Eighteen on the Eighteenth.
In honor of Archie's 18th birthday, tell me 18 things you love about your horse.
2. I love her height. 15.2 is just a nice size.
3. I love her super solid feet, even if it means I can't trim them myself.
4. I love the sprinkling of white hairs she has at the top of her tail. Cute!
5. I love her athletic ability.
6. I love that she's an Arabian. <3
7. I love the fact that she is nigh on impossible to tire out. Her brain is amazing.
8. I love that she knows whose her human is. She's funny that way.
9. I love her conformation, even her not-very-strong hind legs.
10. I love that she can manage to look good in EVERY picture!
11. I love that she is super opinionated. Yes, it can be frustrating, but I wouldn't trade it for a shut down, silent horse.
12. I love her summer coat. *swoon*
13. I love that she is such an easy keeper and has such good health.
14. I love her amazing ground manners.
15. I love that she's not afraid to tell me when something is wrong, even if it is subtle sometimes. She doesn't hide.
16. I love that she never kicks or bucks (never say never, I know!).
17. I love that she almost never spooks. Basically, really good brain.
18. I love that she is mine. Forever :)
Now that I've said a bunch of reasons why I love my horse, I'm going to ramble a bit about the problems we've had since I got back from vacation... I do this several times a year, so maybe I'm just overreacting, but I'm not really sure.
Fact: this was the hardest winter that Lady has ever been through since I bought her. She lost a strange amount of weight, and you can actually see her ribs.
She looks quite a bit older this year and it makes me worried. I wonder whether I ought to ease up on her or continue training...
Her homones this year are crazy. Maybe that has something to do with having a colt in the other pasture, but she has a very hard time focusing. This one I can understand and try to deal with.
She doesn't want to try right now. This might be a combination of homones and other sass, but she flat out will not "dressage", accept contact, or bend nicely through her body.
I worry that maybe this isn't right for her... maybe I shouldn't try to get too much better. Maybe I should just take her out for fun rides and not do work anymore.
Do you think 16 years old is too old to change from being a Western trail horse to being an English dressage horse? Should I postpone my dreams if what Lady needs is different from those dreams?
I just don't know.
12. I love her summer coat. *swoon*
13. I love that she is such an easy keeper and has such good health.
14. I love her amazing ground manners.
15. I love that she's not afraid to tell me when something is wrong, even if it is subtle sometimes. She doesn't hide.
16. I love that she never kicks or bucks (never say never, I know!).
17. I love that she almost never spooks. Basically, really good brain.
18. I love that she is mine. Forever :)
Now that I've said a bunch of reasons why I love my horse, I'm going to ramble a bit about the problems we've had since I got back from vacation... I do this several times a year, so maybe I'm just overreacting, but I'm not really sure.
Fact: this was the hardest winter that Lady has ever been through since I bought her. She lost a strange amount of weight, and you can actually see her ribs.
She looks quite a bit older this year and it makes me worried. I wonder whether I ought to ease up on her or continue training...
Her homones this year are crazy. Maybe that has something to do with having a colt in the other pasture, but she has a very hard time focusing. This one I can understand and try to deal with.
She doesn't want to try right now. This might be a combination of homones and other sass, but she flat out will not "dressage", accept contact, or bend nicely through her body.
I worry that maybe this isn't right for her... maybe I shouldn't try to get too much better. Maybe I should just take her out for fun rides and not do work anymore.
Do you think 16 years old is too old to change from being a Western trail horse to being an English dressage horse? Should I postpone my dreams if what Lady needs is different from those dreams?
I just don't know.
I don't think 16 is too old at all to learn some dressage! If anything, it will help strengthen her.
ReplyDeleteArchie did his first dressage test at 16! Do it!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for joining in!
i could have said so many of the same things about my arab mare too :)
ReplyDeletealso - working more 'correctly' will help keep her strong and improve her longevity (even if she tries to claim otherwise haha)