We bought Deco on September 28th, 2008. For Deco and me, it was love at first sight. After trying horse after horse for nearly a year, sitting on Deco, a horse I never knew and was hoping to click with, seemed routine. I first rode him one hot day in early August, after trying out one other horse that day that I had soundly rejected. At first, he walked like he was in a funeral march, yet seemingly ready for my next command; something that still occurs to this day! After walking for a good five minutes, just to get the feel for him, I gathered up the reins and asked for a trot. Deco sprang right into a nice, lovely, moving trot, and I posted along with him while keeping a soft contact and strong leg; so I wouldn't grab his front end immediately and destroy what could be the horse I'd been waiting for with a stupid mistake. After a few laps around the arena, I began to work to get him on the bit, since I was warmed up and he certainly was. Another few laps around the arena at the trot, on the bit and moving forward beautifully, I went in for some collections and extensions, not major, but just for a sense of control. I first slowed my posting as a "first test" to see how sensitive Deco was, and he immediately slowed to my new posting speed. I did the opposite and sped up my posting, and Deco reacted just as I'd hoped. Everything was going smoothly so far, after circles, figure-8's, squares, etc. I then started a 20m circle at C or A, can't remember which exactly anymore, and did another circle. Deco was perfectly obedient, so I felt that it was time to canter. I knew that for transitions, you
always sit first; that's basically tattooed across my heart along with other Classical Dressage basics. This meant I was going to do a few 20m circles of sitting trot first, naturally. This was the point where I would loose just about every horse I had tried; the sitting trot. There wasn't a trot I'd found that I was totally ready to commit to, and so I was prepared for a similar situation to happen here. I started in the corner, and was awe-struck. His trot was incredibly easy to sit. And not just sit on, but sit
into, which is far more important. To be honest, I felt like sitting that trot was the whole reason why I liked Deco so much. It's such a stupid reason, one measly thing. Not how his canter is outstanding, his jump is is beyond phenomenal and his personality is drop-dead perfect; no. It was the fact that I could really actually sit his trot. It seemed that we were meant to be right then and there, even though I still had so much more to do to test him. Once we got to the rest, cantering, galloping, jumping, etc., it just confirmed that we had a connection.
Let me tell you, it wasn't all perfection on the day that I went out on the cross country course to school him. It started off okay, he was moving away from my leg and listening to me just fine. After I jumped the first jump, he took two canter strides then bucked. Bucked. Bucked. It was more of a hop, but I was so confused. Why? What was I doing? I figured it was my hands, so I came around the next time over the same little log, barely even 18 inches in height. Same thing happened afterwards, but I gave a pretty loopy release. After this happening a few times, Gael just told me to ride through it. I trust Gael with my life, and of course, I did as I was told. This continued after every jump, but when I would jump a line of jumps, it was fine. I did a combination of three jumps in a row, each with about three strides between, and there was no bucking between them. There was a little afterwards, but not more than usual. The funny thing was that I felt incredibly safe, like I was riding a horse that I'd been riding for years and years, and this was just one of his bad days where he was acting like a horse I never knew. To this day, Gael and I aren't sure why he bucked like that after the jumps, but it still occurs today, and we're sure now. It's my fault, oops. Anyways, I felt incredibly safe on Deco, like I could be told to go jump that Prelim coop and be totally fine with it. We had a bunch of factors working against us all at the same time too: a) it was my second ride on Deco, his second time with me, etc;. b) it was my third or fourth time that year schooling a legit, real cross country course; c) first time I'd ever schooled that course; d) Deco hadn't been out on a cross country course, let alone outside the outdoor arena with a saddle on, in at least one year. And those are the main ones, off the top of my head.
That day, September 20th, 2008, was a really life changing day for me in more ways than one. All of the sudden, my lifelong dream of owning a horse was coming true. But also, all of the sudden, there were questions that were life changing. After we untacked, hosed Deco off, and so on, I was just brushing Deco and playing around with him when Gael approached me. She brought me over just out of earshot of everyone else, and asked me a question that had so many meanings. "Do you think that Madeline could ride this horse?" Madeline was my trainer that was closest to me, since Gael lives 90 minutes away, and Madeline was only 20-25 minutes; I needed to have regular lessons, and Gael being so far away made it hard, and Madeline was the only real eventer in my area. Of course, after riding with Madeline for 4 years at the time, I was one of her best students. Sure, I didn't accomplish much ribbon-wise, but that didn't matter so much for me. The only reason I wasn't able to get all the ribbons was because I didn't have a horse, and I was only able to show her horses every once in a blue moon. I was the rider that Madeline held back, in my opinion, as a few girls older than me that had been with Madeline for a little longer (and had their own horses) could do better, farther things. It was things like harder Dressage lessons and movements, higher jumps in the arena and schooling those trickier cross country jumps on her 14-acre farm. I felt that I wasn't able to really move up for a few reasons, and they boiled down to this: 1) I didn't have a horse. Because of this, I was always riding either Madeline's horses or her husband Karl's horse(s), and she didn't want me to get too far with a horse that I would never own, be able to compete, etc; 2) I had more potential than all the rest of her students. I don't mean to brag, but I do have lots of potential. I'm a fast learner, and things seem to stick with me really easily. Also, all my Classical training from my young age of 3 with Gael to now (or then, at the time) made riding easy. The only things that prevented me from excelling were the lack of horse (again) and lack of saddle time (because I had no horse!). This seems so repetitive and circular, but it was really me not owning a horse that stalled me for 4 years from competing for so long.
Anyways, I knew from 4 years of being Madeline's faithful student, that her riding style wasn't the same as mine. She's a "backyard rider" or "cowboy" as Gael says, and I agree, and Gael is someone who is best friends with all the dead famous Dressage masters. (Or "all those old and/or dead guys" as Gael says.) I knew for a fact that Madeline would not get along with Deco at all, as she was a handsy rider, and Deco was a total and complete body ride.
It took me a few minutes to react, I knew that this wasn't just a a yes or no question, this was a question of continuing to train with Madeline or not. It was a yes or no to buying Deco, leaving Madeline.
Was I ready to make the biggest leap of my life, and say okay to buying Deco and leaving Madeline, forcing me to find a new trainer somewhere in the area that would be acceptable to Gael, me and Deco, and also a barn to board at that was perfect? I'll leave you at that! (:
Schooling at South Farm 9/20/08
