Sorting Cows, Round Two

I haven't written about Round One.  Didn't go so well.  Champ, the horse that's been to a million shows and is always cool as a cucumber had, for better words, issues.  I truly risked my life from the moment he came off the trailer, trying to saddle him while he fish-tailed back and forth against the trailer. 

My agony didn't stop there.  When my trainer, Rachel, drove up to warm Champ up and found us in this uncontrollable dilemma, she asked me to fetch my ground work tools.  Well...I'd left them back at the barn.  Thinking there was no way they'd be needed for an event such as this.  WRONG!

I got to witness the difference of working a horse without ground work tools vs working one with.  It took longer without and I don't think we 'locked' in Champ's focus, as with the rope halter and lunge line.  Yet Rachel carried on and rode him and eventually we went up the hill and down the road to where the sorting was taking place.

Ironically, Champ's exposure to cows wasn't half as bad as his behavior at the trailer.  He was curious, a bit concerned when there were vocal teams in the pen working cows, but he held his own pretty well.  By his third time in, you could see he enjoyed pushing the cows into the other pen.

I watched this event, letting Rachel ride him and get him exposed.  We return this Thursday, weather permitting. 

Lessons learned?  (1)  Take my ground work tools!  (2)  Check with my riding pal, Kyle, who hauled us to the event, to ensure her horse is no longer in heat; (3)  Work Champ before we leave to settle him down.

Any other ideas would be appreciated!