Tuesday, April 7, 2015

TOABH: 18 on the 18th (and other recent events)

I haven't really participated in any of the other 17 blog hops from The Owls Approve, although I have enjoyed every one of them. What an adorable way to celebrate your horse's birthday!  But I really liked this last one, so here you go...


Eighteen on the Eighteenth.
In honor of Archie's 18th birthday, tell me 18 things you love about your horse.

1.  I love Lady's adorable blaze.
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.

3 comments:

  1. I don't think 16 is too old at all to learn some dressage! If anything, it will help strengthen her.

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  2. Archie did his first dressage test at 16! Do it!

    And thanks for joining in!

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  3. i could have said so many of the same things about my arab mare too :)

    also - working more 'correctly' will help keep her strong and improve her longevity (even if she tries to claim otherwise haha)

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