Full Moon & Horse Show

A few weeks ago when I realized that the full moon lunar eclipse was the same time as a horse show ( the first horse show that Max and I had been to since 2007 when he was so disturbed) I just had to wonder, Should I attempt this? Every-time I asked I heard to go...and felt quite sure of that knowing. We arrived Friday evening ( a negative ++ day according to Lance Fergasun's sky watch) The horse show venue was right next to the train tracks, oh boy, just the loud sounds need to set Max off. Max had had a difficult ride in the trailer, whinnying most of the 2 hour ride. We took out the horses introduced them to their stalls and tacked them up to drive them in the arena...the train went by and Max flipped over in his cart, we eventually settled him, and he drove beautifully...the next morning for his first driving class, he panicked again, knocking me and himself over, finally he settled down and we drove in the class, despite all the issues he placed 2nd under one judge and third under another....that afternoon he had two more classes. Tacking him up for ladies country pleasure driving was quite a feat and he bucked and freaked out again...this time I unstacked him and scratched him from the rest of his classes that day. He was so happy to go back to his stall. I decided to meditate on what to do with him day two and let be what would be. what was interesting to me was that I was entirely in the moment, I didn't see it as bad or good to scratch, I had known that i was at the show for many more reasons that just to win or not win in a class. Max has had nervous and fear issues since i purchased him in 2007. Since here, with us, he has had different treatment and gained much confidence, to help him release energy I trained him to hunter class. for miniature horses hunter is much like the big horse classes, except that the handler runs about the course with the horse instead of riding on his back. Max and i do this quite frequently here at the farm but I have never had him in competition, and i had only gone into competition once, with Mahogany. We were disqualified because I ( can you imagine) knocked over the posts!
On Sunday Max had one driving class, which, after meditating on it, I scratched and instead took in Buffy, ( I had never driven her before so this was a day for lots of new things) Buff and i took two blues ( wonder of wonder). Then late in the afternoon there were 5 hunter classes. All in a row, I really wondered if Max could stand to be patient that long. I "asked" Max if he wanted to try he said yes, so we waited ( there were not other classes that afternoon for any of us till hunter) so there we were waiting in the hot sun....Max's time came, we groomed him and lead him out to the arena......the long and the short of it was that he performed 5 hunter classes, never refused a jump. He jumped in two youth classes with Mike and three adult classes with me taking 8 blue ribbons and 2 seconds. It was amazing the whole arena was just watching this little horse float over the jumps......what a transformational weekend for both me and Max!