Tag: Makeover Diaries

Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: The No-Plan Plan For OTTBs

“What are you planning to do with her?” I often ask my wife and trainer, Ashley Horowitz, as she's tacking up a horse to ride.

“I don't know,” is almost always her answer.

While that answer seems vague, like maybe she's being passive-aggressive in testing whether her husband of two months should already know the answer, I've learned that it's the most effective way to approach training horses. It puts the horse in charge of expressing what they're ready to learn and the rider in charge of crafting a positive experience.

The two most productive rides I've had on my 4-year-old bay OTTB filly Cubbie Girl North since my last Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries edition was published came when I didn't know what we were going to do until we were actually doing it. And, those two rides, which were back-to-back in a span of 72 hours, couldn't have been more different.

First, on Aug. 27, Ashley and I rode together with our 7-year-old son, Chase, for the first time as a family since the footing was finished in the brand-new indoor arena on our farm in Parker, Colo. Chase was trotting one of his first full courses of jumps, and they were all either cross rails or verticals about 12 inches high.

“Why don't you do the same thing?” Ashley asked.

I trotted to the first jump, and Cubbie took a big leap. Over the previous two months, we had completed five events at Beginner Novice where the jumps can be up to 2'7.

“Keep going. She needs to realize this isn't a big deal,” Ashley said.

 

As we trotted more and more one-foot jumps, Cubbie started settling into a steady rhythm, and she stopped making a big deal about them. We then cantered the course and called it a day. Boring never felt so rewarding.

Then, three days later on August 30, Cubbie and I were riding at a fundraiser at nearby Platinum Farms. We were in the start box preparing to school a round on the cross country course. While courses were set up for different levels, the informal nature of the fundraiser meant that riders could mix together heights of different jumps while they were on course.

“Are you going to do the first jump Beginner Novice or Novice?” Ashley asked.

“Beginner Novice,” I answered, thinking we'd at least get our rhythm at the 2'7 height I knew we were comfortable at before attempting the biggest jump height we've ever faced at 2'11.

“Thirty seconds,” the starter said, indicating how much time was left until we would leave the start box.

“No, I'll do the Novice one,” I screamed to Ashley, changing my mind and figuring Cubbie and I were ready for a fun challenge since she'd been feeling good in stadium jumping rounds earlier in the day.

We did the first Novice jump, then went over a ditch, then took the Novice corner, and rolled through nearly the entire course taking the biggest jumps we've ever done together…just three days after taking the smallest jumps we've ever done together.

Ashley Horowitz and Emily's Pegasus jump up a bank at the Mile High Derby on June 14, just one month and one day after the 4-year-old chestnut filly completed a 23-race career at Fonner Park in Nebraska.

Both rides were incredibly valuable despite being incredibly different and unexpected. However, both rides were actually the result of the same approach. It's the approach that Ashley has used with countless OTTBs, including her newest project, Emily's Pegasus, with whom she competed in the Mile High Derby one month and one day after the 4-year-old chestnut filly's last career race at Fonner Park in Nebraska.

It's the approach our friend, Brit Vegas, has also used as one of the most prolific trainers at the Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover, the event that I've announced for the past five years and now would like to compete in.

“It's the No Plan Plan,” explained Brit, who has ridden at every Thoroughbred Makeover since the first one was held at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2015. “Being good at retraining OTTBs is the ability to listen to the horse that you're riding in that moment and deciding, 'Do they enjoy what you're doing right now?' or 'Is it too much?' and making the decision for them whether you continue to train and teach or take two steps back.”

While I have my hands full with Cubbie as the first horse I've ever trained directly off the track, Brit plans to compete four horses at the Mega Makeover in 2021. Although the format of the Thoroughbred Makeover seems like it would be stressful with just 10 months to retrain a former racehorse for a new career, Brit has shown that doesn't have to be the case.

“Almost every horse I've taken to the Makeover I've brought along in the last two months of going, and they always end up in the top 10 regardless,” said Brit, who made the finale in Field Hunters in 2019 with Bombmarito.

