John saddled and bridled the colt, then led him out of the pen and around the arena. He made small adjustments to his movement and body position all the while to get him comfortable being controlled in the larger environment. The colt stood freely as he picked up the first two feet, but trotted off when he reached for a hind leg. "Not a big deal-it's normal. It gives me an opportunity to work on having him come to me." The colt promptly came on cue. All four feet were duly picked up.
Unlike in the round pen, where he stood quietly to be mounted, the big colt moved around during John's mount in the open arena. This was an additional challenge as that stirrup was a considerable stretch from the ground for John. "Because he didn't want to move forward in the round pen, we didn't get to practice 'go and stop' or spend as much time on hindquarter control as he really needed."
John's colt then gave a lovely, free long trot under saddle. But from then on, every time the colt broke into a trot on his own, John used a "hips over" stop to reinforce that he was the one who determined what gait they would work and how fast they would go.
He began moving happily on a loose rein, letting John choose the gait. His back up was done straight, on a loose rein. The forward walk was also straight, with his head relaxed and the rein loose. John began a quiet trot to the right and began teaching the crowd about the importance of steering with the tail while he reinforced that.
Turning the colt back and forth, he trotted freely in both directions, followed by lopes in both directions, all the way around the arena. He backed twice more. John dismounted and mounted from the other side.
The crowd was starting to mutter about how quickly the clock was ticking down without John having tackled any of the obstacles. "Eleven minutes left, John!" the announcer reminded him.
"We're fine," John responded, with a smile.
John and his colt performed a 180-degree turn to the left and one to the right, then they headed for the first obstacle.
He trotted through the serpentine of raised poles on a loose rein. The colt crossed the tarp easily, with an almost visible "been there, done that!" attitude. He walked through the highest ends of the pinwheel, sorrel feet stepping high as he looked interestedly down at this newest odd thing. He crossed the ground poles and a pole up on bedding bales. He went over the cross poles on a loose rein. These were all similar to things he had faced in the round pen, but it wasn't the fact that they were approximately familiar that was important. He had learned to steer and go forward no matter what was in front of him.
He willingly approached an upright lattice to let John retrieve a lariat from the top corner, obediently moved off a bit, stood while the rope was twirled over his head, and then quietly walked back to the lattice so John could replace the lariat. He did the log drag in both directions, both pulling it behind him and turning and standing as John pulled the log toward him. He even stood quietly in a "patience box" after all of this movement and commotion.
The final obstacle involved walking over the chalked bulls-eye rings and up to a newly uncovered "mystery obstacle," which was revealed as a cage with two live and very active chickens in it. John's big colt approached willingly, on a loose rein, and touched the cage with his nose.
Freestyle
For the freestyle portion of the test, John had the colt step up onto a cluttered box, at which point John dropped his feet from the stirrups and knelt in the saddle. The crowd gasped and held its breath. Was John Lyons, with two recently replaced knees, going to go for the iconic Road to the Horse salute of standing in the saddle and waving?
No. He laughed and waved.
He also dropped the reins and pulled on a slicker before querying the announcer, "Can I use another person to run at this horse and try to spook him?"
"No," the announcer confirmed.
"Then I won't do that," John chuckled. He dismounted and did his best to spook the horse himself, flapping and waving the slicker. The colt just stood and looked at him. When John moved, so did the colt, always to face him.
John said, "See? I also taught him to ground tie!" Laughter from the crowd. "You don't believe me?" He walked away from the colt, who continued to stand politely until he was told to move, at which point he happily came to John.
They left the arena with 22 seconds remaining.
