Horse Speak

I went home last weekend to Green Bay. My mom got a new horse, named Abbie, which I had the chance to ride. Since I don't really feel like talking about anything deep, I'm going to talk about that :)

She's a good horse. She's young, only about eight or so, a half-quarter half-thourough. We went out to the field to bring her inside. It had been raining all weekend, so my boots and chaps were covered with mud. It was there that I learned that although new, Abbie had taken over the heard and was the new "alpha female". So, I decided it would be a good idea to run her a bit in the indoor arena to take some of the fight out of her. Interestingly enough, she was a very sweet girl. I was expecting to have to chase her arround the arena with this huge whip I have, but all I had to do was keep it by my side and she did exactly what I wanted her to do. Basically, I was able to lunge her without a lunge line. She walked, trotted, and cantered around me clockwise very well. Whever I put my hand in the air, she stopped and came over to me. When we tried to do counter-clockwise, though, she had a bit more trouble. Aparently I had a horse version of Zoolander on my hands, because she just couldn't do the turning left thing. We worked it out after a while, though.

Then I goomed her, tacked her up, and rode her. She was still a bit nervous, so we just worked on walking and turning, so that she'd get her head down and listen to me instead of everything that was going on arround her. A big problem was the unbelievable scary door at the end of the arena, which had the nerve to just sit there doing nothing. However, Abbie was compelled every time to startle upon sight of the door. Then she would immediately forget that the door was there, and do it again the next time we got arround there. Did I mention that horses tend to be retarted in nature? To be fair, she'd spent her whole life outside, (with thunder storms, tractors, hunter's guns...) but still.

Anyway, this other girl wanted to ride her, so we swapped horses. I got this short, fat, black Morgan-esque Tennesee Walker named Lady. I liked her stature a lot, because she had the same stature as a couple of Morgans that I used to jump for another stable, Diamond and Carovel. Lady wasn't a jumper, but she was fun to ride, being gated. The problem was she didn't like people to get on her. At one point, I was standing next to her and adjusting one stirrup. She thought I was trying to get on her, and tried to run away from me. After I did manage to get on - she was a fun, but quite different ride. Since she's gated, she doesn't really trot, but rather just walk really fast. So, You can't post at all, you just have to sit there. So, not really much of a work out or challenge.

All in all, I liked the new horse a lot, although I do think she may yet be a little too green for my mom to ride. Next time I get home I going to at least trot her. There are a couple of kids in the stable who wouldn't mind riding her for my mom until she get broken a little bit more. We'll see how it goes.