Robin- The Wonder Horse | A Nice Horse Story

By: Connie Siders

Parents make mistakes and mine was one I will never forget. It all started with overestimating my son, ten year old Jacob Siders, riding ability.
Jacob had shown his entire life in leadline and walk-trot. In 2001 he showed a hand-me-down mare from his older brother and actually got reserve champion in special skills with her. It was easy too get overconfident.

Robin, the hand-me-mare was due to have her first foal in 2002. We had purchased a horse for me that was doing so good we thought that Jake wouldn’t have a problem with him. But at at late May horse show the horse took off in a pleasure class and threw Jacob. Jacob crashed to the ground and was immobile. I feared the worst and panicked. He finally came around and was transported by amublance to the hospital. After MRI’s were conducted we were thrilled to learn that he was okay. Within a few weeks you couldn’t there were no physical signs that he had ever been thrown.
Unfortunately, there were emotional ones. He demanded that we get rid of the horse. After the fear I had suffered I had no problem complying. That left Robin a little fourteen hand sorrel quarter mare and her three month old colt, Cory.

We weaned Cory and Jacob started riding the mare. Amazingly she bounced into shape within two weeks and won her very first post pregnancy halter class. Fear held him back. He didn’t want to canter. Every time he rode I suffered anxiety and he felt failure. The canter, which he had so easily mastered the year before, alluded us.
We opted to try something different. We borrowed a harness and in one lesson little Robin was driving like a pro. It helped all of us. It gave us an outlet to enjoy Robin without it being…………..can we canter today? Eventually, kind of tentatively, he started cantering.

They Wayne County Fair, the highlight of the 4-H year was held on the second week of July. Jake took second in showmanship and placed well in halter. But when it came time for the pleasure class he pulled to the inside and only cantered a little. It was horrible for all of us. We didn’t want to push him, yet we hated to see the defeat whenever he couldn’t get it done.
A few days later the special skills contest was held. Special skills involves trail, western riding and reining. Although not part of the championship, driving is also held the same night. We tried to talk Jacob out of showing anything except driving. In fact, driving had been scratched from the fair initially. Friends that had struggled through Jacob’s ordeal with us had scrounged up a trophy and managed at the last minute to have driving added.

Jacob won out and he and Robin showed in trail. They did really well placing fourth. In fact, trail was the only riding class he had planned to show in. He ran up to the booth and got the western riding pattern and went in. He wasn’t able to see one of the cones that had mud on it and missed it on the last pass. He wasn’t the only one, in fact, only one person stayed on pattern. For me it didn’t matter. He had cantered the entire course very aggressively. I was feeling like we won. Up to the entry booth he went, determined to show in reining. His father and I tried to talk him out of it. We told him there wouldn’t be any way that he could remember the pattern. But, he insisted.

We later learned that a friend of ours that trained horses went over to talk to Jacob. Jake confided in him that he thought he had this one wrapped up. Under the lights of the arena, with the roar of the crowd at the car track, Jacob performed. He cantered, he ran, he stopped, backed and even got simple lead changes. I felt tears of pride well up in me. This wasn’t a child competing for a ribbon or trophy, this was a child competing against his own fear and it wasn’t even a contest. He was winning that battle. That is why I was shocked when they announced that he had won first place. That first place made him the reserve champion in Special Skills.

There was a complaint. Someone thought he went off pattern. While the accuracy of his pattern was being debated, we harnessed the little mare and Jacob went out and won the driving class. Ture, he was the only one in it, but it was still pretty amazing that the same little mare that was working so diligently in trail just a couple of minutes before was dutifully pulling Jacob around like an old harness horse. We were given the trophy for driving, the one for reining and the reserve champion trophy. My husband offerred the reserve trophy to the person who thought he went off pattern. If Jacob had gone off pattern, their child would have been reserve champion. The fact was, we didn’t really need it. To us, Jacob had won far more than a trophy could ever signify. But they turned it down. To this day that trophy means nothing to me and yet it means everything.

I guess that’s enough of a story right there. But Robin, our wonder horse, is only four years old. We raised her. In fact, Jacob was one of the first people to ever touch her. She had put her faith in us from the time she was born. We had put our faith in her and she had paid us back.