Mariah is our fifth. Pure Arab, only 14.2 hands, 12 years old and gentle as a lamb. Trained naturally, with respect and compassion, like our other four, but she started late. Yesterday (as I write this), she and I, went to our first local horse club show and entered nine events. I was nervous. She wasn't. Out of those nine events, she won ribbons in seven of them. One third, one fifth, and five fourths. We are very proud of her, primarily for one reason: so many folks were asking how much we had practiced the various events and I was able to say, "Not at all. What we practice is teaching the horse to trust us and move all parts of her body when requested, and teaching ourselves how to request it. So it really doesn't matter what the event is. What matters is how well we're communicating."
It's working!