When Mark Wattier saw the pattern for the horsemanship finals at the Bayer Select World Championship Show, he knew he needed help.
“Today’s ride was really a reining pattern where you had to have speed,” he said. “I’ve been sort of backing off of riding speed because I wasn’t riding it very well.”
Mark and his gelding, Too Hot To Pass Up, started working with AQHA Professional Horseman David Dellin at this year’s Reichert Pleasure Celebration. He had asked David to come to Amarillo to help him at the Bayer Select World. They immediately began practicing spins, rollbacks and adding speed.
“He kept encouraging me to ride smooth,” Mark said. “He told me I was going to have to ride it with more speed. With the spins, I can’t get the horse to spin real well. David would get him spinning and then tell me, ‘Yes you did that right and you did this right.’”
The rollback was also a difficult maneuver for Mark.
“Horsemanship for somebody that started late in life with horses although I was an athlete, is a challenge because of the riding position, the leg position and moving with the horse,” he said. “Part of what David had to work with me was the rollback. That’s not a natural maneuver for me, so he had to teach me again and again, trial and error. We did four or five really bad rollbacks, and then I got it once and then I got it another time and then again. We had to keep working.
“I would do the rollback right and then I wouldn’t do the spins right. So we just kept building until the pieces went together.”
Mark and “Matthew” were seventh in the draw for the horsemanship finals. They came in with good, consistent speed and nailed their spins and rollback.
“Part of what helped me is as an old guy, it takes me a while to loosen up,” Mark said. “So several practice rides over the course of the last few days, I’ve gotten more limber as a rider and David was correcting the kind of things I needed to do.
“But then you don’t want to leave your best ride in the practice arena. You want to leave that in the show ring. We had our best ride in the show ring.”
As the placings were announced, it came down to only Mark and Eileen Cravens and Lopin Leaguer. As it was announced that Eileen was the reserve world champion, Mark reached down and gave Matthew a big pat on the shoulder.
“I had a good horse, I had great training and we put together a nice plan,” he said. “We were in tune out there in horsemanship.”
Mark has owned Matthew since the gelding was a 3-year-old, and has been the only person to show him.
“He’s been a great horse,” he said. “He’s got a great attitude. He’s a good mover. He’s real sane. We trust each other.
“When you look at it for us, the Selects, you want a 4-H horse that will take you through and be a babysitter for you and that’s what one of the things I like the most about him.”
And with now a world championship, will Mark keep David around as a teacher?
“I am going to take some advantage of that some more, I think. After this, why not?”
