Get off my back!

I have kicked Ms Foxy Pants back out to the pasture...no more blogging for her! At least for a while. She is my guest blogger, ha ha ha.

She says Hi.


She also says BRING MORE CARROTS I'M STARVING.


Look, she's learning! And hating every minute of it, ha ha ha. RETIRED, she said, RETIRED.


So she mentioned (ha ha) in the last post that I am considering trying to ride her. Well, yes, I am. I went and bought a set of snap-on roping reins and brought them, along with a rope halter, to visit Ms Pissy Pants tonight. I am alone most of the time, so I will have to drag along my cousin one night to actually try to hop on her. For now, I brought her into the covered arena and got on the mouting block and leaned over her back and laid on her and mostly just annoyed her. Scratched her neck and belly and fed her a few carrots hanging over there. I obviously did not get pics of myself...but I did the same thing as these pics (taken mid August 06)







Foxy reacted in much the same manner. Ho hum. Next step will be to do this and actually swing over (all the way) and off the opposite side.


I never remember how much I have discussed about Foxy's riding back in the day. I actually did get her to where she could walk/trot very well. Steering was shitty but she walked and trotted on leg pressure or voice commands. Very very very very very very sensitive to leg. That is actually an understatement. Like, I could touch her sides and she would jump from a stop into a working trot. And with a HO she would slam to a stop. We also cantered....twice. If you can even call it that. I would call it...uh...galloping. Yeah. It was like...barrel racing without the barrels. Which is why I only did it twice!

Then she pissed me off and I kicked her in the ribs and she bolted with me and then slowed enough to buck me off. Whoops. But I did ride her a few months first. As evidenced below...

First time in the saddle without someone holding Foxy. Don't you love my death grip on the horn? Ha ha ha.


Walking like a pro.



Doesn't she look like a WP flunkie?


First time trotting under saddle!


Trotting along a couple weeks later...


Foxy spent most of her life under saddle with her ears pointed back at me waiting for the next command. She used to respond within nanoseconds to anything....I'd never ridden a horse like that! I was used to old lesson horses who had to be kicked and kicked and kicked into anything...Foxy had a one track mind....GET OUT OF THE WAY, ha ha ha. She had a jammin' trot, though. She covered the ground.


Making circles in the arena..



Flexing and being awesome.



She was doing so well! Ah well.....



Now that picture time is over.....I have been thinking about little Miss and have realized one of her major problems, the entire time I have owned her, is she is incredibly insecure. Unfortunately, I am not the most confident owner so we tend to play off of each other. She freaks out, then I freak out, so she keeps freaking out, etc etc. The things we do well are the things I am comfortable with. Riding? I am not comfortable. I do not ride enough or well enough to be comfortable trying to "start" a horse. Or riding a horse that is not even considered green broke. She freaks out and I have no idea what to do...and I am freaking out about doing the wrong thing or falling off or screwing up somehow. So that is that.

Foxy really needs a rider that can deal with her freakouts and get her back on track...without freaking out themselves! I mean, okay, I am not exactly throwing the reins down flapping about and crying or anything like that. But I tense up and who knows whether I even react the right way.

But Foxy is stuck with me so....she'll have to deal with it. And either be a pasture puff or tolerate us plodding around together.

On a related note, I always have wanted to play horse soccer, ever since hearing about it. Foxy is too lame and not well enough broke for that, but there was a big rubber ball in the arena today and I rolled it around. Foxy could have cared less. Maybe I can get her to where we can at least walk around kicking the ball or something. She had absolutely no interest in it at all.

Interestingly enough, one of their cats kept appearing and randomly rubbing up on Foxy. Like, I'm hanging off Foxy's back and the damn thing comes up behind her and head butts and rubs on her fricking rear leg. Like, boom, head butt on the fetlock. Foxy didn't even twitch her leg, good girl. She did look around and put her head down and sniff the little cat and it was the cutest thing ever....which of course I missed out on camera-wise since I was a little, er, busy.

Also, this is a Paso Fino barn so they have this long platform running the length of the arena...in the middle of it. So I brought Foxy over and had her put her front feet up onto it and go up and back off of it. Good learning for her. She hesitated but did it nicely anyways.

So that is the Foxy update of the early week. Tomorrow the weather is going to be a bit crazy and my fat ass is going to the gym to get a membership after work and my dog is going to the groomer....and I have to work! So, no Foxy visit. Maybe Thursday!

[btw, I do totally dig the comments...even if I don't respond!]

Bella says...yes, send me to the groomer please! I look like a muppet, not a poodle!