 Dilbert (Show name What the Dilly-O)
Dilly
really has no excuse. I can tolerate certain behaviors in other horses.
Perhaps they had poor training, or were stuffed in a stall for too
long, or were owned by neglectful owners, but that’s not the case with
Dilly. It could be that Dilly just doesn’t know how good he has it.
We
bought Dilly as a yearling as a show team prospect. He wasn’t even
halter broke, but that’s not unusual. A local trainer tried to buy him
shortly after I purchased him and looking back, that would have saved
me allot of grief, but ah, hind sight.
I broke Dilly at
2…..well, I started breaking Dilly at 2. Actually it took me 3 years to
break him, for no fault of his. Actually he was a pretty easy break,
but I had another young horse here at the same time who kept, well,
breaking me. Every time I would end up on crutches, the other clients
would get anxious because I was no longer able to ride their horses so
that when I got off of crutches, I would put the young horses
(including Dilly) aside for the show season and pick them back up in
the fall. Then fall would turn to winter, and I would stop
riding…….anyway. It took 3 years. I still don’t think that’s an excuse.
Because it took three years to break him, it took another two
to get him ready to show. Admittedly, I made some more mistakes (though
minor), along the way. I was on crutches (again) during the first
summer that Dilly was far enough to at least go and look around at a
show. We were going to school at Huntington, just 10 miles from camp
and well, it was just too tempting not to want to throw Dilly in the
trailer. After all, he was 5 or 6 by now and people would starting to
joke that he would be 20 by the time he was showing over fences. All
that pressure! I put my niece, Kali on him at home and they got along
fabulous. Dilly was quiet and sweet. He can have a bit of a spook in
him, but what thoroughbred doesn’t.? Kali and Dilly looked so good
together! Watching them hack around our riding ring I was already
looking several years in the future. Why, at this rate, I may not have
to show Dilly at all!
 We
took Dilly to that show. He was really no different than most young
horses. He snorted and spooked at all the typical things. He was no
different, except for one thing: though I find most horses are herd
bound and will scream for their buddies for several shows, Dilly seemed
to take it to new heights. He wasn’t just upset about losing his
friends from sight when we were hacking him, he was down right MAD! I
do remember how frustrating it was, leaning on my crutches, not able to
do a thing to help poor Kali and raging Dilly as he slowly worked
himself into an amazing dither the likes that I had never seen out of
him. Needless to say, he left quite an impression. Enough so,
that he went back in the trailer with a little less enthusiastic Kali
two weeks later to school at a different show grounds. We were a bit
more prepared this time, but the result was no better. In fact it was
worse. Kali handed me the reins after that show and basically said,
“Don’t ask me again until he’s better.”
I was off crutches
once again by fall and back in the stirrups of Dilly. We again went to
an away show at Huntington’s grounds. I had done more prep work by now
and felt reasonably confident that Dilly would be better. I was very
careful about my warm up, and he was better for most parts with the
separation of the barn mates. I felt confident enough to ride him in
his first under saddle class. Dilly is a beautiful mover when he’s
quiet and I was looking forward to how he would do against other
pre-green horses in his division for next season.
 I
guess he had an excuse, though I would suspect there may have been
another solution than the one he chose. When a 16.3 hand thoroughbred
that you don’t know, comes galloping down behind you in a flat class
while you’re cantering with a group of horses you don’t know for the
first time, with an out of control 10 year old girl in the stirrups, I
suppose if you thought about it there may have been another option to
stopping dead in your tracks, and spinning towards the rail to face
your attacker, but Dilly didn’t think so. His reaction along with me
giving him his rein in an effort to keep the quiet, relaxed canter I
had worked so hard to create got me dumped in the sand, along with the
10 year old, over mounted girl behind me. That’s when I discovered
something else about Dilly. Dilly holds grudges. Dilly has a memory
like an elephant and in his mind, as any human that is a worrier and
prone to fear, once something bad happened, he was sure, no positive it
was going to happen again. After that point, anytime something remotely
stressful happened, Dilly reacted quickly to his situation. So it was
that at that first time out showing Dilly, I hit the ground not once,
not twice, but three times. Once in that class, once schooling him by
myself when they turned out a horse in a close paddock and it went
careening around screaming and a third time for no other reason but
that he had managed to do it twice before and it seemed like a good
idea to try for three. Needless to say, by the end of the day I was
bruised and dishearten and showing Dilly was not my idea of fun.
