Bombproofing Clinic

On Sunday, we went to another bombproofing clinic! It was the same people as the last two, which we did back in 2017. Here's the post for the first one and the second one. They're interesting reads just because of how long ago they were! I forgot how much TC wanted to fight with me that year, what a dork. 

This year, obviously, TC is a completely different horse. He and I had three years to work on our relationship, his reactiveness, my nerves, and so on. He has been my rock for about a year and a half now, being a solid partner in everything I've thrown at him. And I've thrown a lot at him. Trail riding during the pandemic has been wild, we've showed at many new facilities, and we've done some working equitation clinics too! Everything I give to TC now is met with curiosity and a relaxed attitude. 

Probably my favorite picture from the
clinic!

So I could not wait to see how he was at this clinic. And obviously he was absolutely brilliant!

There were fifteen of us on horses (including some people I actually knew! We were not the only english pair there) and three instructors also on horses, so seventeen additional horses in the arena with TC. They broke us out into groups of five so we could work with an instructor on each individual obstacle. 

The first one for our group was the mattress. TC walked confidently over it on a loose rein and then had to stand and wait while the other horses all worked out what the fuck that was. He was pretty patient about waiting, but he kept looking over at the other groups doing other obstacles and definitely seemed envious. 

From there, the same thing happened with the box of trash (devoid of trash at the beginning), TC walked confidently through it on a loose rein and then had to wait while other horses were nervous about it. We went back over the mattress a couple of times and then stood around waiting until the instructor (who remembered him from three years ago) told me to just go play with the obstacles on our own because TC was clearly not going to need any help with them. And that's what we did! 

He was so incredibly smug all day, he
kept looking back at me with this
expression on his face lol

Literally every obstacle I pointed him at, he did confidently and on a loose rein, which he neck reined on a fair amount despite me never actually teaching him. 

He walked quietly over a mattress, a tarp, several bridges, and through garbage. He walked quietly through the car wash and the noodle walls. He pushed a cart, he also pulled the cart as well as a 4x4 with a flag on the end. After lunch he happily went back into the arena and walked around with a giant flag, allowing me to put it all over his body, even covering his eyes and he just stood there nosing it. He then let me carry around a huge stuffed bear on his back, both in front of and behind the saddle. He also did the parachute, this time while I was on him, and walked under it three times. 

If you want to see video, there's some on my instagram @alchemy.dressage on the highlights under Sensory Clinic. I'm not compiling anything for this post, sorry!

Pls let me smash (I did and he broke
a bag open, woops)

All that is really cool and fun, but the best part was realizing how great of a horse he is going to be for his future baby brother. 

I've been figuring out how I can have two horses for a while and I think I'm within a year (fingers crossed) of being able to make a move on the purchase of a two year old. My goal will be to spend the horse's two year old year ponying him on trails and doing ground work, plus maybe the bombproofing clinic, before I start the horse at three. I love what I've been able to turn TC into (see above) and I want to start a little earlier this time. 

TC is paramount in my plan to turn the baby into a smaller version of him (with better conformation!) over the years. He is going to be the one who babysits the baby horse on the trail, at new places, and so on. 

Curling so he can dart into the middle
of the group and play with stuff

So while it was great to see how much TC has grown in his own curiosity with objects, it was WAY more fun to see that he was going to make a good big brother one day. 

Horses spooked around him and even into him and he was quiet about it. He sweetly led horses through scary obstacles, letting them bolt past him. He let horses get very close to him when we were carrying scary things so that the other horses could see the object without carrying it themselves. He stood in the way of a few scary things so that we blocked them from other horses' views. 

He seemed to genuinely want to help horses too, which was adorable. He made friends with one horse, then led the horse through the car wash and kept stopping to wait for the horse. Then when the horse cantered past him, he stopped and waited for the horse again. 

So cute

Overall, he far exceeded my expectations for the day! Everyone was taken by him, with people in the stands asking if he was actually afraid of anything (I said no and then he hauled ass away from a water bottle on the rail, lol thanks TC) and a few people coming up to me to ask me how I made him like this. I just said a lot of time, doing clinics like these, and clicker training! 

The instructor remembered him from three years ago. She said she was so excited to see us on the list and that I had done a fabulous job with him the last few years. She reiterated her offer, if TC ever needs a home, she will always be able to place him as a police horse. She says he's exactly the type of horse they look for. 

It feels great to be at this point with him. I'm so proud of him and of how hard we've both worked to get here. He was not an easy young horse, but he was worth it. Days like Sunday really prove that. I can't wait for our next adventure!