Who cares what the judges think?

Who cares about what equestrian sport judges think?

I used to… a lot. But not anymore.

The only opinion I care about is my horses.... And my body workers.

I have created somewhat of an obsession for myself. Developing the most functionally sound and eagerly congruent horse that even beginners can ride. I've been obsessed with this for a good 18 years now. It started out, I thought if horses could just be kind and sound they would get a loving home and they wouldn't have to go to the doggers (slaughterhouse, for those of you less familiar with Aussie slang). 

And then I realised there's worse places than the doggers. But that's another story. I stayed obsessed with creating the perfectly sound horse. Anybody that shares that obsession knows how impossible that is. The more I watch horses the harder it is for me to see a sound horse. They all have their tell tale signs of discomfort. 

For a while I went really backwards in my training. Trying to chase these answers we had chiros, massages, equisage, farriers, saddle fitters. We got so desperate with one horse we were getting energy workers and demons exorcised. It got to a point where I quit body workers altogether and decided i would just use strength training and conditioning. 

After a while there would be times that I would attend a lesson and the horse would be moving significantly more freely and happily than the week before. And every time I got the same answer. They had just got their chiropractor out - Tork Cowan. Well of course I had to try him. And the rest is history. He has managed my horses for years now and he has sent me down a whole new rabbit hole obsession of creating a neutral spine, true straightness, to achieve the soundness I'm looking for. 

Horses don't really like to work like that. They have to spend more effort. And achieving that straightness is especially made worse by our hands, riding for submission to the bit instead of acceptance, the horse guarding themselves and their body against the bit being used and pulling them off balance. 

This week Tork came out and ran over our school horses. He went over Rabbit and turned to me and said I can't find anything. My jaw dropped. There's never nothing! He said I know, it's happened like 10 times in my career, I went over him twice to be sure, it's like it's all finally clicked into place. 

And you can't even begin to imagine my giddy glee to hear this!

This horse was so damn cooked and strung out when I started on him. He was always falling in and tripping over his feet. He couldn't pick up the left canter lead (we have a YouTube video of it on) and you know the best part? All the riders that have done his training are kids to teens or adults with less than 5 years riding. I didn't do the work. My students did.

It absolutely makes my heart sing to pass this kind of knowledge on to the next generation of equestrians. How we can ride out horses for soundness and consent. How we can leave them better than we found them. 

I don't care about what the judges say anymore. I care about what my horses and their body workers say (you just gotta find the right body worker).

The day we are judged by qualified body workers is the day I will start taking interest in competitions again.