy venue with three rings running.
We arrived early morning, a couple hours before our expected division run time. Just the hack.
Show got rained out with thunderstorms after the first division which caused a 3 hour delay and later an additional 2 hours, putting us at a run time of around 4-4:30 versus 11-12am.
I had a short warm up in prep of regular run time in the early morning and again a few hours later before another rain rolled in dramatically.
My gelding was looky and nervy but we got the chance to school in all three rings as they rotated classes and allowed us inside due to rain and he settled into his normal relaxed hunter self.
Long and short of it, despite entry fees and my desire to show him off I made the call to quit for the day and scratch seeing as it was still another 3-4 hours until we might run our division and we loaded up.
I could feel he was mentally tired even though he was willing and was finally going oh so well. I felt he was telling me it was a lot for the day and it would be âhumanâ of me to make him wait and ride again.
Anyone else make these calls with their young horses? Normally I would just let the horse chill and wait it out to get more experience yet I donât think we really missed any part of the experienceâŠâŠ
Thank you in advance!