bad horse.

WARNING: See how happy they both look?
These pictures in NO WAY capture the true essence of my week.

For the first four days of this five day ordeal, the horse was bad. He was a VERY BAD HORSE. There was refusing and rearing. And plenty of both. If you ride, you know that most problems in the ring stem from the rider. And some of theirs did, but most of them didn’t.

During one class, a trainer was sitting next to me in the stands. She did not know which rider I was watching – didn’t know me from Adam. Her students were gathered around her and she was telling them to watch the riders in the ring – their seat, their form etc. She wanted them to learn something and asked them to see if they could spot the winner.

One little girl piped up, “I like the paint horse”. The trainer lady ignored her and answered some of the others. They were shouting out their picks and the trainer was talking to them about what they said and saw. Spencer’s little fan was insistent and said again, “How about the paint horse? I really like that paint horse” The trainer could ignore her no longer and said with a sigh, “Honey, that horse is bad. That’s a bad horse.”

I don’t like going to these away shows when things are perfect, when the ribbons are blue and so are the skies. When it wasn’t scorching hot with high humidity, it was pouring rain. I brought a bike to ride and then went crazy eating since I was getting extra exercise. The bed at the hotel made my back ache and the carpet was questionable.

On the last day the two of them managed to pull things together – D#2 got tough and Spencer decided to listen. They ended up getting an 8th place (out of 40) in one class and putting in some good rides in the others.

bad horses and the girls who love them

11 thoughts on “bad horse.”

Oh my goodness. Well, like kids, dogs, cats, boyfriends, husbands, etc…why should horses be any different? No many listen to commands. Where was this show? Glad you are home…missed you!!

Is it any consolation to know that even though you had a bad week, you wrote about it with such charm that I enjoyed every word?

Welcome home. As soon as you get settled in (and I can go back home), we have plans to make. :)

Yeah, I have been to shows like that. There was a combined test in Aiken where Pansy jumped out of the dressage arena in the 1st half of the dressage test. They let her ride the stadium course because everything was very confused, and Pansy refused the jumps and it was pouring rain most of the weekend.
Did your daughter LEARN something from the weekend? If so I would count it a success.

My daughter rides a paint horse and he’s bad too. Maybe its a genetic thing? You’re such a good mom to take your daughter to far away shows. We just do local shows, that’s enough for me. How old is your daughter?

I’m sorry it wasn’t a great week for all of you. Glad you’re back, though!

Oh DUDE! Do you see yourself in the second picture!! You look MISERABLE!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Congrats on your daughters 8th place, love the pics of her and the”bad” horse.

Awww … he may be bad, but he is oh.so.cute. My sister has a pinto named Cochise. He’s a bad horse sometimes too. Very mischevious, but cute as heck. :)

I didn’t even see you in that pic till Cara pointed it out…sorry it was so miserable. More about the carpet though–please! ;) I love that last picture.