What I Want To Remember

I tend to get nervous when I think about showing Rogo, and show season is coming up. There's good reason for this, in that he's the first horse I've backed and taken to their first shows, and I'm getting older and not that experienced. He gets very excited in new places and he has in the past galloped off with me at Cheryl's. Also, he's over 17 hands now (I'll measure him this week, but he's grown and was 17 hands a year ago).
The things I want to remember revolve around the following: he's a year older than his first shows, and he did fine there. Yesterday I rode him in the pasture, not a hack out, but much more exciting for him then the riding ring and due to rain, he hasn't had a good workout in close to a week. He was bouncy with excitement, wanting to go, go, go. I did lots of walking shoulder in and leg yield (they're still rough, but coming) both ways and it is so apparent that he does them better when he's up like this. Then we did trotting. He'd surge forward and a year ago he would have broken to a canter almost instantly when in one of these moods, but he kept a nice trot and came back to a halt as soon as I asked, standing, yet eager to go forward. We'd trot off and repeat. I kept the session quite short because he did so well and the footing wasn't good - rough and a little slippery in places to be honest.
After this I took the dogs for a walk on the beach and the sun was shining, waves crashing, wind blowing and it was wonderful. It finally felt like spring! I celebrated my great afternoon with a glass of red wine and began to reflect on my ride. Any experienced horse person is going to roll their eyes and wonder at my 'slowness', so I'll just say that I did know this stuff (that I'm about to discuss) on the surface, but somehow it hadn't been internalized. What I realized is that this is how I want Rogo - it isn't to be 'controlled', it's to be celebrated. When backing a horse, you may be a little cautious and maybe even lunge first if they are a little over the top in their excitement, but we're past that. I love these rides when he's so forward, yet I feel nervous about having him at a show when he's like this. What I need to remember is that this is when he's at his best, this is how he should be presented at a show, he's proving to me that I can trust him to listen when he's up.
I'm not suggesting that I suddenly expect him to be as trust worthy as Savanah at a show and put sensible caution aside. I am realizing he's responding well to his training and I need to let go of my show fears and enjoy the fun boy he is.