holy cow

Two buddies grazing

Kathy and I took Casi and Shyloh for a visit to the cows. We wanted to see what the horses would do up close. The cows were quite intrigued to see us. . .but the bull was pretty upset.

Shy and Casi could have cared less about the cows. Shy gave some odd looks every now and again, but she was mostly interested in the grass. It was cute to see just how curious those cows were. They seemed so friendly and not at all concerned with the bull's digging and grunting.

Hey you!

So why is it that this horse could care less about moving, mooing cows, but is freaking out over anything that slides along the ground? First it was the tire, now it is a plastic tote that I use to store her harness. Shy had herself so worked up in her stall over me moving the tote that she was grunting, breathing hard, and refusing to eat her hay!

Great, I was so upset over this because Beth was going to give her a lesson today and I wanted Shy to be in a good frame of mind since she has not been ridden in about three weeks. Beth worked with her in the stall because Shy seems to have lost all sense of manners over things that slide along the ground. She tries to run people over, she puts her butt to them, she is just plain rude. This behavior is not acceptable! After quite a dizzying while, Beth got Shy to circle in her stall without trying to run her over when she was near the tote. . .which was not even in or directly in front of her stall! This horse can just about fold herself in half to avoid "scary" things. Then Beth walked her in and out a few times until she gave no resistance in leaving the stall or hurrying to get back in the stall.

I tacked Shy up in the dressage saddle and Beth got to riding. As usual, Shy did the unexpected. Beth was ready for a crazy, scooty, Shy not listening ride. And so Shy was nearly perfect, especially for the extended time off. Stood perfect for mounting, set her head right away, was light on the bit, bendy, and a few other dressage terms that I am not familiar with. Beth said that Shy is getting to the point where she is fun to ride and is picking up new dressage-y concepts. This pony loves dressage!

How do you think Shy looks? Do I really have to start learning dressage?

I think she does not love pulling stuff so much. . .what am I to do? Maybe this is her way of telling me? Or maybe she is just being a brat?