Weekend Update!

Let me just start by simply stating that we survived the weekend! All things considered, Miss Maggie did fantastic with the new challenges placed before her, and I am exceptionally proud of the accomplishments that we made. There are definitely some sticky spots that need to be sorted out, but I am confident that with time, she will gain full warhorse status.

During the weekends there are two joust shows, one at noon and the second at 5:45. It’s extremely spaced out, and makes for very long days. We have to have the horses ready and down on the field by 10am when fair opens so we can start running horse rides, a laborious task that wears you down, but that is also extremely gratifying when you get to spread the love of horses to small children. You seem to forget the sunburns and thirst and sore feet when you have a child love and pet on the horses after persuading their parents to let them ride 3 times in a row on all the different horses, or when the child whose shy and nervous to ride come back around grinning ear to ear and lovingly petting their mount. Plus it’s also a bonus when Barb takes pity on us and brings us cake!

The first show on Saturday was manageable… I kept my seat and Maggie stayed in the arena, so that’s good! The show is quite long and involved, so I won’t go into the details of the entire proceedings, but will touch on the important parts. Maggie is struggling with the large horses in armor carrying loud clanky knights running towards her, but I completely understand how terrifying that is for a horse! There’s a bit where the knights won’t stop fighting so Shelby and I have to ride next to them and hit them with batons to make them stop, and then we backhand them and cause them to fall off their horses, thus restoring order to the show. However, Maggie hates this part, and tends to bolt after I lay my first hit, which means we have to one rein stop, come back around, hit them again so they fall, and then bolt away again. This is our biggest struggle, but Harry has offered to get armored up during practice this week so Maggie can get used to the process. Being the princess she is, I really had to work to help her overcome the scary puddles that were scattered throughout the arena as well. She wanted to skirt around them in the lyst, which is definitely something you want to avoid when you have to ride a strait path against an oncoming horse. But by the last show she barley flinched when the gunshot went off and she cantered strait throughout her ring passes and passes in the lyst. She was bravely riding past the other big horses as an out-rider and stopped bolting when the knights hit each other and shattered their lances. I worked her through her fear of the crowd and the drums, and she was finally starting to relax by the last show.

Considering this was her first ever show and before Wednesday she had never been exposed to the majority of the things thrown at her this weekend, I am aglow with pride for that little mare. She’s extremely smart and once she figures out something isn’t going to eat her, she’s very willing to get over it and try for you. There were a couple of times she flat out said, ”NO!” and we had to have a little discussion about that, but those moments were very few and far between. Thankfully my own mare, Jaybird, is very similar to Maggie and I’m able to take the lessons Jay taught me and transfer them to my work with Maggie.

The whole process of taking a new horse through everything has been utterly exhausting, both in the mental and physical sense. I’ve spent countless hours in the saddle with her and my brain is about ready to explode with all the information that’s been thrown at me. However, I’m loving every minute of it, and am soaking up every little bit of information Kelly and Dave give me. I know we’ve barely skimmed the surface of what Maggie has to learn to deal with, and I know it will probably take most of summer to get her fully trained, but boy oh boy has it been an experience! I look back on how I was so nervous on Thursday and Friday that I was almost to the point of tears, and can only shake my head and laugh. I’m always very modest about my horsemanship skills and never give myself acknowledgement, but working through this weekend with Maggie really made me more aware of what I’m capable of doing. And it makes me even more excited to continue learning and become an even better horsewoman.

First weekend is done, and there are many other ahead. And so far, I can honestly say that’s it’s been worth it. I’m so glad that I took my chance and followed my dreams; quitting my job, living in a tent, and living from paycheck to paycheck has been rough, but the payback is 100% worth it. My joust family is wonderful and supportive, and I’m thankful everyday for taking this opportunity. Huge thank you to everyone who has been there to support me through this journey, you know who you are! I’d also like to extend a huge thanks to my parents for supporting though all my decisions. Much love to you all!

***working off an extremely slow internet connection right now, just wanted to get the post out but will try to find pictures tomorrow and update tomorrow when I find some images!***