Hindsight is a wonderful thing! Whether it’s a pleasure ride or a 160km Championship I always like to sit back and have a de-brief. Pros and cons, things to work on, what we learnt, what we’ll keep doing. Now Qantas’ first competitive ride was quite the de-brief….let’s start where I think it all went a bit wrong! Three days before the competition.
Qantas is naturally stressy but not reactive, he’s wary and measured in his reactions, his brain is thoughtful but he doesn’t follow up with physical reactions, USUALLY. When we first got him he wouldn’t stand still, but when I viewed him at his own home he was perfectly chilled, being tacked up without even being tied up, so I knew this was a reaction to a new and unfamiliar environment. He is so very loving by nature and super sensitive to change. It took a few months but as he got to know us and his new home he settled into the cutest funny little character.
When he ‘spooks’ out on hacks (Compared to Azid you can hardly call them a spook) its more a little flinch, a slight jump, he stops, he looks, he thinks and then he moves on. Occasionally and particularly with weird sounds (lorry air brakes, water in a bottle, trees hitting my hat), he’ll have a more violent reaction and he takes a while to wind back down. So it appears he has a high threshold for scary things but when he reaches that threshold he really falls off a cliff and it takes a while to settle him down.
So back to three days before his first 40km Novice……the local shoot were at the bottom of his field shooting pheasant. Pheasant were flying all over the place and there was a lot of noise (Q’s worst nightmare I imagine). There isn’t anywhere else I can take them when the shoot is near the yard, so it is something he will have to get used to (Azid and Tissy don’t even blink now, although on this particular day even they were snorting and prancing). So when I bought Q in for his pre-ride massage, stretch and check up I couldn’t get near him, he was whinnying for his friends, rearing, spinning, there was just no point, so back out in the field he went, at least he was sound by all the floaty snorty trot I was witness to.
The next day he had his competition shoes put on, at first he was horrendous to shoe but the last few times he’s been good as gold, not quite the case this time. At this point I should have been thinking, he’s still wound up let’s not take him, it crossed my mind but I just thought he’ll be fine, we’ve been out and about loads.
The next morning he wasn’t so bad so we loaded up and off we went to Milton Keynes. He loaded in the dark without any hesitation (something I stupidly omitted from his training) and travelled the best he ever has. In the lorry at the venue he was happily munching and drinking away, the perfect prep for his ride. Now should I have taken him out and walked around the venue for a while before I went to the vetting, maybe, but who knows, I wanted to reduce the stimuli, take him straight to vet and get out on course rather than stress him out walking around, but maybe that was the wrong choice.
He unloaded nicely and walked towards the vetting enthusiastically but perfectly well behaved. I thought that my worries about him being stressed had been unwarranted until…THE GAZEBO!! It was a very open windy venue (great views and lots to see in every direction) again maybe not the best choice for a first competition, should I have researched the ride a bit more first, most likely, but it was my only option and I so wanted to get him out competing. I don’t think it was the flapping of the gazebo next to the vetting in the wind that got him but the sound it made. As soon as he saw/heard it that was it, he wasn’t dangerous in the vetting area, just wouldn’t stand still and was being very bolshy. Should I have put a bit in or used a control headcollar, maybe, but we’ve never had this problem in any of our other outings so should I have know, not really.
The vet was incredible, so understanding and patient, his heart rate wasn’t going to be under 64 so she let us walk back out and said that once he’d calmed down we could try again, even being vetted away from the vetting area. This is where he fell off the cliff…..we walked and walked, tried to get him to graze, distract him with food, soothe and settle him. But he was obsessed with fixating his gaze on a monument in the distance snort, rear, barge, pull, pace and spin. No matter what we did and by this time we had two headcollars, one a control headcollar, on him with a leadrope each side. Was keeping him out in the open and walking around the right call, I’m not sure.
Eventually two hours later and the lovely vet coming to check up on his progress it was clear we weren’t going to pass the initial vetting and in his current state I wasn’t even going to be able to tack up for a pleasure ride and my chances of staying on looked slim. Our arms ached and our hands had cramp so we loaded him back up, he settled in the lorry after about 5minutes. I said my thank yous to the vet team, the organisers and helpers at the venue and decided to call it a day.
I drove him to a car park about 15mins from home in the hope that we could do a fake vetting and he would have a positive experience, apart from shaking from anticipation (he wasn’t cold) he was well behaved, stood still, trotted up nicely and we all went home slightly happier.
So the positives:
- Loaded in the dark
- Loaded well at the venue even when stressed
- Travelled quietly
- Drank and ate really well when arrived
- Didn’t hurt himself or anyone else
- His stamina to freak out for two hours is pretty impressive
The things to work on:
- De-sensitise to scary things, particularly sounds
- Spend more time in busy open spaces
- Figure out if he’s better on the lorry until the last minute or we should arrive early to walk around a venue
- Try headcollars that offer more control if he loses it
- Consider calmers
- Take ques from his behaviour in the run up and know when to pull him from a competition
Beth Endurance 