I've made more progress with Cubbie in the last two months since the announcement in July about the postponement of this year's Thoroughbred Makeover took the pressure off our training. Instead of evaluating every ride and how it affects our goal of making it to the Makeover, I now appreciate the challenges and rewards each individual ride brings for its own merits.

I stressed in July about whether we'd be ready for the Makeover, and now I believe we would be. We've improved with every show, culminating in our best finish ever at the Mile High Derby on Kentucky Derby Day where we were one of just four clear cross country rounds out of the 11 competitors at Beginner Novice.

“If the Makeover were happening this year, you see that things would just be coming together for you and Cubbie right when they need to,” Ashley said.

I realize that the correct answer to “What will you be doing in October 2020 with Cubbie?” is “I don't know.” No one could have predicted how 2020 would play out, but the change in plans is the best thing that happened on the journey Cubbie and I are taking together. Zero plans are often the best plans of all.

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Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: ‘Mistakes Make Equestrians’ And Other Words Of Wisdom

I wish Yogi Berra also rode horses.

If you're not familiar with the Hall of Fame catcher for the New York Yankees, he won 10 World Series titles, more than any player in baseball history, during a career that spanned 19 seasons from 1946 to 1965. He was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player and an 18-time All-Star.

Berra also served in the United States Navy as a gunner's mate during World War II and was part of the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, shooting down enemy planes from a landing craft support boat. He earned a Purple Heart and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

However, Yogi is remembered just as much, if not more, for a treasure trove of witty sayings. When first reading them, they come across as absurd, humorous, and lighthearted. But, upon reflection, they are a mix of genius and amused wonder about life's complexities.

For example, the Yogism of “When you come to a fork in the road, take it” is also the title of one of several books he authored. Let's break that down: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Well, what else would you do at a fork in the road? But should you go left or go right?

“People are always afraid of making the wrong choice,” Berra wrote. “But no matter what decision you make—taking a job, getting married, buying a house, whatever it is—you shouldn't look back. Trust your instincts.”

Sure, Yogi could have just said it that way from the start, as I'm sure many self-help books do, but cloaking the advice the way he said it takes the edge off. Life doesn't have to be so serious to be done well.

However, one of the biggest challenges I face, in riding and in life, is that I take things too seriously.

“You should start your next article with, 'I quit riding again,'” Ashley Horowitz, now my wife as well as trainer for Super G Sporthorses, has said about my last three “Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries.”

She's right. I have quit riding more times than I can count—probably three times since my last article a month ago. But it lasts for a total of about 30 minutes each time.

“You realize you're not going to quit, so stop tormenting yourself,” Ashley says.

She's right. (I've been married for less than a month and am getting good at saying, “She's right.) So, with Yogi Berra as the metaphorical gunner's mate offering support as I invade the eventing world, I've compiled a collection of sayings that perhaps Yogi would have said if he rode horses. I've found something profound in each of them, but they're also lighthearted. 

“Why are you rushing? We don't have all day!”—unknown German dressage instructor

Dressage in Germany is performed with the same precision that goes into making German automobiles and German beer. Germany has won the team gold medal in dressage at every Olympics since 1984 with the exception of a silver medal in 2012. Besides being its own sport and the first of the three disciplines in eventing, dressage serves as a foundation for proper riding that can apply to any equestrian sport.

There is a long checklist of items to keep track of during a dressage test—rhythm, relaxation, throughness, connection, communication with the horse, trust, geometry, and more. There are no shortcuts. So, regardless of how long a lesson or training program is, rushing is not an option, but amount of time is not necessarily related to desired outcome.

Sometimes, progress is quick. Ashley retrained the 4-year-old filly Emily's Pegasus to do her first event one month and one day after her last race. I've had lessons with Cubbie that last 15 minutes. “You're done,” Ashley will say if we do a rhythmic line of jumps and accomplish the goal of a lesson at first asking.

Other times, the progress is slower. I've had lessons with Cubbie that last two hours because of temper tantrums (either by her or me).

