Finding the motivation to write this evening after a very subpar day at our show today was not easy. But such is life with horses … full of ups and downs. They’re not machines and they’re all entitled to a bad day here and there as long as you can put it in the rearview mirror and move forward.

We left off last time looking ahead to Maverick’s second recognized horse trial at Kentucky Summer. That show went beautifully for us. He was much improved in his dressage test as he has been every time he steps into the sandbox. His stadium round was beautiful — just a baby moment left us with a rail at fence #2 — but I was beyond impressed with how he handled as big of an environment as Rolex Stadium.

Right at home in the “sandbox” (Courtesy of Jordan Sigmon )

Cross-country day was a tough day mentally for me. I had a lot on my mind outside of horses and I let it get my number, but he made up for it in spades. Minus me taking the long way to fence #2 and a little pause at the water, he was nearly perfect going around there! He was so bold and confident and really showed us he has the makings of a top-notch cross-country horse.

In between then and now, we really focused on his flatwork. I’ve been doing a lot of work on collection and introducing some lateral movements. Having control of his rib cage is so helpful in all three phases, and I’ve really noticed a big difference in his rideability with that. Maverick definitely has had some big feelings learning new things but he always works his way through it and never stays frazzled.

Now to today’s event: Dressage went well. I felt like we really improved on a lot of aspects of his test, but he was also a bit behind my leg and lacking the promptness we needed in some of his upward transitions. In our stadium round, he really just felt like he was running off with me to half the jumps and not jumping his best to the rest.

With it being a mini-trial, we went straight from that onto cross country. He warmed up fine and jumped the first well but after jump #2 I had a feeling it may just not be our day. He was too forward in between the jumps and not coming back to me for the quiet distance but also not confident in the long one. He stopped at jump #5 but then came back around and popped right over it, and did the same to jump #7. At that point, I elected to call it a day and go work on things at home.

Future is bright for Maverick despite ups and downs. (Courtesy of Jordan Sigmon )

I think one of the most important things you can learn as a competitor is to know when it’s just not your day. Today was one of those days. The ground was very hard and chopped up from being baled earlier this week, and he had nicks on all four legs which make me suspicious he may have gotten cast in his field last night. He never felt unsound, but he wasn’t ever really with me. Whether it was just the heat, not liking the ground, some soreness, or just simply a bad day, we’ll do what I said in the beginning — put it in the rearview mirror and move forward.

Between the tough moments, he still had some really wonderful moments and it doesn’t take away from the huge future he has ahead of him.

We’ve had a few schedule changes in our plans leading up to Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover, where I plan to enter him in the dressage and eventing divisions. We’ll go to World Equestrian Center Ohio for some jumper rounds in two weeks, then the following weekend I’m going to give him one more full horse trial at the Starter level to build his confidence back up at Kentucky Classique. He’ll probably do the beginner novice back at Meadow Lake Equestrian Center Sept. 21 and then we’ll head to Stable View in Aiken, S.C., the last week of September for our final run before the Thoroughbred Makeover.

The Jockey Club supports many aftercare initiatives including the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, the only accrediting body in aftercare, and Thoroughbred Incentive Program (T.I.P.), which encourages the retraining of Thoroughbreds into other disciplines upon completion of careers. View all of the initiatives supported by The Jockey Club.