 That
show started a trend that would last on and off for several years.
Dilly was very nervous out of his comfort zone, and his comfort zone
didn’t just include away from home, but was well extended into the
rings behind the barn, being left in after the herd left, being in
stalls that he couldn’t see anyone from, etc., etc. etc. I became an
expert at arranging situations so that Dilly’s world wouldn’t be
disturbed. Not so much that I think this is what I should have been
doing, but because I wanted oh so much to stay on. I can remember my
first trail ride on him (he had been quiet for months) where he bravely
took the lead from Cathy on Rubin, our designated “baby sitter”. Coming
around the bend, over the top of a small hill a band a wild turkeys
were surprised by our walking horses. Answering my prayers, none of
them “flew” (I use that term loosely. Have you ever seen wild turkeys
fly?) off, but rather, just scuttled into the underbrush. We were
riding in the area of pasture that Dilly is in daily. I’m sure he has
seen wild turkeys sometime besides when I was riding him, but because
of where they were located, only their heads and necks could be seen
over the top of the hill. I’m sure in Dilly’s mind he said, “My
goodness!” “Bodiless Turkeys!!!!” It was enough that by the time we got
home, I had not fallen off, but Dilly was in a lather, though we had
not moved out of a walk. And then there was the time that I was walking
through the in gate to enter a show ring for a schooling round. A horse
behind me started acting up and kicking at another horse. Dilly,
immediately reacted with about 6 major bucking horse broncs in place.
It was enough to throw me a good distance. Another trainer standing
next to the ring on her cell phone had turned at the commotion to see
Dilly considerably off the ground in the middle of unseating me. She
was impressed enough with his show to nick name him “Demon Spawn”, a
name that kept with him for years to come.
 I
hesitate to share Dilly stories, and there are a few, but I think I
should pause here to mention the fact that these stories happened years
ago. I can think of similar stories for many horses that I have ridden
in my life, it’s just that Dilly took his sweet time to get out of his
early, young horse antics. But get out of them he did. After three
years of showing, several tack adjustments, several training
adjustments, a few nutrition changes and just plain time, Dilly turned
into a reasonable show horse. He was still nervous and a bit of a
careful ride, but in the spring of 2007 I thought it was time to start
him into camp life. I had finished a successful season in 2006 at the
3’O division, and thought that Dilly really had nothing left to prove
with me on his back. In the spring of 2007 I started working towards
giving him to others to ride. I knew that with Dilly’s nervous nature
that the introduction to other riders would not be something to be
taken lightly. Others had ridden Dilly in the past, but only
occasionally. Kali had given up her complete distaste of him and had
hacked him often for me during the 2006 show season when I was showing
other horses. I had used him several times in my riding lessons. I was
reasonably confident that the transition to others could be made
successfully, but then Dilly came in lame. Of course it was June, and
of course we were ready to start camp and boom. Dilly had gotten kicked
in the cannon bone. The injury ended up taking 3 months to heal, just
about the length of a camp season. Do you think he knew?
The
fall of 2007 an offer to sell Dilly in Chicago was too good to past up.
The idea of holding him for another entire year, not knowing how
successfully he would be an advanced student riding horse, versus
finding him a new home was just too tempting. I hauled Dilly to
Chicago, with a list of instructions as to his likes and dislikes and a
dubious feeling on his abilities to adjust to city life. In the end, my
doubt was well founded, as a month later, Dilly was on his way back to
Cedar Lodge. From his weight loss and wild eye, I would guess that city
life indeed was not up Dilly’s alley, but the stay in a new stable was
not without it’s benefits. Dilly was ridden by countless other people
and behaved himself every ride. That alone certainly made it worth the
trip!. My goal for 2008 is that Dilly will enter the advanced jumping
classes. If there ends up being a match made, he may enter show team as
well. Who knows? Dilly’s future is a new adventure waiting to happen!
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