The Thoroughbred Makeover is for horses with less than a year of retraining. (Although in 2021, we'll also see horses that were planning to compete in 2020.) It's a relatively short amount of time to retrain a former racehorse, but there are some tremendous performances across all disciplines. Regardless of the amount of time, the expected standard shouldn't waver.

“The slower you go, the faster you get there.”—Nicole Brown, host, USEA Podcast

How is it possible to get somewhere faster by going slowly? Like with the previous quote, focusing on the fundamentals serves as a strong foundation to build toward the desired outcomes we dream of when starting to work with a new training project. Brown and her guests explain more on the USEA podcast about “Producing a Young Horse.”

“Sometimes both their brain cells collide.”—Laura Backus, trainer, Pendragon Stud Equestrian Center

Horses are not machines. It's amusing that the greatest compliment paid to a racehorse was when announcer Chic Anderson described Secretariat as a “tremendous machine” during Big Red's peak performance in the 1973 Belmont Stakes.

The toughest part of the training I'm going through with Cubbie is getting her mental ability to catch up to her physical ability. Cubbie is a 4-year-old filly. She's still trying to figure out how the world works. She has strong opinions. She gets overwhelmed.

Backus said this to me during Cubbie's first eventing competition at Pendragon in June. It helped put Cubbie's progress as a 4-year-old filly in perspective. Instead of focusing on physical victories with her, the mental ones are more rewarding and significant.

Getting to be a part of the eventing community through a clinic with upper-level rider Courtney Sendak at Spring Gulch Aug. 17

“Here's to you having an unremarkable performance!”—Dorothy Trapp Crowell, World Equestrian Games silver medalist and winner of first-ever U.S. national four-star championship

Crowell, who made eventing history with the OTTB and USEA Hall of Famer Molokai, is currently giving back to the Thoroughbred industry through her involvement with the We Are Here Initiative based at the Kentucky Horse Park.

I had told Dorothy about my ups and downs with Cubbie, such as the seven stitches I got during a dressage lesson the week of the Spring Gulch Horse Trials in July.

Her advice was to use each phase of my first recognized event with Cubbie as an opportunity to learn and bond with my horse. The best result would be one that we could build upon through a simple, straightforward ride. On a horse that's given so much excitement, having a drama-free event would certainly help us grow more.

“Equestrians don't make mistakes; mistakes make equestrians.”—Daniel Stewart, Sports Psychologist, Pressure Proof Coaching Academy 

Eventing is an unforgiving sport. Baseball players get three strikes during an at-bat and at least three at-bats if they play an entire game. One swing and a miss will be forgiven, even forgotten, if the next swing leads to a home run, or even just a single. However, a swing and a miss at a jump could cost an eventer a ribbon or even lead to elimination from an entire competition.

Therefore, it becomes enticing to dwell on mistakes. Stewart explains on a USEA podcast about sports psychology that mistakes should be viewed as learning opportunities for which to be thankful.

“They make us bigger and braver and bolder and brighter,” he said.

These quotes were all said by accomplished riders as advice to help greenies like myself grow. When I first started riding horses five years ago, I was so worried that each mistake I made would show how much I didn't belong. However, the mistakes I've made have given me the chance to grow and fit in more. Eventers root for each other. Thoroughbred Makeover participants root for each other. Mistakes weirdly help us all become winners and part of our own special community.

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Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: First Stitches And First Recognized Event

I've never worked so hard for or gotten my butt kicked so much by anything else in my life. I've also never felt so proud.

Cubbie Girl North, the 4-year-old Thoroughbred filly that I've been retraining with the hope that we'd compete at the Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover, just completed a roller coaster run of five horse shows in six weeks. During this time, I realized the real reason why I've gone through the ups and downs of eventing with a young ex-racehorse. What's ironic is that the reason why I originally began this journey no longer exists because of the postponement of the 2020 Thoroughbred Makeover to 2021.

