Certification

So.....certification. Hang tight, this is a long, text-heavy one.
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Although I had mostly decided that I wouldn't put Tanner's legs through the stress of certification/searches, I waffled all the way up to Saturday morning whether to take him or Harlan.

Harlan has been doing much better since I switched cinches and took him to the chiropractor. But I had lost confidence in my riding ability since I had fallen off 3 times this spring, including the week prior to certification (that one was completely my fault)...maybe I just sucked at riding. What if Harlan spooked at certification and I fell off? EMBARRASSING.

I pumped my friend for information. Here's my conversation with my brother about it:

Oh the foreshadowing...

My friend and our unit training officer both reassured me that it was okay if Harlan spooked, they were looking more at how we worked together.

In the end I did take Harlan and I'm glad I did.

We arrived at the Maine Trail Riders Clubhouse around 8:45 and I was very pleasantly surprised to see I wasn't going to be the only one certifying a horse. Shirley and her paint mare Spice decided last minute to certify, for which I am eternally grateful. It took A LOT of the pressure off.

There were two ladies not from our unit serving as judges. They observed Harlan and Spice standing quietly on the trailers, tied to the trailers, and getting tacked up. Then we had to hold our horses while someone zoomed around on a lawn mower and brought a tree trimmer close by. Harlan was a little jumpy which I thought boded ill.

We then went into the outdoor arena where the judges put us through our paces, literally. We had to walk, trot, and canter our horses; Harlan was a little jazzed up and wasn't quite comfortable with the saddle bags on him during the canter. We got a few good strides in though.

Next the judges wanted to test our and our horses' ability to pony and be ponied. Ponying as a verb is Rider A riding Horse A while leading Horse B, possibly with Rider B riding. I had done this with Tanner and Harlan and was fairly confident about it. So we led Spice with Shirley pretending to be incapacitated around the arena.

Then it was Shirley's turn to lead Harlan. I was supposed to have broken my knee in this scenario so I slipped my right foot out of the stirrup and let go of the reins. At this opportune moment Harlan touched Spice's bum with his nose, she kicked him, and he threw a hissy fit. Buckity buck buck buck REEEEAR! Somehow, just somehow, I was able to stay on through it.

A little shaken after that, we continued on although I was sure that we had failed. Someone fired a gun outside of the arena - not a problem. An ambulance drove in the arena with the lights on - piece of cake. The ambulance now outside of the arena turned the sirens on - easy peasy.

I was feeling slightly better when we moved on to the judged portion outside of the arena. One at a time we had to take our horses on a quick loop through the woods. Shirley and Spice went first, leaving a distraught Harlan behind but we survived. When it was our turn, we first had to step on a tarp. No big whoop, Harlan walked across it like a pro. Someone was lying on the ground pretending to be injured. Someone else came crashing out of the woods. My friend came jogging by with her dog. Harlan was fine with all of these, I was so proud.

And then we came to the last little leg of the trail, where someone was using a chainsaw on a tree. There were two path options, so I started to take the one furthest away but the judge observing said to ride as close as possible. Sure, we can do that. Harlan was hesitant but willing.

I was concentrating on getting him past it when I heard someone scream "MOVE!"  I looked up to see the tree falling, almost in slow motion, directly above us. I pulled back on the reins, but it was really Harlan's quick reaction that saved us. He leapt away as the tree crashed down across the path where we had been just seconds before.

I took one breath, looked around, and started sobbing and hyperventilating; shocked at the near miss, feeling like it was my fault, and just the accumulation of the day's events was too much.

Everyone else gathered around, asking if I was okay. The member who had felled the tree was probably as traumatized as me about it; she thought I had seen her hold up a hand signaling to wait. The judge felt terrible that she had instructed me to go as close as possible. Someone else said "Well if you hadn't passed before you've passed now!"

All the meanwhile I was still hyperventilating away, trying to communicate to everyone that really, I was okay, it was just shock. Harlan, seeming to realize that I was not in a good position to be in charge, calmly stood and then walked as someone else led us around. When I slid off, he nosed me as if to say Hay, you okay?

I walked him back to the trailer where I untacked him and got both of us some water. Did I mention that it was like 88 degrees that day?

I would feel like I finally calmed down, and then would think about it and start crying again. And god forbid if anyone came up to ask if I was okay...I'm sure you know how that can set the waterworks off.

We still had some stuff to do, including loading the horses on opposite trailers with a stranger leading them. Spice took a little bit of persuasion to get on my trailer but Harlan walked right onto Shirley's trailer.

And then we were done. The judges went to deliberate and I downed about 50 bottles of water. Our poor president arrived right about then and had the misfortune to ask me how it had gone while I was on my way to get more water for Harlan. My face crumpled and I sobbed out, "You don't want to talk to me right now. Go ask Melissa, I can't explain."

But it wasn't too much longer before I was finally back in complete control of my emotions. The judges came back and announced that we had all passed! Oh happy day!

We had lunch and a MMSAR unit meeting and then everyone else left while Shirley, the training officer Ellen, and I tacked up for the daylight trail ride. Long story short, we rode a hard 10 miles of steep inclines, rocks, mud, and bushwhacking. Back at camp we set up our overnight stuff and waited for night to fall. Then we tacked back up (poor horses, tacked and untacked 3 times that day) and headed back out on the trail. This was a much shorter ride, but it was still rocky and muddy and I couldn't see a damn thing. I tried not to use my flashlight but branches kept whacking me in the face.

I had to keep reminding myself to sit back and relax because I kept tensing forward, clutching the reins. Harlan was a saint...despite the crazy energy I was giving off he calmly and confidently navigated the trail. I high-lined him for the night (strung a rope between two trees and attached his lead rope to that so he could move somewhat) and conked out. In the morning the humans had to do a fitness test and then we loaded up and headed home.

I am glad I brought Harlan for a few different reasons.

1. One of my favorite things about Tanner is that he doesn't react to things and takes everything in stride. In this instance, that would have killed us or at least seriously injured us. Harlan reacted quickly and safely, pretty much saving my life.
2. The 10 mile ride would've been really hard on Tanner's legs.
3. As cheesy as this sounds, it really helped my bond with Harlan. It was a little shaky since we'd been having some problems this spring, but he took care of me when I couldn't take care of either of us.

It's really difficult to put into words my overall feelings about certification. While I'm proud of Harlan and glad we passed, it isn't a positive memory.  There are just too many emotions jumbled up into a tangled ball of feelings-yarn to look back on it comfortably.

I am hoping that I can start to feel excited about finally being a certified horse and rider team. The combination of not being able to certify Tanner and a not-so-great (let's face it, traumatizing) certification experience hit me harder than I would've thought. I had been looking forward to certifying a horse for almost a year and I want to regain a little of what I lost.

On a lighter note, I drove home from work last week in an insane thunderstorm. Traffic was backed up in one of the little towns and I found myself making sure my car wasn't positioned under any of the madly swaying trees.  I will be avoiding trees for a while, methinks!

And I am seriously considering wrapping myself in bubble wrap from now on...I thought I had used up all my luck before but apparently still had some in the bank. Pretty sure that supply is depleted now.