STARTING OVER FROM THE TOP!

Lot’s of things happened when the Missouri Fox Trotters made their first showing at the Kentucky Horse Park. We wowed a lot of people. We “wowed” ourselves. Old friendships were renewed. We learned again in what a small world we live! I have decided that the best story belongs to Pat Harris.

Long ago, Pat Harris was a rider. She showed. She brought “Peaches N Honey” to Reserve Amateur Champion. She had a great time with her friends as they went off to the small Friday night shows. Then it became her dream to become a judge. Her dream realized, she started judging more and riding less. Soon, her riding stopped altogether as she focused on being the best judge that she could be.

Then she became a DQP. Her honest judging as well as her DQP talent is frequently called upon in the Fox Trotter horse show world.

I believe her to have become a crusader to place the best possible fox trotter in the show ring and award that fox trotter the blue. Pat Harris is not shy. She does what is right and stands behind it.

Time passed and the new movement of natural horsemanship started. Pat is interested in anything involving fox trotters and thus, she met Susan, a beginning adult rider going thru the natural horsemanship world with her fox trotters.

This meeting generated Pat’s new desire to resume riding using natural horsemanship in her journey back to being “a rider”. She wants to play with her horse on the ground. She wants to develop a relationship with her horse!

Pat audited many natural horsemanship clinics at Pine Dell farm in Kansas City with Jenny Vaught. She was thrilled at how the horse was treated. She was very pleased at how free and easy the horses moved when trained with this philosophy. Pat was urged to ride Susan’s advanced horses and really enjoyed those few rides.

Pat has two horses. One is a three year old named Yukon. At age two, Yukon was taken to a nice trainer for 7 weeks of training. He was then put back into the pasture until he turned three and that’s where this story starts. Whew! This is a long foreword!

Pat asked Susan if she would ride Yukon a bit. Pat maybe had 2 one day beginning clinics under her belt and about 3 hours max of riding Susan’s horses by that time. Riding a three year old with 7 weeks of training would be a “little scary” in those circumstances.

Susan rode Yukon in an advanced beginning clinic and then nearly every evening. Gradually the magic happened. Yukon got used to Susan and Susan got used to Yukon.

Yukon’s gait emerged; a brilliant 4 beat rhythmic smooth gait. Susan became more thrilled with every ride on Yukon. Susan tried to plot how she could wrangle Yukon to become her own horse, but she failed. Clearly this was the horse of Pat’s dreams!

While Yukon was stabled at Pine Dell, Susan had Jenny train Yukon for about a week. Jenny was thrilled with Yukon and said, “This is the smoothest fox trotter I’ve ever ridden. He’s a smart horse and he tries really hard to understand and do what you want. Pat has to continue to ride Yukon. We don’t want him out standing in a pasture! We want him to be trained to be the best that he can be!”

The Missouri Fox Trotter weekend at the Kentucky Horse Park was approaching fast. One night while riding Yukon, Susan was inspired. "Pat should take Yukon to the Horse Park and ride in the demonstrations. Yukon is now good enough right now to SHOW OFF at the Kentucky Horse Park. Pat can do this. Can I convince Pat that she can do this?”

Susan contacted Pat and talked her into this idea. It was soon set in concrete. Not set in concrete were Pat’s worries. Her worries started from thinking about 10 years of no riding, to riding a colt at the Kentucky Horse Park. Does the reader see where this might be something for Pat to worry about? No matter that Yukon is just the calmest nicest three year old in the world. HA! Pat worried. Susan calmed her down. Pat worried. Susan calmed her down.

In Pat’s past, she knew that when horses go somewhere out of their normal element, they occasionally ACT UP! Susan explained to Pat that even if this did happen, Pat by now, has learned how to deal with this situation and get it under control. Pat was …er…dubious! “You want me to ride with---no bit?!” was the first exclamation. Gulp." (Did I fail to mention that we start horses using only rope halters?) The day of the big trip came. Ten hours it took us to drive to Lexington, Kentucky. We chattered the entire way. We only got lost about 2 blocks from where we were to stay. Finally, we found our way and stabled our two in the nice barn and crashed at our hostess’ house.

The next day was Friday. We got up early and rode horses in the morning. Our hostess rode with us and we had a lot of fun. In the early afternoon, we drove all of us to the Horse Park. We got settled in and started to play with our horses in “our show arena”.

Pat started playing with Yukon and got frustrated. Yukon was in another world and Pat was getting anxious about riding the next day. Another Parelli advanced student was part of our group and Pat was savvy enough to want someone else to take over Yukon. Cindy took Yukon over and rode him around the arena quite a bit. Cindy got Yukon settled down and listening to his rider. Pat was able to ride Yukon after that.

The next day dawned…the day of the first performance. We dashed out of the house with a huge amount of cookies for snacks. Well, those cookies were all most of us ate until around 7:00pm that night. We were rushed rushed and rushed and excited about everything.

Pat and company got to our arena around 9:00 and started to play with our horses. Pat's confidence had been blown on Friday and wasn’t yet back up to 100% strength. She asked if Cindy would ride Yukon in the demonstration. Absolutely! The rest of the group shifted horses around. Cool! Pat rode a very calm older fox trotter gelding. Cindy had a great time riding Yukon. We were very cool. The crowd loved us! We performed at 10:00, 12:00 and 2:00. Needless to say, there was no time between performances!!!

At the end of the day we put our great horses away and left to eat. Were we ever hungry. We found a fabulous Mexican place and ate our hearts out!

The next day Cindy couldn’t ride as she had other commitments. Pat’s confidence was up at 98%. She decided that she could & would ride Yukon. Again we warmed them up in our arena and this time, Pat was in control and Yukon was her partner.

Pat rode Yukon in all three Sunday performances. Pat and Yukon acted like old pro’s at this. No one would have ever guessed that Pat was STARTING OVER in her new riding career! (Who said “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?")

All the horses in the demonstration were rode without bits. Susan's horse, Velvet, was rode bridleless. We knocked 'em dead in Lexington, Kentucky!

This story can’t end until I give thanks to Richard and Katherine Harrell who made all the arrangements (and rode) of the Missouri Fox Trotter demonstration weekend at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Pat thanks Susan for that wonderful experience. It wouldn’t have happened without her.

Send email to Susan at:  
Susanfxtrt@aol.com