Shane has the same temperament as his mother. That is, he is very loving but can get very nervous and flighty. He is getting better though. I am not riding him anymore as I don't have the time and also I am scared of riding him because I had some bad falls and it wasn't fun anymore. He's happy being in his paddock getting fat now :)
He went to Expo Day in 97 and I was so proud of him. Although we weren't placed in the led class, he looked perfect and he was very well behaved. He was a picture in his new led-in bridle that I bought him after he got in the top ten high point led horses of the SPPHANSW for the 96/97 show season. Also after he won Champion junior W/T horse at the MDHRG Dressage Champs on the 2/3 August. I was ecstatic about that especially seeing as I had broken my foot five weeks earlier so he hadn't had any ridden work.
He went almost perfectly under saddle at Expo Day. With no warm up, I was very happy when he started going on the bit at the trot. The display was a bit of a mess with riders not keeping up and getting lost. We even had a bandage come off right when we were supposed to start trotting. I was rather proud because I was one of only two people who had something under their bandages and mine didn't move at all. Although he had a little bit of a pace, Shane trotted really well and showed a lovely extension although we did get busted for passing the person in front of us but they were going too slow and there was no way I was going to hide his trot.
His last show was the Qld All Breeds State Challenge late 97. No placing in the best presented because I don't clip nose wiskers or ear wiskers. He got 3rd in the Led Gelding which I was very happy about because we beat some rather nice horses. The judge was really impressed with his trot and that's what got him the ribbon.
It took them forever to get around to the ridden classes and I was starting to get rather annoyed with them. When they finally put them on they were a complete mess! The judge had no idea what to look for and gave the novice a workout consisting of "trot a slow circle then a fast circle then come back here". What sort of workout is that????? Well it suited Shane and he went perfectly and we won it! Of course we did, I knew that even before I went in :)
The open class was nothing much. She just placed us off the circle. We got fourth. Mind you, we were up against some rather experienced horses.
The Championship was a disaster. He was very annoyed from being under saddle for about 3hrs in a very hot day and the arena was *very* small so when we went to canter and those damn ring flags waved in the wind at us he took off and bucked. I nearly came off but I didn't and I was very proud. I went to finish my workout and the judge wouldn't let me. I was upset to say the least about that because I had the right to finish.
Even though he had his little outburst, I was so very proud of him because it was a very stressful day for him and he coped a lot better than I did :)
He hasn't done anything since then except for sit in the paddock and eat and eat and eat! He is as fat as a whale. Bout all he does is gets lunged every now and then when I go and see him because I love to see his trot. He's happy because he gets to belt around with Brett and they are inseperable.
Last year he somehow fell off the little bridge leading from the stable to the paddock over a council drainage ditch. There are rails along the side about a meter high and he fell under that and was lying on his back in the ditch after taking half the skin off the inside of his back leg and smashing his face up.
After that he was very afraid of the bridge and wouldn't go across it unless you had the halter on him and lead him over. For a horse who used to love standing in his stable, he was reduced to standing unhappily 3m away from it too scared to cross the bridge. There is no other way into the stable other than out along the road.
But I'm happy to say that he did eventually get braver. He started to go over with your hand just on his neck. Then he got to where you just needed to walk with him to the edge and he'd take himself from there. Now he crosses it all by himself. He's still incredibly cautious though and not very relaxed. It was a pretty nasty fall, it's lucky he wasn't seriously hurt.
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