Thoroughbred Logic, Presented by Kentucky Performance Products: Bored Is (Sometimes) Good

Aubrey Graham, , , Comments Off on Thoroughbred Logic, Presented by Kentucky Performance Products: Bored Is (Sometimes) Good
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should: why waiting for boredom might just be necessary before advancing.

Welcome to the next installment of Thoroughbred Logic. In this weekly series, Anthropologist and trainer Aubrey Graham, of Kivu Sport Horses, offers insight and training experience when it comes to working with Thoroughbreds (although much will apply to all breeds). This week ride along as Aubrey shares her logic on how boredom can be a good thing… sometimes.

This past weekend, I did what one should not do in the over-six-dollars-a-gallon fuel economy we live in, and hauled five-and-a-half hours south to a schooling show. Yep. Schooling Show. And it was by far the best idea I have had this year.

Sun? Trees in bloom? OK, Maryland, I’ll be coming back. Photo by author.

Look, New York is behind the ball on a lot of things this time of year — competitions, real schooling opportunities on cross country, sunlight, pleasant weather, you name it. Hell, one day last week, the “feels like high of the day” was a whopping eight degrees. EIGHT. In April.

So I headed South-ish with Artie (Reunion Tour) and Neil (Lute’s Angel) to have a day to school cross country and then compete at Loch Moy. Both horses were running Beginner Novice. And both were running very different Beginner Novices.

Artie put in a stellar BN at last year’s Makeover, landing him second of 60 horses — trailing the lead by one point. Good kid. He’s brave through water and game for any hurdle I point him at. Sure, our dressage needs work (my dressage ALWAYS needs work, but we have dressage lessons and lots of homework for that), but he’s uncomplicated to navigate in all phases. This Beginner Novice was a review: make sure we’re on point before heading off to do other things.

Artie (Reunion Tour) schooling like a very competent beast at Loch Moy. Photo by Caryn Prouty.

The goal was boring. Boring is (sometimes) good. In this case, when thinking about a move up, boring is great. If Artie clicked around and was unimpressed with the whole day, it gets to be time to think about the next level. If he’s impressed, nah — we stick around in BN land a little longer. Long story short: the only thing that bothered this horse for the entire trip was the fact that it took a feat of engineering to put a stall guard up and to keep him from self combustion in stabling.

Artie being super blasé about the brush. Photo by Team EG for Erin Gilmore Photography.

Boring meant that he had ticked all the preparation boxes and that he wasn’t encountering anything that rocked his world or set his confidence. He had two rails in stadium. Meh. I can work on that, but I don’t think it is going to change much with the height of the fence. When he finished cross country, he was looking for more jumps and was not particularly out of breath. I had a blast and I’d wager so did he, but it was positively good boring. Onward to Novice.

Scope certainly isn’t the problem. Just need to nail down the timing. Photo by Hannah Foreman for Erin Gilmore Photography.

For most Thoroughbreds, boring is an interesting term. These smart, engaged creatures have huge work ethics and can usually find something to be interested in if challenged, no matter the level. They’re usually so interested in life and the world around them that they don’t get bored easily. But conversely, when no challenge is present and true boredom sets in, they will simply make their own entertainment. Active, intentional riding (and diversifying the day’s activities) goes a long way to keeping productive minds busy and to keeping learning (not goofing off) on the front burner.

Now, these two BN runs could not have been more different. Neil was not bored. He was impressed and, per usual, his electric eel side came out to play.

Neil (Lute’s Angel) still closer to jumping the standards than the poles, but at least by this fence he was moderately focused. Photo by Hannah Foreman for Erin Gilmore Photography.

Neil had a series of unfortunate events keep him out of the show circuit for much of last year. He stepped on a nail (scariest x-ray I have seen), survived that and surgery, and when he was ready to get back out there, this area was so far into a drought, I couldn’t find anywhere to school water on a schedule that worked for my general circus and my having to leg up my Makeover horses (Artie, Spin, and Emmett). So he ran a Starter at Course Brook and bopped around a local show at Chestnut Ridge in their version of BN, but he hasn’t really been out and done much.

This was a very bad day indeed. I’m grateful that Cornell is just around the corner and that Neil healed up without a problem. Radiograph by Finger Lakes Equine.

Loch Moy’s atmosphere is big, and I love that as a schooling series these horses get to feel like they are in a legit Horse Trial. And as such, Neil was far from bored. Every flapping sign, every moving child, every pony, every tent, human, arena and vantage point was exciting, distracting, and difficult. I laughed my way through it. It’s Neil. He’ll learn how to manage all of it, but it will take a while. Dressage was exciting due to signs and other (literal) moving pieces. Stadium was electric and it took until the fourth fence before he realized that the job was, in fact,  ,jumping. For entertainment sake, here’s his stadium round:

And on cross country, he had a blast. There was a debate about who was in charge of direction and speed for the first handful of fences, but he settled in and jumped brave and game, coming out (very) double clear.

As Erin Gilmore’s Team put, Neil inspired a new term: Knees to Trees. Photo by SDH Photography as part of Erin Gilmore Photography.

Neil’s utter lack of boredom means we stay at Beginner Novice a while longer. Do I expect that he’ll start jumping at an appropriate height over the fences? No. Neil is happiest trying to clear the standards. But he will start to settle into the process of showing, of dealing with all the extra stuff around the outside of the arena, and learning that his job is to focus when we go through an in-gate.

Sure, Neil’s jump can 100% clear Training fences right now without a second thought, but that old adage holds some truth here:  just because you can doesn’t mean you should. We have quite a bit to work on before he gets there.

Neil might have 99 problems, but a ditch ain’t one. Photo by Team EG for Erin Gilmore Photography.

In the meantime, bored Artie gets new challenges.  I’m excited to find other more southern venues to head to in the early season to help get him the exposure he needs to keep climbing on up. Good kid.

Artie making it all look a little too easy, while I’m ruining the photo clearly mid sentence saying something like, “EEEEEASY” or the like. Photo by Hannah Foreman for Erin Gilmore Photography.

So go ride folks, enjoy the work towards boredom and the new challenges that arise when one is ready to level up.

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