Showing alone actually has its upside, too.
No one yet has addressed your horse’s history, with the uncharacteristic spookiness last time. I will.
The number one thing to do is Make Every Ride A Training Ride. Number Two thing is Ride The Horse You Have, At The Time.
So what this means in practice is getting there the day before, as you are, giving him a chance to get into his stall and chill out a bit before taking him out to work. Your goal with this Day Before ride is to have him be sort and rideable by the end. How do get there? Depends on the horse (again, the horse you have that day, not who he was at his last outting or who he is at home, or who he was last week).
For a normally quiet horse, I like to handwalk first, in a halter with no ride attached. The purpose of this is to let them look (and maybe be overwhelmed for a minute by something) and have the experience of deciding for themselves that it’s not a big deal. The other reason to start with handwalking for a quiet horse rather than lunging or riding is that you get this lookie-lu phase done without tiring them out. The quiet ones who want to run on the lunge and scream because they are overwhelmed and didn’t get a chance to look before they were moving, or the horse with whom you get in a fight under saddle because he wants to look and you want obedience… you end up using up whatever energy they had. When those horses finally get familiar enough with the show grounds as to allow you to ride them as softly as you’d like for the show ring, shazam! They are also out of physical energy.
So think of the first time you bring this horse out of the stall as not about riding and not about you. It’s about letting him do what he needs in order to get relaxed. If might boot him up and bring a lungeline and whip with me. We’d handwalk first. If that became old hat, I’d offering a chance to move around on the lunge. And the form of lunging I’d use would be “minimalist”-- minimalist in the sense that I wasn’t asking him for more of his attention than it took to keep him on the circle I wanted and the speed I wanted. I’d let him look while trotting and see if I couldn’t get him to decide for himself that he could look and move at the same time. I’d offer some canter. If you know this horse has a buck in him, see if you can get that. If he’s quiet, stop cantering a touch early so as to save some horse for later. After any work and you put him back in his stall, his adrenaline will drop back down and he’ll realize that he’s a bit more tired. So the next time you take him out-- now to school or to show-- you might have much less horse than the one you put away. So if you lunge (as well as will ride pretty soon after that day), be “minimalist” in not leaving him on the line too long, either.
If, after hand walking, your horse seems quiet and rideable, just skip lunging and ride him. On schooling day, I have a plan about where I’d like to end— usually having jumped around in the show ring a bit. But! I Ride The Horse I Have and I don’t skip any steps. So if I can’t get him rideable on the flat, I don’t jump until I do. If I do get rideable on the flat (or jumping a bit) in the schooling ring, but he reverts to Feral in the show ring, I “pull over” from my plan to jump and re-establish that soft, rideable flat work in that ring, too. I just don’t skip any steps, even if it makes my ride on schooling day a bit longer than I wished. If you always ride for rideability, even at a show, you’ll get that faster and faster each time you show.
On show morning, I try to give them another handwalk or maybe a very relaxing few minutes on the lunge, very early. Here, I’m offering the chance for the horse to move his body a little bit after yesterday’s work and a night in a strange stall. And I’m assessing his degree of energy for the day. I’ll know better how much time I need to alot for warm-up if I know before saddling up who my horse is going to be on that particular day.
I think everyone else gave you good advice for the schooling ring. The only bit I’d add is the suggestion that you learn your courses before you even tack him up, and continue to think of the schooling ring as you a place you train— getting rideability and skipping no steps. Also, with regards to the traffic there: If you look up and ahead to where you are going and call out to riders where you’ll be “Outside” or “On your left” or “Heads up to the oxer,” for example, the waters will be more likely to part for you. Keep an eye out for where everyone else is going, but try to be predictable in your speed and direction, and things won’t be hard.
Good luck! I hope you have lots of fun. Starting out with a horse is naturally a steady-eddy is really the best recipe for success. These guys are so much easier to make thoughtful and rideable in a new situation than are the “run first, ask questions later” type.
