the jerk shyloh show

Shyloh is a jerk. Plain and simple. I haven't actually worked her in ages due to the extreme heat and extreme rain, but today it was beautiful outside. What better way to spend the evening than working with Shy? I could picture it. . .cool breeze, sun, no bugs, and a nice complaint pony.  It was going to be a lovely line drive.

I could not have been more wrong. Shy was fine in the beginning. Not overly thrilled about getting tacked up, but when is she ever?

Happy working pony?

We actually started out on a good note. We spent a lot of time working on walking in a straight line. We both have this problem that compounds on each other where we walk like we are drunk. Our lines are zig zags. It's awful. So we spent a good deal of time walking along fence lines and rails. We were halfway decent today, as long as I kept my attention up.

Then I wanted to work on our corners. When we are in the cart we do not do corners. Most of it is me and my horrible steering abilities, but some of it is Shy knowing she has to turn so she does it when she thinks she should. This was the first act of the Jerk Shyloh Show. We fought about the corners, circling back until she would go into them until I told her to turn. 

Act two was backing up. Today, backing up consisted of turning completely around to look at me. We fought and we fought. I got mad, but I had to keep myself in check because one of the boarder's granddaughters was tagging along because Shy was "so cute." Shy got mad and spent a good deal of time doing the frustrated head toss. 

Next came the I don't want to walk by that thing. What was that thing? Oh, anything Shy did not fancy going near. The tractor, the tires, a trailer. . .stuff she goes by all the time with no issue.  So we fought about going past these things, complete with circling, round about backing up, and temper tantrums. 

The final scene was going past the area that we tack up, but more importantly where we untack. Shy only had eyes and thoughts on getting to that area. I was not going to let Shy win. And since she refused to go straight past the tacking area (even with a couple taps of the whip), I decided to make her work until she would comply. 

How does she manage to end up in front of me when I ask her to back?

Making Shy work more also made me work more, since I made her trot. . .which meant I had to run behind her. We went straight back, as far away from the tacking area as we could. Then I lunged her in circles, making her keep up the trot. Hahaha, take that Shy! 

We walked around a bit more, then tried walking past the tacking area. After a quick struggle we made it! Success! The final scene in the Jerk Shyloh Show was Shy getting to the tack area, but refusing to step up to be tied. Why pony, why? Now it was all about backing up. Shy finally wised up and stepped up so I could tie her. 

Then Shy decided to do an encore. She is used to me taking her bridle off pretty soon after she was tied. But I was explaining some things to the little girl who was following up. Shy took it upon herself to try and spit the bit out (impossible), then rub the bridle off on the pole. Grrr. So I made her keep it on until she was able to stand still and act like a respectable pony. 

Bad pony? No, never. . . 

So when I heard someone at the barn asked if Shy was for sale because she wanted to buy her. . .I was halfway tempted to give her an offer. Just kidding. . .I can never sell that jerk pony. She makes life interesting and challenging. Never during the whole show today did Shy try to take off or do anything mean, she was just being a jerk and trying to get away with things and do the things she wanted. I think I should start working her more. . .