I remember my first ride on my filly, Frostie. My previous experience had been on Buddy, Tina’s old lesson horse, then on Copper Kist, a 20-year-old champion. I rolled my legs down Frostie’s sides and expected to walk straight down the rail. Imagine my surprise when she wiggled to the left, then the right, and finally wandered into the middle of the arena. That’s when I learned that steering a 3-year-old is sometimes optional.
So when I see futurity pleasure classes for 3-year-olds offered at horse shows, I appreciate the degree of difficulty involved. Even for an experienced trainer, getting such a young horse to stay on the rail can be a challenge. Getting them to pick up the correct lead can be a miracle.
This year, the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Association (PCQHA) is offering 3-year-old futurity trail classes. The classes are being held over five shows, beginning with June’s Wine and Roses Show in Watsonville, and ending in September with the Fall Classic in Santa Barbara. Money is awarded at each show for the first through fourth placings, and the overall winner of the five shows will receive a saddle. It’s a very exciting event for western riders, and very challenging. If you think getting a baby to pick up the correct lead in a straight line is hard, try getting them to do it while they’re turning in a circle, over poles.
My baby, Snoopy, loves the trail course, and, because he loves it, he is good at it. When he is not looking for the next pole, he is a gangly, growing gelding. His hips constantly outpace his withers, and he reminds me of an awkward teenager. But point him toward a trail course and he moves like a dream, picking up his feet and looking excitedly for the next obstacle. Even more important, he thinks about what he’s doing, so that Tina can start him on a line, and he’ll try to find the best place to take the first pole that will get him to the last pole successfully.
With his talent, Tina and I were very excited about the trail futurities and made our plans to take him to all five shows. As of this writing, he’s gone to two of the shows, and so far, we are learning a lot.
The most important thing we’ve both learned is that, unlike the straightforward rules of a pleasure class (stay on the rail in the right direction at the right gait), the design of a trail course for 3-year olds is very subjective. One course designer thought that “easy” meant loping should be straight lines over poles on the ground, serpentines should be omitted, and that walk-overs should be the only raised poles. Another course designer put most of the poles on the ground, but gave the horses a loping box with varying strides between each pole, serpentines over poles, and a bridge with poles to navigate on either end, a challenging course for any junior horse.
The result was that a lot of the babies looked great on first course, which made judging difficult and kept the scores tight. On the second course, many of the horses who did well earlier completely blew up, clunking poles, breaking gaits and even throwing tantrums because they were overwhelmed.
So how did Snoopy do? The first course designer was easy – too easy, in some respects. The first day, he took first and second place (the shows are double judged), but the second day, the straight lines no longer held his interest, and the high walk-over poles were awkward for his big, teenager feet, so he slid down to fifth, finishing the show in third place overall.
The second course designer gave him something to think about. The pattern of poles kept him moving forward, trying to listen to Tina’s direction and get his feet in the correct place. The first day he placed first and the second day he placed second, under both judges, earning him Show Circuit Champion, and putting him slightly ahead in the overall futurity standings.
Our next two shows will have taken place in July, so I won’t be able to report on them until the September edition. Tina and I have a lot of confidence in Snoopy; he loves trail, he thrives at shows and he’s healthy. All we can do now is cross our fingers and hope for good courses. I’ll let you know whether it worked!