Mike did a cool exercise. He brought in three riders on three horses (not their own), and he asked them to walk, trot, and lope for a few minutes. Then he asked the audience to pick out the horse that was respectful, the one that was disrespectful, and the one that was un-respectful. This wasn't an exercise in rhetoric, but a way of expressing how important respect is, as he describes it. We saw one compliant horse, one grouchy, ears-back horse, and one greenie.

He said that horses are born respectful, but fearful. Our job is to turn fearful respect into trusting respect. That trusting respect starts at an early age. And he demonstrated how he asked a weanling to move away and to stay "out of his space." He says that too many owners treat their horses as if they were puppies, creating a familiarity that turns to disrespect. He talked about how many horses end up at slaughter because they didn't learn to be respectful when they were young. His goal is to turn that around - to help people to treat their horses with respect and teach the horses to treat people with respect. Good demo.

The highlight of the day for me was watching the opening ceremony. A young woman carrying a flag entered the arena on her horse. But it wasn't a smooth entrance. There was a metal bar, a header over the in gate. Kory had been told to point the flag back and down as she went through the gate, which she did. But the top of the flagpole caught on the header anyway, causing her horse to jump as he realized that they were snagged. She quietly handled the situation as she settled her horse, and they went on into the arena.

But in the process, the flagpole had been knocked out of her hand, though its base was still in the stirrup holder. Without missing a beat, she had grabbed the corner of the flag itself. If you blinked you'd have missed it and it would take you a moment to realize that there was something wrong with the picture of the horse and rider, standing at attention in their assigned positions inside the arena. The rider wasn't holding the pole but the tail of the flag material itself. Kory's mom quietly walked into the arena and steadied the flag so Kory could take a hold of the flagpole. The ceremony went on.

Kory is part of the South Carolina Equestrian Ministries Drill Team. I talked with some of the members at lunch, and they said that Kory had been trained, "Whatever you do, don't let the flag hit the ground." Of course, anyone who has ever learned flag etiquette knows this well. But to see a 12-year-old put it into practice with such respect and poise made me proud to be an American and proud of her.

Mike Kinsey was right. Respect starts at an early age and serves people and horses their whole life.   Have a great week.