After three schooling shows in Colorado at Pendragon, Mile High, and Sunrise Equine, Cubbie and I were ready to try our first recognized event at the Spring Gulch Horse Trials on July 5. Well, not quite, because the week before at the Sunrise Equine Big Mini Trial we may have broken the record for worst eventing score. Since it was a schooling show, officials decided not to eliminate any horse and rider for refusals at jumps. Cubbie and I were like the golfer whose ball has a magnetic attraction to bunkers, water, and rough.

During our stadium jumping round, Cubbie and I accumulated 36 jumping penalties, the result of nine refusals or rails dropped, plus 120 time penalties, the result of a scrupulous timekeeper that kept the clock running for the five minutes we went beyond the optimum time allowed. Cubbie's nerves were maxed out by the height and positioning of some early jumps to the point where, following a combo, she decided she would not jump anymore, even though we were getting to arguably the easiest and most inviting jump on course. She stopped, went backward, and spun around with the same determination of one of my favorite racehorses, the Australian sprint star Chautauqua, when he decided he wouldn't leave the starting gate at the end of his racing career.

During our cross country round, we added 60 jumping penalties for three refusals, including another epic meltdown at the water. The organizers let us school the water afterward, and I convinced Cubbie to channel her best Michael Phelps as we did laps across it in preparation for the water we'd have to go through a week later at Spring Gulch. Adding some time penalties and our dressage score, we finished on a 266.2. The winner had a 32.8. Eventing, like golf, is won by the lowest score.

The truth is, I was actually quite proud of how we did. I wrote in a previous article for this series that overcoming the mental challenges is harder for athletic ex-racehorses than the physical challenges. Yes, Cubbie threw a few tantrums, but that's inevitable, especially with an opinionated 4-year-old filly.

“She's going to have to do it, and you got her through it,” said my fiancée and trainer, Ashley Gubich of Super G Sporthorses.

Dealing with Cubbie's theatrics is exactly like dealing with a tantrum from a 4-year-old child, except the horse weighs about 1,000 pounds and doesn't understand English. Whenever Cubbie decides to make a scene, it can be terrifying to ride through, especially for someone who's an amateur and only started riding five years ago at the age of 30. The truth is I keep waiting for Ashley to throw in the towel for me and bail me out. But she doesn't, so I keep at it because I won't actually quit myself.

Then, three days before the Spring Gulch Horse Trials, Cubbie gave me seven stitches, the first I've had in my life. It was a during a dressage lesson of all things. She reared up when I asked her not to lock on the bit. When she came down, she crow-hopped, and her head busted open my chin.

“Looks like you and your horse butted heads today,” said Dr. William Boroughf, who kept me in good spirits while stitching the wound.

As comments started popping up after I posted before and after photos to Facebook, I realized how supportive the Thoroughbred community is.

“Battle scars!!!!! Now you['re] officially one of us,” wrote Heather Collins, a race trainer.

“Badge of horsemanship,” wrote Ellen Zachary, a race owner.

With only days until our first recognized event, Ashley stepped in and brought Cubbie back to being a workable horse. There's a language for communicating to horses that she's more proficient in than I. I wrote earlier in this series about the benefits of “Jumping In The Deep End With Lifeguards At The Ready.” Eventing is an individual sport on paper, but it truly takes a team to make a rider and horse successful. That's what Ashley has instilled to our Super G Sporthorses team.

I woke up at 4 a.m. on Sunday, July 5, to feed the horses on our farm, give Cubbie a bath, and make sure our tack was organized in the trailer. Thankfully, no blood had dripped on the brand new black and gold dressage bridle that we used for the first time during our death-defying dressage lesson.

“Hey, the next time you use your fancy dressage bridle, your ride will definitely be better,” said Ashley, always finding those valuable moments to lighten the mood.

I headed to Spring Gulch for a full day of announcing and riding. My favorite equine moments are when I get to announce and compete at the same event. Announcing is where I'm comfortable, and it calms my show anxiety.

