Thoroughbred Makeover: The Final Countdown

It was Thursday and the day of the competition was just around the corner. Since I wasn’t able to do anything with Arrow for three days (due to a sprung shoe), it was time to get back to work. The first whole day at the Kentucky Horse Park was a pretty relaxed day. I grazed him, groomed him, walked around the arenas, and went for a hack. When we went into the indoor arena to show him around, he wasn’t being his usual self. He was randomly stopping, trying to run in front of me, and just wasn’t being good. It turns out he really just wanted to roll! After his roll, he was about back to his normal self and led around like a good boy. Then he saw the “scary” Thoroughbred Makeover sign at the entrance/ exit for the indoor. It was all good until the sign started blowing in the wind. When there wasn’t any wind he was completely fine with it the rest of the week. He wasn’t the easiest to ride, but I was expecting it! Arrow was looking at everything that was going on and was kind of energetic. Not necessarily spooking, but he just wasn’t paying attention. He could’ve been worse. As I was riding, I noticed horses and riders who were having a much harder time than I was. At least he wasn’t running off with me, bucking, or spooking while I was on his back like some that I saw. I just used the first ride to exercise and stretch since he wasn’t his best. Sundown came quickly after our ride. Since the previous day's ride wasn’t very good, and I wanted to get him out of the stall more, I decided to ride twice a day. One ride was to walk around everywhere in the morning and the following ride was to work sometime in the afternoon. So I took Arrow out in the morning to do our first little ride around and he was a lot better than the previous day. He could’ve been better, but I was just happy that he was improving and not as energetic and “looky”.

During his break, he was grazed, groomed, and fed his alfalfa cubes and beet pulp. He was VERY spoiled with treats. Around 3 o’clock it was time for his afternoon work ride. This time I rode him inside the dressage arena and practiced test movements such as turning up center line, twenty-meter canter circles, halting square, etc. The judges were going to be in little gazebos placed at B and C. I walked him around those a lot expecting something to happen, but no, nothing happened. So I asked my mom and grandma to sit in one of the judge's places just to make it more active, but again nothing happened. I’ve seen horses who would never go near such things, but I guess Arrow didn’t care.

He was awesome practicing the test! I couldn’t have asked for him to be better at the time! Afterwards, I got off of him and went into the indoor arena just to get him in it again before the show the next day. There was a horse on long lines and carts on the side of the arena. I continued to walk Arrow around the indoor and he was great especially with a couple of horses acting a little crazy here and there. The horse that was once on the long lines was now hooked up to its cart. I was trying to avoid them and do some patterns, but it was almost like they were following me! Maybe it was because my horse was acting like an angel compared to some of the others and I wouldn’t give them a problem, but that was not the case. Arrow and I turned around the corner and he saw the horse and cart. It was the first spook I had ridden on his back and it wasn’t too bad. We went sideways a couple steps and then was mostly back to normal. Just to be safe and not let him have bad experience, I decided to take him back to the outdoor dressage arena to help him listen again. I got off and led him out to the ring, and guess what? The horse and cart came out with us. Arrow froze in his steps and just watched. It turned out they were just driving back to their stall, and then they were gone. Arrow was back to his normal self when I got on, and I did a few circles, up center lines, and was done. For our last practice day, I couldn’t have been happier.

Also Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum sent dignitaries from multiple different countries and continents to the makeover. They came over and met Arrow because of his sire Elusive Quality and also Fullback because they were Darley bred horses!