If eventing had a “Group of Death” like soccer's World Cup, it was the Open Beginner Novice C division that Cubbie and I were part of at the Spring Gulch Horse Trials. We were Australia going up against Spain, Netherlands, and Chile. Our competition included two other 4-year-old OTTBs, the youngest age at the show, but they were ridden by two upper-level riders. There was Brit Vegas, a finalist at last year's Makeover, riding Mr. Park, a horse I announced in races at Arapahoe Park. There was Dani Sussman, who's competed at the CCI2* level, riding Vera (JC: It's Kisses). And, there was Madeline Backus, who ribboned at the CCI4* Kentucky Three Day Event at the age of 21 in 2017.

Cubbie with Horowitz (L) and Vegas with Mr. Park (R)

Our dressage test was decent, and I love how the judge, Beth Wheeler, summed it up in her comments on our scoresheet, “Promising pair!! Horse has to be more attentive to the aids.”

The stadium jumping course of 11 jumping efforts with a max height of 2-feet-7 was technical, including three lead changes, two bending lines, one combo, and a partridge in a pear tree. We made it all the way around, dropping one rail, a huge improvement from our stadium jumping effort the week before at Sunrise Equine.

Finally, to cross country. To be honest, both Ashley and I didn't think I'd make it through the course of 15 questions that included a ditch and water, the two tinders that have ignited a fire within Cubbie on cross country courses. Adding to the challenge of the ditch was that a new T-log jump was placed four strides before it. Any change to a familiar setting can be alarming for horses.

The T-log-to-ditch combo turned out to be the defining moment of our first recognized event. We started with a refusal at the T-log, as Cubbie weaved from side to side trying to figure out why something so scary looking now appeared in a place she had been several times before. I circled Cubbie back toward the combo.

“You got it, Cubbie,” I said to her. She picked up her knees over the jump. “Alright, let's do the ditch. Come on, Cubbie. Come on! Yeah!” Ashley and the other Super G riders there to support us cheered. The moment of exhilaration over the ditch in this video made the hard work and stitches worth it.

 

The rest of the cross country course was a rush. We cleared the water, opened up to a gallop between fences, and took jumps at stride. We managed to finish our first recognized event. Perhaps we may have placed better and earned a ribbon at the lower Intro level, but I found it more rewarding to complete the Beginner Novice level as part of such a strong group of riders I admire with a 4-year-old filly. I'm incredibly grateful for the special memories from the show.

Being a green rider with a green horse, I now realize and appreciate that the victories are the moments when Cubbie and I are in rhythm. As we continue to progress, these moments will hopefully happen more frequently.

It was exactly one year prior to the date that this article was published that Cubbie stepped off the trailer from Illinois to our farm in Colorado. I didn't know her, she didn't know me, and neither of us knew what we were getting into. I'm getting a bit emotional as I write this, reflecting on how far we've come and that we've done it together.

Cubbie and Horowitz looking determined on cross country

Now, where are we going? When Ashley and I first came across Cubbie's listing on CANTER's website, the destination we set was Lexington, Kentucky for the 2020 Thoroughbred Makeover. Earlier this month, Retired Racehorse Project made the difficult but prudent decision to postpone this year's event to 2021. I was bummed because of how much I've invested in reaching the destination. That's when the strong two-legged and four-legged women in my life taught me a lesson I previously would nod my head to in agreement but never got to practice fully until now.

“You realize nothing about what you and Cubbie are doing changes,” was Ashley's reaction to the news.

I actually get to embrace tennis great Arthur Ashe's famous quote, “Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”

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Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: Extreme Sports

Cubbie Girl North went from receiving praise from an Olympic rider to trying to kill us both, all in less than a week.

Whatever Thoroughbreds do is to the extreme. When the 4-year-old bay filly that I'm hoping to compete with at the 2020 Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover has been good, it's really good, like “the-chemistry-between-Ben-Affleck-and-Matt-Damon” good. But, when she's been bad during this one-year journey from racehorse to eventer, it's really bad, like “being-on-an-episode-of-Jerry-Springer” bad.

As opposite as the best and worst moments seem to be, they actually reveal the same thing. Cubbie tries her heart out. Below is a glimpse at one month of our journey from mid-May to mid-June, which also marks the one-year anniversary of when she finished a four-race career at Fairmount Park in Illinois.

How do I, an announcer that jumped in the deep end learning to ride horses by eventing on OTTBs, deal with it all?

“They key to riding a hot horse is to just ignore 90% of the weird things they're doing and carry on like everything is fine while having mild panic attacks inside the whole time,” wrote Leah Cothran in a frequently-shared Twitter post under the handle @justeqthings.

But, the “90% of the weird things” are so incredibly entertaining.  So, here they are…

Learning from an Olympian

Hawley Bennett has competed at the highest level of eventing, from the Land Rover Kentucky Three Day Event to the 2004 and 2012 Summer Olympics representing Canada. She came to Colorado to offer a two-day clinic on May 23 and 24, with one day of stadium jumping at Platinum Farms and one day of cross country at Mile High Horse Ranch near our farm.

Our first day started off eventfully. Before I even got on her back, Cubbie pulled away from the trailer while I was tacking her up and went for a gallop without her rider. Riding a horse through the cross country field at Platinum is exhilarating.  Chasing a horse on foot is not.

“Good, she's warmed up and so are you,” said my fiancée and trainer, Ashley Gubich of Super G Sporthorses, trying to add some levity to the moment.

What I was thinking, though: “Now I'm supposed to ride her. Let's try not to embarrass ourselves.”

Cubbie gets overwhelmed, like many other OTTBs do, being in a new environment. She gets overstimulated. However, what was amazing was that Cubbie found comfort when she was presented with something familiar. Her nerves settled when she started jumping.

Hawley Bennett put us through complex patterns combining multiple jumps. The jumps weren't high, and this reflected my previous “Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries” about how maneuvering between and approaching the jumps is more important, at least for an athletic Thoroughbred, than the jump itself.

“That's a million-dollar brain,” Hawley said about how locked in Cubbie became at whatever was presented to her. “For 4-years-old, that's pretty amazing. The jumps don't have to be big. But, teach her to do an angle. Teach her to do a skinny. All my 4-year-olds would do this. Don't put them off, but train her.”

During one grid, Cubbie knocked a rail on a jump whose height had just been raised. The next time through, she tucked her knees more and cleared it. Cubbie started looking to me for direction, and it made me feel like the countless rides and times we spent together were revealing our growing partnership. During another grid, I set her up well to take all the jumps but didn't plan for where we would turn afterward. Cubbie squirreled toward the end of the arena.

“Which way were you turning there?” Hawley asked. “You looked like a drunk driver. Don't do that. This [the jumps] couldn't have been any nicer.”

Every stride and communication mean something to horses.

The next day on cross country, Cubbie schooled water, ditches, and banks. When it comes to retraining horses off the track, where the routine is generally pretty standard from day to day, exposing them to many different environments and scenarios goes a long way. I was so proud of Cubbie. But…

“How do you think your next ride is going to go?” Ashley asked me after the clinic.

“She'll probably try to kill me,” I responded without hesitation.

Jonathan Horowitz and Cubbie Girl North receive instruction by Hawley Bennett on May 24.

Surviving a Near-Death Experience

As willing as Cubbie can be, she can also be just as equally unwilling, and that's what happened when we were walking past the construction site where an indoor arena is being built on our farm after a dressage lesson. Cubbie scooted to the left, her coping mechanism when uncomfortable, into a ditch where dirt had been removed to create a pad for where the arena would be built.

We squirmed our way out, but we'd have to revisit that scenario again so that Cubbie would learn what the correct way to handle it was. So, we went back in the arena for a few minutes. Now to walk again between the arena and the ditch.  I was ready for the scoot, but after stopping it, Cubbie was incensed that she didn't get to do what she wanted, regardless of whether it was for her own safety or not.

I turned her toward the arena to keep her pointing in the direction away from danger. But, Cubbie decided to back into the ditch. She continued to drift up a slope and positioned herself next to a pasture fence. I thought the best decision would be to get off, but there was no flat ground nearby. I was worried that she would flip down the slope in response to any weight imbalance. I attempted to grab onto the fence by the pasture, but I couldn't pull myself up enough.

So, we sat there and waited. Cubbie was trembling. I called out, but no one was around. After what seemed like an eternity, Cubbie got her senses back and jumped around the corner of the fence into our front yard. Back on flat ground, I hopped off, but I was shaken by the experience.

It's funny that the most dramatic moments we experience are either before or after lessons, but that's part of working with a baby horse. It can be scary, but that's the path I've chosen. So, I embrace it.

“[…] just ignore 90% of the weird things they're doing and carry on like everything is fine while having mild panic attacks inside the whole time.”

We put the moment behind us and headed to our first two eventing horse shows.

The Highs and Lows of Eventing

I learned some valuable lessons from the first two events in which Cubbie and I competed during the first two weekends of June.

One: It doesn't have to be pretty. At the Pendragon Beginner Event on June 6, we had zero jumping faults. I was annoyed that our jumping wasn't as smooth as I thought it should be. Cubbie would drift “to the left, to the left” before jumps or when going by the judges' stands. (“Yes, Cubbie, I get it. Those are the lyrics to a Beyoncé song, but we don't have to follow them literally for me to realize that you're 'Irreplacable.'”)  But, the more important perspective is that I embraced a tenacious attitude and got her over each jump.  We finished fifth of eight, our shortcoming being a nervous dressage test, which leads to lesson number two.

Two: Be present when your horse needs you. Cubbie is like other young horses that get overwhelmed by new environments or new tasks. We've spent enough time together that she looks to me for direction. Just like with the clinic with Hawley Bennett, it's up to me to provide the support and instructions she needs to be successful. I left her hanging during our dressage test at Pendragon. I got her relaxed before the test, but when we went in the ring, I didn't give her enough cues to signal her to give to the bit or move forward rhythmically. I was a passenger. We changed that mentality for a much-improved dressage test the next weekend at the Mile High Derby on June 14.

Three: That's eventing. With a more active and effective dressage test at Mile High, we were ninth of 21 in a large Intro division as we warmed up for a challenging, winding cross country course of 21 obstacles, including water, a ditch, and a bank. Cubbie has really appreciated when I have a loose rein and direct her with my body rather than get in her way with my hands.

We had a phenomenal cross country round, except for when we got to the water. Cubbie was wary and came to a stop. We tried again. Stop. There was one more refusal before we trotted in. I could have been more assertive with my legs after the first refusal rather than circling her back around. Lesson learned. Unfortunately, with the way the combined test was scored, we were eliminated after the third refusal, although we were allowed to finish the course.

The rest of our cross country was the best ride we've had together. Because we had lost time at the water, I urged Cubbie to pick up her pace, and we cruised, taking many jumps at speed.

However, the one flub at the water eliminated us from the competition. Had we successfully gone through the water, we would have finished second of 21. Had we only had two refusals instead of three, we would have finished fifth. It was a tough pill to swallow. A basketball player that makes 20 of 21 shots but airballs one of them has one of the greatest games in history. An eventer with the same strike rate has a big “E” next to his name.

“Cubbie doesn't know that,” Ashley told me afterward. “She feels great about herself. She did every jump you asked her to do. The water isn't a jump as far as she's concerned. It's a scary death trap.”

That was an amazing takeaway. If my horse felt proud, I should, too. We're becoming a team, and we're actually developing a connection that is making this journey rewarding…and terrifying…and rewarding…and, well, let's see what next month brings.

Jonathan Horowitz has announced horse races at 29 tracks over the past 20 years. He is also involved in Thoroughbred aftercare as the president of CANTER USA and announcer of the Thoroughbred Makeover. He is the author of Paulick Report's Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries series about his adventures riding and retraining Cubbie Girl North for the 2020 Makeover.

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